From what I’ve seen, REKA does look good. It’s a cozy, single-player story game where you build and decorate a walking house on chicken legs, and it left Early Access on 26 October with 83% of its 1,976 English Steam reviews positive (Steam). It looks like something I would enjoy, but I think I would lose my patience with how cozy it is.
What is REKA?
REKA is a single-player third-person adventure from Emberstorm Entertainment, published by Fireshine Games and Shochiku. You play Reka, a young witch you create yourself, apprenticed to the witch Baba Jaga, and you wander a world of Slavic folk tales in a walking, chicken-legged cottage (Steam).
There’s no combat. The game is built around building, decorating, foraging, brewing potions, cooking and gentle quests. The story is written by Rhianna Pratchett, who wrote Tomb Raider and BioShock Infinite (Gematsu).
Is REKA a story game or a crafting game?
REKA is a story game and a crafting game at once, and that was my first question about it. You meet villagers, take on quests and choose whether your powers help or harm the people and creatures you meet. Steam calls it “a story steeped in authentic Slavic mythology.”
The building is the other half. You start with a humble wooden room and turn it into a multi-storey home full of clutter, trinkets and furniture, and you can befriend cats, foxes and other animals to live in it. The 1.0 update added five new building materials, birch, spruce, beech, pine and clay, and lets you build at angles (Gematsu).
Is the REKA walking house Baba Yaga’s?
The REKA walking house kind of looks like the home of the folklore character who lived in something like that: Baba Yaga. In Slavic folklore she lives deep in the forest in a hut with chicken legs, and she flies around in a wooden mortar (Wikipedia).
In REKA she’s your teacher. The game spells her name Baba Jaga, you’re her apprentice, and you learn the old ways from her while you build your own chicken-legged house. So it’s not her hut you’re living in, but it’s the same idea.
Is REKA a good game?
REKA looks real interesting to me, and Steam players rate it highly: its English reviews are Very Positive, with 83% of 1,976 positive, and 87% of the 149 reviews from the last 30 days are positive. When I checked today, 1,128 people were playing it on Steam (Steam).
It got award nominations too. REKA was a 2023 gamescom award nominee in five categories: Best PC Game, Best Visuals, Best Audio, Most Anticipated Game and the Critics Choice Award. The laurels are on its Steam page.
Why would REKA’s coziness put me off?
REKA’s coziness is the part I’m not sure about. It looks like something I would enjoy, but I think I would lose my patience with how cozy it is. That’s kind of what draws me away from Stardew Valley, which I do have a lot of hours in, and other games in that vein.
The coziness and the no pressure just aren’t for me, because there isn’t any fail state. You just don’t have money and can’t do the things you want to do. There’s no hard punishment. That’s on purpose in REKA: its Steam page promises an adventure “free from danger or pressure.”
The building looks really nice. But again, there’s no threat, so it’s more in line with how my girlfriend plays, where she cheats in The Sims to be able to make a nice-looking house. I don’t have a pressure mechanic forcing me to build a certain way. I can have fun building in a decorative, grandiose way sometimes, but at other points it just gets too much to keep going like that.
For comparison, the base-building games I’ve written about here come with a threat attached: the hordes in 7 Days to Die and the raids in RimWorld.
Is REKA worth $12.99?
REKA at $12.99 seems pretty good to me. That seems fairly reasonable for the house, the chicken legs and the building. That price is a launch deal, though: it’s 35% off the normal $19.99 until 7 November (Steam).
There’s also a free REKA demo on Steam, so you can find out whether the coziness gets to you before you pay.
Is REKA still in Early Access?
REKA isn’t in Early Access any more. It launched in Early Access on 12 September 2024, and Fireshine announced in June that it would leave Early Access on 18 August (Gematsu). Steam now lists the full release as 26 October 2026.
It’s out on PC through Steam. When Fireshine announced the full release, it was for PC via Steam, and Steam lists Windows only, so there’s no Switch or Xbox version to buy right now.
FAQ
Is REKA still in Early Access?
No. REKA left Early Access on 26 October 2026, after launching in Early Access on 12 September 2024.
Is REKA on Switch?
No. REKA is on PC through Steam, and Steam lists Windows only.
Does REKA have combat?
No. REKA is combat-free: it’s about building, decorating, foraging, brewing potions and gentle quests.
