Kona

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.

Kona is a wonderful and lovingly crafted accomplishment. It's charming, magical, and smart enough to instill real motivation in its players and layer its cast in realist ways. Kona might be the first of four planned games, but it also happens to be a great standalone adventure that'll have you reaching for the thermostat in no time.

While the overarching story in KONA will no doubt leave you cold, the tense atmosphere at the centre of its snowstorm setting will warm your desire to see it all the way through to the end. It should also be applauded for trying to add a surprising number of mechanics to what's ostensibly an adventure game, and while the survival gameplay ultimately feels superfluous, it at least works well in service of developer Parabole's presentational aspirations – which is more than can be said for the pointless combat and distinctly average collection of puzzles.

Kona is a walking simulator that makes an admirable attempt to increase the usual level of interactivity and player agency. While not all of those attempts pay off, and it suffers from some disappointing technical issues, it remains a highly absorbing and atmospheric adventure-survival experience.

Kona is a tasteful walking simulator that tries to combine survival elements with detective point and click gameplay. However, as the game takes place virtually over the course of a day and night, you'll find certain elements rather confining at times. In terms of gameplay, however, this is a very enjoyable piece of work with puzzle solving opportunities. However, the last part of the game, which had a real charge and atmosphere, flew by very quickly.

For me, I loved the story, the setting and the mystery, but the controls let the game down. Has it made me change my opinion on walking sims? Well, it's made me hate them less.

I'm very conscious of spoiling anything should you decide to hit the buy button on the PlayStation Store, but I can say without question that I highly recommend you giving Kona a chance should you own a PSVR. I'm not sure how it plays without the headset, but with it, this is one of the best experiences I've enjoyed to date.

There's a lot more going on in this “walking sim” than is apparent at the start, both naturally and supernaturally. This contradicts the fact that, aside from the animals and the ghosts of the past, you are alone. Kona works hard to create a sense of isolation, making the experience much more effective if you're not surrounded by people helping you solve the puzzles or arguing against using a crowbar to fend off wolves when you have a gun in your possession (although that it is very sound advice).

Snow in general is underused in games, and you don't get to explore a small mining and logging community very often in this hobby. The supernatural elements in the game had me interested right away, but the interface issues and the tone of the narration kept pulling me out of the experience. Check it out if you're looking for something new and interesting, just be prepared for some rough edges.

I’ve deliberately been vague about the game’s story as some of what happens is much more interesting and mysterious the less you know about it. I appreciate the lore and the way revelations about what has happened reveal themselves to you, though at times it can also be disorienting as you try to understand what is going on. Though the ultimate finale to the game might not be as satisfying as I would have hoped KONA has a story to tell and uses a unique means to do so, making it a terrific addition to the diverse Switch indie library.