One of the good things about focussing on old games is that new ones appear as if from nowhere sometimes, which is exactly what happened recently when I stumbled across ‘Kingdom Come: Deliverance’. Somehow this game had been in development for ~7 years, done the whole kickstarter thing, been released, and even had a couple of patches made available too so lucky me - I missed all of the anticipation and frustration of playing an unpatched game and can just dive into a reasonably polished product (there are still some bugs by all reports, but I haven't seen anything significant yet). And my anticipation would have been palpable for this one given that it appears to have been designed to my exact requirements: first person open world RPG, realistic medieval setting, engaging story, tactical real-time combat – think Mount and Blade meets Skyrim with a dash of Ultima thrown in. A medieval survival / walking simulator? Hmm I'm not really sure what it is, but it’s right up my alley.
Budget wise it falls somewhere between indy and mainstream so although the fundamental comforts of a modern game are there – easy to use interface, decent inventory system, workable map, etc – it gets away with being a lot more quirky, pedantic, and slow paced than the bigger RPG titles I’ve played lately. You have hunger and tiredness to deal with, perishable food in your inventory will spoil over time, and you need to bandage wounds or you’ll bleed to death slowly. You can’t read any of the books in the world until you find someone to teach you how, your cloths and weapons deteriorate and get dirty, which impacts your interactions with people until you go to a bathhouse / tailor / blacksmith. Combat is slow, tactical, and quite difficult so far (I’m only about 15 hours in). I’ve won a few fights against weaker bandits but you get no hint about their level beyond what sort of armour they’re wearing. When confronted, they might come directly at you or rush off into the forest yelling “to arms!”, appearing a short time later with double the numbers and then you’re really in trouble, because they don’t wait patiently to take turns fighting you.
The realism is obviously all relative – there are countless concessions required to allow the player to have a good time – but it’s above and beyond anything I’ve played in a long time. Outside the towns you’re not constantly confronted with wildlife or bad dudes to fight like you are in Skyrim for example – you see fleeting glances of deer, wild boar, and hares. You can hunt them, but I haven’t gotten close enough to anything other than a couple of hare to actually hit them with my bow and arrow, and I was in a forest owned by the nobility so I couldn’t sell the meat; it was flagged as stolen. All of this probably sounds pretty bloody boring and annoying but it’s all so well done that – so far – it’s an absolute joy. The graphics are stunning – easily more interesting and atmospheric than The Witcher 3 IMO, and I love that game world. The level of detail is mind blowing – particularly the flora. Harvestable plants all look exactly right, the forests are dense and varied, the grass and wildflowers sway in the breeze, the ground becomes properly muddy when it rains. I could go on! The towns and castles are likewise amazingly detailed and character models are good – pretty wooden for the most part but the voice acting makes up for it.
Anyway, it’s certainly not going to be for everyone but once you get through the 5+ hour long tutorial and are let loose on an amazingly realistic and detailed open world, it has the potential to be a very unique experience if you’re in to open world RPGs. I’ve been so taken with the setting that I’m reading A Distant Mirror – a Medieval history from about the same time period and provides an excellent backdrop for the in-game story.
Good times.
Life? Don't talk to me about life.
