Survival-meets-adventure K na [official site] feels like a game that admirably comes in the wake of Campo Santo’s wilderness wonder Firewatch. But it’s worth noting the Kickstarter for the game launched years before Firewatch released. Still, I suspect lessons have been learned and added in the last year, and they’re very welcome, as this proves to be a fascinating game. … [visit site to read more]

I’ve little interest in most survival games because survival for survival’s sake isn’t enough for me. And in the game. Kona [official site] has caught my eye for bringing a purpose to survival. It’s a first-person survival explore-o-adventure set in ’70s Canada, with a detective investigating a town that’s mysteriously deserted during a fierce blizzard. I’m up for that. Kona first caught my eye in 2014 while crowdfunding and now, following a year in early access, the full game has launched. Peep the launch trailer: … [visit site to read more]

Every Monday, Rob Zacny braces himself for the chilly wastes of Early Access and attempts to find warmth by the side of a worthy in-progress game.>

From its opening on a park-bench at a roadside rest stop in northern Quebec, Kona tantalized me with a combination of period detail and immersive-sim mechanics. Before my character, private detective Carl Faubert, even finished his cigarette, I’d made sure to stash his extra smokes, Instamatic camera, and map in my inventory. Then it was time to hop into a carefully recreated ’65 Chevy pickup and drive up a narrow ribbon of backcountry highway, while a gentle snowfall turned into a blizzard outside my windows.

Kona is a wonderfully atmospheric game, though atmosphere isn’t hard to come by when you’ve turned the blizzard effects up to 11 and marooned the player in the wastes of northern Canada. With nothing but howling winter winds and a mysteriously deserted village for company, it’s easy to get caught up in the setting and its feeling of menacing isolation.

… [visit site to read more]