Yacht Club Games has been busy making mini-sequels (or, in this case, a mini-prequel) to their 2014 hit Shovel Knight, and I figured it was about time to dig back into their world of chivalrous shovelry to see what these new campaigns were like. We're playing Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment this week, but there's also a Plague Knight campaign and an upcoming King Knight campaign, so I'm planning to spread these out a little. The best part, of course, is that these campaigns are free for anyone who purchased the original Shovel Knight back when it was still new.

Naturally, a free DLC campaign is enough to assume that these add-ons are simply a graphical rehaul, replacing Shovel Knight with a new character but leaving everything else the same. Turns out that isn't the case. The Specter Knight, who appeared as the Death-like boss of a level inspired by Konami's Castlevania (the game is replete with subtle NES game homages), is given an almost entirely new game here. Actually, it feels more like a substantial remix, sort of like New Super Luigi U from a while back. Not only does your character control differently, using his scythe slash his way upwards and downwards from various airborne launching points (including enemy projectiles), but the maps have been rebuilt from scratch with mostly - but not entirely - recycled content from those levels with that traversal ability in mind. This extends to the brand new boss fights as well, which once again involve the Knights of the Order of No Quarter, prior to their recruitment to same.

That's Specter Knight's mission in this prequel, incidentally: he's been given the opportunity to resurrect back to his original human form by the Enchantress, he must first recruit eight knights to her cause. Using the ominous Tower of Fate as his home base, Specter Knight teleports to the various stages directly rather than a new version of the world map from the original game. Instead of relics, Specter is collecting curios, which work pretty much the same way: there's one for getting extra jump distance, several for attacking distant targets, a very useful one that heals the protagonist, and so on. Likewise, Specter can purchase new outfits - essentially palette swaps - which confer various benefits, the best and perhaps most necessary one allowing him to touch spikes and pitfalls and take a heavy hit to health and mana instead of an instant death.

The game has a lot of familiar systems and territory, but it's all been reworked from the ground up to suit the new character and his abilities. There's an admirable level of inventiveness here, and the game's level design is still as clever as ever. For instance, one of the diggable piles of soil the player can demolish for a handful of currency lands next to a platform that is activated by a not particularly conspicuous lever: the pile is designed to land right next to the switch so the player hits it accidentally, and therefore won't be at a loss for what to do next. Likewise, each new curio that Specter Knight earns includes a small obstacle course that requires the curio's use to complete, so there's no confusion as to how these curios work and their utility becomes immediately apparent. The game's far more challenging than Shovel Knight, in my view, but the difficulty is tweaked perfectly that I never suffered any frustration or felt a particular obstacle or platforming challenge was beyond my skill level. The one possible exception to this is an optional timed vertical platforming challenge in the main hub area that earns the player an achievement and some gems, but is otherwise only there to present a difficult task for diehards to complete. In fact, most of the achievements are geared towards expert play - there's a speed trial, zero-damage runs, zero-upgrade runs and so on - so even if masocore fanatics find the main game too easy, there's ways to suit subsequent runs to their taste (and preferred level of challenge).

I wasn't sure what to expect from a DLC campaign given away for free, but after playing the original Shovel Knight so long ago I probably should've anticipated an equally excellent product. It's clear a copious amount of work went into Specter of Torment, with its new mechanics, new stage layouts, new story, new graphics, new enemies, new boss fights, and a new remixed soundtrack even. It provides Shovel Knight fans with all they could possibly want and given it has an equivalent length to the original Shovel Knight it could've easily been sold as a proper sequel (or, again, prequel) if the Yacht Club guys weren't so modest. If you have this sitting in your library because you received it for free like I did, I'd recommend digging it up and giving it a whirl. I'll definitely have to do the same with the Plague Knight and King Knight campaigns at some juncture.

Rating: 5 out of 5.