The Kraken Wakes
Aliens attack Planet Earth, taking over the oceans and rising up from the deeps to battle mankind.
The Kraken Wakes is a ground-breaking game where you get to speak to the characters and they speak back, voice-to-voice, placing you at the heart of the story.
Your start in the Pacific Ocean, on your first assignment for the prestigious EBC News, when you witness fireballs streaking across the sky, and mysteriously disappearing into the ocean depths.
As “fireball mania” takes hold across the world, you’re catapulted to journalistic stardom. But once the waters settle, it becomes clear the fireballs were only the beginning of something far more sinister…a deadly threat now lurking in the deeps…
The Kraken Wakes is the exclusive adaptation of John Wyndham’s epic 1950s sci-fi/horror novel using Conversational Gameplay: you talk to the game’s characters in natural language, influencing their actions and emotions, and shaping the story as it unfolds. Devise eye-catching headlines, deliver knock-out press conference performances, and negotiate with governments in your mission to uncover the truth about the fireballs before it’s too late.
AI-powered Conversation
The Kraken Wakes has been created on Charisma.ai’s AI-powered conversation engine. You’ll use your microphone to talk to the game’s characters, and they’ll listen and respond to what you say. There are no multiple choice options here: you’re free to say what you like, and find out how your words will impact the story.
Believable Characters
In The Kraken Wakes, NPCs (non-player characters) have personalities, memories, opinions and emotions. What you say and do will impact a character’s mood and their relationship with you. Befriend your colleagues or compete with them, impress your boss and win over your sources, all through what you choose to say.
Player-driven Audio
We’ve worked with the audio team at dBs Pro to create an innovative soundtrack for The Kraken Wakes that adapts to the characters’ emotions. If something you say makes a character feel happy, the game audio will become more upbeat, and vice versa. Your words shape not only the story, but also the soundscape of the game.
Game Discussion
Steam User 11
this is an entertaining game whose topic is right up my alley. i have only played one game so far, which prompted you to type out stuff and that one didn't go too well. still i gave this a chance and i'm glad i did so. i have encountered only one bug, which made the game close, but since there are auto-saves at the start of any part, that wasn't a big deal, only a few wasted minutes. the story is captivating, characters are interesting and clear-cut, the AI does understand most of what you are saying, unless you get too 'creative'. at one time i couldn't help but deliver an insult to the boss woman and her reply was pretty hilarious. the voiceovers do sound mechanic of course, but except muriel, the office girl's voice, nothing irritated me in that regard. faking a scottish accent in AI might not be the best idea after all. all in all a great little game, highly recommended especially if you are into sci-fi/mystery literature or paranormal stuff.
edit: ok, just finished it. the ending was quite meaninful and satisfying. on a less positive note, there have been more crashes (lost connection or freezes) towards the end. again, nothing intolerable.
Steam User 6
Loved the first few hours but the final chapters were very weak and the game ended abruptly. The AI voices were not natural though its understandable. It could certainly have been much better had the animations been smoother as well.
The game also crashed many times mostly just before the loading screen for a new chapter. I had to redo a few chapters just because of that. There was also an issue of the game completely freezing 2 times because of losing connection even though everything else seemed connected to the internet.
Overall it was an okay experience. I certainly haven't played anything like this and for the first few hours alone i would recommend this game. If not for the AI conversation i don't think the game would've had enough charisma in it to entertain me all the way through till its mediocre ending.
Steam User 3
Actually a good game with potential. I loved the game and had fun with it! But i must say some things were not polished.
-First of all, I was expecting more with talking to the characters. Sometimes it works but most of the time even though you say something differently they keep saying the same thing. And this happens for like %90 time!
-Game has some bugs and crashes. My game crashed like 7 times on chapter 5. And i needed to play it again and again and lost minutes.
-Some Characters accent's are kinda bad. It needs to change. I am not so triggered about it but it can be annoying after some time :d
Steam User 0
This is a truly unique game that kept a smile on my face throughout. The gameplay is immersive and you really get the sense of moving through the chapters of the story. I'm a big fan of both the art style and music, both of which add to the joyful storytelling.
The dialogue is engaging and charming, with great characterisation. The characters remember your decisions and answers, which can lead to some particularly funny encounters along the way (I certainly played myself very early on by admitting to some of my reading preferences...!)
This was an exciting way to experience the story, and I'm sure one of the first of many to make use of AI in such a creative way.
Steam User 4
I dug into The Kraken Wakes because I'm a sucker for a narrative focus (I've played a ton of Tell Tale games for example). Although I wasn't anticipating Kraken Wakes to give me excruciating life or death choices, it did keep me hooked in other ways.
The way you engage with the game, narrative and characters was certainly different to anything else I've experienced on the screen. It encourages you to explore your dialogue choices and bring the results to bear in a creative way. Chances to collaborate with the characters to advance the plot was also an interesting mechanism that feeds into this and gives you a different way to experience the story.
Overall, I'd say it's the start of a new way of experiencing game narrative, and I'm excited to see more!
Steam User 6
Pros:
- Nice story and characters
- When AI correctly understands you and gets back at you with a joke, can be hilarious
- All the voices are generated on the fly, they may be stilted but it's really cool to have the NPCs actually say your name for once. It makes you think about how good the voices will become in the near future.
- Makes you imagine how cool games will be when we finally have that text-to-speech system plugged on to GPT so we can finally spend the hours not doing the quests but chatting with our favourite NPCs like we always dreamed.
Cons:
- Snail simulator
- Sup-par animations and graphics, it looks like it was hastily put together.
- AI doesn't always understand what you say
- Everything's slow, not just because there's a necessary lag on the text-to-speech
- Did I say snail simulator
Go for it for the concept. In 2040, when kids play immersive RPGs with NPCs chatting with them in natural language, you'll be able to say you were there at the very beginning, when it was only just starting and still buggy as hell. And they'll tell you to shut up. Try this game especially if you're not a native speaker of English. Helps you learn. Don't expect a pretty game or a normal-paced walking sim though.
Steam User 1
So far I love the concept of this game and cannot wait to continue playing!! The AI voices sound so cool and this all seems so next-level compared to other games I have played. The gameplay is incredibly smooth and the story seems like an interesting one. Definitely recommend!!!