Game Review: Kauil’s Treasure (Xbox One)

A super-simple adventure-puzzle game, Kauil’s Treasure drops you in the role of an Indiana Jones style father named Dr. Goodfall who is searching for his teenage daughter. His search taking him to dangerous and ancient temples where puzzles will need to be solved and the rotten souls of Kauil’s minions will need to be dealt with.

From publishers Jandusoft, Kauil’s Treasure is a low-poly, short experience that could be fun if it wasn’t for some fundamental flaws that detract from the overall experience.

Forget the story. It’s there but hardly important. So much so that after watching the intro I presumed Dr. Goodfall was searching for his wife or girlfriend and not his daughter. Aside from the intro and finale, there is nothing to suggest that there is a story here at all. Instead, the focus is on adventuring gameplay.

Played from the third-person perspective but from a ‘sort of’ bird’s eye view. Controlling Dr. Goodfall is super simple as he can jump, push blocks, carry items and use his whip at certain specific points to progress. This might be called a ‘puzzle’ adventure but there’s very little puzzling here. Most just require you to find a certain item and place it in a certain spot and almost always, the item you need is very close by. There are 6 areas/levels in total and they vary in difficulty and length. Some can be breezed through in a matter of minutes; a couple require a little more work and deft skills when it comes to platforming.

Although, those skills are mainly needed to get around the game’s issues.

Issues like bad camera angles, iffy jumping mechanics, items disappearing through the floor meaning you have to restart the level, frustrating one hit deaths and more. Although dying is hardly a problem as restarts are instant and put you exactly where you left off. So, what’s the point of even dying aside from linking it to an achievement?

All of these complaints and the lack of any real substance to the game makes it a miss even if it is cheap. Achievement hunters will find it an easy completion though.