KUR review

pczone.co.uk:

KUR is a retro first-person shooter from Really Ragdoll Games. It is marketed as an explosive, dark-humour throwback to shooters of the 90s. On seeing the trailer for KUR, the hope is that the hell-beasts of Doom will be combined with the immersive world of Unreal, seen through the explosive personality of a protagonist like Duke Nukem come to mind.

In reality, the player takes on the role of the protagonist; a female, potty-mouthed Australian mercenary. 

It is never made clear exactly what the story is, but it certainly involves corporations hiring mercenaries to find out why monsters are attacking robot workers at factories. 

And the world of KUR often feels like a generic sci-fi world based on games from the golden-era of FPS games, the nineties and earliest noughties. Yet, in some small ways, KUR adds its own touches of style and flair. 

KUR has a looseness which in some ways is attractive, with its weird enemies, such as a giant eyeball in dungarees and a fish with legs. But in other aspects, the game needs to be tighter, such as in game and level-design, as well as appearance. 

This looseness often makes the world of KUR feel humorous but not self-aware. It feels as though all the time has been spent on jokes, and no time has been spent on the concrete realities of a lived-in world. 

It is therefore difficult to become fully engrossed.

The visual style of KUR is the dirty, indoor environments of Quake with the fluorescence of the TRON universe. Unfortunately, this mostly looks unattractive as it feels as generic as the world-building aspects of the game.

When compared with recent retro games such as Dusk, KUR does not have the same unity of vision when it comes to palette or claustrophobia of environments. 

Developer Really