Carl Faubert is not a very lucky guy. Before him, Mr. Hamilton, the wealthy owner of a mining company located in the fictitious region of Manastan, located in northern Quebec, had contacted other private investigators, who politely declined his request to join him in carrying out carry out a mysterious and delicate mission. . Instead, he accepted, attracted by the rich reward promised. In the first Kona, Faubert, a Korean War veteran, had almost reached Hamilton's house, facing adverse weather conditions and strange supernatural presences, in a surreal adventure with strong references to The X-Files and Lynch from Twin Peaks. Now he must resume his adventure, which is very fun even without having played the first episode, finally unraveling the tangle that will lead him to discover the truth, whatever it may be.
We are still in Canada, in 1970, a strange fog called Bruma has enveloped the entire region of Manastan, creatures have appeared and have begun to kill the inhabitants of the mining town, with the survivors fleeing their homes and seeking refuge who knows where, and our employer. he is not doing well at all, as you will discover by reading the Review of Kona 2 Bruma, a narrative adventure developed by the Parabole studio.
Gameplay
The first Kona was essentially an advanced walking simulator. The player followed the story without taking too many risks and filled Faubert's diary with drawings and notes, useful for reconstructing the events that occurred before his arrival. Kona 2 Bruma does more or less the same, but evolving the formula, to the point of distancing itself further from the idea of a walking simulator, to present itself as a narrative adventure done and finished, with puzzles to solve (never too complicated), clues to find and even some enemies to shoot (not much, really). The time it takes depends on how much you want to fill out the diary, which to complete requires going through each room inch by inch, taking photographs to add the most relevant elements to your notes. Keep in mind, however, that you will reach the end in about 6-10 hours.
In any case, once the introduction has been overcome and the game has begun, after a brief walk outdoors in the deep snow, in which we meet the first victims and immerse ourselves in the frost of the Mist (practically the entry phase in the game) we arrive at Hamilton's farm where the first part of the adventure takes place. We have to search the entire mansion trying to find out what happened to the master and why all the service staff ended up in the other world. Here it is possible to test practically all the systems that make up the Kona 2, which hold many surprises. Honestly, we really enjoyed walking around the village, so full of things. environmental storytelling, to the point that it is possible to reconstruct most of what happened in the last hours of the occupants' lives by examining the various posters scattered throughout the rooms and hallways, including barricades, scratches, overturned objects, secrets and the position of the occupants themselves. the corpses. and some appearances. In addition, there are several elements composed to make us understand something more, namely, the background that led to certain situations and the relationships built between the characters who lived around Hamilton. A truly remarkable narrative construction, to which practically all game systems contribute.
Here we also experience the first. shootings, against enemies whose nature will be revealed in the final phases, which are quite mediocre (you aim and shoot at ethereal creatures that give very little feedback and fall in a few shots, never posing much danger), but which fulfill a precise function, which is justifying deeper exploration of the environments for ammunition and (few) weapons and breaking the pace.
The same will also happen with the rest of the places that we will visit during the adventure, in particular the town and the mine, with the developers gradually introducing new elements and small variations in the gameplay. never allow participation to decline and the interest of the players. For example, at a certain point we will be forced to befriend the sled dogs by bringing them cookies. At first glance it seems like a classic filler mission, but in the end it will turn out to be really important, because it will provide us with a very efficient means of transportation, which will also unlock fast travel between the main places on the map.
A successful adventure
Kona 2 Brume surprises by being extremely focused and never trying to go beyond its capabilities. He is successful because he never tries to be more than himself, that is, trying to add something. feature privateer that, if done poorly, would have exposed all its limits. Rather, it is presented as a compact experience, which maintains a constant flow, involving the player until the end, despite the presence of few and few game systems, which certainly do not reinvent the wheel. It knows when it should be a walking simulator, it knows when it should pose puzzles, and it knows when it's appropriate to shoot (and when to ask the player not to, even in the face of potential danger), but without ever becoming a strange adventure or a game. first-person shooter.
It conveys a sense of unease without ever reaching for sudden scares and has some incredibly grim moments without ever conforming to the stylistic traits of the genre. In short, even without innovating, it works very well from start to finish, with perhaps only a few small problems. slow down in the ending and some moments that were too phoney. However, nothing that really compromises the experience, which flows fluidly until the end credits. Parabole had already demonstrated with the first chapter that he fully mastered his means, but here he has surpassed himself, adjusting his aim where necessary and enriching the story that he began to tell in the first Kona without getting lost along the way.
Some technical uncertainty
As well technically Kona 2 Brume is a cut above the previous episode, particularly in the interiors, which seem much richer in objects and details. Of course there are limits, particularly in human models, but in the end few are found and the few that are found are often dead, so not much attention is paid to them. That said, photographing outdoors in a snowstorm really captures the sense of loss it can bring, even though the maps are quite small, just as it can be spectacular to get close to a certain site, just because of the way it is. the moment. A contact link was built, and the game first shows us the place from a distance, making us foresee something big.
Ultimately, there is a lot of wisdom in the way the different locations were composed, which enhances the visual strengths and hides some of the exposed weaknesses. Unfortunately, there is also a certain tendency to break. graphics engine, especially when entering a new environment or loading a game. We played it on a desktop PC with GeForce RTX 3070 and 32 GB of RAM and on Steam Deck, obtaining more or less the same results (with different levels of detail, it must be said). It's not bad, considering that the experience is not compromised, but in the long run it is inevitable to pay attention to it.
Conclusions
Tested version PC with Windows digital delivery Steam, epic games store, playstation store, Xbox Store, Nintendo eShop Price 29,99 € Holygamerz.com 8.5 Readers (3) 7.9 your voteKona 2 Brume is a beautiful adventure, essential for those who played the first one, but also tasty for those who decide to start from here. Don't expect pure terror, although it has some more tense moments, but take it for what it is: a wisely directed narrative experience that in the end will not leave you indifferent. It's not a perfect game, but it doesn't pretend to be either.
PRO
- Excellent handling of history.
- Committed until the end
- He knows his limits and uses them to his advantage.
AGAINST
- Some too much indecision in the performances.
- Some narrative solutions are a kind of phone call.
