Review for Kona. Game for PlayStation Network, PC, Mac, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Linux and Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 17/03/2017 The version for Nintendo Switch came out on 09/03/2018
In Kona we are in the cold and snowy Canada, called to take on the role of a sailor detective, who as a perfect stranger will carry out the most classic of tasks related to his profession: unravel the mystery of the murder of his employer and extricate himself from a dense tapestry of clues imbued with paranormal. A storm mercilessly envelops the village on the shores of the lake Atamipek, all (or almost) of its inhabitants have disappeared, and the investigator we play, accompanied by the inseparable voiceover of an omniscient narrator, is involved in a car accident.
Upon our awakening, wounded and numb by the cold, we will be called to find everything you need for light a bonfire and cure our ailments. It will be the heat sources that will mark our movements from one refuge to another: together with the inevitable life bar, the heat bar stands out in Kona. Every moment spent in the weather, or just put your nose out of every shelter, the heat bar will begin the inexorable countdown that will lead us to an untimely death from hypothermia.
But how cold it is
To light a fire it will not be enough to press a few buttons in front of fireplaces or circles of stones prepared, it will be necessary to have all the objects of the recipe, in a very simple crafting system which will be the backdrop to any complex interaction mechanics within Kona. Given the premise, it was expected a kind of survival in which the scarcity of resources and the prevailing frost would have dominated, however the resources are inexplicably abundant, so much so that once we unmasked the wide sleeve system, we went to light every bonfire with a light heart, without ever running out of resources related to it.
Driving around
The inventory has a maximum transportable weight limit, but we will be able to keep the heaviest items in the hood of our car and retrieve them at any time. The car plays a key role in the gaming experience offered by Kona: moving between one house and another would be unthinkable on foot, given the long stretches of nothing cloaked in white that would end up killing us during the shortest of journeys. The driving system is simple and functional, relegated to the mere shift from point A to point B, let's forget escape sequences or daring chases aboard our car, this is not the right title.
After the very short initial cutscenes we will have the entire game map (excluding special areas) that can be explored at our leisure, it will be up to us to choose where to start the exploration of the village of Atamipek and which locations to visit first: the feeling that remains once this exploratory model has been tackled is similar to the pleasure of reassembling a not too complex puzzle. Each place visited will be permeated with letters revealing the identity of the hosts and their worries, while in some cases we will have real paranormal visions regarding the last moments of life of the unfortunate. In no time we will have very clear the identity of each inhabitant of Atamipek and slowly we will begin to reconstruct the events of the last hours.
A deadly arsenal
In our numb wanderings we will collect a considerable number of weapons: hammers, hatchets, pistols and rifles with related ammunition. Having found the first weapon, strictly from hand to hand, we would therefore have expected the first hard confrontation against one of the ice creatures, instead of finding an enemy we nevertheless spent the next ten hours of play collecting painkillers and treatments. Well, until just before the end of the game we only fought with two thin and bald wolves, which fell to the ground after just a couple of hammers.
The guys of Parable they have packaged a product that is graphically enjoyable in its simplicity, where the slender quality of the 3D models is masked by convincing shadow games capable of transporting you to the right adventurous mood. The soundtrack was created by the Quebec folk band CuréLabel, in the huts there are an infinite number of radios ready to broadcast their pieces non-stop, truly enjoyable.
It seems clear that Kona can almost be placed among the "Walk Simulators", given that all the elements it offers outside the genre are little more than mere accessories, in the unsuccessful attempt to acquire an identity in the gameplay, however, ending up offering poorly thought out and not very thorough mechanics. The narrative is convincing and engaging for most of the narrative process, to get lost in the paranormal one step away from a conclusion that could have turned out to be brilliant. The poor longevity and the excellent mood of the setting support each other managing to capture for about 10 hours of duration of the adventure.
► Kona is an Adventure-Horror-Survival game developed by Parabole Ravenscourt and published by Parabole Ravenscourt for PlayStation Network, PC, Mac, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Linux and Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 17/03/2017 The version for Nintendo Switch came out on 09/03/2018
