Kona

Kona is a story exploration game, it’s an adventure game, it’s a survival game and thematically it’s a bit horror, a bit of a murder mystery and a bit of a folk tale. It heavily borrows ideas and elements from other titles, but at the same time tries to be a thing of its own. There’s a rather big open location for you to explore, full of points of interest that are not that hard to find. As you run around, you gather stuff and try not to get cold or get killed by wolves in a snowy environment – that’s where the survival aspect comes in. It seems that the developers tried to make it nagging enough for you to care about it, but not annoying like a lot of survival games tend to get, yet the limited inventory space and extremely precise use of some of the items you find kills the “not annoying” part outright. It feels less of a “survival” or “fun exploration” with “solving problems” and more of a chore. Story and mood-wise it tries to have the murder mystery, except it goes nowhere interesting. It tries to keep the events suspenseful, except the surreal and unnatural events make things less interesting, unlike what you get in, say, Cryostasis from which this game “borrows” dying people memories story mechanic. The tone of the game is often all over the place, with the narration seemingly trying to emulate the quirkiness of the Coens’ movies, yet often not being particularly well written or feeling completely out of place in a bad way. Kona is a game that starts as something that could be promising, slowly devolves into rather boring run across the barren snowy land that could be much more interesting that it is in game, and ends without any kind of satisfactory ending. It’s a great idea that could’ve led to a very interesting game. But didn’t.

The game play is highly immersive, and I sincerely enjoyed exploring this small town. A lot of detail and care was put into the homes and the characters. I felt relieved each and every time I was able to start a fire, or return to someplace warm to rest for a moment. I would take this opportunity (in game!) to relax, have a cigarette, read through my notes and my journal, and plan my next moves. The cold, and the stress are constant pressures on you as you play, and proper management and care are needed for Carl to survive and solve the mysteries. Amazing game. But minus one star because the ending felt very abrupt. I was expecting to continue on with my investigation after a particular instance, but instead it goes to cutscene and game end. It's good to know that there will be sequels. Also, there was one puzzle that was extremely difficult, and did not seem intuitive at all (to me at least). I had to find a walkthrough to solve that one.

Narrative game taking place in the region of northern Canada. You are called to investigate a vandalism issue, but things get more complicated than that, and you get to explore a local settlement, which you later realize that has been deserted for an unknown reason. Don’t rush the game. Take your time and search every house. The story unfolds slowly, but interestingly, with bits and pieces you find here and there, until you are able to figure out the big picture. Also (important tip), wolf tracks are a good indication of where in the wilderness you should search too, to find provisions. But that also means that you should prepare for a fight. Guns and ammunition, not only are very scarce, but also I deemed them difficult to use. Melee weapons were much more easily usable. In the game you need to light fires to survive, otherwise you can die of the extreme cold (something like in the Cryostasis game). You can save the game only when you are near fire. Also, when you find a few certain victims (you’ll realize what kind of victims when you see them), then there’s the gameplay aspect where you can see a part of the victim’s life (as in Crysotasis too), however this time not to revert their deaths, but to find important clues to proceed. The in-game narration is very good, as are the ambient sounds. One negative (and a bit of a spoiler): Although the 13 hours I spent till completion are a very good duration for a narrative game, I still felt that it ended a bit abruptly. About one fourth of the map (the top section) is left unexplored. I’m certainly looking forward to the sequel and I hope it gets on GOG.

Buy the game full price if you want to support the devs, which they definitely deserve. BUT saying that it's a hidden gem and such is unjust, because of the cookie cutter story, length and difficulty (or rather complete lack thereof). It simply poses no challenge and generally feels like a proof of concept for something that could evolve into a full fledged genre. Nevertheless, it has a lot of bright sides to it. The setting is AMAZING, reminds me of Colorado Kid, one of Stephen King's novels, far from the best of his work, but with an interesting setting. It's also pretty tense. I really like the gameplay, but, as I said before, I wish it was a little harder and a lot deeper, especially in the puzzle department. I'm hoping that the next game keeps the detective theme, expands on the puzzles and combat to make them more demanding and keeps things realistic, while I didn't mind the fantasy story, I can't help but think that this sort of game would work a lot better if it dropped fantasy elements altogether. Even though I've said a lot of bad things about it, it doesn't change the fact that the game is really gripping and I don't regret buying, it's a really refreshing concept, at least in my opinion.

So, Kona isn't a survival game: don't expect anything more than a basic conflict with a few wolves and getting cold if you wander too far from a house or fireplace. The combat mechanic isn't really good: it's summarized by aiming a gun and shooting at wolves that lunges at you and missing you by a full meter every time. In short, they are not a danger at all. Kona is more a 3D point-and-click, similar to Firewatch but in Northern Quebec. Overall, it has good graphics, gameplay, lighting and ambiance. It's fun to ride the snowmobile around the village. Also, it's the first game i've played that is set in Northen QC, so props to the devs to try something new. Cons: it's a bit short, and the ending isn't satisfying. Once completed and the mistery resolved, there's no real replay value, except if you're an achievement chaser. I played the original french version, and it has good narration by a reputable actor. Not sure for the english version, tho. OVERALL: Good detective game, i'd recommend.