Kingdom Come Deliverance is an RPG in the medieval era that has a heavy focus on being story-driven while still giving you the freedom to wander off and do your own thing.
This game has a lot going on for it. From the moment you start it pulls you in bonding with your character named Henry. Along with the questing system that rewards the player for taking the time discovering clues and hints along the way. This in itself gave me one of my more fun experiences in a game. While having a combat system you need to learn or things become quite hard. There were also a lot of little things that make this game interesting and unique like game-saving, side activities and traveling. It was quite a fun adventure.
Interesting Start
One of the biggest things for a game like this with how heavy it is in the story-driven department is making you feel and bond with your character Henry. You as the player get put in his shoes and feel his pains and his success to be able to fully enjoy what this game has to offer.
Right off the bat, the tutorial area as I’ll call it main focus seems to be building a bond with your character. You are thrown into for a very short time his life as the blacksmith’s son. You get into some trouble with your deplorable friends who waste there nights away drinking in the tavern.
I love the fact they use this way of putting the player into a tutorial and giving them time to learn some of the basics without breaking that wall of immersion. This then carries on beyond the starting area and slowly opens up the player into the open world this game is in.
There is some really sad and heartfelt plot in the early game. I won’t spoil what it is outside of the screenshot. It is used as the main focal point for the remaining game and that reason for you as the player playing Henry to take certain paths in life.
The really great thing is if you just want to go off and do your own thing for a while and just ignore the starting quests you can more than do that. I would not be shocked if some players do in fact do that forth rest of the game. I, however, was not one of them as I wanted to see the wide array the storyline brings and all the fun debauchery fun along the way.
Questing
One of the biggest parts of this game is the questing. Whether it is the main storyline or side quests a lot of thought and planning where put into them. Almost nothing is ever just a short go do X and bringing it back to me. It’s full of rich detail and things need to unfold to progress.
I was quite impressed by the number of cut scenes and voice acting this game has regarding questing. A lot of games they start you off with that rich experience of voice acting and slowly tapper it off. At every turn with any NPC, I had to engage with there was voice acting and riches that come from it.
Some games have those annoying background NPCs that only say there one single line that tends to drive you crazy. While that is almost the case for some of the vendor NPCs there also enough of them in the background that it just feels like you are walking thought a market place. They help add to the atmosphere when you are out and about on a quest or just going about your daily life in the game.
This game rewards the player for taking their time. At points, it can feel like doing a quest takes some effort. You might have to talk to a bunch of NPCs and go through all their different dialect options to uncover clues and quest updates. Sometimes there will be red herrings that lead to dead ends. While other times you find that key NPC who lets you dispel the lies and get to the bottom of things.
There are also the physical clues you just find while exploring and looking deeper into things. There could be a blood trail or something that was left behind. The person or thing you are investigating could in fact simply have the item that makes them guilty with them.
Then there is an added layer of complexity when it all comes together. Sometimes you could have a simple skill check between your speech or combat skills to get the needed information. Other time it was something you found that gives you an advantage when moving forward when interacting with the storyline.
The depth of the quests was quite enjoyable. I recall this one in particular one where I had to find a location of someone. After talking around and gathering clues the game presented me with a few possible locations on the map to search. Based alone on the clues I had gathered I was quickly able to eliminate certain areas that had to be searched and I found the correct place quicker. I didn’t have to have all those extra clues it just made it easier when the time came.
The game does have some handholding with placing markets on the map or giving you a general area to search or investigate in. It was also kind of nice to have such information displayed without having to spend hours in a single area just to become familiar enough with it that you could understand context clues like “the big oak tree.”
While you don’t have to do the side quests I often found the main quest had a couple of hard checkpoints. You would run into a situation and just get murders over and over again becoming quite frustrating feeling like you were in a no-win situation. Going off into the world and backtracking to get some better gear and much higher skills would suddenly make challenges still hard but not infuriating.
As someone who never been really big into stories in a game, I found this part to be fanatic and fun. I found it hard sometimes to want to take a break as I myself felt invested into getting to the bottom of whatever quest I was on.
Utter Debauchery!!!
I have to say I had one of the more fun and entertaining parts in a game I’ve ever had. While there are quite a few quests involving debauchery, lack of a moral compass, and just having a good old time at the expense of others. This one took the beer keg for certain!
Like any wholesome fun, it involved getting information out of a priest who has had a questionable past, to say the least. He was also not fully into being a great character remodel either for his flock. The guy liked to indulge in some extra things on the side.
He was unwilling to give me some information I wanted due to the whole holy than vow I can’t betray the trust of confessions. This seemed more like a ruse to be taken out to the inn and for a wild night to ensure.
After a wild night of drinking and waking up with some female companions the game really let me have it. I was the one who had to go up and try to give a sermon since the priest himself was too hungover from all the drinking to do so. His flock was not impressed as I stumbled through a bunch of different dialect options trying to find anything to appease them.
This was by far one of the most fun and most awkward in the end moments, I’ve had in a video game. Was it worth it? Heck NO! The priest was furious at his risk of being excommunicated and refused to tell me what I wanted. At least I’ll have some fond memories of that night.
That was just one quest and this game had quite the tale to unfold.
Combat
At the start of the game, I found the lock targeting combat system to be infuriating. It took me a while to get used to it. While I do now love the depth and one on one combat for the most part. It still leaves little to be desired.
The combat system itself has an arrow system to give the player a better understanding of incoming attacks so you can better plan. It was great having this as content clues and gathering information when some attacks could be blocked or even riposted.
For one on one combat, this system really shines. The player is given more than enough feedback that they can hopefully react in time to what is going on combat wise. Combat can be rather faced paced so if you don’t learn the basics you will have a miserable time. Once you do master it, single targets rarely cause any damage to you and you just cut them down like a tree.
This, however, breaks down a bit when dealing with a group of bandits for instance. Since the system is target locking the nearest targets that are moving all around you come in and out of being locked in focus. You might strike one and then another one steps closer and suddenly the system switches to you attack the other.
While you can hold down the tab key to break the locking system and be more in a free ranged attack and view. You also have to keep holding that key down and even then trying to maneuver around can still be a struggle.
There were also some other interesting design choices that affect combat as well. Knights back in the day wore a lot of pieces of gear and so do you. It has been a while since I’ve had this many equipment slots to fill up. You have several layers of clothing and armor. Some of it adds to your look and how others persevere you while other pieces are more for defensive purposes.
One of my more favorite pieces of gear due to how you had to think about it was the helmet. Some of them were open face helms, others closed, and some had a visor that drops down when you pulled out your weapon. I quickly learned just because something had a defense upgrade it might not always be worth using. It’s not fun walking around all the time with a large part of your vision being constricted due to the helmet you are wearing. Thankfully I found one that works for me while still giving protection I wanted for a vital part of the body.
You also had the skills you needed to level up. As you leveled up swords, for instance, you could unlock new perks. Some of these where combo attacks while others might give you a more damaging swing but cost more stamina to use. I really loved the gain skills by doing and the options the game had to train in combat with a trainer by having to face them in combat to gain those skill ups.
While I personally used the long sword for most of the game was not just limited to that. Some I could see could even take a very stealthy approach to combat. Sneaking up and getting in killing blows. Retraining and pulling out a bow and arrow to land headshots. Along with using other weapon types like an ax, mace, hand to hand or even a halberd!
In the end, I rather enjoyed the combat system and everything it had to offer. While I am more of an old schooler when it comes to combat and enjoys hack and slash kind of play. It was nice for a change having to dance around as they say and have attack blocked while doing the same to reduce incoming damage. While waiting for weakness to open up and that final blow that ensured victory. The combat system was much deeper than the scale I used it to in my playthrough.
Game Saving
While I personally prefer being able to save whenever and how often I like in a game. There was a bit of a catch in the cost just to do so whenever. They at least put some thought into it so you were not left without a last resort option if you needed to save. It just felt like an interesting way to go about it.
While you are going through different quests they will sometimes have a checkpoint that saves. While sometimes this occurs right before a major event that could result in your own death and having to reload from that save. There were other times where you would walking into an ambush and learned the hard way it was a while before the last save.
They also had a game save every time you slept in bed you owned or rented. While they do give you a few places to call home or even let you rent a room for the night at a tavern for instance. Not all beds you came across in the wild allowed you to save.
If you just wanted to save whenever you liked that had a cost of a potion called Saviour Schnapps. In the early game, you are given a couple but you quickly run out of them. While they could be purchased if you found one in at a merchant for 100 Groschen that was not always the case. At least you could still find them randomly in the wild or brew them yourself.
You also had your last resort save as I call it in which I used a couple of times. They did let you save when you exited the game. Which I’m thankful they were rather reasonable at giving the player that option. I myself did exit the game a couple of times just to load it back up just for saving.
This was kind of a strange way to go about limiting a player saving ability and even adding a cost to it. At least there were quite a few options so you are not stuck like in some games by having to go to a certain spot to save only.
Side Activates
As a player, I feel when you get bored of questing and just want to go off and do your own thing having a few side activates really comes in handy. Between the skill system having stuff like drinking, lock picking, and alchemy to name a few. In addition, there were things like being able to go poaching in kingdom’s woods for meat. There was a lot of have your own adventure playstyle as well.
I’ll admit it I went on a bit of a crime spree. I wanted to level up my lock picking skill at one point. The lock picking mechanic is not too hard. You simply have to find the sweet spot, rotate the lock and make sure you are keeping the pick in an acceptable area.
As a result, I spent a fair few nights dogging the towns guard who when they caught you mostly gave out fines but sometimes you would get half a month in jail as well. While I was unlocking doors and chests while I was ransacking entire villages. Sadly most of the peasants never had anything worth taking. So most of the money was robbing the merchant shops while they were sleeping.
One of the more complex side things I found to do ended up being alchemy. This game is not your normal click on two herbs and you just made a potion. It’s quite an involved process of following a recipe to make things. First, you need pick the right base. After that you are grinding or combining herbs you collected or bought. Finally you place everything into the cauldron over the right amount of heat and time before bottling. If done right you just made a potion!
When I did not make as much as I was hoping from that I gave poaching in the woods a try. It is quite the crime to be caught at night without a torch let alone holding a bunch of stolen meat. I really did not see much profit in doing so but the game has quite a few areas to go hunting with a bow.
Instead, when I was not visiting the bathhouses I was usually at a tavern getting drunk and playing the dice game Farkle. I might have looted some loaded dice and became quite the cheat! Why I took a lot of gamblers for everything they had.
You could also just go out and explore if you wanted. The game itself has quite a few sites to be uncovered. Sometimes they are loaded with treasures. Other timers you have sunken to being a grave robber hoping it was worth the effort.
The game had a lot more stuff to do in general than I was expecting even beyond what I’ve mentioned. It was nice to see that kind of depth and adds quite a lot of hours if you just want to wander around like a nomad. Sometimes the kingdom can go without you being needed at every whim.
Traveling
Kingdom Come Deliverance is quite the dangers place and you just can’t go around all willy-nilly and not expect to run into trouble. While the game does has fast travel there is a bit of a risk to it. Even going on foot or using your horse could lead you in some interesting encounters.
There are quite a few bandit camps throughout the game for the player to wander into. Along with poachers and others doing some illegal activates. All of whom are not too thrilled you showed up to the party and rather slit your throat for the couple coins you have.
Then you have the random dangers of using fast travel to different villages you have it unlocked at. Along the way, you are shown a map and there are random chances for an encounter. They could be nothing or a massive ambush. Sometimes you can flee without even having to stop. Other times like in the screenshot you get involved in the battle you walk into.
It can be interesting to come across an abandoned wagon or finding someone murder along the road and wondering how it all went down. I often stopped to see if there were any survives (not looking for opportunities to loot why that be criminal!). This more times than not got me ambushed and left for dead along the side of the road as well.
I felt it was a nice little touch to not just give the player a quick and instant get across the map system. Albeit annoying some times when you are in a rush to get somewhere and had to fight off three ambushes and get around a wagon left in the middle of the road. It’s the little things like this that make the game so fun.
Final Thoughts
I was amazed at all the different places and roles the game had my take on as I was playing through the main storyline. You never knew quite where it would end up taking you. At one point I was impersonating a monk another I was taking down bandit leaders. Meanwhile, I was supposed to be holding up the law of the kingdom which was normally more trouble than it was worth and other less savory routes where taken.
It was also quite fun to break away from the main quest and just go exploring. Making my own fun at times by robbing entire villages during the night and taking off with everything I could find. Waddling back on foot to a place to sell since I was too overburdened even to my horse!
There were also a lot of random moments in this game. Things like being the hero and saving a damsel in distress. Along with situations where my reward was a new shirt and a certain royal wanting me to take off mine who was very lonely. Then you had all the killing and drinking.
What a mighty fun game it was. I’d play it again.
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Screenshots are taken and content was written by @Enjar about the game Kingdom Come Deliverance. If you are thinking about getting this game and are looking to support me further consider using my Epic Games creator code: enjargames at checkout or using this referral link to be sent to the store's pages.
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