In 2023, I don't believe there are many people with even a passing interest in video games who'd question the medium's transformative power. This year alone, the likes of Baldur's Gate 3, Alan Wake 2, Marvel's Spider-Man 2, and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom have showcased the very best in video game narratives, across a wide range of platforms, genres and storytelling methods. With the utmost respect to more traditional forms of media – film, TV, books, and radio, for example – video games are, without laboring an obvious point, unique in their scope for storytelling, simply because they put you into the protagonist's shoes; wherein their stories cannot progress without your input.
Tales of Kenzera: Zau not only epitomizes all of the above, but it is a story unto itself. It's the debut video game project of Surgent Studios, a transmedia outfit founded by actor Abubakar Salim, whose name you may recognise among the credits in everything from Sky One series Jamestown, to HBO Max's Raised by Wolves, Ridley Scott's historical blockbuster Napoleon, and Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror. If you played Assassin's Creed Origins, you'll know Salim as lead character Bayek of Siwa, a role that bagged him a BAFTA Breakthrough Brit award, and ultimately inspired him to form his own development studio and create his first video game.
