Kona
Northern Canada, 1970. A strange blizzard ravages Atamipek Lake. Step into the shoes of a detective to explore the eerie village, investigate surreal events, and battle the elements to survive. Kona is a chilly, narrative-driven interactive tale you won’t soon forget.
"Parabole has created a stunning game of duality, effortlessly blending survivalism with detective work and well-researched history with dying folklore."
– Stephen Turner, Destructoid
"It’s tremendous at creating its distinct atmosphere and then drawing you deeper in. It’s witty, spooky, and achieves an ideal sense of urgency. Weird, clamant and intriguing, this is well worth a look."
– John Walker, Rock, Paper, ShotgunSettingOctober 1970. W. Hamilton, a rich industrialist who owns a hunting manor in Northern Canada, reports several cases of vandalism perpetrated against his property. Unable to find out who dared to commit these acts, Hamilton calls Carl Faubert, a renowned private detective to handle the affair.
In Kona, Carl becomes trapped up in the deep north, engulfed in an unexpected snowstorm, and is unable to find his client —or any other living inhabitant for that matter. The player incarnated detective Faubert, who must shed light on the mysterious events befalling the area.Key Features
- Step into a surreal interactive tale of mystery and investigate the perplexing quietness in the entire town
- Explore a vast, frigid Northern environment and battle the elements to survive
- Enjoy the atmospheric soundtrack featuring music by Quebec folk band CuréLabel
- Experience the tale through the omniscient, third-person storyteller
- Go back in time with a vintage look and feel reminiscent of 1970s rural communities
Steam User 24
A little investigation + survival game set in Canada, in the 70s. Despite some clunkiness, lack of information on what to do
next and a bit of a weird finale, it's a nice chilly story that shows an interesting depiction of an isolated canadian town, with its people and constructions/furniture of the time. It's not a difficult game per se, but it won't be easy to get all achievements and walking in the snow is a bit frustrating..
Best played in summer, it'll be extremely refreshing.!
Steam User 12
Kona is a WONDERFUL Game, with a really good story and narrator, The Environment is amazing, and Location based story telling is off the wall! On my first play-through i went into it blind, as I only seen demo game-play videos when it first got released, and after roughly 2017 I forgot about this game, it took 6 hours for me to beat the game and the story was pretty compelling and the ending (if you don't already know about it) was quite the twist! 10/10, I absolutely Love this Game!
Steam User 9
Probably the best walking simulator I've played.
Actually there's driving and a lot more to Kona than that, like the survival elements.
They're pretty basic thankfully but involve having to keep warm next to camp fires or
similar and there's also a sanity type meter which you can boost using painkillers,
cigarettes and stuff. I think it really compliments the game and doesn't get in the way
of having fun like actual, full blown survival games. There's also some combat which
is really bad but it's there and of course if you lose health there's first aid kids. The only
enemy type are wolves basically and when you kill one, the pack scatters, and it only
take a maybe two shots to kill them. Again, it's another thing that compliments the
game but doesn't get in the way too much since the story/investigation is the focus.
One of the more unique and best things about Kona is the narrator who...
Well, he narrates. The story. Anyway, I could listen to that guy all day.
I really liked the sense of realism as well. Everything from how your character
moves, fights, enters/exits vehicles, interacts with stuff, uses his map, etc.
It's sluggish but in a good way. Makes it feel real. Yeah doors still open telepathically
(you don't see your hand reaching out sadly) but if you take out your map, you can still
look around and when you enter your vehicle, you open/close the door and stuff.
Plenty of fun achievements to go after and makes it even more worth exploring the
place. The game is semi open world and looks really nice.
One of the best main menu songs ever! I've listened to it too many times by now.
The graphics are litty. Pretty realistic graphics. They're very nice but you really need
to play with the highest settings for some of the cool effects, like the frost on windows
I think. All or nothing, or so I heard. I tested it myself though and it's true. There's a big
difference between High/Ultra.
Definitely, 100% recommended. Don't spoiler yourself, absolutely do wear headphones,
take your time, explore and enjoy. If you do that, you're looking at about 12 hrs of
fun. It'll be a pretty short game for most people and it does end a little abruptly for sure.
Buuut, it's all about the journey and not the destination, right? Go have fun, sexy.
Steam User 6
*Warning*
This is NOT a Detective Game or a Survival Game.
This is Detective Story with some very minimal Survival elements to add some interaction.
This is a 6 Hour Interactive Movie with no Alternate Endings.
This is fine as long as you know this going in. Had I known this I may have enjoyed it much more.
If you expect a Detective Game or a Survival Game you will be let down.
You are not using Detective Skills to uncover anything. You are watching a Character go around while the Narrator explains everything to you. You are not uncovering a story you are being told one.
You are not using Survival Skills to manage what is important or where you go. Ammo, Fires, Tools, Vehicles. These things are plentiful and easily accessible. Only the bottom 1/4 or so of the map you see is accessible, and what IS accessible is very restricted.
Why recommend this Game / Movie?
Atmosphere and Old Rosaire
Steam User 7
Kona turned out to be way better than I expected. What seemed like a linear "walking simulator" at first is actually this awesome investigation game with survival elements and other cool gameplay twists. You've got the freedom to roam around this snowy town, setting the perfect vibe for a detective story. It's eerie, oppressive, and kinda deadly.
And the story? It's solid, and the narrator adds this unique vibe to it. Good stuff!
Steam User 6
Kona is a short and fine game.
The themes, premise and overall aesthetic is wonderful.
Having a combination of in-game narration, visual thought-bubbles, and documents makes the storytelling quite refreshing - though it could use some refinement in a number of places with the pacing / placement of these items.
It's fairly evident that Kona was developed with consoles in mind first and foremost; a lot of the controls and settings feel misplaced or clunky, for example there's mouse acceleration turned on by default and many of the UI elements are catered to a controller without a MNK substitute.
There are a few instances were the game felt muddied. Getting stuck on terrain and the inability to activate sprint or jump reliably on keyboard exacerbated that. A number of instances of frustrating backtracking. The inventory system felt tacked on and last minute addition.
The rest of Kona was enjoyable - it could use just a little more polish; Buy it on sale and give it a crack.
Steam User 3
This started out as a fantastic game of exploration, set in a 1970's tiny Quebec town. I loved visiting all the different locations, exploring off the beaten path, collecting various tools and items, solving a few puzzles, and generally enjoying the atmosphere of this unique game.
What I didn't like:
Very similar to what I see people complain about in a lot of the message boards, the ending took a bizarre turn away from what the rest of the game seemed to be about. I found it disappointing, unnecessarily difficult, and I ultimately couldn't deal with the final boss to finish the game. Instead, I just had to watch a YouTube video to see the ending. I bought it for the story and exploration, but the combat felt like a rug pull.
I would have to do some careful research before investing money in the sequel. If it's going to end with the same hard shift as the first one, I might give it a miss.