Kingdom Come Deliverance - Reloaded
With Kingdom Come Deliverance, developed by Warhorse, we found ourselves catapulted into the Kingdom of Bohemia in 1405, one of the many states of the Holy Roman Empire, at the time plagued by disagreements, dislikes and many, many stabs in the back. After all, empire that is strengthening, old customs that you find: not for nothing, the sovereigns who ruled the First Reich considered themselves the heirs of the emperors of Rome like Conradin of Swabia, beheaded in the public square.
But a apart from this brief historical parenthesis, Kingdom Come Deliverance is a first-person role-playing game that has attracted the curiosity of fans of the genre since its first announcement, dated July 2, 2017, after a crowfunding campaign that led it to be one of the most supported titles in the history of the medium. We play as Henry, the son of a blacksmith, destined to become an unblemished knight ready to defend the weak. In short, the classic young shoot who dreams of a better life with a sword in hand, compared to a serious job. (understood everything from life ND Elvinaizer).
The game, launched on PC and consoles on February 18, 2018, largely divided the critics and terribly angered the players who waited for it with open arms, ready to chop up enemies with a bastard sword.
In short, in front of us we have such a huge map to explore that it only enchants if we think about the many activities we can do. Net of the criticisms and some snags, the world created by Warhorse is fascinating. The main causes that fueled the complaints were the enormous technical problems that the title brought with it with the Day One patch, which did not solve even a third of its problems, especially on consoles, where the damage was considerably greater. We are not talking about simple bugs, interpenetrations and sudden crashes, but about shortcomings concerning the optimization, on which the meticulous work had not been done as promised by the development team.
Experience, undermined by further problems, it even compromised the progress of the main plot of the game, not even allowing the conclusion of vital missions for the natural continuation of the experience. Considering the price of seventy euros at launch, not everyone was enthusiastic, to put it mildly, so much so that many claimed to be reimbursed. After a wave of negative reviews, ironic videos and the usual mass hysteria that the general public foments every time something goes wrong to plan, Warhorse promised solutions to the problems with several patches.
The first, dated March 10, 2018 and called 1.3, it was intended only for PC players, tired and discouraged by the fluctuating performance of the product, arriving later on consoles after some time. In fact Warhorse listened to their requests, in particular after some negative reviews on Steam, which would have compromised in this sense the entire post launch support and the various DLCs already scheduled for the 2018/2019 vintages, if they had not moved promptly.
The possibility of saving before exiting the game was implemented, which at launch we could only do near a bed or with the Grappa del Salvatore equipped, an object that many forgot to have, even those who are writing the 'item. The pop-in effect was also fixed, a problem present even on high-end PCs. Pickpockets, burglaries and stealth mechanics were cleaned up, giving problems to anyone who preferred a different approach than swashbuckling. And yes, countless bugs have also been fixed, just so you don't miss anything.
Watch on YouTube. The team hadn't counted on there being another two hundred to be eliminated, a pretty optimistic estimate, as they tried to technically salvage what they could fix. It was March 30, 2018, an effective month after launch. The patch, called 1.4, planned to fix some technical flaws that compromised even the secondary missions, in addition to the endless bugs still present in the system.
Easter was approaching, a holiday that in the Late Middle Ages proposed from Warhorse it is deeply felt by the lords, the villagers and the Cumans, our bitter enemies from the steppes of Eastern Europe. The additions, pleasant but not as profound as we would have expected, allowed for Henry's hair and beard to be changed, with a bonus to the charisma that was always handy, especially if we were dealing with some restless peasant.
The other novelty was the "Mercy Kill", which allowed players to kill enemies without using blunt weapons. The rest instead focused on Easter with a themed event, in which even the "Pomlazká", a traditional medieval weapon of the Czech Republic, was added.
There were an imperial quantity of decisive and corrective patches for the entire year of 2018. So let's move to 2019, where the corrections largely improved the entire gaming experience, still plagued by problems. With patch 1.8.2, dated February 2019, the Czech team has made the gameplay of the title more fluid and enjoyable. The developers, also publishing the first DLCs, made known the first improvements. The interventions improved the enemy AI, more fierce and lethal than at the beginning, in which villains did not look like human beings at all and the much-vaunted realism that the team had been spokesperson for throughout the marketing campaign was lost.
The players, appreciating this improvement, were able to fully enjoy the combat system, facing ruthless enemies who did not give up so easily.
Watch on YouTube. But the surprises did not end there, so much so that further bugs were solved, one in particular that caused crashes during the quest dedicated to The House of Gold, as well as finding the objects of an old game in the new one if we decided to relive the game. Henry's story. On May 29, 2019, after a very long series of updates to stabilize the title to make it what it is now, the last fix patch arrived, destined to be the definitive one.
Warhorse has improved the settings, the combat, the positions of the NPCs and took care of most of the events. In addition to this, it has made some performance improvements with a more stable framerate. In addition, the available graphics settings were adjusted for the best visual rendering. The update introduced a new feature that allowed non-player characters to cover themselves from the elements under roofs and trees, with more precise and realistic movements. But not only that, the stealth was also refined, which the players criticized harshly at the time of launch because it was not very effective as you could literally eliminate enemies without anyone noticing. It was also refined thanks to the improvements made to pickpocketing and burglary.
Post launch support, considering the problems already mentioned, was not long in coming for the various platforms. Warhorse stated that he would release four expansions dedicated to the story and many other goodies would be spread over the course of 2018. From the Ashes was the first DLC released by the team. The village of Pribyslavitz, set on fire by bandits, is a heap of ashes and ruins in ruins: our arduous task is to restore it to its ancient splendor with the help of Marius, a landlord who takes care of bureaucratic and administrative matters . Coldly welcomed by industry critics, this additional content does not include sword fighting as it did for the entire main campaign, forcing us to manage the reconstruction of the hamlet from its foundations. We talked about it enough in our review.
The historical loyalty within the product is not only the most successful part within it, but it is the one that struck us most. Very often we have been captivated by the tapestries, frescoes and wonderful ecclesiastical structures, impossible not to appreciate. Kingdom Come, in fact, represents one of the most historically curated titles ever developed! Instead The Amorous Adventures of Bold Sir Hans Capon, light-hearted and fun compared to its predecessor, was a DLC that dealt with a decidedly different theme from the building one: love. Hans Capon, son of the lord of Rattay, is a reckless young man who is infatuated with the butcher's daughter, of an inferior lineage to him. Determined to win the girl's heart, he asks our Henry to help him in this complex undertaking. Certainly more fun and ironic, this additional content has been appreciated by the players because it offers an adventure different from the usual "bumblebee" we have become accustomed to. So, forget swashbuckling, if you are looking for love together with the good Hans Capon: even in this case in our review we talked about it enough!
The third DLC, Band of Bastards, is instead more focused on combat compared to the other. Sir Radzig Kobyla, realizing that the situation with the brigands is now unmanageable, hires Baron Kuno of Rychwald, an old acquaintance of his together with his band of mercenaries, skilled warriors capable not only of solving problems but also of creating many new ones , perhaps too many. Together with Henry they set out to fight the enemies of Sir Radzig, despicable characters who have no mercy on women and children.
In our opinion, however, the most interesting additional content is the one dedicated to Theresa, the young granddaughter of the miller romantically linked to Henry. In A Women's Lot we retrace the events of Skallica and the young woman's escape to Rattay in a long-lived and exciting adventure. We also have a dog on our side that can bite, follows our orders and guides us to various points of interest and new missions.
Watch on YouTube. Ultimately, the base game expansions launched shortly after the game's release. We believe that they are modest additional productions, net of good ideas, of the various alternatives proposed to the usual swashbuckling missions and long rides around the game map. And if we consider how many patches have been released during their distribution, we are of the idea that the DLC never announced by the team is the one dedicated to corrections, so many, many to put the title back on track.
To have found fertile ground, as it is obvious that it happens with an open world of this magnitude, are the modders who give PC users a few more reasons to enrich the gaming experience. However, unlike titles of the same genre, there are no memorable mods. Many of them improve the textures of the game and the characters, while others make visible the herbs to be collected before dedicating ourselves to alchemy, an art at the time widespread. However, there is one that facilitates the sharpening of the weapons at the grinding wheel, where the angle is not difficult but is more intuitive. In another, however, we can immediately have the map unlocked without being forced to go blind, proceeding with the constant fear of what we might find.
Further mods improve the visual impact of the title, defining the better the graphic aspect, slightly improving a graphics unfortunately two generations old. One, however, extremely useful for anyone who is not very accustomed to the fight with the white weapon concerns the combat system, in particular the typical target seen in Dark Souls. Thanks to this simplification, we have the ability to face multiple enemies at the same time, juggling as best we can.
The community has always supported the project since crowdfunding, where novelties never seen before in roleplaying were promised that were only partially. According to the reviews on Steam, the title has been appreciated by many players and is still played on PC today, less so on consoles.
The data from SteamCharts, in fact, leave no room for further interpretation: the best way to fully enjoy the Kingdom Come Deliverance experience is on PC, the platform initially recommended by the developers to avoid falling framerates, crashes or sudden freezes encountered in the first weeks of the game.
Watch on YouTube. Currently the game has been patched so much that it is still an enjoyable and exciting experience, were it not for some unrealistic flaws such as a deficient enemy AI and some funny deaths we found during our fights, for example killing a large group of opponents armed only with our bow and so much dexterity to wield it. Of course, nothing too serious, nothing so destabilizing: it is however a pity that the title did not actually represent a concrete novelty for the genre, but managing to represent a historically reliable and well-made world.
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The community is therefore strong on PC, while on consoles we register preferences on Xbox One and then on PS4 , in which the major technical problems were found that forced many players to ask for a refund, an eventuality also touched on Cyberpunk 2077, with the only difference that Kingdom Come Deliverance has not disappeared from any digital store for months.
The CryEngine, the graphics engine used for Kingdom Come Deliverance, has been analyzed by Digital Foundry, which awarded the PC version but rejected the console, defining it as a real tail. We tried the Warhorse work also on Series X / S. It runs smoothly at sixty frames per second, although there are still some bugs that do not undermine the enjoyment of the gaming experience. Currently it is enjoyable, fun and satisfying, a good way to visit a medieval historical cross-section that offers many emotions, net of some critical issues still present.
Considering the price lowered to 39.99, originally to 69 , 99, Kingdom Come Deliverance is an expense to do with a light heart. However, we recommend that you retrieve it during the period of great discounts at half price, perhaps making the Royal Edition including all the DLCs yours to boast of a final product that is much more enjoyable than it was at the time of launch. Even today there are some defects that are impossible not to notice (such as some unrealistic choices and problems of interpenetration), net of a demanding and appreciable work in the post launch to give players an out of the ordinary experience.
