Kingdom Come: Deliverance (2018)

200 Hours

.....or near enough.

I don't normally sink so many hours into a game, but this one kept puling me back for more. I played nearly every side quest, main quest and some DLC as well. I explored the map nearly to completion, dove into brewing, repairing, grinding, fighting, stealing, lockpicking and seducing. The game has a satisfying depth to it.

The Positive

There is so much to love about this game. The Main Quest takes you through an epic journey filled with big battles, political intrigue, and a host of unique goals to achieve. Every character in the story has their own motivations for what they want Henry (You) to do during his adventurers across the land of Bohemia. Unlike many other games that have a fairly linear story, the decisions you make in KCD feel impactful and change how people view you and how the plot unfolds. I often found myself pausing to consider how I answer multiple-choice responses, because there was a real concern, at times, that I could ruin friendships or negatively impact the story I wanted to play.

Living World

If that wasn't enough, there are scores of side quests scattered all over the map, each with their unique flavor. Unlike Skyrim (which seems to be a semi-close comparison), many of the NPCs have been fleshed out in this game with individual personalities, day/night cycles, jobs, and opinions of you. It is easy to influence the general feeling towards Henry in a particular location by the actions you carry out through gameplay. Perform positive tasks and people begin to warm up, offering cheery responses and sometimes even shop discounts. Get caught stealing, attack an NPC, or perform other nefarious deeds, and the location will fear and hate you.
The various towns and cities across Bohemia were fun to visit. I found the towns to be full of life with NPCs going about chores, work, and all manner of activities. This is a huge departure from most RPG/Adventure games I've played where NPCs tend to follow a single path or stand around and do nothing. In addition, there are dogs, chickens, horses, and the occasional thief to add even more depth to the feel of a living world.

Polished Landscapes

Beyond the story, the quests, and the living world, the landscape in which everything is couched is fantastic. Tall Vistas, deep forests, running rivers, rolling hills and plains full of realistic greenery. I found myself just wandering through secluded forests, looking at the trees and plants, listening to the ambient sounds of animals. The developers went out of their way to immerse you in the world. Exploring the map from edge to edge can yield small rewards, with random NPCs, hidden encampments and the odd treasure to be found. Just the life that was breathed into the world is truly impressive.

Controversial Combat

I've read a lot of comments/complaints about the combat in KCD and I found the system to be both infuriating and refreshing. I know there's a flaw, where you can sit on your horse and shoot all the enemies with your bow, but what's the fun in that? If you participate in melee combat (and you will), then it's vital that you get your training in and learn a variety of weapons. Unlike Elder Scrolls where you can just max one weaponskill and go around bashing everything with that one weapon, KCD doesn't work like that. Instead, the type of armor your foe is wearing helps determine the type of weapon you'll want to use for dispatching them. It took me a while to realize this. I mastered the sword, unlocking all the combos and maxing out the ability, so when I faced armored foes, I could not understand why it was so hard to kill them. Then I discovered that armored foes are better handled with blunt weapons. After getting proficient with a mace, I learned to swap back and forth between sharp and blunt tools, depending on the opponent standing before me. I found this to be strangely compelling because it led me to experiment with all types of available handheld weapons, which is not something I commonly do. My MO is to pick a weapon, master that weapon, and smash my foes. There was some forced depth here that I came to appreciate.

Negatives

The game isn't as polished as it probably should have been. Hunting was incredibly uninspired. Find a hunting ground, wait for animals to magically appear in groups, and shoot them dead. Not sure why animals didn't spawn more naturally around the world instead of forcing the player to visit a hunting ground.

Traveling the landscape wasn't always enjoyable. Fast Travel was a weird, limited mess. I couldn't just fast-travel to a distant city for a quest I needed to complete. First, I needed to head for a nearby village, then fast travel from here to another village and/or fast travel again to somewhere else, and so on. The fast travel interruptions just made the whole thing a thousand times more tedious. Like, I get the intent of ambushing robbers, but when a guy wearing full-plate on a warhorse is wandering by, do you really think two peasants with rusty daggers are going to jump him?

Quests were sometimes broken because triggers didn't work. I had to reload to old saves because a quest broke and I couldn't complete it. The trigger didn't happen and the NPC wouldn't give the dialogue or an event wouldn't take place. Very frustrating.

Combat was fun for its realistic nature, but also could be very clunky. At times, Henry felt like he was fighting in a swimming pool. His reaction times were slow, blows were not delivered when I liked the mouse. The hitbox couldn't be found, even with the guy directly in the path of my weapon. And sometimes weird mechanics came into play, like taking a critical blow from a peasant with a pitchfork while wearing full-plate. Uh, really?

The presentation system could prove to be very tedious. If you wanted to look your very best, you'd need to bathe/launder your clothes at the bathing place. Then you'd still have to visit a tailor to mend your clothing items. Then you'd still have to visit an armorer to mend your metal armor items. The game would have done better to group the locations close together or to add a tailor and a blacksmith to the bathing camp. Seems like a service they could provide, right? Especially in Rattay, where the bathing camp was outside the walls and the shops were inside the walls.

Final Thoughts

The story for this game is great. Player choices have weight, changing the course of the plot, political intrigue and NPC personalities offer a real sense of immersion. The game delivers some large, satisfying battles with dozens of combatants and offers a real sense of desperation as things devolve from strategy to chaotic clashes for survival.

There are loads of side quests with stories that have you do everything from joining a monastery to catching horse thieves and even ghost hunting. You can waste hours messing around in towns, stomping around the secluded forests or engaging in heated combat. It's a fun adventure game with a lot of humor, well-written characters, and entertaining plot twists. (Looking at you, Father Godwin) If you can accept the flaws and want a well-built world with a ton of enjoyable content, this game won't disappoint.

This is a deeply flawed game. It has droves of bugs and annoyances that individually aren't too bad but are so abundant you really can't ignore them either. Still, you can tell this game was a passion project and doesn't lack any ambition. Which makes the experience more charming than disengaging. It still won't be a game for everyone. You need to walk into this experience with the proper mindset. This isn't a Bethesda action RPG like Skyrim. Far from it. Combat is clunky. Sometimes intentionally so other times... not so much. There are layers of deep and complicated systems that are impressive yet at the same time, due to this being a AA production, cause the game to become borderline dysfunctional often. I was able to overlook these constant hiccups and just vibe. The RPG experience itself feels novel and I commend the devs for committing so hard to their schtick.

The game has a strong start. Having you do some mundane tasks and get used to the sim aspects of the gameplay. Pretty hilarious to have one of your first quests involving you throwing shit at a German's white washed house because he talked smack about your king and pope. This is the 1400s, we won't stand for that kind of effrontery! Though it is kinda gross since the characters do it with their bare hands and don't wash them after. I guess filth came with the territory of being a peasant. Then it ends with a harrowing raid of the village and you fleeing for your life. While I understand why they wanted 3 goons chasing you, it does feel a bit silly how committed they are to killing just you, when you ride down the road passed many fleeing peasants on foot. I guess they really didn't like the cut of your jib. I did die multiple times because these fuckers really wanted me dead.

Combat is interesting, but certainly feels janky at first. Something I did learn over the long playtime (roughly 60ish hours) combat really isn't skill based like it tries to trick you into thinking. Your Warfare and Weapon stats are what are most important. If your level is too low, even a random bandit on the road will parry and riposte almost all of your attacks! Resulting in you never being able to pull off a combo nor hit them and even bothering to attack being a completely terrible idea. Making combat feel more like a quick time event rather than a nail biting fighting for your life. Combat does feel good when you are paired against an evenly matched foe or enemies weaker than you. But there are a few boss fight moments that feel cheap and unfair because your stats don't pass the test so all you really can do is try to parry them or get fucked (or I guess give up on the quest and grind levels). Something very important to note is you need to talk with Bernard multiple times and do all his tutorial related activities otherwise you will not be able to dodge or parry attacks! They really should have introduced this tutorial earlier and made it mandatory. If you don't do it you will have a very bad time with combat! Also maces are the best weapon overall. I didn't learn this until it was too late. Early game sword is good, but eventually you will only be fighting heavily armored enemies making the mace far superior.

What makes melee combat interesting is the directional based attacking. This is what tricks you into thinking it's skill based. You can strike in one of 6 directions and enemies can likewise block in those same directions. How quickly the AI input reads you is determined based on skill levels... honestly directional attacks only really matter if you are trying to pull off combo moves or land head hits (which a perk does make this worthwhile). But again, you can kinda of just flail wherever you like as long as your skills are high enough. Hopefully they fix this in the sequel.

Ranged combat also feels bad. The first 5 levels your aiming is completely terrible and if you aren't wearing arm guards you'll also take damage each time you draw an arrow! At level 5 aiming does get better, but I really didn't bother much with ranged combat. It's tedious to level and feels terrible for the first 5 levels. Is it realistic? Sure, but that doesn't make it fun.

Something to note as a whole is how leveling actually works in this game. It's similar to Oblivion in the sense that you level a skill as you use it. You swing a sword at an enemy, then you level swords. You shoot at a rabbit, deer or bandit, then you level bow skills, ect. This does mean leveling swords is realistic, but also can be tedious. There are skill books and trainers you can interact with to level these skills too, but for the most part you need to play a way to level up and get better in that style. Also you need to learn to read which is a fun detail given how only clergy typical could read (from a historical perspective).

The game does include survival elements as well that you need to manage. Sleep and hunger. Food you have in your inventory will also rot over time so you need to make sure you eat food before it spoils or you can get food poisoning. This honestly isn't too big of a deal to manage after you get into the flow. Nor is it stressful.

Saving is a weird system. You can save where ever you like as long as you have a one use item. Otherwise the game will periodically auto save after completing main quests or whenever you sleep in an inn or in a bed you own. This is a polarizing system. What I will say is this isn't a realistic system at all so that argument holds no weight. But I don't mind the system. It makes you commit to a given moment more. Elevating the stakes. But this save system will certainly be polarizing and it does ironically punish experimentation which the game simultaneously encourages. So that does feel a bit at odds.

the writing is a bit all over the place. Sometimes pretty good other times a bit incoherent. For example, Father Godwin goes about not being able to break his confidentiality to a person you are investigating. Then goes on a socialist rant about how corrupt the church is, then invites you to get blacked out drunk and you proceed to party all night and even get into a brawl with the bailiff, hooking up with some bar wenches, vomiting in a field and then giving the same socialist sermon the Father gave you to the church congregation. It honestly felt like a Red Dead 2 mission with how silly it was. Not complaining, it was very entertaining. Then you investigate witch activity for the same Father. Which ends with three village women tripping balls in the woods, then you trip with them, hook up and then brutality kill two farmers who didn't like the witchy stuff happening. The tone is all over the place but it is fun and engaging.

As mentioned earlier, the game is janky and buggy still. Even after years of patching. For example, in the quest where you are looking for Timmy, you get confronted by goons in the bandit camp you are seeking. A fight ensued and I was outnumbered. I backed under a stairwell where it was a bottleneck so only one guy could attack me, but their AI all bugged out. They couldn't find me and started walking away. I pulled out my bow and took them all out with no issue. And I got to level up my bow skill which is a pain to level otherwise. Easy XP. And it was pretty funny seeing them glitch out.

AI will often get confused with rocks or tiny fences in the terrain. What's kinda funny is how you can basically jump on top of a stack of boxes and the AI will have no idea how to deal with you. You could even pull out a bow and safely use it to your hearts content. There are cases too where an enemy will try to run away, but get caught on a rock and just run in place like on a treadmill. Walking near creeks and bodies of water can be a complete nightmare as well. Where you will get caught on rocks or small ledges and you will basically just need to spam the jump button and jank your way out of the creek. So yeah the came lacks polish and is rough around the edges.

Another bug I encountered was for the quest where you are investigating counterfeit money and I found a person who was supplying copper for the operation. Even had him confess and explain the whole scheme, yet my quest log never updated and stated I still needed to find the copper guy. Didn't matter really TBH since I was still able to complete the quest as a whole. But certainly adds to the jank.

Once you level your skills and adjust to the directional combat it does start to become quiet engaging and less frustrating. The one thing that seems like a missed opportunity is the lack of a fishing minigame/skill. Seems like the perfect type of game for that. The hunting is okay, but I found myself getting frustrated with how fidgety animals are, and until you level your bow enough, using it can be pretty frustrating since it can be hard to gauge where you are actually aiming, and since you always reset the bow to add a new arrow, it makes it hard to adjust your aim. So it never feels good. Sword fighting does improve and start to click though since the aiming is far more intuitive and automated. That said, combos can feel janky and it can be frustrating how enemies can basically just riposte you and stop your combo (if you aren't high enough level)... then combo you immediately. Which can be frustrating. To the point where it's almost better to just wait to counter attack all tough enemies. Otherwise they'll just do that to you.

Most side quests are pretty forgettable. Though investigating the silver mine was engaging. There's multiple bands of bandits you need to wipe out and there's a neat encounter in the actual mine shaft where you get knocked down a pit then need to find your way out and defend yourself from the bandits as you escape. Otherwise most main quests are well done.

The inner cloister quest where you need to infiltrate a monk monastery is one of the best quests. Not only is it a mini sandbox with multiple quests and characters to pursue but it also has intrigue since you are looking for clues to figure out which novice monk is the criminal. There is a bit of a bait and switch with two characters seemingly being the most likely culprits. One has a story of stealing money and running off (kind of similar to the turncoat you are looking for), another is completely taciturn and cagey about his past (turns out he was sent to the monastery for being gay), and another comes off as just kind of scummy and up to no good. Turns out the nicest novice is the culprit. What's interesting is the amount of ways you can go about solving this quest. If you tell the true culprit of your plan, he will poison you and then confront you. Otherwise, if you sneak into the headmasters room, he has a book that contains the backgrounds of all the novices. With the culprit having a dubious background to draw suspicion to. It commits to the bit where you need to follow your monastic duties otherwise you get in trouble or can be confined as punishment. So you often just need to sneak around at night. Each quest has different ways to approach it. You can find a pair of keys for the monastery. You can find lockpicks. You can befriend or betray other monks to garner favor. It's overall a pretty well designed sandbox.

The big reveal of who the real baddie was felt anticlimactic for me. I honestly didn't remember the bozo at all, though Henry as a character clearly did. He was a throwaway character from the start of the game that I had no memory of because of how long ago that was. Hell I even forgot the guy that was my hometown friend who betrayed me. This is mostly due to the game being long and me taking my time with it. But also these characters aren't relevant for most of the game and are introduced pretty early with 40+ hours between before you hear of them again.

This isn't a game for everyone. It's unrefined. Ambitious. Slow paced and requires you to engage with it on its terms. The devs clearly did their research and while the game isn't realistic it is still firmly a sim. I enjoyed it in spite of its many flaws. It's a really unique game with a ton of heart. I actually didn't even realize the sequel is coming out so soon until a was already 20+ hours into my playthrough. I'll honestly probably wait to buy it. Mostly because this game is still so buggy so it's very likely the sequel will also have droves of bugs. I do plan to check it out though. I might just wait for it to be reasonably stable first.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance is the story of Henry of Skalitz, a medieval serial killer and burglar who terrorized the Bohemian countryside in the early 15th century, breaking into houses, murdering people, killing hundreds of innocent livestock, and robbing the hard working folk of their livelihood all as he rose through the social ranks from simple blacksmith to hob nob with lords, lead armies to victory, and seduce noble ladies.

Historians have said that his crimes were the result of suffering great trauma when his village was sacked by Cumans and his family murdered in front of him. But I know that he broke into people’s houses to kill them in their sleep and slaughtered random animals all in a quest to achieve this mythical “level up” that would ultimately make him a hero among his people, where his cruelty and crimes would be overlooked in favor of the myth he would become, and allow him to enter the circle of elites of his time.

In all seriousness, this game started off really frustrating. The mechanics not just of combat but archery, lockpicking, etc are designed to be difficult for even the serious gamer; imagine what it did to a noobsauce like me. My impression for the first 30 hours was “This is like Tarkovsky film - the auteur has something serious and meta to say and has removed all entertainment value in the quest to share this message.” I flailed the controller like an idiot and sometimes I got lucky.

However, as time passed and I realized cow murder leveled you up like a mf, it grew on me. Beating Runt, the quasi-impossible boss fight midgame and then beating up a couple of well-armored Cuman camp leaders throughout Bohemia gave me some faith. In truth, there’s a lot about this game I really enjoy. One thing I really enjoy is the attempt to recapture historical reality and it makes sense that, no matter how awesome of a fighting machine you are, taking on 3 enemies at once is a bad idea. And I eventually learned how to handle the combat in manageable pieces.

I still found it frustrating. It had a lot of stupid little bugs throughout. In some cases, bugs that broke quests and forced me to reload an hour of progress. The absurd challenges the game throws at you (like trying to chase an already mounted knight out of a camp full of cobweb trees and bushes made of brick) get tiresome. There are lots of ‘worst quests’ in this game (everything involving the monastery and Vranik being high up on that list) and you get stuck with them. And it requires so much grinding. Still, I definitely think it was worth sticking with, at least for me. There were moments where the attempt at historical realism was great, like with the use of offices or watching a medieval battle. I’m glad to be done with it but also glad I played it.

It mostly works well on Steam Deck but lockpicking is much easier with a mouse and keyboard. Steam cloud saves were vital to finishing as I could play it in both places but I found towards the end I liked it better on my laptop with a controller than my Deck.

I bounced off this when I played it on PS4 -- trying again with the Definitive Edition on Xbox Series X. I think they re-tooled the difficulty of the opening sequence; I found it a lot easier to push through the opening sequence this time around, whereas I died several times the first time I played on PS4.

I also accidentally entered a DLC quest where you play as Theresa within the first hour or so after the opening sequence. It was surprising but also really fun. I enjoyed playing from a different perspective.

enjoying this but the combat is way over the top too hard. i've watched tutorials, read guides, i mentally get it but when fighting 3 enemies it's like the whole game stops being a game and gets real life medieval on your butt.

The worst thing is fighting at night. It makes sense to sneak into a camp to stab a guy, shoot another, and then fight the rest, but once its time to fight it's tough to see. (and of course AI doesnt have this problem lol)

Question for those that have played it... Is any of the DLC actually good? I was not a fan of Woman's Lot. I activated it unknowingly then was forced to go through the whole thing. Now I'm hesitant to check any of the others out.

6/10 - Warhorse did a lot with what they had

Pros

Interesting story of revenge & Lots of character development, with Henry becoming a genuinely likeable and humorous protagonist

Unique realism (Maintenance, eating and sleeping, bathing, etc) and an interestingly challenging combat system that keeps the player on their toes without making the game too easy.

Cons

The game can be tedious and monotonous in some places, and most of the story is forgettable and feels like filler. Also, the world feels quite limited, with few people outside the large settlements and very few uses for money

Quite a few bugs and graphical issues, and some mechanics feel unnecessary