KUR Preview

KUR released to Steam's Early Access on the 13th of August, with pictures that resemble a very retro game, and honestly, I couldn't wait to jump into it. The gameplay looked fun and I love me some fast-paced shooters!

Much to my delight, KUR features a female protagonist, which honestly was a very welcome addition. The character sounds like a bit of an arse, but we'll get to the story later!

I was met with the option to choose my difficulty. And if you know anything about me, you know I went for the hardest one. First, because I wanted to be able to experience what the game has to offer on the hardest difficulty. And second, because I wanted to see how playable it was.

You are given an intro scene where you're introduced to your character, a mercenary sort that is getting hired by a company to be transported to a different planet and do some killing. Or at least, that's what I understood.

Then, you're given the option to do the tutorial and get taught all of the basic mechanics. Nothing clunky, the game works and reacts very well which I feel bodes well for it. I breezed through the tutorial, and off to the planet I went.

The game's graphics were good - if you expect to see retro and appreciate it, this game will definitely meet your standards. With ugly monsters that look more polygonal than Mario in Super Mario 64 when the camera zooms out a bit too much, but definitely fitting for the atmosphere the game is meant to provide.

You didn't believe me, did you?

I played most of the game on the worst graphical settings because it didn't occur to me to check what the defaults were, and honestly, I liked them almost as much as the highest. The highest settings make the game look like a clash of modern and retro which I really appreciated, but the lowest offer way more retro feels. This may be the first game I ever actually opt to go for the ugliest settings.

Combat was an absolute blast. Quick shooting with many weapons to choose from, and a kick mechanic that comically throws your enemies across the board. It was a joy to play, and I felt it represented retro FPS games very well, including the lack of guidance to your objective, so I just ran around rampantly shooting at anything that even mildly twitched until I found my way.

That being said, KUR is riddled with bugs. Of course, as an Early Access game, this doesn't come as a surprise, but I was still shocked at how many times I was locked in a room and forced to restart the level because there was no way out, and no way to bump yourself off. I expect these to get fixed, and eventually I was capable of passing the areas, just don't expect a smooth experience yet!

I did encounter a boss that was physically unbeatable: Darwin, a fishlike thing. Honestly, I have no idea what Darwin even is, but on the hardest difficulty, his life bar proved too much for my eight weapons filled to the brim with ammo at the time. I thought perhaps the boss was just not really beatable, and thankfully the level does have an alternate exit, but upon replaying the game on normal difficulty to see if I could fight my archnemesis, it turns out it is possible.

Almost every aspect of KUR is an absolute blast to play. I did clip through the world several times in my craze of trying to jump everywhere, and I reached very clearly unintended areas. I had a lot of fun doing that, despite the fact that it isn't part of the final game.

The weakest link is the aforementioned story. With the main character seeming kind of bland and the voice acting being absolutely atrocious. I'd love to tell you more about what the game's story is but with the way things are currently, it was nigh impossible for me to understand. That, paired with the hectic fighting and much louder sound of gunshots, led me to get completely lost in the story. It would be useful to have a subtitles option, but alas, there isn’t one as of yet.

I loved the game, and I had so much fun playing it that it urged me to play Doom, which the gameplay resembles even though I haven’t played much of the latter. I cannot wait to see what the future has in store for KUR.