Kenshi - Early Access Review

Selectbutton has reviewed the Early Access RPG Kenshi, which is in development for several years now:

Kenshi Early Access Review

Kenshi is a game. That I'm sure about. Kenshi is a lot of things within a game. This is something else I'm sure about.

Kenshi feels like the amalgamated material of Mount & Blade, The Elder Scrolls, and several survival games all thrown in for good measure. This brutal game is a challenge from the start, either from possible starvation, bandit attacks, or sheer bad luck. While there are tooltips and some helpful guides along the way (it's always worth asking around), the game drops you in and sets you loose without much else.

Before being dropped into the world though, there are things to attend to. These include what kind of scenario you're playing, character customization, and advanced option tweaking (highly recommended) that can give you a slight edge in your early games. The scenarios change the overall framework of the game, subtly influencing your gameplay to be more RPG-like or more crafting/trading oriented. One even puts an interesting spin on a more RTS-like experience within the confines of this game. The customization is also a nice treat as it offers a large variety of options such as everything from character race to individual traits. On your group experiences, you're able to fully customize every member of your group. They still come out looking like poor and haggard bums when you first hit the dusty world, but the sheer variety is impressive.

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Simply Put

Kenshi is a lot of ideas thrown together. A lot. I'm interested to see what a final version might look like. While Chris Hunt, founder of Lo-Fi Games developed the game himself over the course of six years, the team grew upon the game's success on Steam Greenlight. With that said, even I found there may just be too much going on at once. Kenshi has quite a steep learning curve, but I know there are many willing to enjoy the kind of freedom featured in the game.

I'm still finding out new things here and there as I play and considering the large size of the map, I'm positive I'll continue to do so. My only concern is the noted steep learning curve: it was a bit of a turn off when I initially started the game. I was appreciative of the tool tips and small guidance points the game provided, but there's so much out there even then. Some will also find this to be an issue when starting the game up, but for those looking to play something a little like Mount & Blade set in a fantasy type world with an incredible challenge, Kenshi might be a great fit.

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Wow, thank you. I own this game since years but I did not know it had reached that level already. Time to try it again..

Originally Posted by Aerth
Wow, thank you. I own this game since years but I did not know it had reached that level already. Time to try it again..

Bought it years ago as well. Never really played it. And probably won't for a while.
Waiting till V 1.0

Is there any date or expectation for a V 1.0 version?

Not really.
There is a roadmap though:
https://lofigames.com/road-map/

Ah yes the game that gets the longest Early Access Award. So it's safe to say given the slow development, we have at least six more years for a complete game.

I bought this one back in 2013. It looks like it will rival Age of Decadence in development time. :/

I also bought this one back in 2013 or something like that. I have fired it up twice and was a little overwhelmed the last time as the review indicated could happen. Of course, I am still very interested, but am content waiting until it is more in a version 1.0 type state.

I played it about a year ago.

What kept me from enjoying it were two things.
1) Still very rough around the edges. Nothing to get you started, no immediate goal, confusing interface. I just don't have time for games that don't even try to get a player started. But I realize this might very well change later on.

2) Absolutely horrible performance - on a machine that can run any recent game on highest detail without lag (usually). Felt like I was playing a debug build. While at the same time not exactly looking great. But this also might very well change.

I'll more than likely give it another shot. Maybe in a year.

I am with you on the 'starting part', TheSHEEP. Concerning performances they changed the engine some months ago to increase them.

They are in Beta phase so the critical features should already be in. But, at the same time, they announce stuff like "Assaults & War Campaigns" or "World population" aka factions to still be released in the future ..

Heh, this still exists. I had to look when I actually bought this game, and it was April 2012. I guess I should look at it again. Or maybe next year.

I love the ideas on this one but I don't think they have what it takes to see this through to completion any time soon, if ever