I recently played Kingdom Come: Deliverance. Let me get this out, right off the bat. I’m not a huge fan of Indy games. I prefer the sort of polish that that comes from huge AAA titles that have done their research, put massive team together and have generated a game with very little issue other than that of the hundreds of thousands of collective work hours to produce a title that engulfs you’re entire existence and makes you feel part of that world.
ESPECIALLY in a role-playing game. Let me say emphatically. This game is not polished. To the point where it sometimes caused me great frustration and some glitches that sometimes had me laughing in stitches.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance started as a crowd funded campaign which very quickly gained momentum due to the premise. An RPG game that takes place in real human history, in a civil war in Bohemia back in the 1400’s. No magic. No convoluted fantasy lore to understand. Just true-to-history medieval simulation.
Now granted, this didn’t sound very exciting to me. But I’ve always enjoyed titles that have taken a novel-esque approach to history like Assassins Creed. Having fallen out with Ubisoft due to personal views in video games, I’ve not played such a game in quite some time. So, I decided to give this a try especially since the marketing and gameplay demos for it was just rather damn impressive.
You are Henry. Knave, blacksmith’s apprentice, hapless pillock. And throughout the happenings in the story, you rise to nobility through a tragic tale of revenge, deception, love and all manner of fuckery you can get up to while pissed. I shit you not. While the game bares serious undertones its punctuated by moments that will have you cry-laughing and in these cases, it’s not glitching. Check out the video below and you’ll see what I mean:
Kingdom Come: Deliverance‘s game world is smart. its intuitive and reacts to every decision you make. Not just in the choices that alter the game’s story but how you act in public as well. If you’re an apparent booze-hound this will affect the way people in a certain town will view you. Conversations with the nobility become slightly more difficult and believe you me sometimes peaceful resolution is the better option because the combat system takes getting used to. But I digress and will come back to that later.
What you wear and what you say and what you do affects how the nobility and the common folk react to you in different ways. It’s not just a game of go to A do B return with X. You have to think about your actions and how they will affect you in the future while doing exactly that and there are different avenues both honest and nefarious and sometimes morally ambiguous that will make you think back and actually contemplate the occurences. That in its self is a marvel and one thing I’ll congratulate Warhorse Studios on building for Kingdom Come:Deliverance.
Right Combat…. I hated it…. Initially. But I’m not kidding in the title when i say this game is a simulator. You not only have to get better by improving stats. You actually have to use those skill in order to raise the corresponding stat. It reminds me a lot Of Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim in that regard. Which is nice. But this isn’t the only pillar to build your skills on.
The Kingdom Come: Deliverance combat system literally requires you to get better at it. Careful timing of guarding, riposting and learning combinations that were actually used in medieval martial arts at the time is the huge requirement. It takes time to “Git Gud” But man when you do, you feel like a sword master of note.
It feels fantastic guarding an attack at the last moment then, in the same movement sidestepping and sliding your longsword into the throat of your assailant. Or pummelling them in the face with your Spiked Warhammer. The game also requires you to consider your tactical situation.
Using a sword is not always appropriate. If your adversary is clad up to his eyeballs in plate Armor. You’d be better off with an axe, or a mace, or my personal favourite, a spiked Warhammer. Archery is just as difficult. There is no cursor to aim with. No retical. You need to literally learn to aim and get better at it. The complexities of the combat system require a thesis. But I shan’t bore you with those Kingdom Come: Deliverance details.
So, in conclusion: Yes. The game is glitchy. It has definitely gotten better with patching and will continue to get better in this regard. But honestly. This is the most fun and involving and consuming RPG I’ve played in some time.
The best since the Witcher III: Wild Hunt. Reminiscent of that game, I couldn’t help plunging into the final battle screaming “Plough the Lilies!” because that was the last time I had this much fun with an action RPG. The music is good, the voice acting is great (with the exception of Sir Hanush and a few random NPC’s) and this is a game that will just be fantastic to get lost in if you’re in to any sort of RPG.
I applaud what Warhorse has done with this game and it’s good to know that RPG as a genre is still evolving. Efforts like this solidify my love for the genre and I’m really happy I sunk 86 Hours of my time into it.
Score: I would score Kingdom Come: Deliverance an 8. But the glitches that sometimes broke saves really pissed me off. Naturally in time with patching this game will earn that 8 But right now I’ll give it a 7.
