Kona Review – A Chilling, Immersive Adventure

<p>Canada has one of the kindest reputations in the world&comma; and it’s an unlikely environment for a chilling adventure game&period; However&comma; the first five minutes of playing <i>Kona <&sol;i>will have you questioning your assumptions&period; Something has gone terribly wrong in a quaint village in Northern Quebec&period; It’s up to you to solve the mystery and escape&period; Can you survive the frigid&comma; enigmatic wilderness without losing your mind&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><i>Kona <&sol;i>is intended to be the first of four games in a series by the Canadian game developer&comma; Parabole&period; It’s an adventure game combined with facets of the survival and horror genres&period; You play as a detective who has been hired by a wealthy businessman to investigate a vandalism report in a rural village&period; Upon reaching the village&comma; you find that things are not as one might expect&period; With the guidance of an omniscient narrator&comma; you must solve the mystery surrounding the community while piecing together clues and building fires to stay alive&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;123200" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-123200" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-123200" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;03&sol;25100602&sol;Screenshot02&period;png" alt&equals;"Kona&comma; Parabole" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-123200" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Kona&comma; Parabole<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Exploring the grand Canadian wilderness of <i>Kona <&sol;i>is a lot of fun&period; You get to drive a mammoth&comma; purring truck and snoop into the lives of strangers&period; Every home is searchable&period; Secrets are hidden in the woods&period; Very early in the game&comma; you find that what happens while exploring cannot be foreseen&period; There were a quite few times that I would open a door and be shocked by what I found behind it&period; <i>Kona<&sol;i> is truly refreshing and unpredictable&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>What Parabole does best with <i>Kona <&sol;i>is create a rich environment&comma; facilitating immersion in the game&period; The scenery is breathtaking&comma; and there is no lack of quality screenshot material found while exploring&period; It feels like every detail has been included&comma; from driving through near white-out snowstorm conditions to digging through someone’s junk drawer&period; Holding and reading a video game map has never felt so realistic&period; Combined with a soundtrack featuring real folk music local to the region&comma; it’s easy to lose yourself in this frozen&comma; Canadian world&period; Every snow-crunching footstep and pulsing heartbeat sets the mood&period; The narrator&&num;8217&semi;s calm&comma; smooth voice nudges you in the right direction&period; It’s possible to freeze to death if you stay too long outdoors&period; This immersion is the absolute highest strength of <i>Kona<&sol;i>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;123201" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-123201" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-123201" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;03&sol;25100633&sol;Screenshot08&period;png" alt&equals;"Kona&comma; Parabole" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-123201" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Kona&comma; Parabole<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>There are so many items to collect and objectives to reach in this game&comma; that it’s tough to catch everything the first time through&period; I won’t spoil the surprises&comma; but the way the game progresses&comma; it’s difficult to tie up loose ends if you’ve gotten too far into the story&period; Luckily&comma; the game is short enough that it leaves you wanting to play again&period; The Steam&sol;PS4&sol;Xbox One achievements add to the replayability&comma; with achievements awarded for completing the game without using cigarettes or alcohol to boost your mental health&period; Other achievements are awarded for completing a treasure hunt side quest or completing the game without using vehicles&period; Most of these objectives won’t be completed on your first playthrough&comma; but could easily be achieved with another two or three hour run&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The game controls are straightforward&comma; but the menus could use some help&period; <i>Kona <&sol;i>is designed using radial menus&comma; which doesn’t work well when amassing the hordes of items you collect in the game&period; For example&comma; as you collect more documents throughout your investigation&comma; the icons on the document radial menu get smaller to make room for the new ones&period; They all have similar icons&comma; so attempting to find and reread something you picked up an hour ago can be a tedious task&period; You’ll find that all other game items are well organized with separate radial menus for those that you can equip and consume&period; This makes it easier to heal quickly or to determine if an object can be used to solve a puzzle&comma; more so than returning to the paperwork&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;123202" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-123202" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-123202" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;03&sol;25100656&sol;Screenshot09&period;png" alt&equals;"Kona&comma; Parabole" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-123202" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Kona&comma; Parabole<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>One of my favorite things about <i>Kona <&sol;i>is how well the development team at Parabole has been communicating and interacting with players&period; The Steam forums and Kona Facebook page are both filled with timely&comma; constructive responses from the devs themselves&period; They humbly respond to bug reports or criticism and offer hints to players who have gotten stuck on a puzzle in the game&period; It’s one of the few times I’ve seen a developer listen directly to its fan base and take into consideration what they have to say&period; Parabole is doing an excellent job of creating loyal players who will happily follow them into the next three games of this series&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>With an authentic soundtrack and immersive design&comma; Parabole has created an atmospheric adventure game that will stick with you long after you’ve completed the story&period; Having open-minded developers who are actively communicating with fans is setting the bar for indie design&period; I have no doubt that this will be a standout indie series&period; Can you survive the wilds of northern Canada&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong>A PC review copy of <em>Kona<&sol;em> was provided by Parabole<&sol;strong><br &sol;>&NewLine;<strong>for the purpose of this review<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;