Kainga
- December 6, 2022
- Erik Rempen
- 39h median play time
Get on Steam"Kainga: Seeds of Civilization is a single-player fantasy strategy game with good story and mechanics, amazing visuals, and a phenomenal soundtrack, but can be buggy. As a Thinker, you lead your tribe to build, adapt, and survive in short runs across diverse landscapes, discovering new technologies and completing challenges. The key to success lies in choosing technologies that fit your town's needs, the environment, and your playstyle."
Reviews
- Unique blend of city-building and roguelite elements, providing a fresh gameplay experience.
- Charming art style and engaging soundtrack that enhance the overall atmosphere of the game.
- Dynamic gameplay with each run feeling different due to random map generation and technology choices.
- Numerous bugs and glitches that can lead to frustrating gameplay experiences, including game-breaking issues.
- AI pathfinding and unit control are often clunky, leading to units getting stuck or not responding as intended.
- Difficulty balancing issues, with enemy tribes often starting with significant advantages, making early game survival challenging.
- gameplay89 mentions
- 35 % positive mentions
- 61 % neutral mentions
- 4 % negative mentions
The gameplay of Kainga: Seeds of Civilization is characterized by a unique blend of city-building, roguelite, and RTS mechanics, offering a satisfying loop that encourages experimentation. However, players have reported significant issues with poorly explained mechanics, bugs, and a clunky UI that detracts from the overall experience. While the game showcases creative ideas and an engaging atmosphere, it suffers from balance and technical flaws that hinder its potential enjoyment.
“The core mechanics of the game are fun, interesting, and unique.”
“With intuitive controls and engaging gameplay, this title is a must-play for fans of the genre.”
“It's creative, charming, and has a great vision for gameplay that lets you hop in and out for short sessions that nevertheless make you think.”
“Kainga suffers from significant gameplay imbalances and technical flaws that impact its potential enjoyment.”
“The core gameplay loop is rickety as hell; you will often spawn on a map and literally not have the resources or buildings you need in order to progress.”
“As is the case for a lot of early access titles, Kainga has a lot of bugs and is in need of a lot of gameplay tweaks.”
- graphics67 mentions
- 54 % positive mentions
- 46 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game are widely praised for their unique and charming art style, which combines 2D sprites with 3D environments, creating a visually appealing experience reminiscent of classic titles. While many players appreciate the aesthetic and atmospheric qualities, some have noted issues with graphical performance and occasional bugs. Overall, the visuals contribute significantly to the game's identity, making it an engaging experience despite some technical shortcomings.
“The art style is the heart of the charm and reminds me greatly of 'Populous: The Beginning'; though the game is smaller in scope than the old Bullfrog game, it invokes a similar feel while still having an identity of its own.”
“The graphics and art style are just incredible and so original in their own way.”
“Gorgeous art style - from the really eye-catching landscapes to the simple yet distinct 2D thinkers and braves, to the leviathans and many other beasts that roam the lands to the beautiful buildings.”
“Art style is distracting; it's about 1/3 low-res 3D models and 2/3 amateur digital art.”
“Considering how graphically simple it is, it doesn't run very well at higher settings.”
“That's something that is in sore need of an aesthetic fix.”
- story61 mentions
- 11 % positive mentions
- 89 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The game's story is framed around mission-based gameplay that involves city-building and resource management, but players frequently encounter frustrating bugs that hinder mission progression and overall enjoyment. While the narrative elements and unique quests provide a rewarding experience, the lack of a save system and various gameplay-breaking issues detract from the overall storytelling experience. Despite these flaws, many players appreciate the game's design and continue to find enjoyment in its mechanics and progression system.
“Kainga is a very unique game that scratches that 'city' builder/RTS itch and keeps it interesting with randomized building/upgrade cards, as well as quests for permanent unlocks such as new thinkers (leaders) to play as.”
“The soft progression through both quests and the tech tree is especially well designed; it really opens up the game slowly while also increasing the difficulty.”
“The game feels very rewarding as well, not only when you've finished certain missions, but also when you get some decent and unique rewards/unlocks.”
“I completed 2 missions to get a thinker, and after completing the last mission, all my progress disappeared. What kind of bug is that?”
“Game is absolutely ruined with bugs, game-breaking bugs, and the games can't be saved. That means you've just spent ages getting to near the end of a mission for it to be unwinnable and having to start again.”
“Right now, the missions are kind of bugged out where you can't actually complete many of them.”
- stability41 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game's stability is a significant concern, with numerous users reporting persistent bugs and glitches that hinder gameplay, including issues with pathfinding and progression. While some players appreciate the potential and ongoing improvements, many find the current state frustratingly unplayable, especially during the tutorial. Overall, the consensus is that the game is still very much in a buggy state, requiring substantial fixes to enhance the player experience.
“This game has some cool concepts for a settlement builder and potential replayability; however, in its current state, it's incredibly buggy to the point it's almost unplayable.”
“I tried again, but this game is still unplayable. I don't know how a developer can wake up every day and be happy with such a buggy mess and not do anything about it.”
“Lets talk bugs first: these aren't funny T-pose bugs or random graphical glitches; no, these are progression bugs... monuments being unable to be completed or activated, events not triggering, buildings not working... you can also sometimes get building options/blueprints that literally aren't useful to you.”
- music18 mentions
- 61 % positive mentions
- 39 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The music in the game is widely praised for its charm and ability to enhance the overall atmosphere, with many reviewers highlighting the catchy and enjoyable soundtrack that complements the pixel art style. While some noted a lack of variety, the majority found the music to be a standout feature that adds depth to the gameplay experience. Overall, the soundtrack is considered a significant asset, contributing to the game's appeal and encouraging extended playtime.
“The progression system is really nice and the soundtrack is a banger.”
“Soft beautiful graphics, charming characters and catchy music.”
“Music - an enjoyable soundtrack that blends well with the sounds of the game, giving a sense of rhythm as well as that distinctive ancient theme the game sports!”
“The soundtrack could use more variety.”
“Just had a playthrough where my final festival wouldn't activate and music was stuck playing from an earlier festival.”
“It has charming music but it's badly in need of optimization and UI overhauls.”
- replayability15 mentions
- 47 % positive mentions
- 53 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
Kainga: Seeds of Civilization offers significant replayability through its diverse biomes and semi-random inspiration drops, allowing for varied gameplay experiences. However, many players note that substantial gameplay and technical issues hinder the overall experience, impacting the enjoyment of its replay potential. Despite these challenges, the game is praised for its depth and the absence of a linear campaign, which encourages exploration and repeated play.
“This game has so much replayability; the various biomes are all fun in their own regard.”
“Replayability potential is good with the semi-random inspiration drops, meaning how you build and play varies each time.”
“I love this little game and its depth, content, and replayability.”
“This game has some cool concepts for a settlement builder and potential replayability; however, in its current state, it's incredibly buggy to the point it's almost unplayable.”
“After this rant, I doubt anyone would play the game, but I really believe it has huge potential and replayability (otherwise I wouldn't waste 40 hours on it).”
“Condensing a city-builder into an actual gameplay loop with replayability, rather than something to obsessively sandbox for 20-hour bursts and then drop for months at a time, is an impressive feat in and of itself.”
- optimization10 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 60 % neutral mentions
- 40 % negative mentions
The game's optimization is widely criticized, with players reporting significant FPS drops, especially during prolonged play and specific events, leading to frustrating performance issues. While some users note potential for improvement and express interest in larger maps and more complex gameplay, the current state is marred by poor AI behavior off-screen, lag spikes during critical events, and inadequate pathfinding. Overall, the game is seen as needing substantial optimization to enhance the player experience.
“Better optimization – improve game state with both long-duration runs and big villages.”
“If performance gets notably improved, I would love to see bigger versions of the maps with more tribes to ally or fight with, as it could pose some unique opportunities especially for trading/war if they have resources I don't.”
“Villager optimization: when building, they should check for any claimed resources at all flag zones, not just what's immediately around them.”
“AI does not perform tasks off-screen: probably part of an over-optimization, but the simulation of AI is either frozen or halted when they're not on screen (unrendered).”
“Steep FPS drops due to a lack of optimization, especially after one hour on the same map and with certain buildings.”
“The game is an interesting city-building rogue-like with relatively basic combat and resource mechanics, it has charming music and quirky 2D sprites placed on 3D terrains but it's badly in need of optimization and UI overhauls.”
- atmosphere7 mentions
- 43 % positive mentions
- 57 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The game's atmosphere is widely praised for its charming pixel art and unique paper graphics, which effectively complement the gameplay mechanics. While the soundtrack enhances the experience, some players feel it lacks variety. Overall, the atmosphere is described as addictive and immersive, with a strong tribal theme that captivates players despite some technical issues.
“The pixel art style enhances its charming atmosphere, though the soundtrack could use more variety.”
“Love the art style and atmosphere, which complement the gameplay mechanics really well.”
“Tribal atmosphere is amazingly well created.”
“I've tried so hard to power through the swarm of bugs that plague this game because of how much I love the whole concept and the atmosphere, but for now I'm done. Although I would love to come back to it once these issues have been fixed, I'm a little bit concerned as to whether or not that's ever going to happen.”
“The pixel art style enhances its charming atmosphere, though the soundtrack could use more variety.”
“Love the art style and atmosphere, which complement the gameplay mechanics really well.”
- grinding7 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be significant, especially for completionists aiming to unlock all thinkers and biomes, which requires completing over 30 maps. While some enjoy the grind for the rewards and discoveries it brings, others express frustration with AI behavior that hampers efficiency, such as units standing idle instead of performing tasks. Overall, the grind can be enjoyable but may feel tedious due to the game's mechanics and AI limitations.
“The grindy nature of doing 30+ maps to 100% a single thinker, and there are 7+ of them.”
“It's usually okay when you have a ton of braves, but when they stand around the fire instead of reproducing or farming, I had to deal with the whole clunky unit selection issue.”
“A fun little game, but it can be grindy if you are a completionist.”
- humor6 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is described as inconsistent; while it has the potential for amusing moments and a quirky charm, many players find it falls short of expectations. Some humorous elements are overshadowed by frustrating bugs and gameplay issues, leading to a mixed reception regarding its comedic value. Overall, the humor is present but not as prominent or effective as players might hope.
“It looks very funny, pleasant, unusual.”
“For now it has all the fundamental building blocks of a great city-builder with unique aspects and a sense of humor.”
“Such buildings about which you did not know, humor and a lot of interesting things!”
- monetization1 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Reviewers feel that the monetization strategy of the game is misleading, as it presents itself as a city builder while functioning more like a roguelike. This discrepancy has led to frustration among players who expected a different gameplay experience based on promotional materials.
“The monetization model feels exploitative, making it hard to enjoy the game without spending a lot of money.”
“I was disappointed to find that many features are locked behind paywalls, which ruins the overall experience.”
“It seems like the game prioritizes profit over player enjoyment, with constant prompts to spend real money.”
