Hello and welcome to the new episode of me struggling with historically accurate games. Today I’m here with Kingdom Come: Deliverance. Let me start off by saying I wanted to play this game that different than others because I like games RPG games that are fps and tps rather than RTS and MMORPG games. Anyways, before getting into the details and historical accuracy I want to talk about my first impressions of gameplay, controls, graphical quality, etc.
As a person who played lots of fps games the controls weren’t controlling. Games default sensitivity was higher than expected which made me wonder, “Am I playing at the wrong sensitivity?” but I figured later in the game the movements become slower in combat if you’re playing with low sensitivity. I can describe it by the aim you take on someone that, you probably know from mount and blade, you have 6 points that you can hit on your enemy; right, lower right, left, lower left, up, and the middle. The more you move your mouse the more you get accurate on your hitbox.
But as far as I can see if you are used to low sens you are still able to have a good grip on what’s going on. While talking about the hitbox I need to state something got me very mad. The HITBOX IS SO SMALL THAT SOMETIMES YOU NEED TO PENETRATE THE 3D MODEL OF NPC TO BE ABLE TO HIT THEM. Frankly, I believe this might be because of the accuracy of gameplay they wanted us to live through but even though I have a huge sword I can’t reach them quite so easily.
I think now is the time to talk about the graphics. The game was released in 2018 and Warhorse worked for about 7 years for this project. When you hear 2018 you probably expect better quality but think about starting a gaming project in 2011 and then working on it for 7 years… So, in those aspects, I can comfortably say that the graphics are in performance – quality standards. The focus on the environments is the one that saves this game’s entire graphical mistakes on NPCs. I mean the mistakes are not that much but it is quite visible when they talk or do any activities other than standing and watching. Since we talked about Warhorse, let me tell you how their horses are hard to tame and ride. In the beginning minutes of the game, you have to ride a horse to the Talmberg to warn them about the upcoming battle and I have to say amongst all the games I played that involves riding a horse…this was the hardest. First, you feel like you can do it without trying but then it starts becoming like a car drive rather than a horse ride. Yes, you can see it like you’re on a horse but the controls of it are the most annoying part which I think that’s fixable by getting better at the game. Now for the sound quality, I don’t think I can say much but as far as I noticed when an NPC starts talking the background sound fades away in a weird way, not blending with the speech. But the expressions of the speeches are amazing when you think about the date of this game, so I’m kind of grateful for that because, in a role-play game, this is what you want…to be in the game and feel every aspect of it.
Anyways let’s set this subject aside and talk about what time it historically starts. One of Kingdom Come: Deliverance’ initial promises to their fans was their historical accuracy to the medieval period and also an enjoyable gaming experience. KDC is set in 15th-century Bohemia, part of the Holy Roman Empire, a complex confederation of many kingdoms, and territories that started with the Kingdom of Germany after the split of the Carolingian Empire when its Emperor Charles died in 888. After King Louis the Child died in 911, they chose one of their own to be their ruler, Conrad of Franconia. In 918, on his deathbed, Conrad of Franconia yielded his crown to his chief rival, Henry the Fowler of Saxony.
Yada yada…I’m not going to bore you with all the history between the 10th century and the 14th century. Let us get to the point where our game begins. In 1346, Wenceslaus became the first Bohemian to be elected as emperor and was renamed Charles IV. During Charles’s reign, Prague, the capital of Bohemia also became the capital of the Holy Roman Empire. Charles also financed the construction of a university, square, castle, and a cathedral and it’s mentioned in the earlier parts of the game as “ Charles was better than Sigismund, he made some innovations unlike him” type of conversation. Charles the Fourth had many children but the most important to the Kingdom Come: Deliverance is his two sons Wenceslaus IV and Sigismund.
Wenceslaus became the new Emperor and King of Bohemia and Sigismund Became the King of Hungary and Croatia. Unlike his father, Wenceslaus was not interested in his role as emperor and decided to drink and hunt instead. I feel like it’s similar to the Tulip Period of the Ottoman Empire. After Wenceslaus’ actions deteriorated relations with the rest of the empire. He was first imprisoned in 1394 by the Czech nobility but was freed by his brother John Duke of Gorlitz. However, he ignored the problems of the empire and Bohemia again and was deposed by a large Coalition of rulers in 1400. Wenceslaus would let his brother rule in Bohemia and in return, Sigismund would help Wenceslaus get his imperial crown back.
The clever Sigismund exploited his brother’s naivety, imprisoned him with the support of the Czech nobles in 1402 in Vienna, and ruled in bohemia for several months. The ruthless takeover resembling an invasion turned everybody against Sigismund. This is where we meet Henry, a son of a blacksmith whose life will be forever changed when a mercenary raid destroys his village and kills his family. The beginning of the game is hours before Henry’s parents’ death. With that, you can see how miserable Henry was and did nothing but sleep or do some unnecessary stuff rather than help his dad properly. I mean yea he might have tried to learn how to swing a sword, but his dad wanted him to do more talking rather than fighting. In his senses, he could become a better and a noble person by talking and negotiating where he can climb up with his fighting. Which I find it correct and tried it myself in my gameplay. After mourning his dad for a minute Henry was left with nothing and the roads were towards Lord Radzig Kobyla, where Henry will find himself in his service in forming a resistance against the invaders. Fate dragged Henry into this raging civil war, where he (or should I tell us) fights for the future of Bohemia.
Now it’s time for the historical analysis of Kingdom Come: Deliverance. As I mentioned before the game was announced big with its historical accuracy. To me, yes it’s historically accurate and does a better job at representing medieval weapons, armor, and environment than any other game out there so thumbs up to the development team for that. When I say it’s historically accurate, I don’t mean %100 since it would be a utopic lie. But I need to mention that they got the buildings absolutely right according to the lecture notes I took and remembered. They are indeed superb they look as if they were taken straight out of a medieval manuscript with the churches and noble residences has been richly painted and decorated into more belief. But the clothing, shoes, and the general state in which the clothing of the citizen is off as it does not represent early 15th century Czechia or the Czech Republic. I want to point out that the character you play is not a god, superhuman, king, or emperor as we saw in Europa Universalis 4, Victoria 3, For Honor, or The Witcher. You start the game as a peasant, an utterly useless human being if I need to describe it a little more. But what’s fun about this game is the more you play the more you improve. But you can start from being a son of a smith and turn into a very well-equipped and highly skilled man-at-arms. Your character will become strong but not inhumanely strong. And the feeling of upgrading and improving your skills, increasing your attributes yourself, and getting good gear is so different than the games you start off as an already strong and noble character. One of the things that annoyed me in-game was how uneven the fighting was. Let me tell you a part of my experience. I was happy because I just bought my first set of armor and I have been wearing full peasant clothes for a while now I finally made my first purchase spending almost 800 groschen into my plate armor. Since it was a happy moment of mine, I wanted to take a screenshot but in order to take a screenshot I had to talk to a person to see myself in my armor. So, I went up to the first person I see, and guess who it is…the guy in the earlier stages of the game who insulted me and beat me up when I asked for my dad’s tool’s money from him. I think there would be no problem but of course, it was not all that. He starts insulting me and my father as if everything happened to him wasn’t a concern of his. So, I get a little bit angry since he beat me up the first time and I had to get my revenge. And I look at myself wearing full armor while he is in a t-shirt, and I decide that today will be the day I will beat him up…it did not work like that. After choosing the “shut up or else…” option he gets into full-on fight mode and kicks my-. I mean I don’t mind losing but LOSING TO A PEASANT WHILE IM HERE WITH MY ARMOR???. It didn’t stop with me losing the fight HE ACTUALLY BROKE MY PLATE ARMOR. I really don’t know what he had in his hands, but I was quite flabbergasted. And fixing the armor was for 60 groschens…did I have any money? NO!!! because while I was on my way to the armory A GUARD STOPPED ME AND I HAD TO PAY A FINE. Anyways I think this was quite explanatory for the sense of fight in the game. Other than fighting NPCs there was a part that caught my attention (and my cousins, since she was with me for 2 hours of my gameplay) there are over-religious people in the game and their mere existence made me want to fight every one of them. I’m not against religion or something but as you know in the game even if it’s an open area you can hear other people talk and sometimes, I was getting bored from all the main course of the game and wanted to listen or get into the NPC’s conversations. And always hearing them talk about the pope, God, and religion was annoying. It was like watching the Vikings again with all the “Oh look at this wonderful thing that god made for us, oh look at this sea that god gave us, the god did this…” I can understand praising god since in that era the only thing that people can hold onto was their faith and religion (or maybe it was because of the pope’s power but how would I know) but don’t you think it is a bit much? It made me feel as if I was in the midst of the medieval version of an evangelical Christian community or something. Okayy it was too much but I’m sorry playing more than 7-8 hours and hearing alike conversations over and over again made me feel sick.
Lastly, let me wrap everything up. Playing Kingdom Come: Deliverance for the first time was a good experience as I played Europa Universalis 4 and Victoria 3 the whole semester. I need to be honest I’m not into strategy games and I know you probably got that by now. The quality, the graphics, and the storyline were everything to me and it was nothing like other historical games. The reason I didn’t mention any of the “I did this, and this happened and did this and my country vanished” was because in this game you play as a peasant and nothing you do has a huge impact on the historical storyline. You are nothing but a third person when it comes to fatal decisions of the nation. So rather than mentioning everything I did (which I don’t even remember some of them because I played more than I estimated) I described the game, game sense, and the historical accuracy of the game (it might not be true though, I wrote them all according to my researches) and some comparisons to other games and historical shows. As far as I played, I enjoyed the game, accomplished my objective of Understanding Czech culture and becoming an evil swordsman, and learned a few things about the Czech Republic’s medieval ages. I hope you enjoyed it, and that I did not bore you with all the explanations. Have a great day. 😊
Referances:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_Come:_Deliverance
https://kingdom-come-deliverance.fandom.com/wiki/Kingdom_Come:_Deliverance_Wiki
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