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 586
i played only for 3 hours on steam but over 3000+ hours as a pirate, this game was good (or addictive) enough that it persuaded a life long pirate living in a third world country with a devalued currency to make a legal purchase. best endorsement i can think of to be quite honest
Steam User 538
I didn't get it
I tried 4 different times to get into the game and each time i just wandered around and gotten beaten to death or unconscious or enslaved and lost interest as i had no clear goal or any idea what to do
But then i stuck to it all these years later, mining to get money, getting more guys, getting beaten half to death over and over, understanding the game more and more as time went on
Now i have a successful settlement with lots of people i give jobs to and make my own gear and cactus rum, while my main dude is so jacked and powerful from almost dying a thousand times that i send him out to sneak around and knock people out with a bounty for extra money or steal things from shops when they close or solo a whole pack of bandits to loot
This is not a game that is going to hold your hand, or even give you any goal to work towards
This is a game where i genuinely thought there was nothing to do
But it was my fault, i thought there was nothing to do because there was everything to do, but i didn't know where to start and i had no personal goal i wanted to achieve
This game will now consume my life so this is also a goodbye letter to my friends and family
The game is also very mod friendly and i would argue many of them are necessary
If you need a new addiction i highly recommend Kenshi
Its janky, it loads every 2 minutes while travelling long distances, nothing makes sense at first and theres quite a few bugs
But if you can look through all it's issues you'll find a masterpiece
I hate the Holy Nation btw
Anyway great game
Steam User 368
>Made an outpost
>Taxed 4k a week by the United Cities.
>Doing well.
>Traders guild sends a diplomat asking for a cut.
>Not a trader so I tell them to piss off.
>They send goons and raid my outpost.
>A day later they send slavers, shackling 6/8 crew.
>Main toon escapes and flees, gathers forces and spends the next in game week rescuing the gang.
>We are now recognized as escaped slaves and are considered 'property' by the United Citites and Traders Guild.
>Destroy the outpost, pack up everything on a bull and head south, where we find a new city governed by the Tech Hunters.
This game has radicalized me and i am now on the warpath to abolish slavery with a mechanized general named Tinfist.
10/10
Steam User 300
I just realized I never reviewed this game and I'm a bit surprised at myself, since it has been my most played game for over ten years. That's probably enough for me to say about it, really, but there's more.
It's not the prettiest game ever, but it makes up for that with depth. You start out as a nobody, and you can move forward however you want to, but as you grow and gain power, the game responds to you. Your impact on the game world is visible to you in how the gameplay unfolds.
There are a number of things that make Kenshi unique, but I think the most unique thing about it is the health system. It's very complex and closer to reality than a basic HP system, The most common cause of death in this game is blood loss, which can be caused by any of a number of injuries. Also, characters are very much affected by their injuries. For example, amputation is possible. You can even start with a character missing their left arm. I always start this way because I am one handed myself and I relate to that character. My one-armed character struggles to do things in ways that make sense to me (perhaps not entirely accurate, but it's close enough for a game), and I love seeing the improvements in function when I get prosthetics. I wish I could have the same prosthetics in real life, honestly.
Anyway, if you like isometric RPGs, RTSs, city (more of a village) builders, survival games, or any mix of these, this game has something for you to love.
Steam User 298
- Very bad optimization.
- A lot of bugs.
- Weird meshes, bad ragdolls and physics.
- The game engine is +20 years old.
- Graphically looks like a 2006 game (because it is).
And yet one of the best games ever made.
Peak.
Steam User 152
After playing Kenshi for over 1,000 hours I think I have realized what makes me love this game so much. It is related to the idea that nothing can be beautiful without the existence of something hideous. The lows that your characters can sink to in this game are, for me, previously unimaginable in a video game. But because of that, the highs are very rewarding. Starting out at rock bottom and having to struggle your way to some kind of stability and safety is more satisfying than starting out as the chosen one who is destined to become the hero. Also, you get to decide what being a hero means. It is complete freedom to engage with the world and experience the terror and glory that said freedom allows.
Steam User 819
>Started as a slave
>stole a fish
>ran from fundimentalists I stole the fish from
>got my legs chopped off by the fundimentalists
>crawled for hours through the desert
>got captured by cannibal robots and got my skin peeled off
10/10 worth it