Kingdom Come: Deliverance

As the title says. I played it 2 years ago and still avidly waiting for a sequel.

I'm bothered to write this review only because this mind boggling game has a sequel coming, somehow. I will not be diving into too much detail, but my biggest point is that the combat system makes the game nearly unplayable if your goal is to have fun. This point is so robust that the attempt to elaborate on that feels overwhelming, but I will try- the system that is rigidly based on the medieval combat manuals has two important effects. One, every punk ass robber that jumps you from the bushes squares up in the perfect Nerberhut stance. Ridiculous. Daft even. Hilarious. Even in the heat of battle, as your opponents grin, grunt, sweat and shout they retain the perfect posture of a medieval martial arts drawing. The fluidity and natural feel of combat is ruined, and it feels almost like weird turn-based bullshit. Second, 2 on 1 combat is near certain death, no matter how well armed and armoured you are because the system forces you to lock on one of the combatatnts (how else can you remain in the perfect Vom Tag stance????). This means that the other combatant that isn't locked on will just walk around you with d*ck in hand and malicious intent and vapourize you while you're too busy switching between Alber and Pflug to deal with a guy wearing a straw hat kitting you with a stick. My other complain is that the game hassles you for no reason. You have to eat, you have to sleep, if you have an injured ankle you have to drop your quest, no matter what, and go to bed and sleep it off. You're bleeding and have just 1 bandage? Get ready for a 50/50 gamble that you will just bleed out to death, on which every npc will remark but nobody will help you. You don't have bandages and the apothecary is far away? Sad, that is certain death. Not like you could tear up your clothes for bandages, that would be unrealistic. The definition of realism in this game is "whetever annoys you the most" This game is not fun. It is not meant to be fun. It is made for HEMA neckbeards.

As an action game, KCD is superb; the combat system is neat, it looks real pretty and it's pretty linear. Calling it an RPG is where it falls apart though. Yes,the limited available skills level up, yes, you have some modicum of control over your actions, but these are the only characteristics that make it an RPG. You cannot influence your character's morality or mindset in any meaningful way, you are a bog standard fantasy hero who exists only to further the game's weak plot, you cannot be anything more or less than this. Notice the word "fantasy" in the last sentence, this is at odds with any description the developers gave for this game, so it's use will be elaborated upon: none of the NPCs have the same thought process as the PC, he will make decisions that no other people in the same situation will make, they will not make these decisions because a successful outcome is very unlikely, though somehow, he will succeeed again and again and again. NPCs that would realistically pay him no heed dote over him, while people he knows personally will pay little attention to his actions. If the plot of this game happened in the background while you were a character you created (even if that was limited to just picking the gender and some small back story changes), with strong economic and crafting systems to support you doing whatever profession you like while reacting to developments however you think is appropriate this would be a great game that meets its promises, but because it lacks these small changes the game is disappointing. Basically, if you like FPS games and want to try swords and shields out, this game is for you. if you like RPGs, Skyrim will give you more or less the experience this game promised, and a couple of mods can sort out the few differences, and The Witcher will give you a better version of what this game is.

Really disappointing game full of crashes and bugs on top of a weird save system in which you need buy potions to save. Awkward design decisions on horse riding and lock picking (not fun on both parts) and a VERY awkward combat system. Graphics and story were very good but after 10 hours of bugs (freezing, crashing) had to quit and uninstall this mess of a game. This game is not worth my time.

Nice story, historic realism and so on. But game has very HORRIBLE combat system. It is just horror. 90% of my fails was only due to stupid locking on one target, This system works ONLY during 1vs1 duels. Not during most of the fights, where you face 2+ enemies at the same time. Henry locks on one target and you cannot quickly change it to closer enemy because you have to make long ride with mouse, during which enemy lands 1-2 hits on you. It's just so annoying that destroys whole fun from game.