Both add considerably to the feeling of bleakness and hostility of the game world and complement the gameplay perfectly. It does though create a cool aesthetic, supported by a creepy, ambient soundtrack that plays on periodic loop. Visually, the game has a very retro-RPG feel and the graphics are quite unpretty and raw, almost like an upscaled version of Minecraft rather than a game released in 2018. I have racked up over 50 hours in Kenshi and can say that I still have to run away from most confrontations with hostile NPCs than stand and fight them. You are no stronger than any other character in the world, and the world does not care about you at all – you are nobody. In its standard game mode, the player starts out alone with nothing except a crappy weapon, some rags for clothes and a little money, and is completely helpless in the world. Different parts of the map are controlled by different factions which have a variety of characteristics, from being immune to acid rain to forcing you to participate in “prayer day” on penalty of death. There are ninjas, holy warriors, samurai, skeletons, robots, giant spiders, strange herbivores, cannibals, slavers, bandits, and the like roaming the 340 square mile world, along with cities, towns, ruins, and other ancient places to explore. Only the minimum amount of tutorial information is provided in-game, leaving the player to figure out most of the game on their own. Kenshi is set in a post-apocalyptic fantasy world based very loosely on Japan during the feudal period. And one of the first impressions that you get of this game is the massive scale of Hunt’s ambition to create an extremely deep, open world game where the world itself is your enemy. It was only when the game entered its early access phase that Hunt was able to hire a small team to help and the game was fully released in December 2018. But starting in 2006, and first entering early access in 2013, solo-developer Chris Hunt wrote and released Kenshi in his spare time. Many of us who have played the Mount and Blade series of games are waiting impatiently for the next installment, and in the interim, we’ve had nothing to scratch that deep RPG/open world itch.
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