Kona Review
- Platforms: Steam
- Price: $14.99
- Release Date: March 17, 2017
- Genres: Adventure, Mystery, Walking Simulator, Detective, Exploration, Survival
- Developer: Parabole
- Publisher: Ravenscourt
Heya folks, Shaun here, and I’m back with my latest review! In this one, I’m covering an indie game called Kona by Parabole and Ravenscourt. I received this one for free through Amazon’s Prime Gaming feature some time ago, so this one’s a for fun review, and wasn’t requested by the developer.
Kona is a narrative adventure that takes place in the deep winter of rural Canada. You play as a private detective who had been hired by a wealthy industrialist to investigate a series of vandalisms. Upon arrival, the detective finds his client murdered in the general store, which sets in motion a series of events that takes him all across the seemingly abandoned town to unravel the mystery behind what happened.
The game utilizes a few survival based elements in its gameplay. As you explore the snowstorm ridden town, you must stay warm by lighting fires in wood stoves or at campfires that are spread throughout the game world. You also traverse the area by driving the detective’s old pick up truck, and it’s pretty surprising how good the driving feels in this game, which means the developers definitely put a lot of effort into making it feel perfect.
I’ll also admit that this game likely has the most accurate depiction of what a heavy snowstorm is actually like in the real world. I live in an area that gets the kind of snowstorms depicted in this game, and it’s 100% accurate, which is super surprising.
Another thing I’ll mention is that the game’s narration does take a little to get used to, largely because there’s so much of it. The game has an option to tweak the narration to your liking in the options menu, however. I kept it at maximum for review purposes but if it becomes too much for you, you can tone it down a bit.
Overall, Kona is a pretty superb piece of narrative adventuring and I honestly loved every second of it. I’ll admit that I actually tried the game about a year or two ago and couldn’t get into it at the time, but I wound up really enjoying it this time around. Sometimes giving games a second chance can lead to having a great time. I will say that I did feel the combat was a little clunky at times, especially when you were using melee weapons. Other than that, the game is excellent and I can’t recommend it enough. I give the game a 9 out of 10.
