Kingdom Come Deliverance is a nice open world medieval game, with its own combat system to bring authenticity to the times. When you first start it up you can see that it's a good looking game, the finer details of the world have been carved out and the years that the game has been in development have been well spent making the world look wonderful. One issue that I did have in terms of how it looked, was how the scenery appears in the distance, they looked a bit like cardboard and washed out. On a beautiful clear day you would have thought that things you could see in the distance would have a little bit of crispness to them, but take nothing away from the game, what you have in front of you is something that has been shown a lot of love.
In the world, there are traders of all varieties from blacksmiths, clothes, grocers etc to call upon your every need. There are taverns that you can frequent, and this brings me to an important part of the game, food. You have to make sure that you’re fully fed and your character isn’t hungry/starving if they are this can have an adverse effect and cause issues when in combat amongst other things. You can make your own food, pick up stuff that’s lying around. Different bits of foods will have differing effects on how much they fill you up. Having just an apple won’t do much for your hunger, so to get well fed you will have to find a nice meal somewhere.
One thing that I like about the game but find it frustrating at the same time, is that your actions affect the game. If you’re constantly seen pickpocketing or starting fights in public then the locals will not take to you very well and have a low opinion, if you’re seen helping people with side quests etc then you will have a better standing in the community. Also, this will help you in terms of speech when it comes to having to persuade people in your favour as your standing will be an important factor. After all, people won’t do just anything for anyone.
I did mention above that I found something frustrating about this and I can hear you now “Jon, what is frustrating about this”… Well, at the start of the game I accidentally pickpocketed the guy you’re meant to buy charcoal from, mainly because I couldn’t get him to sell me any, the option wouldn’t come up, just kept saying “Rob”, so I clicked on the command, took the charcoal, happy days. As I had taken too long with the quest, the beer the old man had asked for was as ‘Warm as piss’ – So he sent me out for another cool one. I went back into town and a guard stopped me, said I had stolen and would have to pay the fine…. Guess what, I had no money and no amount of silver tonguery would get me out of this mess, so I was sent to jail, however being sent to jail at this point in the game leads to you dying…. A cutscene occurs showing your character burning to death in jail while there is some kind of ruckus going on outside (ruckus which you discover the reasoning behind shortly after). So, my issue was, when I spoke to the old man and he sent me back down to get the beer, the game had autosaved… and let the loop continue… Thrown in jail, die. Again, it happens, think of it like a good old game of Call of Duty, Spawn, Die, Spawn, Die.
So my only option at this point was to start the game again and go through what I had just done again and try not to steal anything. I did try and fight my way out of the situation like a true legend, however, it wasn’t meant to be, my arse was royally handed to me and a new game was my only option.
When it comes to NPCs and animations, I’m afraid this has let the game down a lot, most of the character models are reused within the game and different areas. There are a fair few different ones, but there have been numerous times where I have seen the same model being used several times, and those who have read a lot of my reviews, know that this is one of my pet peeves when it comes to games, I hate the same models being used time and time again. I understand that it sometimes has to be done to save time and also save on the budget, but try and make it not so obvious.
The animations with the characters when they’re I've found a little off, body and head movements weren’t what they should have been or were completely random. The movement of the mouths was a little off and sometimes the character would be talking, the body moving but the mouth was still, which I was a little put off by.
I’m going to move onto the Combat now, as this was my biggest let down for the game, I understand and can see what the developers were trying to go for when they did the combat system, that realism of clashing swords and having to use tactics and not just slash, slash, slash at your opponent is a nice idea, but I think in terms of the game it causes it to fall flat on its face in some respect. From fist fights to sword fights I couldn’t grasp the concept of what I was having to do to hit the character opposite me.
The training element at the start was no help, as taking that into a real combat situation it felt completely different. When training, the guy didn’t fight back at you, you had free reign to do whatever you wanted and what he was asking you to do. This becomes a completely different kettle of fish when there’s a guard in front of you with a sword slashing away at you which then only takes 3 hits and you’re dead. (This is based on wearing no armour, this obviously changes slightly with differing armour) Even when trying to block shots, because of stamina, when someone is going full on at you, that depletes and you’re unable to block which means you’re pretty much dead.
I did enjoy the Bow and Arrow more than the sword, getting that perfect shot in the eye was rather satisfactory and did become my weapon of choice, mainly because as mentioned above, the hand to hand combat does let this game down.
The game overall is a very good one and I have to admit that I was right to be excited about it, the worlds are brilliant and reflect the times well as well as being beautifully designed. The story is told magnificently and I always love it when it the story keeps you coming back for more.
The only downside for me is the animations within the game and the combat system, the latter of which may be enough to put people off the game. I really hope it doesn’t, and if you’re getting frustrated with it, power through, it’s worth it, plus when you get the bow and arrow, that makes things even better.
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