Kenshi (not the Mortal Kombat character)

So there's a new game out (it's in early alpha so far, kind of unpolished, but hey, look at what happened with Minecraft when it started in the same state), called Kenshi ("Swordsman" or "Fencer", roughly). The game is pretty much an RPG/RTS hybrid - squad-based, up to 50 members, but you have the option (not recommended, but possible) to go it completely alone. It's a post-apocalyptic world, from the looks of it, with a heavy dose of feudal Japan mixed in with the modern/futuristic stuff. The desert has overtaken everything. Small pockets of civilization have banded together around (what appears to be) the ruins of old cities, but most of the world lives the lives of wandering bandits or swords-for-hire.

You begin as... well, whatever you want to be (except, so far, a woman, but the creator plans to re-add that soon from what he's said on the game's forums). Right now there's only pretty much 'buy, sell, wander, kill, hire followers', but there are plans to add a huge variety of additional paths - buy supplies to build a fortress and hole up against the bandit raids; build a town and run it day-to-day; become a wandering trader, buying supplies from one end of the map and selling them on the other; plans are to have possibilities mostly limited only by your imagination, inasmuch as the engine allows.

You're just an ordinary wanderer. You're not the Chosen one, you're not a specially-trained operative. At least, not until you earn that honor yourself. Which will be a long and hard road (without companions, most enemies can kill you in a few short seconds - not sure if this is a balance issue or intentional).

The game is available at http://www.lofigames.com/ - there's a free demo, which is basically the full game with some limitations implemented; also you can pay 10 dollars US to alpha fund the game, which will give you a code to enter on startup of the demo to unlock all the features that are implemented at the time (and all future updates, at least up to and including release, I don't know what's planned thereafter). It's also available through Desura (for a small markup on the creator's price-point).

edited 1st Apr '12 1:15:36 PM by OmegaX123

Seems like an interesting premise, and I do have a soft spot for Samurai-ish inspired games, especially open world games that promise I can do and be whatever I want to be. I went ahead and bought it, though haven't had a chance to actually play around with it yet (heard it's EXTREMELY buggy, which is to be expected...but hey..so far it sounds less buggy then Skyrim, so they're doing alright in my book so far).