Snowy detective survival game Kona gets a March release date

Prepare to get lost in a blizzard in Northern Canada as Kona revs up its engine to release next month. Also, a new trailer introducing the game’s story.

Ah, March. The month of frolicking under the spring sun, watching flowers bloom, pretending you’re in an arthouse film set in the French countryside. But also, the month of cowering in a cabin in the middle of a blizzard and piecing together clues. That’s right—it turns out that Kona is releasing on 17th March across all the consoles it’s been announced for: PC, Mac, Linux, Xbox One and PS4.

Kona puts you in the shoes of a detective driving out to a cabin in Northern Canada to investigate a case of vandalism. Things get complicated really quickly, and then there are wolves, and a blizzard, and perhaps… something even more deadly? Like the ghost of a lumberjack demanding to know the latest hockey score, eh? But no, a better introduction to the game’s interactive story you shall probably find the trailer below.

Kona looks really polished, and while survival games may be dime a dozen, the prospect of a story intrigues me, particularly seeing as the setting is Canada. The country might have a burgeoning games industry, but there’s shockingly few games that actually use Canada as a setting.

You can already fulfil your fantasies of suspenseful wintry survival by playing the game in its Early Access form over at Steam or GOG.com. Of course, with the release right around the metaphorical, temporal corner, you’d might as well wait and get the full, final experience. That’s what I’d do.

Kona is being developed by dev studio Parabole. The developers are themselves Canadian and based in Quebec, so I expect there to be quite a bit of authenticity on offer. Have a look at the game’s official website.