Kena game pc upgrade#
Kena game pc Pc#

Here, the game was literally unplayable at 18 fps. Apart from very few isolated incidents, like in the following scene, leaving the Setting on Ultra worked well. This brought a significant gain in FPS, and the next item on the list would be Post Processing Quality.

Let me start with my settings and the hardware the game is running on.Īs you can see, I dropped a few settings to High, like Shadows. Talking about the graphics performance is more nuanced than loading speeds. My Linux installation on a SATA SSD shows a similar performance. It is a fast storage device, yet not the fastest one out there anymore. Hardware-wise, I run my games off a Samsung 970 Evo NVME SSD connected via PCI-E 3.0. You are not done yet watching more self-promotion.” An Assassin’s Creed game would be like, “Nah, dude. If Kena were a Ubisoft production, you might have just made it past the second animated logo at this point. I wish more titles followed down this path. The whole from-zero-to-hero process takes less than 10 seconds, and you are back playing the game. Instead, you can immediately access the main menu, and from there, loading a saved state only briefly shows a splash screen. After that, you will not be harassed by the “Press any button” nonsense. Starting the game only takes a couple of seconds, mainly to show the Ember Lab logo. There is a caveat, however, but let me start with something truly incredible: the loading times. But emphasizing light usage early on indicates its importance in the visual presentation and gameplay.ĭespite the eye candy, Kena runs well overall.

Of course, you will not only find yourself in dark environments, as shown in these screenshots. The utilization of light plays a significant role in this title, and the game’s early minutes reflect that. As such, it pairs well with the cartoony animations and the game’s occasional cute moments. It is essentially an interactive animated Pixar movie. It is all about the proportions, reduced texture surface details, and a “lighthearted” color palette (for lack of a better term). As much as I adore comic book art, the visual style employed works better here. Characters or objects are devoid of any black outlines. Other than the Borderlands franchise, it achieves that without the cell-shading look. Kena Bridge of Spirit’s art direction is highly stylized and could be described as “comic-like”. Combat is absolutely not kid-friendly and can make your hair turn gray a lot faster (if there is still any left). However, do not let the visuals fool you. This gives the game a distinct look that stands out from the rest of the Unreal crowd. Not only do things look nice, but Ember Lab also utilizes a unique visual style reminiscent of animated movies like Shrek, Toy Story, and others. This is usually an indicator of a flashy visual presentation, and Kena does not disappoint.

The technical underpinnings of Kena Bridge of Spirits are based on Epic’s Unreal Engine 4. Let me tell you about it.Īs always, I begin by discussing the game’s technology. I still had trouble with some of the bosses, but for the most part, I fought my way through the game on the normal difficulty. Despite that, I went into the game with an open mind, and I am glad I did. I must often resort to the Easy difficulty to complete challenging sections or bosses, and in the majority of times, the Easy mode is so accessible that it is borderline boring.

It has more to do with my inability to master the combat for an enjoyable experience.

Kena game pc upgrade#

Still, it apparently did well enough for Ember Lab to warrant a free anniversary upgrade at the end of September 2022.Ĭlose combat games aren’t usually my jam. I haven’t heard much of this game after its release.

Kena game pc Pc#

Kena Bridge of Spirits is a PlayStation and PC exclusive, and it is the first title I played after building a gaming PC after just one year of abstinence. It is a different game, though (horrible segue *cough*), and one that I think stands out among all the others I have played in the past decade. Whatever it was, I am rarely on time with game releases, so why would Kena Bridge of Spirits be any different? It was a tough year for me personally, so maybe that was one of the reasons. I was immediately hooked, but I did not jump in right away when it launched in 2021. According to this announcement trailer, it must have been sometime in 2020. I do not recall when I first became aware of Kena Bridge of Spirits.