Karma. Incarnation 1

About

"Karma. Incarnation 1" is a unique, award-winning adventure game featuring a love-driven worm named Pip. After a botched reincarnation, Pip must navigate a surreal world, solve puzzles, and make choices that determine his karma and the game's outcome. With hand-drawn animation and astral sight exploration, players experience a bizarre journey of love, redemption, and karma.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

87%

Audience ScoreBased on 119 reviews

story12 positive mentions

grinding3 negative mentions

The game features beautiful, colorful hand-drawn art and animations that create a visually stunning experience.
It offers a unique and imaginative story with moral choices that affect gameplay, encouraging replayability.
The music and sound design complement the psychedelic atmosphere, enhancing the overall experience.

The gameplay is overly simplistic and lacks depth, with many puzzles being trivial and easy to solve.
The game is short and feels incomplete, as it is only part one of a planned trilogy with no clear indication of when the next parts will be released.
Technical issues such as unskippable animations, lack of settings, and occasional bugs detract from the overall experience.

story
47 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
26%
68%
6%
The game's story is a blend of intriguing visuals and a simple yet engaging narrative centered around a spirit's quest to rescue a beloved character, often described as a love story with moral choices. While some players found the plot confusing or lacking depth, many appreciated the unique storytelling method that relies on visuals rather than dialogue, enhancing the overall experience. Overall, the art and character design significantly elevate the narrative, making it a captivating journey despite its straightforward premise.
- “The storyline is gripping and the actual concept and visual design of the levels is just stunning!”
- “Overall I really enjoyed the game and can’t wait for the story to continue.”
- “At its heart, Karma is a love story with a classic damsel in distress, and a brave worm named Pip that should find his way to reincarnate as a dragon and rescue his love.”
- “First of all, this game does not 'explore a love story' - sorry, it just doesn't.”
- “However, it doesn't seem to have much of a story, as gameplay seems to consist of trying to figure out what the monsters are telling you (with imagery) to click.”
- “As I said before, the story itself won't be that noteworthy if it's not because of the setting, art, concept, and how they convey it.”
graphics
43 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
58%
35%
7%
The graphics of the game are a mixed bag, with some users praising its unique, colorful, and surreal art style that enhances the overall experience, particularly in the context of a point-and-click adventure. However, others criticize the visual quality as low and lacking the polish expected in modern gaming, with some noting technical issues and a lack of resolution options. Overall, while the art style is often described as beautiful and engaging, it may not appeal to everyone, especially those seeking high-end graphics.
- “It's a very colorful and aesthetically pleasing 2D point-and-click game.”
- “Beautiful game with gorgeous art style, full of humorous moments and interesting puzzles.”
- “The graphics are trippy and cool, and the gameplay starts to set up some intriguing puzzles.”
- “It's unclear if this is due to a lack of budget to arrange someone who can create graphical assets properly, or a lack of talent.”
- “Regardless, the overall visual quality of the game is very low, beneath what PC gamers have come to expect in this era of cutting-edge photorealistic 3D graphics.”
- “There's no option to change the resolution and no useful graphics tweaks.”
gameplay
33 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
21%
70%
9%
Gameplay reviews highlight a mix of experiences, with some players enjoying the simple point-and-click mechanics and charming animations, while others express frustration over unclear mechanics and frequent interruptions that detract from immersion. The karma system adds a unique twist, allowing players to explore moral choices, but many feel that the gameplay lacks depth and coherence, making it challenging to engage fully. Overall, while the game offers enjoyable moments and replayability, it suffers from design inconsistencies that can hinder the player's experience.
- “I didn't fully understand the mechanics at first, but after a bit of trial and error, I found myself liking it a lot.”
- “The gameplay is simple point-and-click interactions with pictogram communication.”
- “It's very interesting how your moral choices have an impact on the actual gameplay, and how you must redeem yourself in order to progress.”
- “The game seems to be cobbled together without much care for the player's experience, and the result was that I was frustrated with gameplay, felt like I was fighting the game to play it, and felt like the game did not respect my time.”
- “Within the first 10-15 minutes of gameplay after the intro, you'll encounter a truly frenetic and bewildering sequence of load screens and short vignettes where there is little meaningful gameplay.”
- “This turns the familiar presence of an inventory into a distraction with no relevance to gameplay, and sends mixed signals to the player about how they are supposed to accomplish anything in the game.”
music
24 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
67%
20%
13%
The music in the game is widely praised for its calming and entertaining qualities, with many reviewers highlighting its unique and funky soundtrack that complements the game's surreal visuals and storytelling. The sound design, including ambient sounds and playful rhythms, enhances the overall experience, making it both enjoyable and memorable. However, some users noted the lack of customizable sound settings as a drawback.
- “Very nice surreal point & click puzzle game, with beautiful graphics and music.”
- “Compliments for the art and the music, they make the game so pleasant and enjoyable.”
- “The soundtrack, as the rest of the game, is just strange but still really great to listen to, and the tribal feel to it fits well.”
- “- there aren't any settings (sound, music, windowed mode, ...)”
- “Musically, the game is playful; its use of tones and rhythm is as integral as its use of color.”
- “The soundtrack, like the rest of the game, is just strange but still really great to listen to, and the tribal feel to it fits well.”
humor
9 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game is praised for its humor, featuring a blend of funny animations, quirky character voices, and engaging sound effects that enhance the overall experience. Players enjoy interacting with various objects, often clicking repeatedly to discover humorous outcomes, making the game both entertaining and visually appealing. Overall, the humor is a significant aspect that contributes to the game's charm and value.
- “Beautiful game with a gorgeous art style, full of humorous moments and interesting puzzles.”
- “A lot of times I found myself clicking on objects over and over again just to see the funny animations!”
- “The characters' voices are funny, and the sound effects are well made.”
atmosphere
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
75%
25%
The atmosphere of the game is widely praised for its distinct and immersive qualities, effectively utilizing color to evoke mood and tone typical of successful point-and-click adventures. Reviewers highlight its charmingly strange ambiance and the integration of complex puzzles, making it a captivating experience for players who enjoy atmospheric journeys. Overall, it is described as a beautiful and inspiring example of the genre.
- “It's something to be expected in point-and-click games, giving each area a distinct feel and look, something that has been a standard of good point-and-click games, and that's playing with color to evoke a certain tone, mood, and atmosphere.”
- “Very immersive and pretty atmospheric game.”
- “It's something to be expected in point-and-click games, giving each area a distinct feel and look. This has been a standard of good point-and-click games, playing with color to evoke a certain tone, mood, and atmosphere.”
- “Just like the other aspects of the game, it fits perfectly well and adds even more to the whole strange yet charming atmosphere.”
replayability
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
75%
25%
The game offers surprising replayability, appealing to both kids and adults due to its easy gameplay and multilingual design, which enhances accessibility. However, some players feel that after a certain point, the replay value diminishes significantly.
- “Gameplay is easy and enjoyable for both kids and adults, with multilingual support since there is no text in the game. It offers a lot of time to waste and nice replayability.”
- “I don't normally even like puzzle games, but this has surprising replayability for me.”
- “That gives the game an additional replay value.”
- “After that, I do not see any replay value.”
character development
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
67%
33%
While the game features beautiful art and unique character design that enhance its storytelling, reviewers note that character development is somewhat simplistic and lacks depth, which detracts from the overall experience.
- “The art was beautiful, and the character design and story were interesting.”
- “Its biggest strength is certainly the bold and vibrant visuals, unique character design, and its smooth flow both in story and animation.”
- “It's simple but at the same time lacks definition in character development.”
grinding
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious, particularly due to slow travel between locations without a map, which contributes to a sense of frustration. While some puzzles are seen as repetitive, most gameplay elements progress smoothly without excessive trial and error. Overall, the experience is marred by a lack of engaging content and an abrupt conclusion.
- “Lastly, traveling from place to place is tediously slow with no map to let you speed things up.”
- “But it's too tedious and short, with pretty much an abrupt end.”
- “The only puzzle I found tedious was jumping through holes in a leaf to try to find the correct exit.”
stability
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Overall, users report that the game has some stability issues, including occasional bugs and graphical glitches, particularly during specific scenes. While there are no major bugs affecting gameplay, control responsiveness can be inconsistent, and the inability to skip animations can hinder the experience, especially for achievement hunters.
- “My only complaints would have to be that there are no settings (the volume is rather loud at times), controls can get a little buggy (trouble with click response times), and you can’t skip past animations (which was more of an issue when achievement hunting).”
- “The game is also a little buggy.”
- “I did not encounter any major bugs, other than some graphical glitches in certain places, one when using astral projection in the dancing scene, where the huge guy with the chain glitches.”
monetization
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The monetization of Incarnation 1 has been criticized as a blatant cash grab, with users highlighting its unrealistic $5 price tag for a simplistic mobile game that fails to meet PC gaming standards. Many feel it is not worth the cost, especially when compared to the abundance of free, higher-quality games available on Steam.
- “Incarnation 1 is a mobile app that's been dumped on Steam as if it was a real PC game. It's a cash grab from greedy mobile developers. This mobile app is a simple iPhone screen-tapping adventure game where you solve some simplistic puzzles by tapping and swiping on your phone.”
- “Incarnation 1 has the completely unrealistic cash grab price of around $5 USD. It's not worth it given the defects and shortcomings of the product, especially considering the sheer number of completely free, much higher quality games on Steam.”
emotional
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
The emotional aspect of the game is enhanced by its stunning visual narrative, which elevates a seemingly clichéd story, allowing players to engage intuitively and connect with the experience on a deeper level.