KYN Preview

Headsup Warning – *With the game currently in early access you can expect a number of issues to effect your play time, however we hope during the testing period everything will be smoothed outready for launch.

Kyn, a single player tactical Action RPG brought to us by a two-man Dutch development team calling themselves Tangrin. The developers promise a game with exciting team combat mechanics and a living breathing world worth exploring. We have been sent access to the Steam early access build with a fully playable demo which is what I decided to have a go at.

The Demo brings you two whole levels of the game to play, the first level is more or less a training stage, which teaches you how to play the game and learn the game’s basic mechanics.

The second stage seems to be further along in the game, everything you have learnt in the first stage will be tested here, but not only that, your choice and action from the first stage will have its consequences shown as well, also get a chance to play around with the games levelling system and team synergy.

The control system is mostly mouse as you click on the ground to move, and if you have, like me, an MMO Mouse (Razer Naga) you can macro everything you want to the side buttons. The game has its main quests and side quests called ‘pacts’, these quests are shown on the mini map so they are easy to find and complete. I reckon instead of marking on the map where the quest is, make it more like an estimated area to find the quest, so use a circle radius and the quest can be found and completed within that area.

Kyn is set in a Viking inspired world, where you get to control a total of 6 warriors, the game has its own crafting system and player inventory which you kind of expect from any RPG type game of late. Each character comes with its’s own skill set, but you are limited to the amount of skills you can use at any one time, currently set between two or three depending on the class.

Stat attributes are also included in the game and can be levelled up as and when your character levels up through the course of the game, stats currently include Body Stat, which improves Attach, health and armour, Mind stat improves your spirit points and speeds up for spiritual regeneration. Final stat is control this is a mixture of the both mind and body, raising spirit points, attack rate and attack rate per second.

With only 2 or 3 skills available at any one time, it makes sense that you need to tactically think through all combat encounters, why not since this is a tactical RPG not a standard hack ‘n’ slash. The crafting system implemented in the game currently is easy to use and brings a sense of ownership to what you crafted for your characters. Other than crafting there is plenty of loot to be found during the game, from more powerful weapons to better armour. The player inventory is very basic and works well, we might see some refinement before launch, but in its current form it should suffice.

Now this is where I am on the edge a little, I understand that this is a two man developed game, and time and money is limited, and I hope they can improve on some things that I personally felt where odd and needed an upgrade asap. Shadows in the game where pixelated, even when I was using max setting 1920×1080, environment’s look and feel a little empty and lacking the life aspect, physics seems a little off, seeing enemies bounce around the place after a final blow was comical, but it has to be fixed, not everyone will feel the same way. One other aspect, the lighting in the game, this is also what makes the environments looks lifeless, add some character, charm to the game, insects, flowers, wind, just make it look and feel more real, even if the game has to spend more time in early access I feel the changes will be worth it.

Playing the game is no walk in the park, you really need to think before you act, with traps around the place that will either hurt you or you can use to hurt the enemy. Different enemy types, that come with different attributes, skills and require thinking to kill them, an example of this is a shielded enemy, you cannot damage them from the front, so how do you kill them? Or there is a healer in the group with some high damage dealer, what do you do? Along with environmental traps, different enemy types you are also treated to some puzzles, I personally found them easy, and since suck at puzzle solving these where perfect for me, but I hope to see some more complex puzzles and the game progresses,once that see my pulling my hair out and through my keyboard across the room, in anger.

Overall, this game could be shaping up to be a good tactical RPG, however, are they looking at bring the game with up to date graphics and physics or are they looking at a more retro feel to the game, this is something we can only wait and see as the game progresses through early access. If you are going to have a bash at this game I would highly recommend playing the demo over the main game, its more flushed out and will give you a tutorial on how to play and what you can expect in the finished game.