Kingdom Come: Deliverance Review

Open-world games are a dime a dozen, and good ones are even rarer to find. Those that exist rarely tackle historical narratives, instead preferring to dabble in fantasy or sci-fi. And to top it off, historically accurate medieval games are even rarer than anything else. Kingdom Come: Deliverance tackles all of that and offers much more in this tale of Late Medieval Bohemia.

The game was developed by Warhorse Studios, a Czech Developer, and co-published by Deep Silver. The developers have mentioned how the game is a product of deep research and commitment, and it shows. The game was released in 2018 to moderate success on PC, PS4, and Xbox One. 

It also saw a newer release on Nintendo Switch on March 15, 2024. Much of the game’s criticism saw the developers push out constant and well-received updates and, finally, a number of DLCs ranging from good to phenomenal.

To re-orient, Kingdom Come: Deliverance is a First-Person Open-World Action RPG set in the Late Medieval Bohemia. You play as Henry, the son of a blacksmith in a small town called Skalitz. You help your dad forge a cool longsword, play around with your buddies, fight a drunkard, and dance with your girlfriend, giving you a small taste of the life of a common peasant in the Late Middle Ages. 

Of course, we can’t have good things, so a foreign army comes crashing down on your small town, and you have to escape. You watch an angry German kill your dad and mom, having no chance of helping them. You then have to escape from the town and run to the nearby castle of Talmberg.

The introduction sets up a great pace and tone for things. This isn’t a fairy tale; it’s the real world. You are a normal, unassuming man who barely knows how to hold a sword- and everyone will remind you of that. No one knows you, and no one cares about you. 

Henry is a great protagonist, as he is as bland as British food, in a good way, of course. He has personality and, of course, the motivations for his journey, that being vindication and revenge is there. But a lot of the time, things are muted and toned down.

This gives you a two-fold experience, as you not only experience Henry’s journey and transformation but also sort of make the character your own, making your own choices in how to handle things and interpreting his thoughts.

He is relatable, being thrown into the political turmoil raging through the HRE in the 15th Century. You have to work your way up, and even then, there are many limits to what you can do. The game is deeply realistic, and so, just like real life, it is very hard.

As previously mentioned, you start off as someone who knows very little and barely can handle a sword. Heck, you can’t even read at the start of the game, seeing much of the books you may find as gibberish. 

But as you progress through the game, you, as in Henry, learn and improve his skills. He finds a scribe to teach him how to reach, and he learns how to use a sword by repeatedly practicing with guard captains. His ability to ride a horse improves as he travels through the land. And as he goes around, he gets many, many quests and tasks that he can complete. And as you complete these quests, more people know you and more people greet you, exclaiming, “Henry’s come to see us!”

These all give a soft introduction to the game’s many in-depth systems, which complement each other incredibly well. The main attraction is the unique combat system in Kingdom Come: Deliverance. This is an incredibly challenging mechanic based on historical techniques and tries to be as authentic as possible. 

You have six points of attack, where you can move your mouse to, essentially taking different stances. You strike with basic attacks and defend with blocks. These blocks have to be on the same point where the enemy is attacking from. You don’t get to see the point the enemy is holding; rather, you must understand it from their posture and stance. 

As you progress through the game, you will learn things like perfect blocks, which let you block an enemy attack perfectly, consuming little stamina and positioning yourself for the perfect counter-attack. This is where the next ability comes in, riposte. If you block at a perfect moment, you will automatically commit to a counter-attack.

The game has a myriad of weapons for you to use and get good at, ranging from swords to axes, maces, bows, and even spears and halberds. Some weapons are good on their own; others are better for enemies that wear armor. 

So, a mace, while not doing much slashing or piercing damage, has high amounts of blunt damage. The more you use a specific weapon, the better you get at using it. Henry, at first, will barely be able to lift a mace, but as you use it, you’ll get better at it. You will also unlock a few unique moves that you can use via combos.

Your character has, in total, 16 garment slots to equip. This includes the actual clothes you wear, gambeson, mail, plate and then to top it off, a surcoat and a tabard. These provide varying levels of protection against different weapon types and can get dirty, worn, or bloody. This will affect how people will treat you, too. The armor is also realistic, as you will not be sneaking around with all that mail and plate, which makes a ton of sound.

Among other features, you have access to many mini-games for repairing armor and weapons, picking locks and pockets, and conducting alchemy. You also have to keep yourself in proper shape by sleeping and eating, and you will eventually grow tired of hearing Henry going, ‘I’m feeling quite hungry.’ As mentioned before, you can also learn how to read, allowing you to read and study books.

You will gain skill points by doing specific actions, and some skills will grow by themselves as long as you perform their related actions. There are also a number of perks you can grab that augments Henry’s abilities. Some are mutually exclusive, and others are tiered. They’re all useful, however, so you’ll never really feel like you are wasting skill points.

The game was recently released on Nintendo Switch and is overall a great experience. Many of its systems are fun but come at the cost of being contrived for some. The combat system is pretty difficult, and even though many post-release patches have dumbed it down, the game remains pretty hard. 

Kingdom Come: Deliverance is extremely immersive, with the ability to play on a super-realistic mode that even removes your own marker from the map. Aside from that, the general lack of overworld markers, a minimap, and so on means that you actually have to find your way through a village and find the people you are looking for. Of course, this doesn’t mean that they’re generally hard to find, as the world has many visual clues to lead you to a place.

The game also does a good job with its environment, game design, and graphics. 15th-century Bohemia looks epic and lively with some varying landscapes. Said variation only means dense and light woods, hills, plains towns, and bigger towns. 

Naturally, you will not find yourself in a desert or a large city. Despite this, the game does a good job with its environment; Sasau is still pretty different from Rattay. The various villages you find yourself in have their charm and uniqueness.

The characters all feel real and living, which makes sense since many of them are real historical figures. Some characters have incredible growth in the sense that you really get to know them more. Hans Capon goes from an ass and a prick to what seems like a close friend by the time of the DLCs. 

Speaking of which, Kingdom Come: Deliverance has three DLCs, all of which add different kinds of content to the game. All of these are great additions, though one stands out as the best. These are Treasures of the Past, a pre-order bonus that adds a few treasure maps to the game. ‘From the Ashes,’ the first true DLC that lets you dabble in some base-building as you rebuild an abandoned village… from the ashes. ‘Tournament,’ has a self-explanatory name. A free DLC that adds tournaments into the game.

The Amorous Adventures of Bold Sir Hans Capon, the second true DLC, adds a few quests where you help Sir Hans befriend and woo ‘the fairest maid he has ever set his eyes on.’ ‘Band of Bastards,’ lets you go through a short but cool questline to fight off bandits and enemies from Sir Radzig’s past. 

Finally, ‘A Woman’s Lot,’ adds two things, a questline for Henry where you help an old friend. The other thing added is a new perspective of the fight battle in Skalitz as you take control of none other than Theresa. This last DLC is probably the best piece of content added to the game, if for nothing else than to finish the story.

Everything else, from the music and sound design to the various weather effects, the day-night cycle, and so on, adds to the immersion of the game. That is not to say there aren’t any issues. The game has a lot of bugs and performance issues that persist to this day. 

If you can ignore that, which is easily feasible as everything else is outstanding, then you have one of the best realistic RPGs ever made. The open-world aspect isn't contrived or hollow and with the sequel, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, set to be released in early 2025, you might just want to go back and check out the first game, and it will definitely be worth it.