Kingdom Come: Deliverance is an open world action role-playing game that was released on the 13th February 2018 and is available to play on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC. It was developed by Warhorse Studios and published by Deep Silver. The game has a focus on historically accurate content and is set in the medieval kingdom of Bohemia, which is under the control of the Holy Roman Empire. Kingdom Come: Deliverance is played in the first-person perspective and is a single-player story-focused game.
In Kingdom Come: Deliverance you play as a young man named Henry from a mining town called Skalitz. Henry is the son of the town blacksmith, and he lives with his mother and father. He is a typical young lad that seeks adventure, and he enjoys chasing girls, getting into mischief with his friends and drinking a few ales at ye olde tavern. One morning, Henry wakes up to his mother telling him off for staying in bed late and for being out late the night before. On the instruction of his mother, he gets up and goes to see his father to run some errands. Henry’s father has been commissioned to create a beautiful and magnificent sword for Sir Radzig Kobyla, who is the hetman of King Wenceslaus. When you complete the errands around town, you return to Henry’s father and help him make the finishing touches to the sword. Sir Radzig shows up to have a quick look at the sword you helped create and returns to his castle. Shortly after Sir Radzig leaves, an army of Cuman soldiers appear on a hill top nearby under the orders of Sigismund of Luxembourg. The soldiers attack and raid Skalitz, killing every person that does not flee. You take the sword made for Sir Radzig and try to save your parents, but you are too late. You then flee and barely escape with your life. After escaping the mayhem at Skalitz, you jump on a horse and ride to the nearest town called Talmberg to warn them of what has happened.
From there your main goal is to seek revenge for your parents and build up your skills and armor. You aim to show that you are worthy of being a soldier under the command of Sir Radzig in the fight against Sigismund’s army. The skill system in Kingdom Come: Deliverance is personalised. You choose the skills you think will be most beneficial to your type of character out of the options you are given. You have the options of building a character that is either upfront and brutal, sneaky and stealthy or defensive and cautious. Some skills that you choose will be completely beneficial, and some will have a bit of a downside, so make sure your read them carefully before making your choices. The dialogue for the game is also dependent on what you choose, and abilities and stats grow depending on what you do and say. During some conversations, the time you take to answer is limited and can have an effect on your relationship with others. Kingdom Come: Deliverance also features a need-based system. Things like sleeping and eating will be key to keeping yourself healthy. Equipment and clothing also degrade over time and will need to be repaired. Perishable items and food will spoil and rot over time as well.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance is extremely fun to play. You become absolutely captured by the brilliant storyline and find yourself being emotionally connected to the characters, especially after everything poor Henry has to go through. One of the great features in the game is that the dialogue can be very funny, and you can be as honourable or as sleazy as you choose to be. You can be a law abiding citizen, or you can just steal and sell absolutely everything you can get your hands on. You can also spend your time just knocking everybody out and taking all of their stuff. Henry can be quite sarcastic, especially when it comes to having conversations with Lord Hans Capon. There is a scene within the game that I found to be particularly hilarious. If you have played the game, then you will know what I am referring to. Let’s just say this scene involves ale, poor judgment, a couple of maidens, sheep and a very questionable priest. On a more serious note, Kingdom Come: Deliverance is also elegant and entertaining. The combat has a bit of a learning curve, but once you get the hang of it, then it can be pretty straightforward. The surroundings and landscapes are beautiful, and it feels and plays as if it is historically accurate. The world of Kingdom Come: Deliverance is what I always imagined the early 15th century would have been like.
There are two main flaws within the game, the first being the loading times and glitch issues. There are side quests in the game that are bugged and that I have been unable to complete because of an infinite loading screen whenever I try to complete them. There are also the odd occasions where I will run into a shop and the trader’s head is missing or, as I run through a town, people’s faces and other body parts are missing. The initial loading screen when starting up the game also takes an extremely long time. I am absolutely certain these issues will be resolved and addressed with a patch and update from Warhorse Studios. The second issue I have found with this game is that the lock picking system is overly difficult. It seems as though the lock picking system has been built more for people that will be playing on a PC as it is much simpler on a PC than on a games console. Throughout the whole time I have played Kingdom Come: Deliverance, I have not successfully picked a single lock, and it is very frustrating.
Overall, Kingdom Come: Deliverance is a great game. It has a few teething problems within the loading screens, bugged quests and glitches, but other than that, it is fun, captivating and challenging. The graphics, surroundings and landscapes are beautifully made, and there is a very historical feel to the whole game. There are high points and low points in the game that help the player build an emotional connection to main character Henry.
Developer: Warhorse Studios
Publisher: Deep Silver
Platform: Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC
Release Date: 13th February 2018