Kôna: Day One Preview

A detective arrives in a small rural Canadian town and through the power of intuition (and nosiness) discovers a dark secret hidden amongst the trees. If this sounds familiar it may because you also played The Vanishing of Ethan Carter - a game in no way connected to Kôna, but very, VERY similar.

Kôna opens in a bright, warm spot by the side of the road as a narrator gives us our name, and the name of a client we’re heading out to meet. We are Carl Faubert, a private detective, and our client is a W. Hamilton, a rich industrialist whose relationship with the local community has worn thin. Our belongings are scattered across a park bench: a journal, map, polaroid camera, pack of cigarettes, book of matches, and a flashlight. The scene will be familiar to anyone who has played other narrative-driven puzzle games, such as the before mentioned Ethan Carter or to a lesser degree, the recent Firewatch; great effort has been spent in creating a realistic environment, while still reaching for a visual style to support Kôna’s ‘70s setting and a soft, pastel colour palette.

Hopping back into your car, control isn’t taken away from you… Wait, what?... Yes, rather than just triggering a loading screen and warping you to the next location, Kôna offers you a large, open map and the means to traverse it immediately. A short way down the road, the snow begins to fall, and before long you are completely immersed inside a blizzard. When not safe inside the warmth of the car, Carl will begin to freeze - effectively making this a survival game too.

The narrator directs you towards a nearby gas station, the established meeting place for Carl and Hamilton, but things aren’t quite right when you step through the door. The room is dark, boxes and cans are scattered across the floor, and, most importantly, there’s no sign of anyone - neither Hamilton or the owner.

Items in the world can be interacted with, some offering clues to unraveling the mystery and resources that can be collected: matches, empty bottles, logs. You aren’t given any objective markers but common sense says that you should investigate the area, and see about getting these lights back on.

Stepping out the back door, you see a pair of wolves that quickly dash out of sight, leaving a track in the snow. A quick glance along their path reveals the first arcane mark, a crystalline formation in the ice. Following the wolf track leads you to more, smaller patches of crystals until you find the owner deep within the trees, encased in this unnatural ice. The rest of this preview build - limited to the first in-game day - has you visiting houses and other residences in the immediate area to uncover more secrets and find any others trapped in the ice.

As I mentioned above, Kôna never gives you an on screen objective marker to guide you, instead relying on you, the player, to memorise where you found each clue. This quickly became irritating for me, as I realised too late that every time you spot a wolf, you should follow it. Coming back to an area 20 minutes after you passed it on the way to a different location and trying to hunt down a trail is not fun. Kôna’s story also failed to grab me at this early point of the game. Without a proper direction, as the player, I felt disconnected and had little interest in exploring. Hopefully these issues will be addressed before release.

I believe the premise of Kôna to be solid, but the game will benefit from a little tightening up. The story, while I wasn’t engaged initially, has the opportunity to get me back on board over the three “Days” beyond this one, and may surprise me. With a little more time, I can imagine Kôna emerging as an excellent addition to its genre.

An early access build of Kôna: Day One, for Windows, is available at GOG.com - a final release date is unknown.