Review for Kenshi. PC game, the video game came out on 06/12/2018
Finally Kenshi, Lo-Fi Games' post-apocalyptic RPG, has come out of Early Access after years of continuous and substantial updates. Despite this however, the version currently available on Steam is far from being defined as "definitive", as the developers have clearly made it clear that Kenshi is a game destined for continuous evolution, thanks to the contributions and advice of the large community that has been created in this ten-year access phase anticipated.
The most obvious peculiarity of Kenshi is that it is a pure role-playing game, where we, through our characters, will be able to really interpret what we want. Or what we will manage to become, because Kenshi is a very complex and, above all, challenging game.
The promise of being able to "be whatever we want" has been made a lot of times in RPG history, but only a few other titles can deliver on that promise like Kenshi.
In practice, Lo-Fi Games offers us an entire parallel world, a wild and largely inhospitable planet, evidently escaping some sort of apocalyptic catastrophe that has made sentient beings (of different species and sub-races) regress to an almost pre-industrial level, forced to move through dangerous lands often infested with bands of marauders, cannibals or even worse things. There is no history, zero, not even a minimum canvas. It will be just us, our will to survive and our determination to thrive.
The absolute lack of a pre-established plot leaves the player the possibility to decide himself what to do with the character and what conduct to take. However, know that every action corresponds to some kind of reaction, so we will constantly have to deal with the situations we are going to create. If, just for example, we become infamous for our lucrative slave trades (yes, we can do that too if we want, and even worse!) We should not be surprised if the caravans or people we meet outside the settlements run away. in seeing us arrive or, if stronger and more equipped than us and our group, they will attack us without mercy. Unless they're interested in the slave trade, in which case ...
This is the essence of Kenshi, total freedom of action, total in the true sense of the word, and always paying the consequences. In practice, building a sort of "parallel life" on this strange and inhospitable world.
In terms of gameplay, Kenshi looks like a classic RPG with a robust injection of survival components. In fact, we must always take into account levels of hunger and thirst, as well as various physical well-being, both for us and for our followers, humanoids or animals. (yes, of course we can also tame more or less recognizable beasts ... if we are able). In addition to the survival component, we will also have editors for the construction and subsequent management of settlements of various types. In short, a lot of meat on the fire.
Precisely this amount of things to be done, combined with the aforementioned total freedom of action, could confuse and discourage a less experienced player or less passionate about titles of the genre at the beginning. Kenshi's learning curve is indeed tremendous, almost brutal. As soon as our character is created, we will only be semi-defenseless and resourceless creatures, alone on the surface of a killer planet. The first hours will therefore be very hard and, also due to an interface that is not intuitive enough, especially for the amount of options to manage, often demotivating. Growing a character requires long and tedious training sessions, as well as searching for and recovering resources of various kinds around the immense gameplay. In short, Kenshi is a huge and more than varied game, but with a hallucinating slowness.
Everything we find in our wanderings is handled in a more than good way by the game's AI. There are many parameters that can vary, with relative consequences, and the computer almost always does an excellent job in shaping what surrounds us according to the turn that events have taken. Too bad for the conversations with the various NPCs, which are reduced to very few, at least for such a game, often a bit repetitive dialogue lines. Kenshi's biggest flaw, however, is its graphics sector. Unfortunately, that the "backbone" of the game saw the light more than five years ago is a not inconsiderable element that unfortunately makes itself felt, both in terms of graphic satisfaction and management of some polygons. It could also be overlooked, especially if fans of huge sandbox RPGs, but a less predisposed player will see a serious problem in the graphics sector which, added to the very bad immediacy of the gameplay, destroys an otherwise superb title.
Kenshi is, as already mentioned, a real role-playing game, with infinite potential, but it is also a hard game and absolutely not suitable for novice players or players who are not very interested in the genre. Good overall, but years of early access have taken their toll.
► Kenshi is an indie-RPG-Simulation-Strategy game for PC, the video game was released on 06/12/2018
