Kenshi

It is a daunting task to write a review for this game, and not for the reasons that you may think. Before we proceed with anything else, allow me to lay bare some important points - the game is not perfect. The unpolished dull edges come to light when you wash away the dust with both tears and sweat. The engine is as ancient as the world you dwell within this game, as the deserts that you roam from dusk till dawn. However, perfection only comes as an abstract ideal, a comparison to a theoretical maximum, which exists only in the mind. There is no perfection, in any form, nor in art, nor in life. But you do not take upon Kenshi because of such a pursuit, of course. This game succeeds in one task which it may not even have intended to do - it is a catalyst for change, and you can only begin to understand it once you sacrifice a few dozen hours. As a playable character, you are a nobody. You are the same cheap flesh or steel as everything else in creation. There are no gods that will guide your path, no men who will shed blood in your stead, no community that you belong to, nor will take you without gain. No rulers that you can look up to, for none have the heart or wisdom. You are but a pale child, a sacrificial lamb that will be given as tribute to the only existing force that reigns undisturbedly on its throne - death. As bleak as it is, such a world sustains something that an orderly one lacks - freedom. You wake each day with a single primary goal: to survive. But along the path you walk, you stumble upon ruined memories carved in cement and steel, towers that once reached out to the heavens, and steel disks that whispered through radio static across the stars. You ponder what once lay yonder, in a time long before you. What was the world that once was, and does the current one have to be as it is? You look down upon your hands, clenching them, thinking: what can you do? Nothing. At least for now. But what about the day that comes tomorrow? So you walk your path, struggling to see a new dawning, again and again. And through your adversities with no meaning, you become stronger than you were. As you rapidly shift through endless sands faster, you start to grow indifferent to the circumstances that condition you. You start to thirst for something more. Kenshi teaches the player an important life lesson - struggles are unavoidable, painful, deadly. But with the toll paid in sweat and blood, one grows in both flesh and spirit—washed in that metamorphosis, birthed anew. Henceforth, becoming something more. Someone. You will always be conditioned by the world, never vice versa, but there is a dim hope that you could change at least a fragment of it, for a whimpering moment. And this image, this reality, reflects upon the one we actually live in. "He who has a why can bear any how." — Friedrich Nietzsche

You will either become addicted or bounce off. There is nothing else like it.

[i]Kenshi[/i] is one of the hardest games to properly explain to someone who doesn't know what it is. An engine to do whatever you want in it more than an RPG with the expected tropes that title entails; truly one of the most unique experiences you can get from any video game. As I said, [i]Kenshi[/i] is more of an engine designed to let you control a group of individuals while the world keeps revolving, with or without your input. This comes with the caveat of the offered experience not being for everyone, since this unique approach also means that it is nearly entirely devoid of the expected RPG mechanics. Storylines, quests and other such things are abysmal here and even the aesthetics are not for everyone. If it clicks, you'll be in for a heck of a ride; if it doesn't, you'll still leave with a unique perspective of how diverse video games can become when outside of the streamlined industry. [h1]ONCE UPON A TIME, A TALKING BUG ENCOUNTERED A SKELETAL ROBOT...[/h1] Before anything else, it's important to touch upon the past just a little. Over the years, [i]Kenshi[/i] has become a true cult classic. Core players who has been following it for years grew in number as time passed, and high effort content produced on [i]YouTube[/i] boosted the attention over the ceiling as they amassed thousands of viewers, much like [i]Project Zomboid.[/i] This, of course, made people think that scenarios presented on those videos were natural parts of the offered experience. It is not. Coming up with the rough idea of the character you want to create, weaving the story as it happens and seeing how the world of the game reacts to your actions is the core experience here. Trying to find what the game doesn't even offer would be an unvalid critism in my opinion, but it unfortunately is the main negative consensus you'll find if you ever go out of your way to check what form of criticism the game occassionally gets. Now that little explanation out of the way, let me explain what [i]Kenshi[/i] is. It is a vast world you will be exploring, writing your own story. Nothing more, nothing less. The world will revolve with or without you, and [i]Kenshi[/i] truly is one of the best iterations of this specific approach. You will fail, you will try again and you will learn. You may lose a limb on the way, find people who will become part of your story, see the beautifully crafted biomes and terrible creatures, found a town of your own... But in its core, it is a well crafted slate for you to explore and upon which you will carve your own story as you craft it day by day. For every one of us, there is at least one aspect of [i]Kenshi[/i] that makes us occassionally return back to it. Be it stumbling upon a terrifying band of slavers while on an expedition, crafting our own settlement, learning bits and pieces of this grim setting, watching our band or character grow... Genuinely, it is hard not to find a part of this gem that you enjoy if it clicks for you. Sure, you can write pages upon pages on individual aspects of the game. Does it matter, though? Video games are experiences before anything else, and treating them as solely mechanical cogs of entertainment is just... shallow. Sure, the graphics here are not going to make you grin in ectasy, some of the mechanics are tedious, there are certainly some shortcomings and many areas that could be improved. But [i]Kenshi[/i] is a cohesive, unique experience. And as I said, if it clicks, it will be a particulary memorable experience for you that won't be replicated by any other game. Take care, and I hope you enjoyed reading. See you on the steppes, and keep your eyes on the horizon.