Kona

Let's get one thing straight right from the start: If there's one thing the developers of this supernatural adventure know, it's atmosphere. From the moment you start Kona, it's hard not to get lost in the amazing look and feel of the Canadian wilderness. You're instantly transported to a place and time that feels authentic and has an eerie feeling of isolation. This feeling is made more intense by the utter lack of human interaction and a raging snowstorm. Unfortunately, the problem with Kona is it's like a bowl of wax fruit. Sure, it's great to look at, but it tastes bland and is way too hard to swallow.

For starters, there's the narrator. This is the only voice you hear over the course of the game, and his performance is weirdly dull yet still overdramatic. Then there's the jumbled mess of controls. Without any sort of tutorial, players must dig around in the options to find out which keys serve which function. There's not even an inventory key. Instead, players have to dig through the main menu wheel to access any items they may have. And finally, there's no real thought required. Whenever a "puzzle" presents itself, solving it is usually only a matter of having the right items in your inventory to combine, which the game does for you automatically. Kona feels less like a dramatic mystery and more like a grade school filmstrip where the player is simply there to advance to the next frame.