Kingdom Come: Deliverance is an action role-playing video game developed by Warhorse Studios and published by Deep Silver for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in 2018. It is set in the medieval Kingdom of Bohemia, an Imperial State of the Holy Roman Empire, with a focus on historically accurate content.
The story takes place during a war in Bohemia in 1403. On the orders of Hungarian king Sigismund, Cuman mercenaries raid the mining village of Skalitz, a major source of silver. One of the survivors of that massacre is Henry, the son of a blacksmith. Destitute and vengeful, Henry joins the service of Lord Radzig Kobyla, who leads a resistance movement against Sigismund's invasion. As Henry pursues justice for his murdered family, he becomes involved in an effort to restore Bohemia's rightful king and Sigismund's half-brother, Wenceslaus IV, to the throne. The game features branching quest lines and an open world environment which encourages immersive gameplay, and includes early 15th century period-accurate weapons, clothing, combat techniques, and architecture, recreated with the assistance of architects and historians.
The game received generally positive reviews and a number of Game of the Year awards. Critics praised the game's story, attention to detail and focus on realism, while criticism was aimed at its technical bugs.
Gameplay
Kingdom Come: Deliverance is an action role-playing game set in an open world environment and played from a first-person perspective which utilizes a classless role-playing system, allowing the player to customize their skills to take on roles such as a warrior, bard, thief or their hybrids. Abilities and stats grow depending on what the player does and says through branched dialogue trees. During conversations, the time a player takes to make a decision is limited and will have an effect on their relationships with others. Reputation is based on player choices and therefore can bring consequences.
Character bodies and faces are created through the combination of multiple, individual pieces with finishing touches. The clothing system features 16 item slots and items on many areas of the body that can be layered. For example, a heavily armored knight may on his upper body wear a gambeson, followed by mail and plate armour, with a tabard or surcoat over top, for a total of four clothing items in the chest slots. Each clothing type provides different levels of protection against different types of weapons. Clothing also gets progressively more worn, dirty, or bloody through use, affecting the character's appearance. The player is able to use a variety of weapons including swords, knives, axes, hammers or bows. Horses are featured heavily in the game, and are designed to act with their own AI while under the player's control, moving or jumping to avoid small obstacles or dangers. The player can also fight from horseback and use their steed to carry items if they need additional inventory space, but warhorses are also competent combatants with their own AI. Steeds come with five slots for armor and attachments.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance also features a needs system which requires the player to sleep and eat in order to stay healthy. Equipment and clothing also degrade and require repair. Foodstuffs and other perishable items will spoil over time. The game uses skill/stat-based mini-games for many of these tasks including weapon and armor repair, as well as for gathering new items by picking locks or pockets, distilling alcohol or creating medicines. The game uses long- and short-ranged weapons in combat which is based on a physics system using inverse kinematics to determine the reactions of both combatants based on the speed and weight of a blow. This system aims to add greater variety and realism to the combat, coupled with a variety of basic combat moves and combination moves, some of which can be unlocked by skill points. Different weapons have different characteristics making them useful for different purposes. For example, a sword is a quick weapon for striking and parrying, but is not very effective against heavy armor.
Quests are intended to be nonlinear, with multiple ways to complete objectives to allow multiple character types to be viable. The storyline features some large-scale events such as castle sieges and large battles. Every non-player character (NPC) has their daily routine, and every routine can be affected by the player. Characters are able to react to all player actions and adjust their routines to them. NPCs will report crimes to authorities, who will punish the player accordingly, either with a fine or time in jail. Crime will affect economics and people will get suspicious or aggressive after unresolved crimes.
Plot
In the silver mining town of Skalitz, young Henry is a simple peasant, living under his mother and his blacksmith father, Martin. Henry and Martin are putting the finishing touches on a commissioned sword for King Wenceslaus' hetman, Sir Radzig Kobyla, when Skalitz is attacked by an army of Cuman soldiers under Sigismund's control. Sigismund's crony, Sir Markvart von Aulitz kills Henry's parents, while Henry flees to the nearest castle of Talmberg, warning its lord, Sir Divish, of the attack. Taking advantage of a storm, Sir Radzig sneaks the Skalitz survivors out and leads them to Rattay. Meanwhile, Henry is devastated by the fact his parents have not been properly buried, and sneaks back to Skalitz against Divish's orders. He is confronted by a group of bandits, whose leader, Runt, defeats him in battle and steals the commissioned sword. Henry's life is saved by another Skalitz survivor Theresa and Talmberg's Captain Robard, who take him to Rattay.
