Being in the present sucks, but it seems like things only get worse in the future. Especially if you are Kent, the protagonist of Kentum who wakes up after his spaceship crashes.
To make matters worse, Kent realises that he didn’t survive and is just a clone of his former self, and that he is several thousand years late for work.
Now owing his employer a lot of money, Kent is tasked with rebuilding the human race with only his helper bot as a companion. Geared with a staff, and the kind of downbeat attitude worthy of a Brit, he sets off to begrudgingly get on with his tasks.
The gameplay itself is a 2D Metroidvania, meshed with a base building and resource-gathering sim. In the beginning Kent is trying to build some basic crafting tables using detritus left over from bushes and dead animals. This means exploring the surrounding caves for morsels. Soon though, there will be some levels of automation required as crops get planted and need to be refined for more complicated materials.
Further into the map are more aggressive creatures that require advanced skills, which will have to be researched. There is also a gigantic wreck that has a number of rooms that must be activated; that requires dumping raw resources into them.
Kentum works perfectly on the ROG Ally; it runs well and lends itself to short plays on the bus or train. Personally, I would be using this game as a good showcase of the handheld’s versatility. If you have one, definitely buy this.
AJ’s ROG Ally Corner
Kent ends up with a whole lot of new abilities, from dashes, to charged strikes, to grappling hooks, there is always a new thing for him to do and new areas to explore. The Metroidvania mechanic of revisiting an area ends up tying in well with the resource-gathering – I was returning to a spot to collect supplies and getting to see a new area.
This feels instep with the way the base grows, creating a several storeys high building that conveyor belts items along that then get picked and deposited elsewhere – it does not reach the dizzying complexity of Factorio, but I am kind of thankful for that as it would have been too much for me.
It also helped my enjoyment that Kentum looks gorgeous – the brushstroke cartoon characters and the colour palette reminds me of Herge’s The Adventures of Tintin. The way that seasons change and the day/night cycle relights areas feels like real care has been taken for the art direction.
Kentum really impressed me – the flow of discovery, tinkering with the base and then clearing out resources for the next cool thing is compelling and the fact that it gels so simply and so quickly is brilliant.
Conclusion
Kentum is an excellent combination of Metroidvania exploration and combat, and light base construction. The two genres enhance rather than distract from each other.
This game was reviewed based on Xbox S|X review code, using an Xbox S|X console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.
