Finally, a game that appeals to history buffs, medieval language experts and master swordsmen alike. Kingdom Come: Deliverance is an RPG set in Bohemia (part of the Czech Republic as we now call it) in 1403. It was crowdfunded to the tune of $2.5 million during its five years in development, with over 50,000 backers willing it into existence. All the support seems to have stemmed from a gap in the market for a rigidly historical, highly realistic and open-ended RPG. The result: Kingdom Come: Deliverance.
Get started in Middle Ages Bohemia with our list of 5 things in Kingdom Come: Deliverance you should do straight away.
Period-accurate clothing, armour and weapons, a story based on the actual political situation that unfolded in Bohemia at that time, and even an array of dialects from the area that the player must navigate in the form of speech checks – Warhorse Studios have pulled out all the stops. It also means there’s an awful lot of information to break down, which is where we come in, with this comprehensive rundown of all the vital details and features you need to know about Kingdom Come: Deliverance.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance release date
You can immerse yourself in the world of Medieval Bohemia right now: Kingdom Come: Deliverance released on February 13, 2018. We did and we appreciated its ambition, despite its clunkiness.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance story
Set in the real-world area between Sázava and Rataje nad Sázavou in modern-day Czech Republic, Kingdom Come: Deliverance opens with the kidnapping and deposition of the newly crowned Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia by his more ambitious brother, Sigismund. The player takes control of Henry, a son of a blacksmith who returns to his village from an errand to find it embroiled in war, his family murdered, and Sigismund’s invasion well under way.
What ensues is a tale of retribution, as the player gets to know different medieval Bohemian factions in a quest to avenge his dead parents and fend off the invading forces.
Warhorse have lavished Kingdom Come: Deliverance’s cinematics with notable production value. With three directors, a cast of 60 actors (including Brian Blessed) an in-house motion capture studio, and a dedicated department of animators to put them together, Kingdom Come: Deliverance looks a cut above many RPGs.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance RPG mechanics
The role-playing options that players will have in Kingdom Come: Deliverance are centred around realism. There are not any magical abilities or spiritual affinities to help you progress through the world. Instead, players improve their skills by practicing them, reminiscent of The Elder Scrolls series’ progressions system. For example, to become a more proficient swordsman, you have to engage in combat. If you win, your swordsmanship skill will go up, but if a fight is too hard you will have to go to a trainer and duel with him or pay him to gain missing experience.
So what kind of skills and stats can you improve if zapping your enemies and conjuring demons are not possible? Combat utilises swordsmanship, fencing, defense, and archery. Outside of combat you have stats like strength, agility, speech, vitality and charisma to watch out for, as well as some supplementary stats like visibility, conspicuousness, alchemy, noise, lockpicking, and horse whispering. The overall aim is to channel players into one of three playing styles: bard, rogue, and warrior.
There is also a stat that does not neatly fit into RPG staples, casually referred to as ‘badass’. Represented by a pig in sunglasses in conversation options, it operates similarly to intimation or charm, but is based on your appearance and demeanor. If you are outfitted in impressive plate armour and wielding a blood-drenched sword, you are seen as a ‘badass’ that should not be messed with, and this unlocks new dialogue lines.
The way you dress and conduct yourself also affects your options when speaking to NPCs. For example, you might find it easier to get information from beggars if you are dressed like one yourself. Similarly, you can get better deals at merchants if you wear finer clothes.
This all feeds into that most crucial of modern-day RPG elements: choice. Warhorse Studios have promised players nearly total freedom about how they decide to approach quests and the game world itself. If you have been tasked with crippling an enemy camp you can either launch a full frontal assault, or sneak in by wearing enemy colours and talking your way past the guards. Once inside you can then sabotage their ability to fight back by poisoning their food or starting a fire in their arrow stores. You can also kill any NPC in the game, even important ones, but prepare to face the consequences.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance combat
Warhorse Studios have attempted to make fighting feel as realistic as possible, sometimes to its detriment, in our view. That said, you can give yourself a boost with the game’s console commands. One hefty compromise accompanies that goal, though: players are much slower to react to on-screen threats than real-life swordsmen would be, so all attacks are broader and easier to read, ensuring a fair fight.
Damage has been calculated for 36 different body parts for every weapon in the game. All possible armour configurations have been accounted for, too, in order to force the player to think tactically about where and how they strike. It means that there are actually two fighting styles depending on whether your foe is well-armoured or not. For instance, sword slashes are useless against a knight in plate armour, but blunt weapons are more effective. Meanwhile, if you are using a sharp weapon against plate armour, you will have to stab at pockets and gaps in the plating to do serious damage.
Attacks are controlled with a multi-directional system not too dissimilar to the one popularised by Mount & Blade: you choose one of five attacking directions by hovering your mouse in that direction as you strike. Deal enough damage to a foe and they might flee or offer their surrender. Likewise, if you have started a fight with a friendly without intending to, or found yourself on the receiving end of a brutal beating, the mercy option is available to you, too.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance mods
As you might expect for an open-world game, having the option to mod it beyond all recognition was a particularly sought-after feature. The good news: Warhorse Studios have given a resounding thumbs-up to prospective modders. The bad news: there is no word yet on a specific modding toolset. At least we have a mod that allows restriction-free saves before the inevitable Game of Thrones reskin.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance system requirements
Despite the size and ambition of the game, the Kingdom Come: Deliverance system requirements are surprisingly manageable, especially the minimum settings. Even better, AMD released driver updates optimised for the game shortly after release, with Nvidia doing so just before. Here are the specs your rig will need to do battle in 15th Century Bohemia.
Minimum:
- CPU: Intel CPU Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz, AMD CPU Phenom II X4 940
- CPU SPEED: Info
- RAM: 6 GB
- OS: OS 64-bit Windows 7 or 64-bit Windows 8 (8.1)
Recommended:
- CPU: Intel CPU Core i7 3770 3,4 GHz, AMD CPU AMD FX-8350 4 GHz
- CPU SPEED: Info
- RAM: 8 GB
- OS: OS 64-bit Windows 7 or 64-bit Windows 8 (8.1)
Can you run it? Check your PC against the Kingdom Come: Deliverance’s system requirements 2021 on PCGameBenchmark.