Kingdom Come: Deliverance

Antimatter

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A sequel has been announced and will become available later this year. Feeling inspired, I've returned to the first game, which is a flawed masterpiece. When Kingdome Come: Deliverance released, it got a lukewarm reaction. But with time, bugs were squashed, optimization improved, and more and more players kept discovering its deep RPG systems, which could be compared to Morrowind and Oblivion. A medieval first-person RPG focused on immersion, narration, and realistic sword combat. Unique Czech countryside surroundings. I'm playing with the Czech VO for a more authentic experience.

Here are a few screenshots from pre-rendered cutscenes. They express the vibe of this game.

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Below are a few screenshots I took using Nvidia Ansel (this allows you to look at the character from the third-person perspective):

Kingdom Come  Deliverance Screenshot 2024.07.12 - 16.49.26.89.jpg

Kingdom Come  Deliverance Screenshot 2024.07.12 - 18.31.12.65.jpg

Kingdom Come  Deliverance Screenshot 2024.07.15 - 16.47.48.50.jpg

The intro & prologue sections take around 4-7 hours depending on how detailed you want to be in exploration (e.g. would you want to pick all possible locks and get some starting money and relatively solid beginner's equipment, or just complete quests). The game is not hand-holding you much even during the prologue.
 

Antimatter

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The most reliable way to start this game is to gather enough money to buy your first horse. There is a horse trader in Neuhof, the village not far away from Rattai (your "main base"), and the cheapest horse there costs 1k gold (+/- your negotiation skills).

So my task was to gather this initial sum (I managed to sell some jewelry I found in bird nests and all the junk I had from the prologue, plus I played dice games at taverns; sneaking around and stealing everything unprotected also was profitable) and get the horse. Investing in Boxer (that's his name) was worth it as the horse allows you to carry a lot of extra weight (Boxer can carry 212 kgs, while my main character can only carry 78 kgs without getting over-encumbered). This extra weight immediately means you can loot everything and put it on your horse, and then quickly travel to the merchant you need to sell that loot to. In 10 mins after getting Boxer, I already had 200 Groschen coins (so around 1/5 of the horse's value). While over-encumbered, you can't run, you can't jump, you can't fast-travel (even while I don't use fast-traveling). Now with the horse, I can do all that, and quicker (and fast-traveling is more harm than good in the beginning as actually running around, or using your horse improves your skills and stats, and also can reveal a lot of secret spots/hidden treasure).

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My character's leading skills, so far, are Stealth and Lockpicking (quite telling), and his main trait is Charisma (it can work even on guards, especially if you take the Commoner perk to increase Charisma checks chances).
 

Antimatter

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Neuhof's horse trader also sold saddlebags. Getting the best one cost another 1.3k Groschen coins, and the horse's carrying capacity increased to 412 kgs. This is basically enough to play without the problems of becoming over-encumbered even if you gather everything. Henry must sleep at night, so he returns to his bed every day, and the horse allows him to increase capital quickly.
Kingdom Come  Deliverance Screenshot 2024.07.17 - 13.08.08.69.jpg

After sorting out carrying capacity, Henry could start adventuring fully, trying hunting animals and searching for bandits for the first time. Honestly, these (along with gathering herbs) are activities this game is known for, they are fun, and the way the perk system works (the further you advance in skills, the more appropriate perks you gain), these activities are the core of getting successful at the game. The feel of getting your first hare kill is unmatched.
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In the screenshot above, you might notice silhouettes of people in the background. Those were the first bandits Harry defeated.
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Antimatter

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Yeah, the more I play, the more I see that approaching this game as a sandbox and not forcing the main quest is a safe way to level up the character, get equipment, perks, and just become better at the game as the player.

When I first played K:CD, I wanted to see the story out, so that is why at this point of the game I pursued some story quests that had difficult combat (and nasty ambushes on the way to them). If, however, you relax a bit and just naturally do what you feel like doing, the game becomes more pleasant and your character development becomes more steady.

Here is Henry learning to read, even Latin:

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There is no book so bad, that it is not in any part useful.

Now when Henry can read books, he can train skills just by reading books every evening. And training skills means being able to use better weapons.

What I like about K:CD is how truthful all armor looks, and also I enjoy how different parts of the armor are called (and it's neat to read in-game descriptions for this or that item).

The game uses a 20-slot armor system! Not 6, not 10, but 20! This realism is very much appreciated.

Here is Henry visiting Talmberg, a town he just recently fled to as a wounded nobody. The progress is significant.

Kingdom Come  Deliverance Screenshot 2024.07.18 - 15.48.07.50.jpg
 

Skatan

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I love the layers on layers system they use for armor. Having a game actually take historical accuracy at its core is amazing. The funny thing is that to me, as a light-hearted hobby historian, this system is way more cool both aesthetically and game-play wise than any fantasy creation in any other game. Ever. Real armor looks so much better and cooler than the generic tropey stuff I see in most games. I guess I am in a very small minority of players here though who prefer this style.
 

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(I had to pause the run due to my vacation)

KCD:2 slipped to 2025, but at least we'll be looking at the new gameplay trailer at Gamescom very soon.

 

Skatan

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I rewatched the trailer a second time and some things I felt after watching (just some rambling if anyone wanna discuss, heh):

It looks quite similar to KCD1, ie not much more beautiful. At first glance it looks like it's the same graphics etc, although Antimatter mentioned smoother movements. It's been too long since I played KCD1 to identify that myself. I played KCD on an older computer with lower graphics settings, but still thought it was a very beautiful world to walk around in. My favorite past time was to dress light and go into the forests hunting, just my Henry, a bow and the scenery.

The fighting is hard to assess from the trailer as it feels like they use a controller. The movements are either scripted or a controller as they seem to smooth compared to mouse and keyboard. I had hoped they would have improved the impact of slashes on people. I loved their take on fighting, making it much more realistic than other games, but in KCD2 I see they still have no actual slashing impact from swords. The sound and kinetic impact effects from a full-blown slash from a longsword should be stronger than what we see here. With proper edge alignment and power, the slash can go through fabric "armor" and cut flesh. It's a bit PG13 still, I would have much preferred even more realism, faster kills and less RPG/Health pool aspects of non-armoured combat. The shield breaking outside the alchemist fight looked just plain bad. Shields don't explode and disappear. Again, would have loved an even deeper realism here too. But I'm nitpicking, since overall the combat in KCD was superior to any other game ever made and I'm sure KCD2 will be as well.

I am curious to how they will implement the RPG aspect of Henry in KCD1 vs KCD2 w.r.t. skills and levels. What is the canon Henry that will be moved into 2? My Henry was a ninja killing machine, marksman and expert tailor but shit at alchemy/herbalism etc. Will we get a point buy to remake our Henry at the start of the game or import a save? I am assuming, and hoping for, the latter. But that also makes us very strong from the start of the game, so then how to make the game interesting there and enable further leveling of skills etc? Looking forward to learning more about this later.
 

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The developers are quite convinced the game's quality is good, so they've given away preview keys 4 (!) weeks before the game release.

Here is a preview from WolfheartFPS:



Reddit summary for all previews (being updated):
 

Black Elk

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This game is definitely on my radar right now, although I still haven't tried the first one yet hehe. It's got big trouble in little ren fair vibes to me for sure!

One thing I've noticed about myself is that, while I can enjoy playing games in either 1st or 3rd person, I cannot observe someone else playing games in 1st person for very long without the motion sickness kicking in pretty quickly.

If I'm on the stick or the steering wheel it's not an issue, but if I'm a passenger or adopting someone else's view it's quite pronounced. So say by about 20 minutes into WolfheartFPS's Review, after the combat and perks preview section I already notice it in my inner ear/stomach lol. For me that means it's a game that I'm sure I'd be able to have fun playing (provided there is smooth Y axis inversion), but not watching, if that makes sense.

I've been curious about this ever since I started kicking around a twitch for a bit, that there seems to be fair number of players who tune out if the game is 1st person POV or has that sort of FPS orientation, but I wonder if that has more to do with that fact that spectating is now such an aspect of gaming more broadly? Like especially for introductions. You know so like you watch a friend or someone online play to see how it feels, but for somebody like me that feeling is probably nausea half the time. If it was goldeneye and I wasn't playing or racing around to get the body armor myself, then I'm probably not watching everyone else for the downtime. Chances are I'm in the kitchen making a snack or something instead, cause it will just make me too physically dizzy otherwise. I guess there is a sense in which immersion is diminished and something lost when the peripherals are fully displayed and rendered out, but it's interesting to me that games that use a 1st POV still break things up with cinematics and cutscenes and such for story delivery, and for the back and forth dialogue. So when it's all edited together I can sorta tune in and out for a lot of these reviews, but I think if I was just watching someone play for an hour I'd hit the mat there haha

Looking forward to seeing what they cooked up here though! Knowing myself I'll have to dive headlong to make sure I'm in the driver's seat instead of shotgun for this one
 

Cahir

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The motion sickness is the main reason I stopped playing KCD1. It happens to me sometimes in 1st person games, although not every time. I noticed that turning off Depth of Field and Blur in Graphics settings often help (this way I was able to play Skyrim), but it didn't help that much in KCD1.
 

Black Elk

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Yeah I'm hoping they'll have some settings options, cause I've found that I'm somehow very particular in this regard. I'm the same way with new TVs as well, where I'm always scrambling to find the judder and motion blur settings. Kinda same deal though, where in some games I'm totally fine (or fine by my standards) whereas in others the effect will be way more pronounced. I had a hell of a time watching peeps play Cyberpunk for example if they're gunning hardcore, like where V has their head on a swivel and the full orbital sweep there, although it depends entirely on the player I suppose. Like some people just walk and take their time, or again if it's broken up with other things, like driving or movie time. For me it's mostly when observing though, like if I'm in full control of the stick/camera and my own POV where I can anticipate and direct my own movements, then it's not as big a deal. I still wouldn't be the first in line for a rollercoaster or one of those gyro wheels, but some stuff I can handle better than others.

What I think intrigued me about this game is the way that weapons and armor seemed to be more grounded than movie magic fantasy, and that's always cool. Especially if the game can serve as an education or primer in the nuts and bolts. I think that's my favorite thing, when a game can just gift me with a bunch of new vocabulary or way of understanding how things work and fit together. Like Antimatter mentions 20 slots for the armor and I'm definitely going to perk up when I hear about Houndmaster skill trees hehe.

I do kinda wish I could maybe play as a Richard, or a Mortimer, or Guy d'Wherever, but probably that's still too difficult to shoot around. Like the alternative I guess is just where nobody ever refers to the protagonist by name, or they'll get some generic handle with a definite article like The Warden. Jedi Knight, stuff like that. Hard to pull off the personal touch when everyone speaks like that. No Henrietta I'd imagine? lol I wonder when we'll start seeing games where the player can type a name out and all the NPCs and such will be able to pronounce it perfectly and not sounding like robots. Feels like that's right around the corner, if it isn't here somehow already. But then to get that to work you'd also need to teach the player how to use phonetics and phonemes instead of just the standard type out to get the right sounds and stresses and such. I like the same idea carried over into cosmetics and phenotypes or wardrobe, where the player might just be given the full grab bag on that, and have that be a way for players to add to their vocabulary. So like not just in the developer's toolkit, but something that the player engages with, or which can be brought out of the game and applied elsewhere, provided it's reasonably accurate. Like to establish more norms there. Otherwise it's always some D&D swords and sorcery rehash. I think there's more to be mined from an actual history, since there are always surprises there and new things to learn. I like that they got all those horses in there. I've been missing the horse, probably cause I went from playing Zelda with Epona always at the whistle, to just playing BG3 for hours and hours and hours, and I still haven't found Mr. Ed there. Like no horseshoes in Faerun ever? Seems like a bit of a miss. I thought for sure there'd be at least one, although I was also holding out hope for the Black Goat too, so maybe my expectations were too high. Anyhow, seems like KCD did the full mother goose on that, so that has me intrigued. But yeah, hound mastery, chances are I'll want to check that out for sure! hehe

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Skatan

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Looks awesome and I will for sure play it sooner or later, but likely not at launch. KCD1 was a fantastic game, and it seems this review highlights many things they do better now in 2 than in 1 (he mentions less "jank"). The fights looks good, but to my untrained eye, very similar to KCD1. Couldn't really see much difference, but then again, I never mastered them in KCD1 either. I searched until I found the easiest way to win, which was for the first half of the game bonking people in the head with a mace, and then in the latter half, I found a highdamage stabbing sword and just pokey-poked people to death with the same attack over and over. Never did practice all the fancy "master moves" the devs put so much effort into creating, but hey - I still loved that they were there!

I hope the game is a fantastic success and build a thriving modding community. Few games have deserved great mods more than KCD1 did and never got.
 

WarChiefZeke

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I bought the first one recently for like 4$ or something insane. I will eventually try it.

hearing what I have about the sequel, i won't touch it, but i've long accepted i'm not a modern video game enjoyer.
 

Antimatter

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That's the thing, @WarChiefZeke, exactly the thing. Please check out the Twitter thread I linked above, and you also might want to check out influencers you follow for their apology/explanation of how they were mistaken.

Some people heard something based on some Saudi Arabia news, ran with it, and canceled the game. All turned out to be completely false.
 
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