Kena: Bridge Of Spirits
PC, PS4, PS5
Whatever the opposite of nominative determinism is, it certainly applies to the Rot. In a setting such as this, the name suggests some kind of unwanted presence – a group of antagonists, perhaps, or some corrosive phenomenon choking the life out of a onceflourishing forest. Not so – although, as it turns out, these adorably squat little creatures were enemies in an early version of the game. Resembling sentient chunks of licorice, the Rot have since been recast as allies, and you’ll find 100 of the blighters scattered throughout this Eastern-inspired world. You can deck them out in a range of hats you pick up over the course of your adventure, too. And they’ve got a little more personality (and autonomy) than your average woodland-spirit archetype. When Kena’s shimmying along a rock face to the next clearly marked handhold, Nathan Drake style, they pop up on nearby ledges, poke impishly out of gaps and peer inquisitively from higher ground.
It’s the kind of winning incidental detail you wouldn’t necessarily expect from a team numbering in the low double figures. It’s also a reminder of Ember Lab’s filmmaking background: the studio was founded 12 years ago, and produced a range of commercials and animated shorts before recently pivoting to developing games. And it’s quietly emblematic of the game’s ambition: this feels not unlike the kind of game Rare might be making right now had Nintendo kept hold of the Twycross studio. Or, perhaps, the kind of game that occasionally sneaks out of one of Ubisoft’s smaller studios when Yves Guillemot’s back is turned.
Indeed, we’re reminded of Immortals: Fenyx Rising on more than one occasion during our hour or so with Kena: Bridge Of Spirits. Which isn’t to say it’s the kind of game that makes excessive use of flippant narration (on the contrary, this is quite a serious-minded game; Kena’s job as a spirit guide is to help the recently deceased and restless move on to the next life). Rather, it’s similarly happy to wear its many influences on its sleeve. As we play, the likes of Star Fox Adventures, Beyond Good & Evil, Horizon Zero Dawn, Uncharted, Dark Souls and Breath Of The Wild all come to mind, with the occasional hint of the minionbased mischief of Pikmin and Overlord.
Although it’s too early to judge whether Kena can become more than the sum of its inspirations, on this evidence its various components knit together rather neatly. And while it leans on familiar ideas, Ember Lab is at least trying to find its own subtle twists on them. Rather than clutter the screen with waypoint markers, there’s a detective-vision equivalent that involves you tapping the