Kudos 2 review (PC)

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It’s impressive how games allow people everywhere to experience things – at least without danger - otherwise out of their reach, and yet ultimately revert back to imitating the very thing that they were designed to distract you from. Games like Fable, The Sims or even Second Life, for example, pose a strong emphasis on integration into a world in which material propagation and commerce play an integral role in your character’s progression through the story.

These types of games aren’t impressive because they give the player the ability to recreate their own lives; it’s the simulation of the opportunity to make choices they would never consider in reality that makes them alluring.

They can’t, of course, give you an understanding of how that relationship you ended in year ten of High School would have played out had you not buckled under the pressure of premature commitment, but they do allow you to adopt a different perspective on your life – or at least facetiously emulate your own experiences. If I hadn’t studied writing I expect I would’ve entered the field of science, and the fact you can give your digital creation such opportunities is rewarding in itself, but there’s something inherently depressing about moulding what you perceive to be a perfect form of yourself.

Shaping Life
Kudos 2’s level of character customisation pales in comparison to games like, well, Fable, The Sims or Second Life. It’s the epitome of basic, allowing only a few variants on hair and clothes - the most important aspects of social acceptance in real life. It’s not that big a deal since your appearance in the game has no discernible effect on your experience, but the lack of variety negates the whole character customisation aspect all together because it’s frightfully obvious how finite it is.

Nonetheless, Kudos 2 is more about management than cosmetics. The main objective is to lead your character in to a healthy, happy life through learning, socialising and working. The activities are obviously not as involving as the real life equivalent, but it’s surprising how enjoyable it is to navigate through the many, many options in pursuit of the greatest outcome.

Each activity in which you partake has an effect on your character’s statistics. Naturally, activities like socialising increase your charisma and exercise increases your fitness, but there’s a much broader spectrum of stats to deal with. What really ramps up the challenge is how you’re only able to do one activity per evening as your day is consumed with work. At the weekends you have more freedom to do what you want, but you’re still plagued with the decision of exactly what to do; with whom and whether it’s really going to benefit you.

Balanced Lifestyle
A delicate balance is required, and if you’re going to remain happy and successful you need to juggle your daily activities, lest you become a loser with no friends, a crap job and no money – which, strangely, would still be fun on some level. If you’re prosperous in keeping it all together, you are rewarded with the chance to advance on to greater pursuits: Consistent good work gains you promotions, successful socialising increases your range of friends – and occasionally lady friends, and attending night classes allows you to secure greater paying jobs with better prospects.

At first it’s frightfully easy. The days whizz by at the click of a mouse and you’re making more friends than you know what to do with, but once you break past the initial drag, maybe getting a promotion or two, or completing a course, the pace picks up and the pressure is increased to think about every click. This is where Kudos 2 makes its mark.

Oddly, the fact you can’t explore the world you inhabit quite in the same way as Second Life, doesn’t work against the game. In fact, I found enjoyment with Kudos 2 because I could run it in window mode, chat to my friends online and pop back to it whenever I felt like it. Its smooth, 2D interface won’t play havoc with your machine and so it will plod along in the background until you’re ready to play another day. And if you turn off the appropriate but annoying background music, you won’t even know it’s there until it’s time for your evening class.

Kudos Indeed
I feel like, in explaining Kudos 2’s functionality, I’m simply regurgitating one of the lectures my Dad used to give me when I was an aimless adolescent: work hard, play hard and life will work out for you. But it’s really quite an apt approach to the game. Positech’s contribution isn’t deep or complex enough to contest with the genre’s greater offerings, and while that will be off putting for some, there’s still plenty on offer. I’ve consistently found it remarkable how a mundane activity in real life somehow becomes invigorating when it’s on screen, and so buying a newspaper or feeding your dog is confusingly exciting, but it has been captured very well in this title. If you want a casual, non-life-consuming life simulation game that will run on just about everything but your wristwatch, Kudos 2 is for you.