You know I’ve always admired those that go out and takes a swing to innovative on things that already work. Growing up as a 90s kid in a small Texas town there wasn’t a lot of fun things to do so I often went to my small ass movie theater. Back then you’d get your popcorn and sit in a hard sit and enjoy the film. Now that experience is vastly different. We have theaters with lounge chairs that’s you can sit back in, you have theaters where they bring the food to you, theaters that show the movie in 3D, etc. You get it there’s are tons of ways to enjoy a movie now and that happened because someone took what worked and made a swing on it to innovative and improve.
That is also true in the world of gaming. Often someone will take something that works and try to tinker with the formula just enough to stand out. The latest example of this is the game, Kainga: Seeds of Civilization. This game is taking the rouge-lite genre and puts a city builder element to it. It’s a different approach to the rogue-lite genre, but does this swing work out? Is Kainga a good Single Player Experience?
Let’s dive into it.
What is Kainga: Seeds of Civilization:
In Kainga: Seeds of the Civilization you play as a Thinker. The Thinker is the leader of your tribe who uses the world to come up with innovations and technological advancements. After thinking of these ideas you control the people in your tribe to build them out. For example, you can build houses made from the different materials around you, establish crops as a food source, and establish other resources that will help your village grow and thrive.
By the way, one of that reasons I was excited to play this game is because all the people in the game are people of color. As a chocolate man it’s always nice to see some representation.
Gameplay:
In this game, each run consists of you trying to complete the map’s 30 minutes to an hour challenge. You try to build up you village as fast and efficiently as possible, and survive against the other tribes, the weather, and creatures that occupy the map you’re in as well. As the Thinker, it’s up to you to always make the best choice for your village. If you don’t everything quickly falls apart, you and your people will pay for it.
In this game, you can afford to lose some of your people, but when the Thinker dies the run is over. So it’s important to also protect the Thinker from harm. Death is guaranteed, but thankfully you’ll take the achievements that you’ve earned and technology that you’ve unlocked into the next tribe that you build.
The Maps:
Another feature that I want to shout out is the game’s diverse maps. There are quite a few different biomes for you to explore. Each are filled with their own types of resources, weather, and other tribes from you to overcome. The different maps offer their own challenges and help to keep things from feeling repetitive.
The Creatures:
One of the most unique aspects of the game is its creatures. Some are small, while others are enormous colossal beasts that roam the land. Each has the potential to destroy you and you village, however they can also be tamed. That is a feature that feels unique to this game. You can take these giant beasts and the use them as transportation or even build your tribe onto of them.
The Flaws:
One of the major flaws of the game is its tutorials. I feel like the information could have been presented better and after completing it I still had questions about how the game worked and where to put down certain items.
I got those answers eventually, by messing around in the game, but what’s the point of a tutorial if I still have questions about the basic info and mechanics afterwards.
Another flaw is that I experienced some frame rate issues. While is not enough to be a huge issue they are noticeable.
Unfortunately my last flaw is that this game ultimately didn’t hook me. This is a personal issue so take that for what you will, but Roguelite games have become one of my favorite genres over the years and this game failed to provide me with that hunger for wanting “one more run.”
That’s the most important trait for that genre yet, this game does provide you with feelings of competitiveness or provide addicting enough gameplay to make you long to run it back. It’s a shame because it has such a unique premise.
Overall/Should you play Kainga: Seeds of Civilization:
This is a tricky question to answer because I think that this game will only appeal to a very specific type of gamer. For instance people who like city builders or Strategy-based games will probably enjoy this game. It’s feels fresh and enjoyable enough for fans of that genre. If you like games like Age of Empries this one will appeal to you. However, if that’s not your cup of tea then this game won’t do much to change your mind.
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