Kenshi

>Started as a slave
>stole a fish
>ran from fundimentalists I stole the fish from
>got my legs chopped off by the fundimentalists
>crawled for hours through the desert
>got captured by cannibal robots and got my skin peeled off
10/10 worth it

this game is just endless! if you got bored subscribe to some mods! and i believe you guys will hardly get bored on this game!

Start a game, get knocked into 3000 seconds coma by a goat, 10 beeps out of 10

very hard and unforgiving but is very rewarding once you find your spot and my goals have been set on vengeance.

One of the first games that went through Steam Greenlight back in the day, and I'm glad it did. Not much else out there like it.

It's a shame to love a game that is this unique because it is the only one of its kind and nothing else will scratch it's itch. Luckily there are a ton of mods to keep you satisfied.
It's hard to explore with all the loading times but the atmosphere powered lore in this game makes it worth it all the same.
Hope the sequel comes out before I die. Or maybe another giant fan mod.

Overall great game when it comes to building your own little stories within it.

Silly narrative videos about it really sell the variety your runs can have if you're willing to be experimental with both how you choose to approach your run and what mods and modifiers your run will be using to shake things up even more so than with a default vanilla run.

Progression can initially feel like a massive boulder to overcome due to how feeble your characters feel like in the early game, but it can quickly snowball into you rising higher up in the food chain of this weird world you've been put into.

The vanilla experience can feel a little jarring though, mainly due to the soundtrack occasionally being really jarring with seldom variety. I recommend seeing if you could fix it with some mod or to simply turn down the music when you've had enough and turn on your own music of choice to further immerse yourself in a specific kind of vibe, even if some of the tracks in this game are great.

Very solid game fundamentally which helps you forget the jank it has in it likely due to being built around a game engine so ancient most if not all budding game developers have never heard of it.

It's very much a game for a person of acquired taste, but I'd highly recommend it to anyone that has watched Kenshi videos and thought "I wanna put my playable character(s) through hell, too! (so I get more attached to them)"

Just keep in mind that edited videos skim a lot of fat out of what tends to be lots of hours' worth of gameplay into a more digestible long-form video with narration included in it.

-Picked badass robot as my character
-Ran around figuring out the game
-Got jumped by robo racists and had to crawl back to hub
10/10

This game is very unique. Idk what I like more, playing it or watching other people play it. It was basically made by 1 dude over more than a decade apparently, and it shows. I mean that in a good way. Yes, it has poor performance due to the dated engine and it can be buggy, and the graphics look 18 years older than they are (which I like btw), but being made by one dude gave it unlimited creative freedom. It's very creative and the dev did an unbelievable job of bringing the world to life. The desert feels dangerous, the mobs are unique with good variety, there are tons of factions and the world doesn't sit around and wait for you to save it. It moves on with or without you, and you're just some hungry dude in a desert full of cannibals, murderers, and monsters. And sand. Lots and lots of sand. Kenshi focuses on player driven narrative and role playing and it does it better than any AAA studio could ever hope to achieve. The devs passion for this theme bleeds through in every detail. If you love media that centers around post-apocalyptic desert worlds, and you like CRPGs, give Kenshi a try. But first watch a YT video of someone playing it because it's got a pretty steep learning curve that I'm still near the bottom of. Overall I love this game. I think about it sometimes at work, and that to me is the ultimate measure of whether or not a game is worth owning.

You will hate yourself and your choices, both in game and in real life. This game has so much content and no content at the same time. As soon as you set a goal for yourself, it will take you 100 hours to get it and then the next thing you know you've wasted weeks trying to figure out mechanics for a game that wants nothing more than to enslave you. 10/10 if you're sadistic. Not for everyone.

Only says I've played 217 hours. Add ~400 offline hours played and that'd be a correct number.

One of the neatest sandbox games I've played. I'll recommend it to anyone who appreciates:
Hardcore survival (you truly are a wimp when you start out, even a baby goat could KO you),
A lot of skills to improve (and visual changes to your characters when you improve certain skills, something I personally appreciate),
An awesome land to explore (the game map is HUGE, and has tons of secrets, plus the lore in-game is rarely written, but it's deep, and you have to piece it together by talking to NPC's and exploring different areas),
A really neat building and settlement system (it gets even more complex and powerful the more you learn, you can essentially have a self-sufficient settlement through the 'Jobs' system),
Min-maxing (there are a multitude of strategies for improving your characters and streamlining efficiency, for example, overloading your character's inventory while learning Martial Arts improves strength, but makes them move ungodly slow, which is inherently dangerous in this game),
Total freedom (you don't like this major faction because one of their nobles killed or enslaved your favorite character? Okay, train your other characters and come back and wipe out their entire faction, city by city).

It's one of those games that totally refines your concept of a sandbox game. At least, it was for me.

Beginner's tips: learn to run fast early on, improve strength by carrying bodies, scavenge as much as you can from battlefields, and regardless of what others say, learn sneaking. Don't start as a Skeleton, even though they're extremely cool - they're really hard to play if you're not familiar with how they, and the world, work.

Одна из немногих игр, которая меня настолько сильно затягула, что хочется изучать лор игры. Пусть он и довольно скудный, но будем надеяться, что во второй части разработчики уделят больше внимания этому аспекту игры. Помимо этого, было бы замечательно ввести в игру побольше осмысленных диалогов и в принципе больше взаимодействий с НПС. Во всём остальном же игра идеальна настолько, насколько это возможно для такой небольшой студии.

One of the best games I played in this genre.
Very unique and from a small dev team they came a long way.
Start small and end with an army and your own huge settlement/city. . . .well if there is an ending as you can keep playing forever.

- Find people.
- Feed your people.
- Rescue them from enslavement or just buy them at the tavern ( A lot of options to name).
- Make your own small settlement with a few huts and end in your own city with traders.
- Fight for freedom or enslave more settlers (The choice is literally yours).

Some where in the future I still hope they could create a certain co-op version.
Like if you can create factions with friends and do your own thing. Just trade or kill them (capture some of your friends NPC's)

Robots, Monkeys, Ninjas, and Fishmen. What more do you even need in a game?

You want to be a sword fighter?... do it!
You want to combat slavery? ...do it!
You want to profit from slavery? ... do it!
You want to be a drug smuggler?... do it!
You want to feast on the flesh of your enemies? ... do it!


Kenshi is a true sandbox experience, minimal hand holding, maximum playability. The epitome of gameplay over graphics. Rich story and lore which you may or may not be into but it doesn't matter.
It will take some learning to get on your feet, but if you are patient and have the ability to learn from mistakes you will find this game well worth your time.

Kenshi is like doing butt stuff for the first time - all over again.
It start off pretty uncomfortable, maybe even painful, but then it slowly becomes more and more enjoyable and before you know it, you've got a new addiction. I highly recommend if you're into butt stuff in other words.

as soon as i understood the game, it quickly rose to among my favorites of all time. Being the nostalgic and worn down desensitized adult of a human being i am today i never expected a game made in my adult life to ever create an impression on me of such proportion, like the ones of my golden childhood years did, but kenshi did it and it is such a breath of fresh air to find something truly unique with a developer that puts actual heart, soul, and cleverness into their game. No overpolished graphics, no microtransactions, no handholding, and a world that gives you as much as you put into it and gives you true freedom.

Kenshi is a perfect game with no bugs, just like real life

It is not a bad game but I feel it is a bit overrated based on the others reviews. Ultimately I am putting a negative review because I didn't find it fun and by the end of it, it was a bit of a chore.

I don't have a problem with the graphics or even with the crazy way a corpse bounce off the ground when I drop it. But after playing this game my eyes hurt, specially during nighttime, and the UI is super clunky. There seems to be a micro involved

It advertises itself as a unique game but it is essentially a fallout game in the exploration/rpg/setting side and a dwarf fortress on the crafting/colony sim side. Mixing both sounds incredibly appealing but in the end both systems end a bit shallow obviously , as it can't focus on either

The game does have a lot of charm and I totally understand why some people really love it, but it is not my cup of tea. Will try to play again in the future and see if I get into it then

Morality has been bleached and left to drown under desert sands...
If it is not nailed to the wall, steal it.
If it is not a killer, kill it.
If it can be captured, slave it.
All hail sand, the bleacher of bones the skinner of flesh.

I really, really, really need to stop playing this game and sleep.

Highly recommended as an alternative to taxes, talking to loved ones or anything productive.

>got called a slur upon entering a city
> exit city, get called a slur again
> get attacked, people who called me a slur protects me
> watch those people who attacked me get enslaved
> try and steal from them, get knocked out, enslaved
> search internet how to escape slave status
> every source says its actually a good thing
> grind stats, escape
> lose limb during a fight
> internet says its a good thing
> replace limbs
> become OP
>Peak game

Very open-ended sandbox, with loads of exploring to do.

Really got me addicted, haven't felt like i wanna leave work so bad just to play a game in a while and this game did it..
all i could think about..
that pause and un-pause sound effect never left my head in bed..
10/10 🥹❤️

its a fun game, very chalenging, but very glitchy

If you're starting out in this game, I recommend settling in the Sonorous Dark! The faction there is headed by a doctor, so it's got clinics and roving bands of paramedics. They even do house calls!

An absolute masterclass in organic storytelling, and one of the best I've ever seen in a game, if not the best.

I've had this game installed on several computers over the last decade and have barely played it. Seems fun though.

i played only for 3 hours on steam but over 3000+ hours as a pirate, this game was good (or addictive) enough that it persuaded a life long pirate living in a third world country with a devalued currency to make a legal purchase. best endorsement i can think of to be quite honest

---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☐ Beautiful
☐ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☑ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS

---{ Gameplay }---
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't

---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf

---{ Audience }---
☐ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☐ Grandma

---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☑ Potato
☐ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer

---{ Game Size }---
☐ Floppy Disk
☐ Old Fashioned
☑ Workable
☐ Big
☐ Will eat 15% of your 1TB hard drive
☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it
☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data

---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Significant brain usage
☑ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls

---{ Grind }---
☐ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☑ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding

---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☐ Good
☑ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life

---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☐ Average
☐ Long
☑ To infinity and beyond

---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☑ Worth the price
☐ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money

---{ Bugs }---
☐ Never heard of
☑ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs

---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☐ 8
☑ 9
☐ 10

My first experience in this game was walking out of the city gates and immediately looting bandits after a fight, running into the city just for the rest of the bandits to run into a bar and beat my ass while I was selling the loot. I love this game already. (Not sarcastic, I genuinely couldn't help but laugh)

Great game. Its pretty hard at times but super fun no matter what and the world is absolutely huge

This game is simply incredible. It has downsides, like anything, but for me the biggest one is that there isn't more game. That's not to imply it's lacking; it isn't. I just want there to be more so I can spend even more time on a playthrough. Absolutely worth it at full price and complete robbery on sale. Get it.

Kenshi delivers a rare, uncompromising simulation of existence without artificial meaning—a digital memento mori that forces players to create purpose in a world designed to be indifferent to their presence. Its value lies precisely in refusing to validate the player's importance, creating a gaming experience that mirrors existential reality rather than escapist fantasy.

Kenshi is honestly one of my new favorite RPGs. the world is brutal, unforgiving & the story is tragic.
I have sunk well over 400 hours into this game just making dumb gimmick characters (like Robo-Patches, Slungus, Dan of Steel.)

A common theme in Kenshi is getting your shit rocked, you'll randomly get robbed by bandits or mauled by wildlife and just have to accept that this is life.
However you're always getting stronger, stats like damage resistance increase by just getting hurt, you'll probably level up blocking & dodging as well.
So one day you'll start fighting back, then winning, then destroying.

I can't recommend this game more if you love RPGs. ...BEEP!

There is nothing like Kenshi. It's made its way into my top 3 games of all time, alongside Fallout 2 and Shadow Of The Colossus. It's become legendary to me, with infinite re-playability. It's a game I always keep coming back to, and one that teaches me life lessons.

Hardcore Fun. You are insignificant. You can die like a dog, just like pretty much everyone else in the game. To level your character, you're gonna have to take a few hits, and maybe, just maybe, if you survive, you'll limp, crawl if you have to, into the next town; that is if you don't starve to death or get enslaved before then. Also you can build outposts, have numerous characters under your control, smuggle narcotics, and much much more. The downside i encounter is how massive the world is and subsequently how empty it feels out in the wastes or deserts, really every swath between towns are desolate badlands, brimming with enemies.

this is the best game. there's nothing like it. if you don't play it you're a baby. you don't want to be a baby, do you? you want a little rattle baby? maybe mommy's nip nip? you gonna cry baby? or do you want to end slavery with nothing but the power of martial arts and robot limbs because your arms and legs got eaten by cannibals? be an adult for once in your sad life and buy now.

insane replayability, especially with dynamic characters like Beep, Agnu, Griffin, Hamut, Luquin, Ruka, Beep Green, Burn, Ells, Beep, Sadniel, Infinite wingwang, Ray, Kang, Bard, Beep, Beep, oh and especially characters like Beep and Beep.

Did I mention Beep was a good character? like for Kenshi 2 ;-;

It's glitchy, the base building system is the jankiest thing I've ever encountered in my life. I've come across so many irritating bugs that it's made me want to smash my laptop against a wall.

And I cannot. Get. Enough.

Kenshi is brutal. It doesn't care if you suck. Everyone is trying to kill you, and you're just an absolute nobody with no skills in anything (depending on what start you choose, of course). There's no quests, no objectives. You're essentially making your own story, and it works unbelievably well.

What I love about Kenshi, and what makes it so damn rewarding, is that the game encourages you to persevere. Got beaten up and robbed? Time to get up... and get beaten up again, of course. Each time you lose a fight, you get a little bit stronger, until you get to the point where you can topple entire nations by yourself, become an absolute god, replace your arms and legs with high-tech robot limbs that let you run at 50+ mph and give you superhuman strength... if you want to anyway. I seem to make an army of cyborg god beings every playthrough I do.

But you don't have to be a fighter (though it helps... a lot). You can be a farmer, a trader, a robotics expert, an assassin, a smith, a thief... or all of the above. Or maybe, you want to have characters who specialise in specific skills- oh yeah, did I mention it's squad based? So you can control multiple characters, build a base, or a totally self-sustaining small town, or go totally solo. The world is your oyster.

Kenshi also has an active modding community, so if there's anything about the game that isn't quite to your taste, there's very likely something to tweak it to your desire.

I'm kind of rambling incoherently here because, honestly, I have so much to say about this game. It's definitely one of my most favourite games of all time, and I wish I could experience it for the first time all over again. So now I'm going to recommend it to anyone who hasn't played, so you can experience this broken masterpiece for yourself.

I hate this game and it crashes regularly
The world promises more than it can deliver

I'm re-installing it right now

Good Sides

+ Very freedom game mechanics. (Create a limitless unique new games)
+ Very big map and world.
+ Realistic and good character development

Bad Sides

- Optimization and bug problems. (But you can fix it by using mods and patch)


Anyway, despite everything this game is masterpiece.

---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☐ Beautiful
☐ Good
☑ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS

---{ Gameplay }---
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't

---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf

---{ Audience }---
☑ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☑ Grandma

---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☑ Potato
☐ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer

---{ Game Size }---
☐ Floppy Disk
☑ Old Fashioned
☐ Workable
☐ Big
☐ Will eat 10% of your 1TB hard drive
☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it
☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data

---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☑ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls

---{ Grind }---
☐ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☑ You'll need a second life for grinding

---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☐ Good
☐ Lovely
☑ It'll replace your life

---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☐ Average
☐ Long
☑ To infinity and beyond

---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☑ Worth the price
☐ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money

---{ Bugs }---
☐ Never heard of
☑ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs

---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☐ 8
☑ 9
☐ 10

A Brutal, Unforgiving, and Deeply Rewarding Sandbox

(150+ hours played, still discovering new things on the daily)

Kenshi is not a game that holds your hand. It throws you into a vast, lawless world where survival is a struggle, and progress is something you claw for, inch by inch. There are no quest markers, no main story to follow—just you, your characters, and whatever path you choose to carve out in this harsh, unforgiving land. And that’s exactly what makes it so special.

At first, you’ll probably get beaten, enslaved, robbed, or left for dead (sometimes all at once). But every setback teaches you something. Maybe you learn to sneak past a bandit patrol instead of fighting. Maybe you realize a town’s economy can be exploited to make some quick cash. Maybe you recruit a ragtag group of survivors and build your own stronghold in the middle of nowhere. The freedom to adapt and shape your own story is what makes Kenshi so immersive.

The depth of this game is astonishing. You can become a wandering merchant, a ruthless warlord, a thief, a farmer, or even a skeleton bounty hunter with a grudge against humanity. Want to establish a peaceful settlement? Go ahead, but be prepared to defend it. Want to take over a faction and rewrite the political landscape? You can. Every playthrough feels different, and the emergent gameplay leads to unforgettable moments.

Visually, Kenshi might not be the prettiest game, but the world design is striking. From the bone-dry deserts to the eerie foglands, every region tells a story. And while the AI can be janky at times, it adds to the charm—watching your recruits struggle to carry a wounded comrade to safety after a brutal fight makes victories feel even more earned.

It’s a slow burn, but if you enjoy deep, open-ended sandboxes where your decisions truly matter, Kenshi is one of the most rewarding experiences out there. The world doesn't care about you, but that just makes it all the more satisfying when you carve your own place in it.

If you’re patient and don’t mind a bit of roughness, Kenshi will give you some of the best emergent storytelling in gaming. And with mods, the possibilities are nearly endless.

I'd like to play this game and I've been looking forward to it but there's too many crashes regarding the video memory even at the lowest possible settings before I even finish creating a character... I'll try the game again when I think I have a better hardware but I feel like this isn't solely a PC issue and should be addressed by the developer themselves... I installed everything necessary and even checked the local files to try and run this...

The game has great premise and I recommend trying it IF you can run it.

I love this game so much. It offers so much freedom and space to craft your own story. It can be so stressful but so satisfying. I find myself craving other games like it, yet nothing else satisfies. Just the soundtrack is enough to draw me back in. I love you, Kenshi. I cannot wait for Kenshi 2.

Perfect game to play after a hard day at work. A seemingly intricate web of system and mechanics turned nigh-eternal playground for people that want to see the world burn, except the world is already burned, twice even! But I will let you discover the world yourself.

Jokes aside, the game has so much to offer with tons of approaches to any issues. From being the sneaky little rat goblin to the peak barbarian fantasy of crushing anyone in your way. Be a force of good or bad in the world with staggering amount of factions to interact with, ally, or destroy! The story is your own to imagine and manifest! Mainly depressing and dark ones. But hey, its still pretty fun regardless!

It certainly takes awhile to learn how the game works, and a good 'healthy' amount of trial and error will solve most confusion a player could have, added with mods to help streamline your experience with even more variety of content and story to tell, bug fixes and quality of life changes! the game has everything you want from your conventional open-world RPGs! except this game isn't exactly conventional per se..

Of course, you can always visit any related wiki and guide pages online for more thorough answers and solutions to your issues.

Absolutely give it a shot and see if its your thing, because It definitely is my thing!

This game is hard by design. You WILL get your ass kicked at the start, but even if when you do, you're always getting stronger. Even when you lose fights, your toughness goes up. If you keep your health topped off and take your time, you'll start to get better and better and that's where the appeal of this game is. The true sense of accomplishment. Stick with it and you'll find a game with some deep lore, fun characters (Beep!), and amazing zones. Not to mention a thriving and amazing modding community!
10/10 would get my ass handed to me and thrown into slavery again!

probably the epitome of open sandbox RPG, though to the point that it's also "set your own goals, make your own fun." if you can't play something like minecraft because you need more direction in your games, you won't make it through kenshi, but if you enjoy reading other people's exploits and writing about your own, it's a pretty good game for that.

Walked for hours, got beaten, enslaved, escaped, walked for more hours, got beaten again, enslaved again, lost a limb, walked even more, got enslaved again, passed out, woke up with shackles, got beaten for trying to escape, got enslaved again.

10/10.

After playing Kenshi for over 1,000 hours I think I have realized what makes me love this game so much. It is related to the idea that nothing can be beautiful without the existence of something hideous. The lows that your characters can sink to in this game are, for me, previously unimaginable in a video game. But because of that, the highs are very rewarding. Starting out at rock bottom and having to struggle your way to some kind of stability and safety is more satisfying than starting out as the chosen one who is destined to become the hero. Also, you get to decide what being a hero means. It is complete freedom to engage with the world and experience the terror and glory that said freedom allows.