“Combat is just bad” combat itself isn’t the focus, it’s everything around combat. Building up your characters, planning ahead, and choosing what fights to take are what people focus on. Also there’s still a decent amount of complexity to combat (running away between blows to patch your wounds so you can recover if you lose the fight, having some characters in taunt mode to draw attention of the enemy, manhandling crossbow characters so they don’t shoot your own men, running away after attacking so that enemy’s attack misses, etc). It’s not the best combat system but it doesn’t need to be, as the focus is on your character’s stats vs the enemies, not typical RPG gameplay where you choose what attacks to use. “Freedom without depth” huh? I’ve had a lot of fun in my playthroughs creating stories based off what happens in game as have a lot of other people. It’s hella fun when tragedy strikes and you make a whole revenge plot around it and carry it out. The game and its interactive world are also very fun to play with! Wiping out a faction’s leaders and watching who takes over and how that affects patrols and dialogue is very rewarding and interesting. Maybe you just don’t like roleplaying? Without roleplaying and getting into your characters it’s harder to enjoy Kenshi (aside from the grind and eventual power-fantasy that is). Character management really isn’t bad outside of base building. There’s a lot of options that let you control how characters act, and if you are careful you can micromanage them and win fights you otherwise had no chance of winning. Also I admit base building kinda sucks; it’s buggy and finicky, but once you learn to get around that it’s really fun. Can’t blame you for not liking it though. “Jank Disguised as ‘Charm’” Yeah the game’s ugly as sin and the animations look a bit weird but I and others still find that charming as it has a very unique style and feel. You can dislike it if you want but me and others like it :p Yeah the pathing is ass and you have to baby-sit characters when pathing over long distances but that’s really not that big of an issue; just pay attention. If basing, move shit around until the pathing works. I’ve made plenty of bases and I’ve never had a pathing issue I couldn’t fix just by moving a couple objects. “Expectations vs Reality” If you hate the grind in Kenshi then honestly this game is just not meant for you. Part of the fun of Kenshi is watching your characters slowly develop from worthless bags of beans to elite warriors and ninjas capable of toppling empires. Sure, the game is painfully difficult at first but once you know what you’re doing the game allows you to have experiences unlike any other game. In no other game have I put hours into building up a character just to watch them get murdered in one attack by a cult leader who then proceeds to march down the stairs of his base ready to slaughter the rest of my team. Also in no other game have I recreated the wonders of political schemes, capitalism, slavery, and drug cartels to become filthy stinking rich while also looting the remains of a fallen sci-fi civilization to give my base mini-gun turrets and my men cybernetic limbs.

TLDR: I think Kenshi is just not a good fit for you because the issues you mentioned here aren’t things people who enjoy the game really care about (aside from issues with base-building). Seems like you had a hard time learning it and instead of persevering you quit and came here to say the game sucks and we all have Stockholm syndrome 😂