Kyn Reviews
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Tangrin Entertainment's party-based RPG Kyn has been available for a few weeks now, and that has given several websites the opportunity to put the game through its paces and generate a critique for our consumption.
PC Gamer gives it a 60/100:
As a story RPG, Kyn can't weave a legend or create a world. As an action RPG, it doesn't have a rewarding leveling or crafting system to help me make characters my own. All of the pieces are here, but Kyn held me at a distance, refusing to let me engage. The good parts of the game, like combat and party management, aren't good enough to overlook the frequent scripting bugs and crashes during loading screens. Looking back on my hours in Kyn, I can't identify a single choice I should have let the prisoner die! I shouldn't have stolen that scroll! that I might have made differently. Even though moment-to-moment combat is pretty good, there's no role to play here.
The Escapist gives it a 3/5:
There's an engaging game within Kyn that could be more accessible with just some polish and fine-tuning. But at is stands, Kyn is an average RPG that entertains but will probably be forgotten by the holiday rush. Here's hoping Tangrin Entertainment's next game will surpass those limitations.
MMORPG.com gives it a 7/10:
Character progression is pretty straightforward, but the crux lies in figuring out your ideal party build in both weapons and skills. There are three areas to focus on, Mind, Control, and Body. Mind is the more traditional Mage skill, while Control focuses on ranger/rogue abilities like traps and snares, and Body veers more towards berserker, tanking, and buffing. As you spend points in any of the three stats, you'll unlock deeper levels of the skill trees. It works a lot like Torchlight 1, though you won't be pumping tons of points into skills that just net you a few more percentage points in critical hit chance or anything like that.
Wasduk doesn't score it:
Overall, Kyn must be commended for seeking to advance a genre that has been allowed to grow stale. It brings some fresh ideas to the table, and utilises them better than most modern examples. The ability to slow time and issue orders is finite, forcing the player to commodify the lull in action and use each second with care, in contrast to Dragon Age, for example, where the player could pause the whole thing for as long as they wanted, maybe make a cup of tea and watch a YouTube video before telling their heroes what to do. It keeps the sense of urgency without breaking the tension. The player's party can be customised almost completely, giving the player the option to completely rebuild them anywhere out of combat by reassigning the number of points put into mind, body and control. Feed abilities give the player an incentive to keep an eye on their surroundings, using the environment in a very novel way.
Shacknews gives it a 5/10:
Kyn is a nice distraction from other games, but don't expect it to endlessly enthrall you like other RPGs would. However, the scope of the game is well beyond what you'd expect from the two-man team who coded, created, and designed it. The mission system allows you to easily hop on for an hour here and there, which helps to make the game worth experiencing at least once if you're a diehard RPG fan. Just don't go into it expecting the story to change your life.
TechRaptor gives it a 7/10:
Luckily, the developers showed in the time passed since the release of the game that they listen to feedback. In one of the latest patches, they introduced two features that were overlooked in the first build: the possibility to rotate the camera and access to the option menu without having to return to the main screen a couple of things one would should take for granted, honestly. Glad they fixed it.
It took me around 13 hours to complete Kyn. I enjoyed the game enough, but I can't think of a reason to play it again right away. The puzzles are solved and the storyline is completed. Choices in the game don't influence the story enough to justify a second playthrough.
And Mouse n Joypad gives it a 78%:
As the game progresses, you'll eventually fill out your party with up to six heroes, each of which the game will require you to build in a way that'll support the rest of the group. The character upgrade options are quite well-rounded; allowing you to build all kinds of different individuals while not letting you go all-out and create brokenly overpowered dudes and dudettes. This game demands specialization and careful management, and that's exactly what makes it engaging. As far as gameplay's concerned, I'm only sorry that there's absolutely no form of stealth implemented for the players to employ.
