Thank you Kinguin for sending us this game to review!

Kingdom Come: Deliverance takes place in Bohemia shortly after the death of the great emperor Charles IV. His son, Wenceslas, took his place and was an idle and self-indulgent leader who divided the country on being fit to rule or not. Sigismund, Wencelas’ half-brother and king of Hungary kidnapped him and raided Bohemia in his absence.

One of the first towns to be razed is Skalitz where Henry, the blacksmith’s son, resides. Prior to the brutal massacre of his town, Henry enjoyed his time at the pub with his friends and was pretty serious with a tavern girl named Bianca. The game starts with Henry waking up with a hangover and being tasked to help get the finishing pieces for his father’s finest sword. One of the quests involves getting money or items back from the town drunk. After getting my butt handed to me, I quickly learned that the battle system in this game is not very forgiving. Unlike in Dynasty Warriors 9 I recently reviewed, Henry does not start off very strong at all and it’s in his best interest to talk his way out of trouble instead of using his fists. With practice, Henry will improve on his speech, warfare, and horse riding techniques.

Since I was not able to convince or beat any money out of this drunkard, I resorted to having my friends help. They agreed as long as I aided them in chucking manure at some bloke’s house who was talking bad about King Wenceslas. As funny as that task was, I didn’t like having to do it twice due to the quest being broken. Apparently, “taking back” one of the unpaid-for tools too soon renders Henry’s friends immovable from the drunk man’s house and unable to assist. When I left the axe alone and did the quest again it worked as it should have. Unfortunately, this was not the only broken quest I experienced. The other glitch was when I was learning how to pickpocket. After failing too many times, the quest failed and I got in trouble with the law despite still being in a training setting. If you get caught by the guards, you can pay a steep fine or do some time.

Money isn’t terribly easy to come by in the beginning of the game. There are some side-jobs that will throw you some coin, but a majority of it can be found after looting bodies of Cuman soldiers or bandits. Almost everything in Henry’s inventory deteriorates over time. Non-dried food will slowly spoil and you can die from food poisoning if you ingest bad food. Antidotes are available if you can make it in time. Surprisingly, you can sell spoiled food to traders though.

Weapons and armor get dirty and deteriorate over time and with use. The more battles you do, the more ragged your clothes will get. Also, be sure to stop by and wash in every basin you pass by or the townsfolk will complain about your stench.

No matter how bad Henry smells, it won’t deter ladies from letting him have his way with them. Henry can solicit a prostitute at a bathhouse and there’s a love interest that he can pursue a relationship with that ends in lots skin being shown. Breasts and backsides are also shown in a night of debauchery spent with a town priest. Not only do the priest and Henry get drunk and fornicate with harlots, the priest bargains with Henry to do the sermon in exchange of revealing information from the confessional. The sermon ironically talks about the financial corruption of the church, fornication, and drunkenness.

Witchcraft is also seen and there’s an incident revolving around divination and hallucination as a result of a powerful concoction made by the town herbalist. Most of the townsfolk are God-fearing people and many of the conversations started or ended with “God be with you” but the rest of the dialogue would be riddled with all sorts of cussing and blaspheming. Pretty much every word in the book is used along with some other colorful metaphors to describe unsavory people.

Given that this game takes place during the Crusades of the Holy Roman Empire, you can expect lots and lots of violence. Along with the puddles of blood you will find both human and animal corpses sliced open. Raping of women is also seen and alluded to. After Henry sees loved ones killed in front of him, he has to flee on horseback quickly to the next town and warn them. While stealing a horse he can save a woman from being raped. Given that I got my butt kicked by the town drunk, I wasn’t about to take on four armored men. Henry and I both felt bad about leaving that women behind but I don’t think he would have survived assisting her.

While fleeing the town, this game gave me quite the adrenaline rush knowing that soldiers were quickly riding after me and had I not pushed my horse to its limits, I would have been filled with arrows and killed. I died a few times before seeing the opening credits. Death isn’t fun, but what makes it worse in this game is the saving system. While this game auto-saves at key points, manually saving requires consumption of a specific alcoholic beverage. Many hours of gameplay were lost to this “feature” before discovering one of many game mods that bypass it.

Visually, this game is breathtaking and the open world is a pleasure to explore. The quick travel markers are handy, but they won’t stop random bandits or Cuman soldiers from attacking you. The NPCs look unique and there’s a lot of variety in their appearances and personalities. Some characters are more likable than others.

Each line in this game is voice acted and done so superbly. The background music is pleasant to listen to and is available on Steam for purchase along with a digital art book. The background chatter and sounds of nature are all fitting as well.

As wonderful as this game looks and sounds, it requires hefty computer specs to run well. Thankfully, I’m blessed with a powerful enough PC to run the game smoothly though not at 60FPS. I did experience one infinite loading screen which cost me about an hour and a half of game time being lost before discovering the game save mod. As convenient as the mod is, it does bring on some new issues so your mileage may vary.

Despite some frustrations with the saving mechanisms and broken quests, I still enjoyed the story and gameplay in Kingdom Come: Deliverance. There is plenty to do and the story changes depending on Henry’s choices. Even with good intentions, Henry won’t be able to escape the horrors of war and many other sins are easy to become ensnared in with the opportunities available to him. This game definitely earns its Mature rating and should not be played near young ones. If the moral issues don’t bother you, it’s worth holding out for a patch or two before picking up this title. I personally find the moral issues too much to continue playing with a clean conscience.

(Kinguin Affiliate Link)