Kingdom Come: Deliverance

One of the best games I've played. Story rich, beautifully crafted world, creative storylines. Now I'm quite hungry for KCDII.

Pro: I like the sertting, the story the graphics are nice, even today (at least to my eye) and last but not least, i like to support developers that are/were dedicated to their project. Con: Fighting with keyboard+mouse is, at least for me, not really possible. Keybindings are meh but at least functional, the fighting though is giving me headaches. I read somewhere that one should get a controller to play this game with, and i actually considered to get one (PC player here, so no console and thus no controller in the house) until i came across... game-breaking bug that makes this game unplayable for me: You sometimes get a random criminal tag and are, especially in the tutorial, trown into jail and the run is over for you. With the default save-game mechanic (saviour shnaps and story-savepoints) this resulted in me loosing several hours of gameplay when i decided to max some skills in the starting/tutorial area. Yes i did rob everyone blind, but noone saw me and no tag should have appeared from that (and did not until loading back into the game after saving it WITHOUT a criminal tag) This even happened when simply picking flowers to raise my herbalism (no killing or robbing involved, not even trespassing that would have shown up as a warning icon too). Further investigation showed this to be a known bug since well... release really. never got fixed in all those years. This and the fighting mechanism that would require an additional expense for the mentioned controller to perhaps alleviate, let me not play this anymore. After the tutorial area the criminal tag is not THAT much of an issue as it fades over time, but i do not appreciate loosing that much game-time to a known and still unfixed long-standing bug. Maybe my rating is still a bit much but other players might not be as fuzzed as myself over this. I now consider spending the few Euros that i did to simply be "tip of the hat" towards the developers and GOG for at least providing this DRM-free.

What does a good RPG need? Open World, Character development and a Story that remains in your head. Many would add a good Gameplay as well. Open World is an easy Task nowadays. To just pick a part of the real world almost looks like cheating. Character development here is solved not by creating the most custom Character you can imagine but by giving the player a backstory a personality with a goal and a way to get there the player can't even imagine at first. No need to write much about the story. It's just more than excellent. Anyone who isn't immersed in it's background can just read about the events on wikipedia it's history pages. Gameplay is the one that splits the community in half. one side says the fighting system is unbearable and others like me would argue to have the best RPG fighting in existence. Group fights are difficult, they sure should be. You are no superhuman hero. Take your time to immerse in the world and learn the mechanics and at some point you will see yourself fighting off some bandits with a wooden stick wearing just your underwear, while being totally drunk. Burping loudly after every second hit or so. Fun times.

It's awesome. Looking forward for part 2. And thank you for German audio

I read some time ago that the people at Warhorse doubted whether anyone would even care about the idea of a realistic (i.e. based on history and without magic) Medieval RPG. The overwhelming community interest shocked them. We weren't just intrigued by the idea; we loved it. In terms of execution, KC:D is a polarizing experience. If you like the idea of systems you have to understand and you enjoy vast open-world games like those of the Witcher series, this is for you. In contrast to some RPGs, Kingdom Come's first-person perspective and visible player body really ground the player in the environment. There are some oddball things, like brewing a special potion to save your game (humorously reminiscent of Outcast's "gamsav" device). You can't just go wherever you like. Walking around a village at night without a torch will get you in trouble. If you don't have good manners, you had better have quick reflexes. Things are not as harsh as a survival/crafting sim, but this definitely participates in the walking sim and life sim categories. Oh, and in terms of combat and stealth: combat will take practice, and stealth--well, imagine trying to commit real-life burglary. The one gripe I have with the game is that the characters are basically stone-faced. No one in the game has any real facial expression, and I'm perplexed at that, since we've seen titles with expressive characters as far back as Half Life 2. It's a forgivable if bewildering omission. What they didn't forget is a boat load: beautiful scenery including many real-life locations rendered in painstaking detail; voluminous historic lore about characters, places, and customs; a magnificent orchestral score starring performances on period instruments; and detailed artwork binding the elements together into a surprisingly Medieval package. Highly recommended.