Kenshi

First of all let me stress that I love what this game promises, and certainly had a lot of fun with it. However, this is not a finished product; "1.0" moniker be damned. Bugs are numerous and game breaking; shopkeepers will disappear for no reason, parts of your base will suddenly become impassable terrain, your units will suddenly start pathing outside of your base into a wall to reach production buildings inside it (even if they're standing right next to it), and the game will crash frequently. All in all, I think this is in the same boat Vampire: the Masquerade - Bloodlines was during it's "release"; unplayable at launch, though there is a foundation here for a fun experience. I recommend waiting a year or two; see where Kenshi is after that. Unless you like paying full price for what is essentially still an early access game.

This is all the flexibility and punishing realism of a Piranha Bytes game like Gothic, all the fun micromanagement of an RTS without all the irritating wars of attrition, all the customization and sense of progression of a roleplaying game without annoying RNG turn based combat. This game is NOT for everyone, but crazy people like me who like slow burn ultra-immersion and emergent gameplay are in for a nigh perfect experience. This is the kind of game you start without a goal, much equipment, a super weak character or small band of weaklings, and you need to learn the game as you decide where to go and what to do. Think like a survivor! You need food and water. Do you look for it, or buy it? To buy it you need money. How do you get that? You need something to barter. You figure you should go mine for something to trade...but in the middle of desert while looking around you run into creatures or nomads fighting each other. Then you find scrap or rob a corpse and take it back instead of just some ore to trade. Then you have the money to buy a trained animal or an ally. Then you buy a house. Then you build a research bench and... It's that kind of game, and it's a fine example of one! I didn't have many difficulties when I downplayed some of the graphical effects, especially the view distance. It's got style, it is unspeakably huge and full of content, it is hard as nails. You need time and patience and sometimes a bit of luck, but it's worth.

Kenshi is just one of the best games I have ever played. There is a whole world to explore, and it is so, so much deeper than it seems, and in the most rewarding way possible. When you first start playing, it appears almost like the shell of a game. No one really likes to talk to you. There isn't a clear story given. But you can discover, here and there, from fragments of this broken world, just how it was destroyed and by who. And it's amazing. It's just incredible. It's an adventure I'm going to think back on for the rest of my life.

I've played Kenshi about 100 hours total. When you first jump into the game it can be quite overwhelming. The sky's the limit. Pretty quickly you realize that there's a lot less to do than you first thought. Explore, research, base-build, fight. That's it. However, the map never changes...it isn't randomized. Researching follows the same path every time, giving you minute increments in efficiency instead of cooler toys to play with. Base building is utter crap unless you build near water, exploiting AI pathing as you fill them full of arrrows. Otherwise, you will be attacked so often you'll rarely have a chance to recover. Fighting is boring as can be. Crossbows are superior and you can literally beat any opponent on day 1 with enough bolts. Kenshi certainly has its high points but its not without its low ones too. A lack of cohesive story or "quests" really limit the game. This game could have been amazing but it's more like No Man's Sky with swords instead of mining...though it has that too and is just as boring.

Truly a unique experience. Go ahead, read all the 'this game doesn't hold your hand' reviews you want. Read the butthurt 'it's too hard' or 'it forces you to...' ones too, for good measure. I did. And upon starting the game, and customizing my character's appearance, I was slightly surprised. Where's the stat customization? Specialty skills? Starting strengths? There aren't any. Want to be a jack of all trades, master of all? Or maybe a master of just a few? You can, and you're going to work for it. But it's not the tedious work some would have you believe. It's satisfying, even beyond belief sometimes. Like rescuing someone from certain dismemberment and getting them back to town, only to be attacked at the gate, and BOTH characters laid out, only to be captured and enslaved, and finally breaking free, sneaking out, and returning to build an empire that conquers the world...yeah. And details all the way. Lots of skills and attributes and stats, but little micromanagement. A constant, desperate gnawing for more advancement and survivability in the world, coupled with a fulfilling sense of accomplishment for what you've already survived...for how much you've already grown. Mechanically, imagine the stats of Morrowind, the controls of C&C and the system of SWG and Anno, among others. Solo RPG, party-based RPG, city builder, RTS with tons of veterancy, trading/exploration/diplomacy simulation--it can be any of these, all of them, or none of them. It's up to you.