Emergent stories in a world that doesn't care
Mentioned in ~1 in 4 positive reviews
“Kenshi is a game where failure becomes part of the story. Losing a fight doesn't necessarily mean game over.”
Steam review · 293.3 h played ↗
Kenshi
Worth buying? What 300 Steam reviews say.Worth buying? Here’s what 300 Steam reviews actually say.
Overwhelmingly PositiveOverwhelmingly Positive · 96%Lo-Fi Games2018Sandbox · Survival · RPG
The verdict
Kenshi is a brutal, unguided open-world sandbox that rewards patience with emergent stories and huge freedom. Skip it if you want polish, quests, direction or stable performance.
Great for
Patient players who enjoy making their own stories in harsh, hands-off sandboxes and tolerate jank
Main risk
Brutal, unexplained early game plus buggy, unfinished systems can feel boring, tedious or broken
What players love
Total sandbox freedom and playstyle variety
Mentioned in ~1 in 5 positive reviews
“Kenshi doesn't give you a story; it gives you the tool to create your own.”
Steam review · 14.8 h played ↗
Addictive, hundreds of hours of content
Mentioned in ~1 in 9 positive reviews
“almost 600 hours in and i still have not seen everything this game has to see.”
Steam review · 590.3 h played ↗
Great mod support and community
Mentioned in ~1 in 10 positive reviews
“the mods this game has available make it one of the best time sinks for your money.”
Steam review · 358.9 h played ↗
Rewarding struggle and progression from nothing
Mentioned in ~1 in 10 positive reviews
“Progression feels earned. You actually level up what you do.”
Steam review · 105.3 h played ↗
Unique atmosphere and world
Mentioned in ~1 in 19 positive reviews
“There's simply no videogame for me that captivates a vibe of a desolate, post apocalyptic world better than Kenshi.”
Steam review · 51 h played ↗
What players complain about
Bugs and unfinished feel
Mentioned in ~1 in 3 negative reviews
“Lockups, squad members disappearing from the screen, units going invisible, constant loading screens, and save files that corrupt for no reason.”
Steam review · 902.6 h played ↗
Empty world, nothing to do, boring
Mentioned in ~1 in 4 negative reviews
“The world is huge, but most of the time there is simply nothing interesting to do.”
Steam review · 11 h played ↗
No guidance, punishing start, bad UI and controls
Mentioned in ~1 in 4 negative reviews
“Extremely new player unfriendly, aimless, shoddy tutorial and confusing gameplay.”
Steam review · 0.3 h played ↗
Crashes, corrupted saves and bad optimization
Mentioned in ~1 in 6 negative reviews
“My saves keep getting corrupted and the game will CTD randomly despite running a completely vanilla no mod game.”
Steam review · 86.8 h played ↗
Grindy, tedious progression
Mentioned in ~1 in 7 negative reviews
“it has always boiled down to grinding stats and you grind stats in weird flaky ways”
Steam review · 35 h played ↗
Broken pathfinding and job AI
Mentioned in ~1 in 9 negative reviews
“the hauling and job AI has completely ruined the game for me.”
Steam review · 143 h played ↗
System requirements
From the Steam store page
Steam Deck: Playable14 GB
Minimum
OS64-bit Windows
ProcessorDual-core 64-bit
Memory6 GB RAM
GraphicsPixel shader 5.0 capable card
Storage14GB HD space
Recommended
OSWindows 7 64-bit
ProcessorQuad-core 64-bit
Memory16 GB RAM
Storage14GB HD space
OS64-bit Windows
ProcessorDual-core 64-bit
Memory6 GB RAM
GraphicsPixel shader 5.0 capable card
Storage14GB HD space
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