Kiln review – Double Fine do multiplayer

The creators of Psychonauts and Keeper turn their hand to online multiplayer, with a very weird team game where you play as handcrafted water pots.

As the internet’s got faster and more reliable, and the world’s got more connected, multiplayer games have tracked its rise. Starting on PC, and with Xbox’s help moving to consoles and eventually mobile, they’re now enjoyed by every demographic, from grandmothers playing Texas Hold ‘Em to school children crowding out Fortnite. They’ve become a place to compete, co-operate, and socialise.

Most competitive online games let you choose from a range of characters, all of whom are either perfectly equal, their differences purely cosmetic, or constitute a more varied roster with a balanced set of strengths and weaknesses, that’s carefully metered to make each round of the game fair. That all goes out of the window in asymmetric games, which pit a single, incredibly powerful player against a flock of underpowered challengers. But rarely do multiplayer games give you as much free reign as Kiln, which lets you personally create the clay pots you fight as.

In its pottery-themed 4v4 battles, each team defends a flaming kiln while trying to douse the opponent’s base in water, extinguishing its flames. To do that, each player controls a spirit that inhabits a clay pot, hermit crab-style. Once in the pot, they can run about the game’s cramped, chaotic arenas, first in search of smashable water jugs or fountains, then once topped up, heading for the enemy kiln.

During each round your time’s split between trying to prevent enemies getting any water into your kiln’s firey mouth and attacking theirs. Although arenas are small, they’re filled with level furniture, much of which is in constant motion, making the action both dynamic and frenetic. You also have to deal with the physics of running around while keeping as much water as possible in your pot.

Each clay vessel has three ways to strike opponents, which are in order of power: basic, jumping, and special attacks. Specials take precedence over ordinary attacks, but take time to charge up, during which you’re vulnerable. And even though jumping attacks are slightly more powerful, they also involve slopping precious water if your jug’s full when you strike.

When you’re on the receiving end you can simply run in the opposite direction but under prolonged assault you can also roll, either briefly or for as long as there’s an unobstructed path. Naturally, that means you lose your entire load of water, but if you’ve already taken damage it’s a useful last resort to get yourself out of trouble.

The shape and size of pot you make informs its function in your team. Small capacity means higher health, and vice versa, so generally you want your largest urns gathering water and hurling it into the enemy kiln, while smaller more robust crockery defends them and your home kiln. To add flexibility to that process, you can sculpt your own pots, three of which you can store on a shelf for use during battle, optionally switching when you respawn.

The process of actually sculpting new pots is wonderfully intuitive in its use of the left stick to pull virtual cartoon hands around your blob of clay as it spins on the potter’s wheel. Dragging left or right extends the bowl outwards, while moving vertically raises or lowers its top. The stats for each of your handmade ceramic masterpieces are shown as a slider with volume of water on one side and health on the other. The larger the capacity, the more easily destructible it will be.

In the game’s frantic showdowns you’ll often spot the other team using tactics that can be rebuffed by switching to other pot designs, either to get aggressive with their large volume water carrying attempts, or to take advantage of negligent defence to pour as much fluid as possible into their kiln while they’re distracted.

The size and shape of your pot also governs its special move. These include a tornado spin for top heavy pots, sword thrusts for tall thin ones, aimed strikes for medium vases, and a bullhorn that knocks back enemies in its cone of noise for trumpet-shaped creations. Some are undoubtedly a lot more useful than others, but as with all multiplayer offerings, tweaks, additions, and new content are likely to iron out any initial kinks.

Between competitive matches, there’s a hub area where you can sculpt and fire new pots, buy cosmetic upgrades from a friendly dog called Slip, and kick about a beachball or two should you feel so inclined. It’s all very much in keeping with Kiln’s sense of fun and silliness, in a game that’s more concerned with entertainment than the rigours of serious competition.

For younger potters there’s a moderated mode where everyone’s crockery is represented by a preset styling for small, medium, and large pots, preventing any of the game’s more phallic designs from polluting impressionable minds. It has no effect on gameplay, although it does mean you won’t be able to see anyone else’s way-out decorative approaches, whose more outlandish options are unlocked as you level up.

It’s fun, even if most rounds tend to feel a bit shapeless, descending rapidly into brawls, depending on how organised the other team is. It’s a perennial issue with online games unless you’re playing with a tight knit group of friends, and adds a familiar if unwelcome random factor to proceedings.

Given the nature of online games, Kiln is likely to change considerably as Double Fine add new arenas and improve interactions. As it stands it should be an instant download for anyone with Game Pass and a free couple of hours. For everyone else, it’s a chunk of delightfully offbeat knockabout fun. It will be interesting to see how it evolves over its first few months in the wild.

Formats: Xbox Series X/S (reviewed), PlayStation 5, and PC
Price: £15.99
Publisher: Xbox Game Studios
Developer: Double Fine
Release Date: 23rd April 2026
Age Rating: 7

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