Saw some footage on youtube..immediately stopped watching and bought it. I'm absoloutly hooked on the game and cant wait for the full version to release. It's definetly different. In my opinon, the best Adventure game I've ever played in First Person. The story seems very deep and sparks interest to find out more, lots of small details and good graphics, I also love the improved UI.

A clear 10/10 for me, I hope the full version will continue as breathtaking visually and story wise.

Developer and Producer's Parabole were kind enough to hook up yours truly with a key for their new release, Koma. Still in Early Access, you can play through what appears to be presumably a bit under half of the first Chapter. That two hours is only counting exploring the main story related houses and not going off road very much at all. From my time with the game, just some random thoughts that come to mind.

• Graphics are extremely detailed for the art style and all of the houses are intricately modeled which makes it very enjoyable to actually go poking around the rural village trying to make sense of what happened here.
  
• The survival mechanics are unfortunately unncessary, but don't truly hamper the experience because as it is you only have to go off road into the wilderness to explore for extras unrelated to the story (for what I experienced).
  
• The minimalist UI is a treat compared to other titles where you have to constantly stare at HP meters, maps, objective markers, etc.
  
• One of the side effects of the minimalist UI is that when you are trying to look at your map to compare it with the treasure maps scrawled out by some child, it becomes a nightmare opening one at a time and trying to figure out where they match up.
  
• Writing is a little hammy at times, but the delivery more than makes up for it thanks to....now that I'm looking it up I can't find Carl's voice actor's name, but yeah, his smooth baritone makes the voice over very sexy.

Worth the $10? For sure, especially if you're hungry for a mystery adventure that I presume may go in Noir directions.

It's a nice adventure game with some puzzle solving. The tutorial is short: as you pick up your belongings you have a short introduction of the basic tools. The use of various items gathered is automatic, and the game will show you if you have enough resources to do a crafting action. However, since you don't have a schematics' system (like in The Last of Us), you just don't know what is the purpose of most of the items and resources. So it's just hoarding junk in hope you will use them at one point (even ammo, although you don't have a gun).
The puzzles are logical and clues for solving everything are always around, so you don't have to travel all around the map or do something bizarre. The game rewards you for being logical: searching the right places, following tracks, reading notes etc. The game doesn't hold you by your hand, and you can explore the area freely, which can be a disadvantage, since you have no idea where to go next, so you have to travel to various places to check them.
The narration (an internal narrator, similar to Stanley's Parable) sometimes broke the continuum, by knowing something, you should not know, for example: names of residents of various houses, just by looking at their photos, without getting that kind of knowledge before looking at them.

Every wanted to be in a Stephen King book?
Now is your chance.
The looks, the feel, the atmosphere.

Superb Game. Very immersive. Very pretty.

It's extremely boring. You drive around with a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ car and collect stuff you don't need, some old man rambles nonsense into your ears... That's pretty much it. Looks nice though.
I don't think finishing the game does anyone any good since it doesn't seem like there is any potential this could get better.

I'm not mad about having bought it, it's just really not interesting.

Wowser, Kona is one of the best and interesting early access games I've played so far! It's the first part of a series, a very atmospheric game that pulls you in right from the start. The game is set in areas of Northern Canada and as Carl you have a job to do to find a certain person, while battling to stay alive in the weather.
Soon after you enter the residental areas, you notice not everything is normal in this location. The narrator voice is pleasant to hear and music of Kona is both creepy and relaxing, something you could listen for hours. It kind of reminds me of few tracks from the SIlent Hill series or some western movie.

I think Kona is a fantastic mix of Adventure genre and First Person view. At some points it can even feel a bit terrifying, because the whole town is so eerie and the place is a big mystery in the middle of a strange huge blizzard. It has a little of this X-Files and Twin Peaks feeling. Hearing sounds once in a while as you explore the wilderness or houses creeped me out a few times and makes you wonder are you alone there or not. Kona features beautiful graphics, which makes the world feel alive and so real. I was just admiring the areas where ever I went, as the blizzard was raining on the trees.

There is some polaroid camera shooting and the inventory management is done in a great simple way. The best way to play this is to explore everything by walking or driving. Gameplay is simply really well done.

As it is now, the game area is limited to a certain point, but it can give you playtime for quite many hours depending on how you play and you might want to return there again. I can't wait to see what comes in the future updates for this beautiful and mysterious story.

Kona is an immersive, mystery adventure game that takes place during the 1970s, near Atamipek Lake in Northern Canada. The game delves you into the role of Carl Faubert, a private detective who was hired to investigate vandalism happening on his client’s property. Normally, Carl would never go out his way for a person since they live in the isolated parts of Northern Canada but his client, William Hamilton, is a rich mine owner and the pay for the job was just too good to pass up.

As Carl ventures into the small settlement to meet his potential employer, his detective sense kicks in and realizes that there’s something odd going on. The local store, the location of the meeting place with Hamilton, is empty. In fact, every house he went to was void of humans. Confusion and curiosity begins to mix in together so he did what any good detective should do. Get to the bottom of this strange occurrence happening in place.

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This is an early access game so as of yet, 2-3 hours worth of gameplay is available at this time. It is written on the Steam page that only 30% of the game is unlocked in the current Early Access build so keep that in mind. Now that’s out of the way, let me just say that Kona mainly consists of searching for clues about the events that befell the people of this Northern Canadian settlement. There is a narrator that will direct your actions should you ever lose your path. The narrator also supplies part of the overarching story, which is supplemented by journal entries and notes found throughout the places Carl will visit in his investigation.

To go from point A to B, Carl drives around in his trusty truck through a vicious blizzard that never calms down. With one hand on the steering wheel and the other on the map, if this was real life, I would be calling my insurance company several times because apparently, I am not the greatest driver. Just don’t make me the designated driver and everybody will stay alive, deal? I do like how natural driving is this game. Usually, driving in game isn’t my favorite feature but Kona does it right.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=643316349

There is combat in game as suggested by the rifle and melee weapons that can found but I didn’t have the chance to use it because the threat hasn’t revealed itself yet. From one of the notes I found, it seems as though there is a person or “Le Monstre” roaming around in the dense forest of Northern Canada controlling the local wolf population to do his bidding. It might be one of the Cree people, the local Natives that live in this part of Canada. They are not pleased with how Hamilton and the other settlers are ruining the natural order of their lands since there has been some logging and mining going around. It could also be a supernatural entity. This is just my guess as to what the threat would be.

Exploration is crucial to this game because it rarely tells you what to do. I say this because there are some hidden campsites and lodges not revealed on the map and they sometimes hold key items needed to continue the story. Key objectives will appear in Carl’s journal should he discover an important point or object. The narrator will comment once in awhile but it’s up to the player to piece together where to go next.

There are also elements of your basic survival game. In Kona, it isn’t too complex. You must keep warm to prevent hypothermia and keep your health up. There is a stress meter, which can be lowered by using consumables such as cigarettes. I didn’t see how the stress mechanic worked because there was rarely an instance that was stressful for Carl. However, in general cigarettes are used to calm someone’s nerves and Carl does have a smoking habit. The game notes that it is his “personal breathing assistant.” There is a bit of inventory management since there is a limited amount of weight our good detective can carry. I find myself just grabbing anything I can interact with and it’s rather ironic since Carl once mentioned that he isn’t a burglar. Of course, I will make you take everything, Carl! We might need it later (says the hoarder.)

Are you still with me? Good, because I do want save this part of the game for last. Although Carl’s current objective is to find Mr. Hamilton, he stumbles upon a person encased in ice. Upon touching this unassuming ice-bound man, the good detective is given this vision of the past, in the form of apparitions going about the day they disappeared. It’s a pretty surreal experience and I’m not saying this is the first time I’ve seen this in a game but the way it was executed was well done. I look forward to more of this game mechanic since only 2 out of the 4 ice imprisoned people is available in the current early access build.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=643316945

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The graphics are beautiful. It runs on the Unity 3D engine and I’ve experience no slow down in performance. My framerate is a consistent 60+ (Specs: GTX 970, i7-4790S, 12 GB of ram…so on and so forth). I do realize that my rig is more than enough to run almost all current games at max settings so I did some research in the Steam forums and saw that there are people experiencing performance issues. I’m reading that developers are working hard to optimize the game and they seem very involve in answering questions players might have.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=643316737

I did run across a few micro stutters but I noticed that it always happened as I approached a house so I am surmising that the game is loading something there.

I encountered no bugs during my game sessions but I have read that a player was having issues with a missing executable in their game files. This might be a rare occurrence since I’ve only seen one person report it but that is to be determined as more people starts playing Kona.
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Let me finish this up by saying that this a great example of what a Steam Early Access game should be. The story is engaging, good performance and no bs crashing on start up or riddled with bugs. The animations and sounds are superb and I can only speak from my experience so it may vary from person to person but I enjoyed every minute of Kona and I was slightly disappointed that the Early Access build ended at the point where I was absolutely sucked into its world.

If you’re interested in mystery games with some aspects of survival elements, you should definitely consider picking up Kona. I bought it since I have been following since its first announcement and I am very happy with my purchase.

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Pros:

- Immersive experience, great sounds and animations
- Great Mystery game
- Light puzzles that will flex your brains
- Intriguing storyline

Cons:

- Early access (not really a con and the game is not finished yet. However, I wanted to play more so I am bit salty.)
- Players might experience performance issues, depending on their system

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If you stuck around me this long, and if you have the time, watch me fool around in Kona

Kona Video

This game shows a lot of potential to be a great game, as the description says, you explore this small village in Canada in the 70's, trying to find out whats going on.
The graphics are great, so is the voice acting, script, mechanics and the plot is interesting.
It has elements from survival, detective, and story focused games, which i really liked.
I havent played that much yet but ive encountered no bugs, feels very polished.
Im really looking forward to the full game

If Kona sees Kona, Kona buys.

Perfect 9/10

Kona: Day One is an atmospheric adventure shrouded in mystery, with some survival elements as well. The game is currently in beta/early access, so only some parts of the game are accessible.

Check out my Quick Beta Preview here: https://youtu.be/MgPeuR3nMU0
The game takes place in northern Canada during a blizzard, and you are sent to investigate the small community. The game is very immersive, and the gameplay heavily revolves around exploration to find clues, various crafting items, and figuring out puzzles to solve the mystery of what happened in the town.

You drive a truck around to cover distances quickly, and normally I don’t like driving with keyboard, but the truck handled extremely well, too well actually, considering there’s a blizzard and snow on the ground, but at least it wasn’t frustrating to use. You are stuck on the main roads though, and aren’t able to take the truck off road at all, so you also do a fair bit of hiking.

The story so far is intriguing, and you learn about some of the characters through visions as well as various texts that you will find by exploring the areas thoroughly.

Sounds effects are fantastic! I love the sounds of the wind and snow blowing through the trees, and the crunching of the snow under my feet. Reminds me a lot of how Firewatch felt so alive. The narrative in Kona was good, and I liked the dialog, but I felt like the narrator’s voice sounded a little too much like movie announcer, and I didn’t enjoy it as much as I enjoyed the characters in Firewatch.

• intriguing story so far, and it will leave wanting more
  
• sound effects, and music are fantastic and help to create an immersive atmosphere
  
• environment looks good (love the reduced visibility in the blizzard)
  
• the dialog is good, the narrator tells it well
  
• there are some traits that you need to maintain to survive (temperature, stress, and health), but they aren't too challenging to keep up on, so they don't take away from the exploration or become a chore
  
• the truck handles well, while driving the truck with WASD
  
• you can use the back of the truck as storage when you hit the maximum carrying capacity

• it’s weird that you WANT your stress level to be at 100%; when I first started, I thought that stress was bad, and that I had to have closer to 0%, so I think that should be changed to be a little more clear.
  
• can't look at the map while parked in vehicle (it’s silly to have to get out to check the map) UPDATED: The map is now accessible while driving through the menu.
  
• feels like the driver's view is too far back from the dash (you see too much of the truck's interior)
  
• couldn’t scroll down to read all the text, so some details were missed
  
• some minor texture issues with trees and rocks changing as you move closer to them, and it did hurt the immersion slightly (but I expect that will be fixed up before release)
  
• models for the wolves are not very well animated compared to the rest of the game, and you can't kill the wolves by running them over with your truck

I enjoyed the overall look and feel of the atmosphere, but there was one thing that really bothered me… The character you play as is a detective, so I presume that he has decent observation skills, however, he takes a trip to northern Canada, into a blizzard, and he doesn’t even wear proper clothing!! Ok, I don’t know why, but this really bothers me a lot more than it should. As someone who lives in Canada, who has shoveled snow in a blizzard, it just blows my mind to see my character with bare hands, and it makes me cold just thinking about it. I also imagine that my feet are freezing, and I am probably not even wearing a toque either. Please, let me put some gloves on!! Please?

I played beta for roughly 3.5 hours, but since some of the content is locked for beta, I can’t complete the story, but I am looking forward to the full release. So far, the game feels good, and is a mostly enjoyable experience, but I would like to see some of the things that annoyed me get improvements before full release. If you enjoy atmospheric exploration adventures, then Kona might be right up your alley.

Review copy was provided by the developer.