Henry’s life of idleness changes when his town is burned and destroyed.
This might be the most realistic and difficult game I’ve ever played. I even used cheats and still couldn’t succeed. It’s very difficult.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance is a medieval RPG based on realism. You control Henry, a peasant no different from any other. You play as Henry, who knows neither how to use a sword nor possesses any skills. As you progress through the story, you witness the development of your character from nothing.
Story
Kingdom Come: Deliverance takes you to the Kingdom of Bohemia in 1403. Our main character Henry spends his life idly in his village. One day, while reluctantly helping his blacksmith father, their village is attacked by Sigismund and his army. The villagers and Henry try to take refuge in the castle, but Henry sees his father fighting to save his mother. Henry tries to help them, but his family is killed before he can reach them. As he tries to return to the castle, the gates close. The soldiers at the gate tell Henry to go to the town of Talmberg and warn them. Henry steals a horse and sets off. On the way, Sigismund’s soldiers find him and chase him until he reaches Talmberg. The lord of Talmberg listens to Henry and, as a precaution, forbids him from leaving the castle. However, Henry wants to return to his village to dig graves for his parents.
Henry needs to find a way to leave the castle. You can either persuade the guard to let you escape or find an opening to sneak out. The game offers a lot of variety in completing tasks, and since you control an ordinary peasant, you have to make use of these options. At the beginning of the game, Henry doesn’t even know how to use a sword, but you can turn him into a warrior if you want. Or you can rely on your persuasion skills to avoid fighting. It’s entirely up to you.
Gameplay
I generally tried to solve my problems by talking. Because the combat system of the game is really difficult. It has an attack and defense system similar to Mount & Blade. When you attack or defend, you give direction to your move. For example, if your opponent holds their shield on the left, you need to attack their right side. But you have to do this quickly, otherwise, your opponent can easily turn their shield to the right. We mentioned this in our Hellblade 2 review. Games are often a power fantasy for us. The enemies we face are usually much weaker than the character we control. But that’s not the case here. Most of the people you encounter are clearly stronger than you. So you die with the slightest mistake.
I tried to play the game with a cheat that allows you to one-shot all your opponents. But even this cheat didn’t make the game easy. Because I could barely attack the enemy. I draw my sword, just about to attack, and they immediately guard that direction. I draw my sword to attack the right side, then switch to the left at the last moment to make my opponent think I’m attacking the right. With the slightest timing mistake, they immediately guard themselves.
The developer of the game, Warhorse Studios, wanted to create a combat system that is easy to learn but hard to master. But they only succeeded in making it hard to master. If you’ve watched videos of the game, you might think the combat looks bad and boring. It really does look boring when you watch it, but when you play, it’s much more engaging because you’re fighting for survival. However, when the fights drag on, you start to get bored. Especially if you’re fighting multiple opponents, it takes minutes to defeat them, even with cheats. That’s why I tried to avoid combat as much as possible.
For example, in one mission, we had to infiltrate a castle. The game wanted me to neutralize the guards and pass through the gate. But I didn’t have the strength to do that. I caught one of the guards off guard and took his clothes. Then I walked up to the other guards. They were surprised to see a new face and started asking me questions. I said something like, “Why would I be here at this hour if I wasn’t sent for guard duty?” The guards were convinced and left their posts to rest. I proceeded easily.
There are generally four ways to solve problems in the game:
- You can persuade by talking. For this, you need to develop your character in this direction.
- You can deceive with charisma. For this, you need to dress in fancy clothes like noble attire.
- You can intimidate with strength. If your character is a warrior, most people will be afraid of you and do what you want.
- You can fight directly. You can also die easily.
However, the game offers many alternative ways within the missions. In another mission, a noble named Hans Capon asked me to enter a warehouse and get something. The warehouse belonged to his family, and he could easily get it himself, but he preferred to order a peasant. I went to the warehouse, but everything was locked. If you’ve developed your lockpicking skills, you can open the doors. If not, you need to find another way. I hadn’t developed my skills, so I needed another way. I went back and stole Hans Capon’s key. Then I went to the warehouse and opened the doors with the key. I took the item inside and returned. Hans Capon asked how I got into the warehouse. I told him I stole his key. Hans Capon liked my approach and told me to keep the key. After all, he could enter whenever he wanted, as everyone was at his command.
A More Detailed Look at the Combat System
Every move you make takes some of your stamina. So making quick moves is usually to your detriment. Taking damage and defending also consume stamina. You can hold your shield up all night as long as your stamina doesn’t run out. That’s why you need to make perfect defenses. When you make a perfect defense, no stamina is consumed, and you have a great opportunity to attack your opponent.
Atmosphere
The game has beautiful, realistic visuals. It is developed with the CryEngine game engine, known from the Crysis games. Even though the game is 6 years old, it still has graphics that would be acceptable today. The music is also very successful in reflecting the era you are in.
Cinematics
For some reason, I really liked the cinematics of the game. I took screenshots of almost every scene. When I finished the game, I had over 300 screenshots on Steam. There aren’t any extraordinary things happening in the cinematics, but the camera angles and cinematography look very nice. It feels like you’re watching a movie. Normally, we don’t see multiple storylines at the same time in games. We always see what happens to our character, but in the cutscenes, we also see what our enemies are doing on their own. This is something we don’t see in most games, and I really liked it.
Characters
I really liked the characters and their development in the game. I don’t remember seeing better character development in any other game. A small spoiler.
Normally, I don’t remember the names of side characters in the games I play or the movies and series I watch. But in this game, there are many memorable characters like Hans Capon, Sir Divish, Sir Radzig, and Captain Bernand.
The Director’s Influence
The director of Kingdom Come: Deliverance, Daniel Vávra, is also the director of Mafia 1 and 2. I want to talk about this. Let me warn you, I’m going to get into spoilers. If you’re thinking of playing Kingdom Come: Deliverance, I don’t recommend reading this.
Is Kingdom Come: Deliverance Worth Playing?
If you like RPG games, I definitely recommend checking it out. The realism of the game might be frustrating at first, but I still suggest giving it a chance. I first played the game 4-5 years ago with the free version of GeForce Now on my 6 mbit internet. Epic Games had given Kingdom Come: Deliverance for free, and I wanted to play it, but my computer at the time couldn’t run the game. So I tried playing it with GeForce Now. With my 6 mbit and very unstable internet, I played the game for 10 hours. Most of the time, my gaming experience was like watching a 5 fps 144p video on YouTube. It took me hours to get through the horse scene at the beginning of the game because I couldn’t see where I was going in the pixelated landscape. When I reached Rattay and started combat training, I had to quit the game. My internet was slow, and there was a lot of lag. It was impossible to play a game that doesn’t allow for mistakes with lag. I had to quit the game there. Time passed, and recently the game came to mind, so I started playing again. Now I’m writing these lines. I finished the game in 35 hours. I didn’t do many side quests and used fast travel as much as possible. With side quests and DLCs, you can easily play for 50-60 hours.
Watch this review in video format.