Kenshi

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

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.

This game often feels half baked and like it failed to use the many lessons learned by the gaming industry since 1990. Often the lore is inaccessible unless you really spend time looking for it. Often the systems are kind of shoddy, and I need to open the Shift-F12 edit mode to fix a bug with base building. Often my faction spends all day picking up an iron bar out of a box, and putting it back into the same box, because the AI logic is just lacking.

That said: I. Do. Not. Care. Because this game is so unique, inspired, versatile, interesting, and open. It actually innovates, and when it comes to gaming I'm more interested in new & good ideas. And this has 'em. In my opinion Kenshi founds (or maybe popularizes) a fundamentally new genre: the Open-Ended RPG.

So give me the bugs. The ass graphics and lag on my 4090. Because I'll take Kenshi, a game made with love by an amateur, that actually does something interesting, over some AAA profit-driven loot-box packed dopamine-dispensing, uninspired, re-hashed nonsense. Any. Day.

And I am excited for what the future may hold, if we ever get a Kenshi 2

I remember when I first played this game I had heard some of the wild stories of people spending hours working on their character just to die in some ridiculous manner so I went into the game with caution. I chose a standard start in border zone and carefully made my way to Squin. I met a Shek named Ruka who offered to join me in my effort of survival. I found some metal nodes just outside the city gates, so Ruka and I would spend our days mining so we could afford food in the evening. We slowly saved enough to buy a little shack in the town and hire another recruit. We got a good system of the two companions mining while I'd run to sell it. We'd slowly get stronger as we worked, and when dust bandits would come to harass us, we would lead them to the gate and join the guards in the fight. For a while it was a matter of how quickly the bandits would beat us down, but we slowly would get stronger with each fight until we were able to hold our own with the guards' help. As my confidence grew in my team, I felt it was time for us to set up our own little place outside the city. I spent a while making or buying the resources I needed to start, and when I had enough supplies, I gathered what I could, found a nice little place a bit out of the town, and got ambushed by a random blood spider that proceeded to eat me alive 10/10 good game

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.

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.

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.