Kena: Bridge of Spirits is a perfectly nice, good game. Nice isn’t a particularly smart word to use when talking about anything as it’s about as bland a word can be. Good is equally inoffensive and vague. After playing through the first few hours of Kena on PS5 (although it’s also on PS4 and PC), it’s fair to say that late-day concerns and conspiracy theories over a lack of review code weren’t warranted, but neither is this the next indie game superstar. It’s just a nice, good game.
I don’t know if comparisons to PS2-era action adventure games are entirely where I’d go with my thoughts. To me Kena feels like a more streamlined, melee focused fantasy Tomb Raider. There are some dark themes running along in the background (almost like how a Pixar movie’s main gut punches go over the head of most kids), but in terms of gameplay what’s on offer here is fairly simple. Not in a bad way as such, just in a streamlined kind of way.
The running, jumping, and platform shimmying from Tomb Raider is all handled well, the combat is centred on two main attacks, and these cute blob creatures called Rot are around to help you fight and solve puzzles.
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