by Have you ever wanted to raise a civilization in a post-apocalyptic bushido-infused world? Then Kenshi is for you!
Kenshi is a rough-around the edges hodge-podge of a pretty wide pool of game types. It’s a combination of the CRPG (specifically Fallout), the Sims, Civilization, Survival, Sandbox, Automation & Idle genres. Wow. That’s a slew. So what’s my impression.
“…it a’ight I guess.”
Kenshi is a game that drops you into the middle of a desert with not much to go on. It’s up to you to piece together what you want to try to do and how you want to do it with no holds barred.
I spent my early days living in a shack and frequenting a local pub where I sold whatever meager scrap I could get my hands on for a couple bowls of old rice to keep me going. As I developed an understanding of how the game was played and what was available, I studied a few books, hired a few hands and (at a snail’s pace) developed a small self-sustaining community. We mined building materials and iron, grew cactus crops and converted them into meager but sustainable sustenance and built up walls and mounted crossbow turrets to stave off the frequent bandit attacks.
…And that was kind of it. It was fun to get there, but now that I’m here, I’ve kind of stopped wanting to play the game (at least for now). This brings up some interesting concepts regarding the recent popularity of “idle” games–but let’s break down the game genres.
CRPG: The graphics are “bad,” you play with an overhead view, and your characters run around in little squads. There are basic dialogue options, rudimentary economy, towns and a very open desert to explore. Your characters have a few core stats and dozens of skills to level up and over time become stronger.
Sims: There’s a lot of telling your characters *cough* Sims *cough* what to do, and then watching them do it. You watch little bars raise up as they improve their skills. Your characters are not bright and require a lot of guidance. You can even increase the game speed on the fly, like the Sims.
Civilization: You need to survive, and in order to survive, you need resources. You’ll need to mine, craft and build new structures and advance your technologies in order to improve your standing in the world. There are other roaming factions that you can either trade with or try to assault and rob. The larger you expand, the more “land” you’ll need to manager and keep an eye on to make sure things don’t fall into chaos. If you wanted to, you could even split your colony up and have characters running things in two or more locations, sort of like mini-cities.
Survival: You need food to eat, or well, you’ll die of hunger. Likewise, if things get scrappy, you’ll need to make sure to patch up yourself and your friends, or you won’t be coming back from your dirt nap. Likewise, if a specific part of your body becomes too damaged, you’ll lose it permanently.
Sandbox: You can go anywhere and do anything… well, barring any NPCs that try to stop you.
Automation: Each character can be given a queue of things to do and an order of priority. By careful queue-setting, you can mostly automate all the basic functions of your community, allowing you to let the game run while you plot out your next actions. Efficiency is of course key in making sure things are running smoothly.
Idle: Well… once everything is automated and you’ve taken care of the aspects of the other 5 genres… there’s nothing left to do other than sit around and let things progress. The game runs at a snail’s pace (even at max speed) so you’ll probably want to get comfy and put something on TV while you play it.
And that’s where I land now, and where I can glean some insight into Idle games–specifically mobile Idle games. Mobile Idle work for two reasons. 1. They are played in short bursts and 2. They never give you a moment’s rest. Factor 1 ensures that you won’t burn yourself out while playing them and Factor 2 ensures that you won’t have to consider that you are working towards a means that is the end of the means that you’re trying to end–but of course it won’t ever end, and so you are stuck playing forever.
Kenshi is not an Idle game alone (certainly not with all the other aspects I’ve described) but at this very moment it has essentially become an Idle game until I make it into something else. My community is self-sustaining, my people are protected and altogether, very little input is required by me to prevent the game from ending and my characters dying. In short, I have found respite and in it, I feel a bit empty. The challenge is gone, the basic principles of the game have been won and understood–my personal view is that I have lost an understanding of why I continue to play.
This is of course moot for those who aggressively enjoy any of the other genres of the game. Those who want to continue role-playing in CRPG style will have a massive world to uncover. Those who wish to build wild automated queue lists will undoubtedly continue to expand and complicate their character’s works. Those who love the sandbox of being able to go and build anywhere will be delighted. Me on the other hand… I want something that pushes me more. I will probably revisit Kenshi when I do not wish to think too hard, but for the time being I’m taking a break and giving this a solid Tier 2 rating. Good for what it is, but right now I want more of a directed challenge.