Game Review: Agatha Knife (Xbox Series X)

A charming, funny and dark ‘point and click’ game, Agatha Knife is an experience you grow to love even if some of the elements seem designed to put you off that.

Opting for a simplistic but detailed cartoon aesthetic, possibly to offset the dark themes, Agatha Knife is an arresting visual sight. Something that fits the wacky tone of the game perfectly.

Players take on the role of Agatha, a seven-year-old girl. Introduced to her in jarring fashion, the game literally drops you into things with no clue of how to play it, how to control or what you might have to do.

Once you do get to grips with the control scheme and what can and can’t be interacted with, it is surprisingly simple. However, the opening of the game is likely to put many from continuing. Stick with it though, as things get really good.

Straight away, the tongue-in-cheek dark humour is present and while details about Agatha are light at first, you can tell she’s not quite your average 7-year-old girl.

So, what’s the deal with Agatha? She loves animals. She loves them so much that it makes her sad when they are afraid of her. Something that happens a lot as she also likes to kill them. She works in the struggling butcher’s shop her mother owns.

Hurt that the animals are sad when she has to kill them, suffering from insomnia and facing being out of a job because of the failing business, Agatha needs help and stumbles across courses that teach you how to make your own religion. Initially sceptical, Agatha decides it can’t hurt to try and thus, with the help of her mentor, Carnivorism is born.

It’s an unusual story with some funny twists and turns. The writing, while initially a bit too off-beat, really takes hold and most players will be fully invested in helping Carnivorism become a recognised religion.

Being a point and click game, the majority of Agatha Knife’s gameplay is item/puzzle based but unlike many other games in this style, here everything makes sense. For the most part. You’ll have to find items for an array of characters, spend the little money you have wisely, work out how to convince a stubborn pig that the god of Carnivorism really exists, stop everyone eating dog meat and so much more. Like the main character, things can get really weird.

It won’t really challenge though but it’s not supposed to. There’s a sense that part of the inspiration for this game comes from visuals novels as the story and character of Agatha are what keeps the game interesting.