Game Over: Kingdom Come: Deliverance

For almost three months, I’ve been making my way through Warhorse Studios’ one and only title to date, Kingdom Come: Deliverance. Initially released back in 2018, it’s taken me almost five years to play this mediaeval action role-playing game, and I wish I’d given it a go much, much sooner.

I knew very little about it beforehand, apart from it being open world and having challenging combat mechanics that seemed to divide players. Whilst initially I found myself trying to sweet talk my way out of fights using my high charisma level, I came to love the fluid and precise nature of battles after spending many hours training to improve my weapon skills.

The story isn’t the typical “hero saves the day” type of narrative you usually find in videogames, and is instead very much grounded in realism. Playing as Henry, an ordinary blacksmith’s apprentice who narrowly escapes death during the sacking of his hometown, Skalitz, you’ll do what you can to survive and live out a life that you can shape as you see fit. I quickly decided that my Henry wasn’t averse to breaking into people's homes in the dead of night to unburden them of their gold; with many a day spent inside a prison cell until my sneaking skill levelled up significantly.

The general flow of the story centres around Henry seeking to get revenge on the Cuman army leaders responsible for the deaths of his friends and family, as well as a bandit that stole the final sword Henry’s father ever crafted, though, it isn’t the sole focus of the narrative. Much of this isn’t really touched on as you are swept up in the affairs of the nobility, leading to a story that was much bigger in scope than I had anticipated. A good chunk of the main quest is centred around apprehending the bandits responsible for raiding a farm, and uncovering why they were more interested in slaughtering as many people and animals as possible rather than taking off with any loot. This may seem rather mundane, but because of how well acted the dialogue is, and due to my sheer determination to put all the bandits to the sword for killing horses (the fiends!) I was hooked. Well, almost.

I found it very difficult to stick to the story — as intriguing and well-written as it was — it was much more fun to just go off exploring and coming across NPCs in need of assistance. I bumped into old friends in one town, which took me on numerous quests to assist them in a variety of get-rich-quick schemes that they continued to think up, I helped out a charlatan who used honeyed words to sway people into buying useless trinkets, and even helped an executioner win over the love of his life.

Wandering around searching for the next person to help (or the next poor soul I wanted to steal from) would often bring about danger in the form of looters, soldiers, or other ne’er-do-wells. Whilst I initially felt that the combat didn’t “click” with me, upon sticking to one weapon type and levelling up Henry’s skills, it suddenly felt much more fluid and natural. Training with Captain Bernard using wooden blades, learning new combos, and finding my rhythm all came together to make my Henry an incredibly formidable opponent, a far cry from the peasant who couldn’t win a fist fight with the town drunk at the start of the game!

I was sad to see Kingdom Come: Deliverance end, especially after a series of incredibly enjoyable final few story missions, which sees you uncovering some shocking truths about Henry’s past before taking part in a siege. Unfortunately, there was very little pay off or satisfaction in the ending scenes, instead the game sets itself up for a sequel, which has still yet to be announced. I may have been close to five years late on playing this great action RPG, but I want the second game, and I want it now!