Kudos
A strategic life simulator text adventure with pictures
Tags: Kudos Categories: PC Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Oct 12th, 2006
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Kudos (title page) | 1 | ||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Strategy | No | ||
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I’ll come right out and say it – Kudos is a text adventure. Now many of you (even the developer) may be put off by that remark, but hear me out. Back in the stone ages of PC gaming over 20 years ago (when I first started playing games – as an adult, mind you) there were some wonderful titles put out such as Planetfall, Zork, and more. These adventure titles had players typing in their commands, and text would appear on the screen to show the results of these actions. Sure, there were some graphical PC games at the time, but the king of PC gaming was the text adventures.
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Kudos brings much of this back while putting on a fresh coat of paint by using a graphical interface to input the text commands. A static backdrop is used, and a list of various activities can be performed, either alone or with friends. What doesn’t change is the graphics, instead text is used to relay the results of the actions. Instead of some sort of monster appearing in a cave to the south, the player and friends go to the museum or out for pizza.
The general idea of the game is to be a “life sim” without the inane activities of titles… well, such as The Sims. More of a strategy title, players need to navigate their life in a way to maintain friends, be successful, and just… get older.
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Maybe I’m not portraying the game in an appealing light, but let this be known: however simple the premise, the gameplay is very deep and challenging – to the point where even veteran puzzle and strategy players will find themselves taken to task. Kudos is a very good game that doesn’t go for visual flash, but instead gives players a game that uses more thought and imagination than most of what is available today.
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Starting out at the age of 20 with 4 friends, players have a loser job that can be upgraded. This can be done either through promotion or just finding another job. Finding another job has certain requirements, and players can meet those through experience or going to school and taking classes. Classes cost money and time away from friends. Friends require attention, but won’t want to do the same thing over and over.
The trick in Kudos is finding a balance between all of the various friends who have divergent tastes and needs, as well as progression of your own life. Relationships can come and go as well, depending on how the relationship is going. Just focusing on doing well for yourself just isn’t going to cut it in this game.
As mentioned before, the game is primarily driven by the text conveying what is happening. The graphics really are only there for show and as a placeholder because, frankly, nobody will play a straight text adventure these days. What we do have, however, are nice pictures and player avatars that do a good job to help tell the story.
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Much like real life, there is much to discover and explore. This really isn’t ever the same game twice. One time I tried to please everybody as much as possible constantly without paying much attention to my own needs and getting as many possible relationships as possible. Another time I attempted to find a balance between doing things myself and maintaining the friends I have. I also attempted to just focus on furthering my career by going to classes and taking care of myself shunning many of the people around me. There is a wealth of job opportunities, classes to take, items to purchase, people to meet, and more. Kudos does a decent job of providing a well rounded life simulation. I even found myself on a bowling team for a while – but got kicked off when I couldn’t attend a match because I was sick.
All told, Kudos is a nice game that can be played for as little or as long as you want. Go through life a few turns at a time or spend the night away from your own friends in the real world. This is a game that is well worth the price of admission for gamers that like to use their brain.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
|
+ Challenging + Wide array of options + Open ended - no "set" path |
9.0 |
| What Doesn't | |
| + Can be a bit difficult | |
| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| You won't find this on store shelves. Here's a link to where you can either download a demo or buy the game. Strategy fans that are tired of war should purchase this outright. Everybody else should at least give this a try. | |
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Tags: Kudos
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Oct 12th, 2006 and is filed under PC Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
