Review: Kingdom Come: Deliverance

Studio Warhorse has released one of the most ambitious works of recent years - a medieval immersive sim, thought from historical to everyday trivia. Thanks to experts, it was possible to recreate the Kingdom of Bohemia (now Czech Republic) at the beginning of the XV century: castles, hunting grounds, coal-burning and logging camps, and even leather workshops, where peasants work on skins in tubs with urine. On the other hand, Kingdom Come takes on the player a bunch of everyday, not to say physiological concerns. Such a craving for realism always causes skepticism among the public, so it's time to find out whether the authors succeeded in achieving their goals, or their ambitions remained an advertisement on the Kickstarter.

Imagine yourself in the role of an inconspicuous, poor man, the son of a blacksmith from a village under the walls of the Skalicki castle. The most risky act of yours is to pelted the house of a German neighbor with manure, and the most distant journey is to run to a tavern for a beer for your father and get the debt out of the local drunkard. But in 1403 historical events pull you from the rural idyll and throw it into reality, where the country is torn to pieces by the brothers-kings Václav IV and Sigismund , where thousands of ordinary people are killed because of the wars of feudal lords, where robbers kill a handful of pennies, and gratitudes for help from no one will not wait. Where there is no father, no mother, no friends, no Blanqui, with whom you danced so cheerfully in the evenings.

It was in this situation was the guy Indrich. Although no, his business is much worse, because he does not know how to read and write, he does not know from which side to keep the sword and bow, and with other skills useful for survival, trouble. And such a ignoramus need from scratch to comprehend the wisdom of medieval life, learn to earn money and food, creep into the credibility of the Czech aristocrats, to comprehend the basics of military craft - all for the sake of revenge killers parents and find the bandits who robbed him on the ashes of his native village. 

While developing the drama, the hero manages to stay a thief and a murderer, a poacher and a treasure hunt, soldier and vagabond, a detective and a wedding planner, a novice of the Benedictine monastery and a page, a ladies' man and defender of the disadvantaged. In this case, unlike most RPGs, Kingdom Comedoes not show how from the creature of the trembling grows breaking birch hands and spitting on the kings superman. For the nobility of Bohemia, Indzhich will remain a man of low birth. You can hang on it fabulously expensive armor, make a master of eloquence and a rich man, but these tricks are bought except that the same bites as he himself. The gameplay also does not solve the familiarity of fans of the genre of omnipotence: situations like "in one fell swoop seven pobivahom" here in principle are unreal. Although where the sword brings, it comes in handy savvy.
es headlong into the virtual world, deftly imitating its routine. The change of the time of day is not an empty formality: in the evening, most of the characters, including traders and artisans, go home, on the roadside the bandits are beaten into gangs, the guard is looking to detain the traveler without a torch in his hand, and the darkness is such that they have even gouged out his eyes. From bad weather and walking through the mud, clothes get dirty, which, in turn, spoils charm and narrows the possibilities in dialogues. The products come into disrepair, so breakfast of rotten sausage with rotten apples easily causes poisoning. A victory in battle can be Pyrrhic if the wound is bleeding and there is nothing to bandage it.

With exactly the same meticulousness, the development of the character is organized. Forget the simplifications and indulgences that the role-playing games of recent years have spoiled. To make a hero a thief, you need to adhere to a special style of clothes without ringing plates and dudes, often resort to secrecy, it is safe to sell stolen goods, to fill your hand with breaking locks and feeling someone else's pockets. Lessons in alchemy require at least the ability to read, obtain recipes and mix ingredients correctly in the crucible while the medicine is being cooked. And if you decide to turn the son of a blacksmith into a warrior, find him a normal armor and tirelessly practice fencing, learning new techniques and strengthening the muscles of Indrich.

Snacking a gamer means in Kingdom Come no less than the skills of the hero, and battles are a vivid example of this. They remotely resemble For Honor with its trajectories for strikes and blocks. Only in Warhorseeverything is much more complicated: here we cut from five directions or wheels into the point chosen on the enemy's body, and even in time we avoid enemy attacks, we use the shield, kicks, grips, we put the enemy in the handle - and everything is done manually. Whichever feints may be revealed as you train, they must be crammed to you, and not to Indrich - for example, to beat first in the right shoulder, then into the left leg and stab in the face. The moment when you can relax and just hack on one key, the authors do not even provide, so even a homeless man with a cleaver has a chance to slaughter a knight armed to the teeth.

The same difficulties are expected in handling the bow: there is no sight, it will not be possible to hold the string for a long time. To finish off the first hare in the forest, you will hardly need less than five or six shots. Is it any wonder that when meeting a tramp in a remote area with him, he is trying to fight for practicing techniques, and hanging on the column is the corpse's corpse-to be used as a training target?

Now imagine that you made a mistake - got involved in a hopeless fight, chose the wrong line in the dialogue, or got caught stealing, having neither money nor eloquence to avoid prison - and you want to replay the scene. But it was not there! In Bohemia XV century for preservation it is necessary to drink a special schnapps, to sleep on a personal bed or to reach important turns of a plot. That is, to lose an hour - one and a half progress because of the absurd accident here in the order of things.

Someone will find this meticulous hardcore, but it will help others to immerse themselves in the game world in earnest and for a long time. Because every victory in it you perceive as your own achievement, and not the result of the proper pumping of the hero, and failures encourage you to think about the mistakes made, instead of shouting curses at the crooked developers. Throw in free role-play where a fighter cuts a band of robbers on the spot, insinuating he shared and eliminates alone and silent saboteur herbs, pour poison in the pot in the middle of their camp. You like to skate - love and sleigh to carry, as they say to us in Warhorse . At least, it's fair.

rying to understand Deliverence it is compared with other games: the world works here as in Gothic , the interface with methods of character development is taken from The Elder Scrolls , and in the setting the developers followed in the footsteps of Mount & Blade . Even with the Witcher 3 parallels are carried out, although from him here only Easter eggs with the horse Geralt, Roach - in other respects Poles and Czechs released completely different RPGs. Let the comparisons and there is some truth, it is better to throw them out of your head, estimating Kingdom Come without bias. It is original, if only because you do not play it - you live in it.
djusted for the game conventions, bugs and healthy teeth of the characters, Warhorse employees managed to create an interactive and comprehensive tour of Europe XV century. An exciting adventure, which at the moment has no equal - both in terms of the disclosure of the topic, and on the elaboration of details. Here you will learn about the difference between Emperor Charles IV and his son Wenceslas , about the schism in the Catholic Church, about life in castles, villages and monasteries, medieval crafts and nuances of life, and at the same time take part in events that have auknuvshiesya far beyond the borders of Bohemia. In other words, you will receive exactly what we like historical games for. 

Rate:10/10