Game: Box Knight
Genre: Action, Indie, RPG.
System: Steam (Windows)
Developer|Publisher: We Made a Thing Studios
Controller Support: Yes
Steam Deck: Playable
Price: US $14.99 | UK £12.79 | EU € 14.99
Release Date: August 25th, 2026
Review code provided with many thanks to Keymailer.
Box Knight – Day at the Office
There are plenty of games about fighting monsters, but I’m not sure many have thought to combine that idea with the daily misery of office life. Box Knight does that. The premise is wonderfully silly. By day, you’re an ordinary office worker. When Friday hits 5 pm, however, you transform into the mighty Box Knight, complete with cardboard helmet, cardboard tube sword and suitably questionable office attire. The workplace has been overrun by monsters, your fellow employees need rescuing and apparently you’re the person best qualified to sort it all out.
It’s essentially an office-themed action roguelike, and I have to admit that I quite liked the concept. Rather than simply giving us another generic fantasy world, the developers have had a bit of fun with the setting. The enemies are twisted versions of office workers, the environments are recognisably corporate and even your hero looks more like someone who has had a particularly bad week at work than a legendary warrior. That gives Box Knight quite a lot of personality.
Brawler
The actual gameplay is straightforward. You move through rooms, fight groups of enemies, clear the area, choose an upgrade and then move on to the next one. It’s very much a pick-up-and-play sort of game, which I appreciated. Your main weapon is joined by a special attack that charges as you fight, and once the meter is full, you can unleash an execution attack. These are particularly useful when a tougher enemy is causing problems and give the combat a satisfying little punch. There’s also a dodge, while more confident players can make use of a counter by timing their attacks correctly. You don’t necessarily have to master these mechanics to get through the game, but they add a little more depth for anyone who wants to become better at the combat. There’s also a very useful jump and slam move to clear crowds, which became a bit of a lifesaver in single-player.
I mostly played fairly aggressively, which worked well enough, but there is some room to be more cautious and learn enemy patterns. And you’ll need to, because Box Knight can throw a lot of enemies at you. Initially, some of the larger encounters can feel quite overwhelming, particularly when playing alone. Once you start improving your character, though, things become much more manageable, and you get that satisfying roguelike feeling of gradually becoming stronger.
Fight, Die, Upgrade, Repeat
As you’d expect from the genre, dying isn’t really the end. Back at your base, you can spend the rewards you’ve earned on permanent upgrades. These improve things such as your health and damage, while other upgrades unlock new abilities. I particularly liked the new moves because they actually felt useful rather than simply being there to pad out a skill tree.
You can also unlock different weapons, including things like the cardboard spear and cardboard claymore, along with various outfits and hats. These aren’t purely cosmetic either, as some come with different stat changes. There are challenges to complete too, giving you another reason to experiment with different approaches. It all creates a fairly familiar roguelike loop: play, get stronger, die, upgrade and have another go. It works, although I did feel that some of the more interesting unlocks could have arrived a little sooner. The early game can become slightly repetitive before you’ve got enough abilities to really change how you’re playing.
Cardboard
Probably my favourite part of Box Knight is its presentation. The game has a colourful, cartoon-like style, and the enemy designs are particularly good. The various goblins and creatures have their own little personalities, with each enemy type representing another strange interpretation of office misery. There is something quite amusing about seeing a slightly pudgy office worker in cardboard armour wandering around beating up monsters. It also gives the game a bit of an underdog quality. This isn’t some enormous warrior who has been chosen by the gods. It’s essentially an exhausted office worker who has decided that cardboard is good enough armour and gone to war with the management.
The humour is generally quite silly, which suits the game perfectly. There is some stronger language thrown into the dialogue from time to time, though, and that’s probably the one aspect of the humour that didn’t really work for me. I found the visual jokes and ridiculous premise much funnier than the swearing. It’s a small criticism, but I think the game is at its best when it trusts its wonderfully daft concept.
Co-op
Box Knight supports two-player co-op, although the current implementation is local co-op. Steam Remote Play can obviously help if you don’t have someone sitting next to you. I mostly played single-player and had a good time with it, but I suspect this is the sort of game that could become even more entertaining with another person involved. Throwing two Box Knights into a room full of angry office goblins sounds like exactly the sort of nonsense needed for a good game night.
Conclusion: Home Time
Box Knight has a fun setting, likeable art style, straightforward combat and enough progression to keep you coming back. It’s easy to pick up, easy to understand and doesn’t demand that you spend hours learning complicated systems before you can actually enjoy yourself.
It does become repetitive, and I would have liked some of the more interesting abilities to arrive a little earlier. The humour also occasionally misses the mark for me. But I came away from Box Knight feeling positive. There’s something quite appealing about its combination of office misery and silly fantasy nonsense. If you’re looking for a relatively simple roguelike brawler that you can dip into for a few runs in the evening, Box Knight is worth a look. And if you have someone to play the local co-op with, I suspect the cardboard capers could be even better.
Final Verdict: I Like it a Lot.
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