Kenshi
A free-roaming squad based RPG focusing on open-ended sandbox gameplay features rather than a linear story. Be a trader, a thief, a rebel, a warlord, an adventurer, a farmer, a slave, or just food for the cannibals. Research new equipment and craft new gear. Purchase and upgrade your own buildings to use as safe fortified havens when things go bad, or use them to start up a business. Aid or oppose the various factions in the world while striving for the strength and wealth necessary to simply survive in the harsh desert. Train your men up from puny victims to master warriors. Carry your wounded squad mates to safety and get them all home alive. Features Freeform gameplay in a seamless game world in the largest single-player RPG world since Daggerfall, stretching over 870 square kilometers. The game will never seek to limit you or restrict your personal play style. Custom design as many characters as you want and build up a whole squad to fight for you. Characters will grow and become stronger with experience, not just in their stats but their appearance too. Original take on the RTS-RPG hybrid genre. No "hero" characters with artificially stronger stats than everybody else- Every character and NPC you meet is potentially an equal, and has a name, a life. You are not the chosen one. You're not great and powerful. You don't have more 'hitpoints' than everyone else. You are not the center of the universe, and you are not special. Unless you work for it.
Game Discussion
Steam User 524
I bought this game in beta back on 2012. I found it here on steam, and remembered buying it.
i went back and checked my old email. I got the code that i was provided and tried plugging it into steam, and it worked.
In the email, it said something about how the game would always be available on any platform if we bought it. They kept their word, which i thought was awesome
Steam User 332
When I first got this game I started a new world, wandered around, tried to mine some copper, was mercilessly beat into the ground like a street dog by 30 starving losers, and bled to death. I then closed the game, didn't play it for 3 years, developed full sentience, and opened the game again. 2165 hours.
Steam User 216
What is Kenshi?
By now everyone knows that it's a game where you're just some guy and not the chosen one, that it's an unforgiving situation where your character(s) don't matter at all, until they do.
What I want to elaborate upon is a bit different: at its core, Kenshi is about absolute freedom, but more importantly, about potential. Having potential, by itself, means nothing and, at the same time, doesn't mean you should strive for something great. You can, sure, the world is there for this, but you can also just decide to be something other than "the best". See, one's existence it's not necessarily about being on top, rather, it's more about doing what one likes, what gives a sense of accomplishment or satisfaction.
Kenshi gives you all the potential to be anything you want. You can be a simple shop owner, a food vendor, a travelling merchant, build a city, become a bounty hunter, carve your own city out of a hostile land, be a slave, become a zealot of Narko after liberating yourself from the slavers at Rebirth and go on a personal crusade in the name of revenge, be a drug lord in the swamps, and so on.
The entire world is your canvas, what you need is the will to find some form of purpose. Some people might just be content with roaming and exploring the land, without any grand objective of sorts.
As with real life itself, at the end of the day, the most important thing to remember when playing Kenshi is that you should do what you enjoy doing, not what you think you should be doing, and sometimes that means being just some guy, but a happy one at that. The entire experience will be infinitely more rewarding.
Steam User 163
I launched a game in hardest difficulty. 3 hours in I tried to fight a dying slave missing an arm, low on health and with cuffs. I lost.
Steam User 271
Start new game.
>running for life from bandits
>run into dinosaur
>eaten alive
Start new game.
>ooh, I might be able to hide in this foggy area
>oh god, there's so many of them
>tied to stake
>eaten alive
Start new game.
>me and doggy pal find town
>guards search my empty pockets
>everyone insults me
>can't afford food
>so hungry
>try to steal
>caught, beaten up, jailed
>serve my sentence then starve to death in the desert
Start new game.
>spawn in desert
>beaten unconscious by starving bandits
>almost immediately enslaved
>slowly get stronger in slave camp
>finally escape
>anti-slaver camp helps me
>never stop training
>beat down, but always get back up
>eventually return to slavers
> kill their emperor
Best. Game. Ever.
Game is a little janky sometimes, but I've never found anything like it. I'm in love. Tends to be grouped with Project Zomboid and Rimworld.
Steam User 207
got it because it looked interesting. played for an hour uninstalled. gave it another try a few weeks later. this game ruined me. as soon as i got what was going on it quickly became my favorite game of all time. when i say it ruined me i mean in the way that just no other game no matter what can scratch that Kenshi itch. almost 600 hours in and i still have not seen everything this game has to see. 10/10 Beeps
Steam User 143
I would recommend it because i'm not a a-hole, it's a genuinely good game, but it's not for me. Tried for 8 hours to enjoy myself and I just don't. I think you need a creative/RP mind to play this and enjoy it. It's a sandbox in the purest form.
If you are able to really embody your character and just go on a blind adventure where you make your own story. You will love it. I just don't have the creative juice in me to just give myself a goal or a story to do. It's like almost like post-apocalyptic The Sims lol.