Is Kenshi Good?

Updated:

11 Jul 2023

Kenshi is a hardcore, lo-fi game like no other. It’s as brutal and unforgiving as the setting with which it takes place. A harsh, desolate game that chews up and spits out those who wander in unprepared. So why do I and many others like it so much? Well, dear reader, let me explain.

1. Harcore, Roguelike RPG Gameplay

Unique characters can be found all over Kenshi. All with their own traits to compliment your own “blank slate” character.

When you start your first play through in Kenshi. Ideally the “Wanderer” as the game states that it is how it is “... meant to be played”, you start as a blank slate. Zero stats and hardly anything else to your name.

From here, you are free to grow your character into whatever build you want. Their stats increase by doing the things that relate to the skill you want to develop. You can become a mighty warrior, sneaky ninja thief or a slick trader, making Cats from town to town.

If you like to see those sweet sweet skill numbers going up. This is just the catharsis to scratch that itch.

And when I say roguelike, I mean it. Roguelike refers to a game where the death of a character is permanent. While you can reload saves if it's early in the game and you don’t think that losing is fun, the death of any character in Kenshi, including your own, is a done deal.

Not only that, the game will go on with or without you playing it. Obviously as long as your computer is still running it. So even if your “main” character perishes to some ungodly Beak Thing, you can actually just keep on playing with any squad members that you’ve recruited along your journey before its untimely end. The only thing lost is that character and all the time you spent grinding up their skills.

Some people find this kind of gameplay too unforgiving but others, like me, find it raises the stakes and therefore the rewards of playing the game.

2. An Open Ended Game Where You Can Write Your Own Story.

A vast world to make your mark upon.

Kenshi doesn’t give you any concrete objectives for you to handrail along. A daunting prospect for new players finding their feet but don’t worry, there are plenty of video guides to give you a foothold if you want.

Other than that, you are left to your own devices and that’s kinda the point. The world is literally your oyster. You are here to make your mark upon it and find your way through the vast landscapes.

What you decide to do and how you accomplish it is the game of Kenshi. Do you want to “Break the Wheel” and abolish slavery? Well good luck but it's possible. Want to slaughter the nations of Kenshi with a grand army? Go for it. Want to simply explore the great big world ahead of you, hunting for treasure in ancient ruins of technologically advanced empires? It’s all yours for the taking.

While this might give you some ideas of just how open ended the game is, it’s really down to you how you play the game. There is no right or wrong way to do it. You don’t even have to recruit other characters as you can play with a single, solo character for your entire playthrough if you want.

3. Post Apocalyptic Survival

A band as Shek Warriors travelling the canyons of the Borderlands

No one is quite sure exactly what happened to Kenshi. The tidal locked moon of a distant planet. Whatever did happen has left the world harsh and unforgiving. Survival is a struggle not just for the individual but for different factions that have previously warred and vied for territorial control.

It’s up to you to find your place in it. If you can even survive that long. There are different biomes with different hazards. From hostile fauna to harsh weather events. Not to mention roving bands of others who may not take kindly to you or may simply be starving enough to chance taking you down to rummage through your bag.

Whatever fate befell the world of Kenshi before, it is up to you where it goes from there. While you can pick up the pieces of lore as you explore the world, remember that whatever source you find may be unreliable and biassed.

4. Real Time Strategy Gameplay Elements

On top of its RPG gameplay, it has the combat of a point and click, Command and Conquer style RTS

If you’re fighting on your lonesome or with a squad, the combat runs like a Real Time Strategy game. With melee and ranged troops at your disposal, you can be pointing and clicking your very own army across the wastes.

Getting into everything from small skirmishes to full blown, pitched battles. And with every character's life at stake, it makes the tense battles even more nail biting. Especially in the early game when your main character can hardly say boo to a goose without stubbing their toe and collapsing in a pile on the floor.

You don’t have to send your troops running straight at an enemy either. You can plan and fight tactically. Pick your battles and choose your ground. Retreating towards the safety of a town can sometimes be your best option as the guards can come to your aid.

5. Outpost Building Virtually Anywhere

The beginning of this writers first fledgling outpost

So long as you aren’t trying to build within another faction's territory or too close to their towns and cities, you can build up your own settlement virtually anywhere. Like a good colony manager, you can put your recruits to work putting up walls, buildings, defences and producing resources.

The doors that open to you when you start your own base are immense. Not only that, new threats will come and attempt to put your settlement to the test. Other factions will establish relations with your faction, be it hostile or otherwise depending on where you decide to stake your claim and how you relate to them throughout your journey. They may not even like you because they're simply racists and your characters happen to be races they don't like.

With a prospecting feature, you can scope out the ground for natural resources, water sources and soil fertility to grow your own crops. You can truly become your very own self sufficient little colony.

6. Faction Warfare

The Shek. Proud warriors of the Shek Kingdom

The factions of Kenshi are numerous and wide ranging. They have differing relations between themselves and may be seen engaging in combat with one another. You can support, fight for or completely ignore them all together.

The world is shaped by your relationships between them and doors can be opened or closed to you, depending on how you relate to them through your play through.

You can even make your own faction and conquer the lands yourself. Laying waste to all who lie in your path to world domination. Or you can simply trade with them, leaving the politics to the politicians.

7. A Fully Simulated World

The world of Kenshi is alive and thriving. It continues to do so, throughout your playthrough, with or without your input. Often you may see messages pop up informing you that a certain band or den has been eliminated. Other people are fighting and warring all on their own.

The world will keep on turning whether you like it or not. Even after your main character dies, the game will just keep on rolling. Even if you don’t have any other squadmates. Kenshi just doesn’t care. You are a nobody in the grand scheme of things. Dust for the dust storms.

It's fascinating to watch it all play out and find out how you can influence events along your journey. Interacting with characters and writing your own story as the game plays itself out.

8. In-depth Character Development

A very detailed character creation screen for your main character as well as any characters that you recruit along the way.

Not only can you get as crazy as you like with the character creator before you begin your playthrough. There are countless examples all over the internet of some very wacky designs. Your character is constantly developing as you play.

Skill such as strength and athletics, for example, are gained and influenced by your character simply moving around the game world. Stats like the science skill can influence the muscle mass of your character and their bulky appearance.

The world and what you do in it shapes your characters as they go. They become bigger, stronger and tougher the more they do and the longer they survive. Smaller and smarter the more they develop their intellectual pursuits and crafting abilities.

9. Brutal And Unforgiving Combat That Is Simply Satisfying

Some poor hungry bandit about to be minced by my dudes and some town guards.

The combat in Kenshi really is something to watch. The characters will take up their stances. Block, strike, fall down and sometimes even have their limbs hacked clean off. It’s really something to see an arm or leg being flung across the map. Such is the brutality of Kenshi’s combat system.

Each character, no matter who they are, has health stats for individual limbs and body parts. Making for some horrendous injuries displayed during and after a brutal fight. And once an arm or a leg is gone, it's gone for good. Your poor character will simply have to learn to live without it or install a robotic replacement if you can find one.

Wounds take time to heal. A long time if you don’t have a bed to rest in. Provided that you are able to get them bandaged before your character bleeds out and dies right there in the dirt.

One of the most satisfying and rewarding parts of Kenshi’s combat system is “Toughness”. A stat that increases the more damage that your character takes. With a high enough toughness, you’re less likely to get knocked down. When you do you will be able to get back up and keep fighting. Willing your blood to clot through sheer stubbornness so that you don't bleed to death.

So getting into fights and getting knocked down isn’t necessarily a bad thing. As long as you have other characters to pick you back up. As the old song goes “I get knocked down, but I get back up again. You’re never gonna keep me down.”

10. Hours Of Endless Replayability

The Broken Moon by RandomlyMad. A player of Kenshi in its large, online community.

As with most open ended games, Kenshi is a sandbox that you can play over and over again. Different playthroughs with different builds. Exploring new ideas and ways to place the game.

Many players have thousands of hours within the game and no playthrough will ever be the same. You find your own way to enjoy it and then find another way all over again. For some players, it's the grind of the early game. For others its exploration and character building.

No matter what, once you get your teething sunk in, you’ll be coming back for more and thinking of all the things you’re going to do in game when you're not playing it.

Conclusion

So is Kenshi good? I certainly think so. It's exactly my kind of game. A fantasy land that’s brutal and unforgiving. It doesn’t care whether I’m good at the game or not. It chews me up, spits me out and I keep coming back for more. At least until I get my Toughness stat higher.

If you’re into all the things that I mentioned above and you have yet to give Kenshi a try, then I highly recommend that you do. Don’t be put off in the early game. It’s meant to be difficult and that’s all part of it. How you end up playing is all part of your own fun.