In a dark, Neolithic world, a young caveman’s tribe is attacked by cannibalistic Na-Ush, leading him on a stealth journey to venture deep into their territory and rescue a woman named Ginna. Kiipluu is an action-adventure survival game that favors sneaking and strategy over brute force, as the Na-ush vastly outnumber our main character, Kiipluu. Developed by NIEKO, the demo gives us a peak into the beginning of Kiipluu’s adventure, and how difficult it will be.

Survive and Stay Hidden

The developers waste no time introducing you to a core concept: You must outsmart the Na-Ush in order to survive. If a Na-Ush spots you, its kill on sight. Kiipluu can sneak up behind Na-Ush to take them down, use the environment against them, or set traps. If you enter into combat with a Na-Ush, Kiipluu can only take a handful of hits (if not just one) before he’s killed.

The stealth system is fairly thought-out, which is good considering it’s the main draw of the game. When a Na-Ush begins to spot Kiipluu, an auditory cue will play, increasing the closer the Na-Ush is to discovering you. Though this cue very quicky created a panic response in me, it was helpful when navigating around multiple Na-Ush.

Theoretically, bushes can hide you. But not all bushes do, and I wasn’t always able to discern which ones triggered the hidden status and which ones didn’t, even if they visibly seemed to be dense enough. Also, theoretically, dark areas are safer to creep around in than well-lit areas, which is a common feature in many games. However, distant Na-Ush often spotted me when I was in darkened areas, so I’m not sure how that aspect of the game is supposed to work.

I found that several core mechanics, such as hiding, I had to learn via trial and error early on. The tutorial wasn’t super thorough on the sneaking aspect of Kiipluu, which is the main strategy the player is encouraged to use.

Harsh Consequences

If Kiipluu gets caught, get ready for a lot of dodging. Combat is manageable if it’s a one-on-one fight, but if several enemies sworn Kiipluu, the only chance of survival is to escape. The combat mechanics are standard: you just swing, block, or dodge. The difficult part is that the Na-Ush hit hard. Kiipluu is apparently very squishy.

Prayer totems act as checkpoints to save progress. These checkpoints are sparsely placed throughout the map, so if Kiipluu perishes, you’ll likely have to repeat long stretches of sneaking and strategizing. I likely wouldn’t have gotten past a very early section if a Na-Ush hadn’t gotten stuck on a curtain, allowing me to peacefully beat him to death.

Is there a story to be told?

Immediately when launching the demo, the conflict is presented: Na-Ush have attacked Kiipluu’s tribe, taking many tribespeople (including Ginna) hostage. According to the store page, we’ll receive more story in the full game as Kiipluu receives spirit visions, some regarding his father.

In terms of story, Kiipluu‘s is pretty sparse at first. Of course, there is nothing inherently wrong with the focus being more on the gameplay, with bits of story sprinkled in. But I’d like the demo to present a stronger hook. One of the main tags on the store page is “story rich,” but it doesn’t seem that way to me.

By the way, you may have noticed that I’ve offered very little information on Ginna, the main motivator for Kiipluu’s adventure. The reason for that is simple: I have absolutely no idea who she is. A girlfriend? Sister? A chick that owes him money?

Kiipluu‘s demo left me with more questions than that. Who are the Anki? We know the checkpoints are Anki prayer totems, but what do they believe? Who is Kiipluu? Who are the Na-Ush?

Again, there is nothing wrong with a sparse story. If all the plot the developers want to establish is that a large violent tribe has attacked an underdog tribe, leaving a lone young man to rescue a loved one, then they have achieved that goal. Personally, the lack of backstory led to a lack of motivation in me to wrestle through the checkpoints.

Final Thoughts

Despite my confusion with the story and struggles with sneaking, I can tell that Kiipluu is a labor of love, and it has promise. It’s designed to be a challenge that encourages strategy, and it achieves that goal.

Part of the difficulty I had was also in some lack of instructions in the tutorial. It explains certain mechanics, but I had no idea I could use bushes to hide until I just happened to sneak through one and noticed the world went gray. It’s not unheard of for games to have lighter tutorials, if any at all. Keeping this in mind, the developers don’t need a thorough tutorial, especially if they’re aiming for this to be more of a hardcore game. But, considering that Kiipluu does have a brief tutorial, my own personal preference is to have one that encompasses the core sneaking mechanics early on.

With the adventure/survival genre so saturated with games similar to this one, I’d like the demo to have a strong opening hook to help Kiipluu stand out. Since the game is so difficult, leading to repeated deaths in between checkpoints, players are more likely to quit before getting to any kind of story at all. If the developers want Kiipluu to be story-rich, the plot should grab the player’s attention as soon as they start the demo. Then, they’ll be more likely to invest time to see where Kiipluu and Ginna’s fates lie. I’m interested to see if future updates to the demo will refine the beginning of the game even further.

Kiipluu was a part of Steam Next Fest: February 2026. As of publication, the demo is still available. The game’s release date has yet to be announced.

Read all of our coverage in our Steam Next Fest February 2026 page.