Kingdom Come: Deliverance is one of the most immersive and detailed RPGs in quite a while, all without typical embellishments like dragons, magic, and overpowered characters. While performance hangups and pacing issues weigh down the game at times like a traveler overencumbered with too much baggage, the brighter points the realistic game boasts shine through the blood and muck of medieval Bohemia.
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The game starts by introducing Henry, a welcome shift in RPG protagonists who persisted as one of Kingdom Come: Deliverance’s most refreshing features even after investing hours and hours into the game. Set up by cutscenes, conversations, and startup quests, we meet Henry, the son of a blacksmith with big ambitions for a brighter future outside his town walls. While running around to perform menials grab-and-go tasks, the quest takes a backseat to the brilliant world that is Bohemia. Bright-eyed and ready to explore just like Henry, players will probably spend the most of the first few hours getting acquainted with townspeople and testing the limits of how much Henry can get away with, a perfect way to ease players into the rough, realistic world that waits ahead.
The sheer level of immersion that Kingdom Come: Deliverance offers is staggering, as it should be with the game touting an unheard of level of realism. Hunger, cleanliness, and other factors were constantly on my mind when playing, features that can’t be ignored if you want to have full control over your experience. It feels like a game where the hardcore mode is always on, an attractive or frustrating feature depending on preference, but it allows for absolute control over Henry.
A downside to this though is the length of time spent in menus or planning a new adventure. After every fight, fast travel, or completed quest, players can’t simply dive into the next venture without proper preparation. Henry has to be fed to keep his stats up, cleaned to achieve a better chance at speech challenges, and well-rested to continue his journey. Keeping track of all this can be tedious at times with a feeling like the game is being frequently paused, but that’s part of the tradeoff of investing so much into realism.
Similar to the more detailed character management, the way that players are guided to quests may be conflicting for some. Quests often send Henry to general areas with map markers offering suggestions of where to look, and from there, it’s up to the player to do some medieval super-sleuthing to complete quests. It’s a welcome change from simply fast-travelling to different locations and knocking out quests with no memory of your journey and only the end reward in sight.
Despite the emphasis the game puts on quests, some challenges can feel like an absolute drag to complete. Realism comes in here as a double-edged sword and shows that there’s a reason why many games opt for fantasy elements like magic and supernatural foes. Some of the quests that Henry embarks on are fairly mundane and are weighed down by too-long load times into conversations and the constant need to double-check resources before embarking on the next leg of the journey. The game’s pacing problems become apparent here when performing the main quests along with side missions that are plentiful despite not always being the most engaging tasks. It’s lulls in the pace like these that will make players put down the game for a while before returning to medieval Bohemia after replenishing their own stats.
One feature in particular that had me scratching my head was the save system, a feature that involves either sleeping in an owned bed or drinking a special beverage called saviour schnapps. The drink is expensive unless players can craft it themselves, and drinking the alcoholic beverage to save the game results in Henry falling under the normal effects that would follow the consumption of such a drink, thus affecting his ability to go on whatever adventure you have planned. The game does save periodically, but those are few and far between and make it immensely frustrating to die or encounter a game-breaking bug while not knowing exactly where you’ll start at. This controversial save system is already being addressed in future patches, but in a game that boasts such realism and control over the experience, it’s difficult to imagine why it was added in the first place.
But one area where Kingdom Come: Deliverance truly shines is the game’s insanely well-built combat system. With a full star of directions to attack and block from and a range of meticulously detailed medieval weaponry coupled with armors that support all types of playstyles, I relished every fight, no matter how difficult, as a way to further master the combat system.
The combat will frustrate players in the beginning and will punish those that don’t treat it with the respect it deserves, but it’s far too rewarding to shy away from battles. Combat in Kingdom Come: Deliverance is an intricate, bloody dance where every move is calculated and every blow comes crashing down on players and enemies alike. Getting hit even a few times feels devastating while Henry’s stamina depletes, blood splashes, and attacks result in disorienting movements, but every fight feels like an immense victory with a decision at the end regarding what to do with each opponent to add to the role-playing immersion. The amount of armor and clothing that players can equip also make it feel like every decision matters when choosing between being light on your feet or heavily armored for a fight, each tactic not without advantages and disadvantages.
When you’re not caving opponents’ heads, in, Bohemia is quite beautiful as well. Lush landscapes and realistic towns make every trip feel like a scenic experience, even if everything you trudge across is covered in grime and filth. Bohemia feels like home worth exploring.
Crawling under all of these outwardly attractive features are bugs, bugs, and more bugs, though. Nearly everywhere you look when exploring Bohemia, you’ll encounter a bug. Whether it’s a horse getting stuck in a certain area, a conversation between player and NPC facing the wrong way or clipping characters into object or each other, the immersion is frequently broken by the reminder that you’re playing a game, and a buggy one at that. These issues can be taken care of with future patches, but they’re too difficult to ignore at the moment and probably won’t be completely cleared up anytime soon.
After spending hours upon hours in Kingdom Come: Deliverance, it’s clear that the game has a lot going for it and should be considered a great success for Warhorse Studios as a modest Kickstarter project that came to fruition. It certainly won’t be for everyone, but those who want a more intense RPG challenge will relish in the opportunity that the game extends. Players might become frustrated at times when playing through bugs and slow parts of Kingdom Come: Deliverance, but it’s a game that will keep drawing players back in to unearth more of Medieval Bohemia and will hopefully inspire a second playthrough after completion.
WWG’s Score: 3.5/5
