Kona II: Brume emerges from the mist

• Announcements by Jack Allin
• Published:

Sequel to 2017 first-person mystery in rural Northern Canada available now on PC and consoles

In 2017, indie developer Parabole sent players into the frozen climes of Northern Québec, Canada for an eerie investigative mystery called Kona (with a VR version arriving the following year). It's taken us nearly this long to thaw out from that one, but it's time to bundle up again as the sequel has just arrived on PC and consoles, called Kona II: Brume.

As with the first game, this one is set in the early 1970s and thrusts players directly into the shoes of war veteran-turned-private detective Carl Faubert. Although there's plenty of deadly cold and snow to contend with once again, it's the titular "brume" causing most of the problems this time. A French word meaning "mist," this strange, all-encompassing fog is "disconnecting a rural mining village from its quiet reality and disrupting the balance of nature." To discover its source and hopefully find a way to lift it, you must "search for clues in wooden shacks, visit nearby locations on your trusty dog sled and navigate the surrounding lakes." It won't be easy, as the stakes are life and death, and along the way you may just come to "discover that [you're] not entirely alone."

Kona II follows a very similar pattern as its predecessor, with a focus on first-person 3D exploration, investigation and survival. An omniscient narrator will recount the protagonist's experiences in the fictional land of Manastan, but the details you'll fill in yourself as you uncover "objects, letters and documents" that shine more light on the mystery occurring here. Your detective skills will be put to the test, so you will need to "follow your clues and findings very carefully," keeping track of what you discover in Carl's journal. But so too will your surivalist skills, as you'll face "a bitter cold blizzard, dangerous wildlife, and troubling nightmares" that must be overcome if you're to live to tell the tale.

If you're up for an eerie winter wilderness adventure, you can get started right away, as Kona II: Brume is available now on Steam for Windows and Linux, along with console versions for PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch platforms.