I've had my eye on this game since the Kickstarter campaign. The idea of a game that plays like an Elder Scrolls game more or less, but you're a knight and it's realistic medieval England. The royal edition is on sale for $16 right now on PS4. How would it compare to Skyrim, other than the fact one's based in fantasy and one's based in reality? How's the PS4 version perform?
Kingdom Come is some good jank. It looks like crap on PS4 but it is a ton of fun. It is not really like Skyrim and more grounded in reality. You play as Henry the peasant and start the game not knowing how to swing a sword, ride a horse, or even read. The game doesn't hold your hand and there is a lot of fun quests and exploration. This video got me interested when I was first looking at it and it was one of my favorite games of its year. The DigitalFoundry video found the PS4 version stable just ugly
I apologise if this video gets a little out of hand but I am a passionate gamer that has been repressed by modern button mashing tripe, this game set me free...
That may be overwhelming to some, because there are a lot of different systems working at the same time. Saving requires an item, for example.
Combat is also really complex and different.
But the story is great, characters and quests are all great. By being cumbersome, I think that the game becomes even more immersive.
And I really disagree with the user above, I think that it really looks nice on PS4.
It's not for everyone, but it certainly was for me. I would bite it at $16 if I were you.
It's good jank, apparently made more for fans of the games that preceded Skyrim like Morrowind or Gothic or something. Takes some of the Elder Scrolls mechanics in interesting directions. The combat system starts out kind of frustrating but you can eventually break it with some of the later moves, and a lot of people miss a really important combat tutorial. Really interesting and quests.
There's some controversy over the creative director's political leanings though, and it kinda does come through in the game itself. Beyond the total absence of nonwhite characters, you could probably make some observations on how KCD's storyline depicts different groups of Europeans, and the female characters are sort of a mixed bag (I haven't played the Woman's Lot DLC).
Yeah right it's sexist and racist. Racist because apparently no other ethnicities existed in Bohemia and sexist, well... just play through the game, it's obvious.
I played it on a base Xbox One. Performance is ok, struggles at points. But the game is great imo. Its a very difficult game to learn but somehow it kept my attention long enough to do so, which is very rare for me.
Also lots and lots of loading on Xbox, I assume its the same on PS4. Those slow ass mechanical hdds do it no favors.
I am currently playing on PC and love it so much. Very immersive and reminds me a bit of Morrowind in some ways. Get it on PC if you have the choice though. The unlimited save and easier lockpicking mods greatly reduce frustration.
One of the most immersive RPG experiences I've ever had. I gave up on it due to performance issues on PC, but I'm gonna replay it once the new Nvidia cards are released.
Yeah right it's sexist and racist. Racist because apparently no other ethnicities existed in Bohemia and sexist, well... just play through the game, it's obvious.
No, please, do explain, I'd love to hear how you arrived at that obvious conclusion. Especially considering how off the mark you are with the ethnicities remark, seeing as the literal first 30 minutes of the game has you getting scolded by your dad for desecrating the home of a foreign German.
It's really neat and unique. I ended up quitting the game though after I got to a certain battle sequence and was too under-powered to succeed. I tried over and over but just quit. The game can be pretty unforgiving.
No, please, do explain, I'd love to hear how you arrived at that obvious conclusion. Especially considering how off the mark you are with the ethnicities remark, seeing as the literal first 30 minutes of the game has you getting scolded by your dad for desecrating the home of a foreign German.
In the same scene your father also mentions how the German pays well and they're trading with him. Other than that he only acknowledges to win arguments with conversation rather than violence. The whole dialogue makes no mention of this being an attack on a foreigner in the first place.
Regarding racism in this game: jewish, Turkish or even southern European people aren't present for no good reason. Romani people are absent too despite reaching Bohemia a century earlier. Since armour in this game doesn't have that pesky brown skin colour it is, lo and behold from Italy and Milan! In 15th century rural Bohemia! Sold from several vendors. How is that possible I wonder? Hey but having PoC in there would be like introducing magic or dragons to this game.
Fyi: for the game to be racist you don't need to have someone standing in the middle of a town spouting racial slurs. PoC are excluded on purpose, despite many historical inaccuracies and gameplay elements like perks straight up from Fallout or something you'd find in a fantasy game. Actually, the only PoC in the while game is Runt, you know the first main bad guy. That's it. The whole historical accuracy thing is just window dressing and only consistent with the games architecture at best.
Moving on to their portrayal of women: The only female characters with extended dialogue Henry is meeting will actually end up in bed with him. Sure, the son of a blacksmith was irresistible back in those days, amirite? Let's also glance over the fact that when Henry's
parents die
he only ever mentions his father. In fact the scene where he
buries them
, he completely ignores the mother as if she was invisible. It's almost comically bad. Which becomes even weirder when towards he end he has
a vision of his dead father only
. His mother being never mentioned, apart from the intro sequence. Actually it's not that weird since women in this game are written to be either close to invisible or sex objects.
I'm also most likely the person who has spent the most time with this game in this thread, so the whole "Where's racism? There's no racism in this game" is quite hilarious to me.
In the same scene your father also mentions how the German pays well and they're trading with him. Other than that he only acknowledges to win arguments with conversation rather than violence. The whole dialogue makes no mention of this being an attack on a foreigner in the first place.
Regarding racism in this game: jewish, Turkish or even southern European people aren't present for no good reason. Romani people are absent too despite reaching Bohemia a century earlier. Since armour in this game doesn't have that pesky brown skin colour it is, lo and behold from Italy and Milan! In 15th century rural Bohemia! Sold from several vendors. How is that possible I wonder? Hey but having PoC in there would be like introducing magic or dragons to this game.
Fyi: for the game to be racist you don't need to have someone standing in the middle of a town spouting racial slurs. PoC are excluded on purpose, despite many historical inaccuracies and gameplay elements like perks straight up from Fallout or something you'd find in a fantasy game. Actually, the only PoC in the while game is Runt, you know the first main bad guy. That's it. The whole historical accuracy thing is just window dressing and only consistent with the games architecture at best.
Moving on to their portrayal of women: The only female characters with extended dialogue Henry is meeting will actually end up in bed with him. Sure, the son of a blacksmith was irresistible back in those days, amirite? Let's also glance over the fact that when Henry's
parents die
he only ever mentions his father. In fact the scene where he
buries them
, he completely ignores the mother as if she was invisible. It's almost comically bad. Which becomes even weirder when towards he end he has
a vision of his dead father only
. His mother being never mentioned, apart from the intro sequence. Actually it's not that weird since women in this game are written to be either close to invisible or sex objects.
I'm also most likely the person who has spent the most time with this game in this thread, so the whole "Where's racism? There's no racism in this game" is quite hilarious to me.
It gave me some serious Morrowind vibes when I played it last year. The Czech setting is cool as well, you don't see Eastern Europe represented all that much in RPGs - outside of the Witcher (sort of). The PS4 version held up rather well. Expect some jank like odd animations and minor bugs. There are also frame rates drops and pop-in when you're riding at full speed or going through the major towns but otherwise it was fine, it's very playable. However, I haven't finished it yet so I can't speak for the late-game. The lockpicking sucked though.
I haven't finished the whole game, but you can sleep with prostitutes and get a buff with the name "alpha male" which doesn't even make sense, but it tells you from what kind of mindset the devs came from. It's a shame, because the game is overall pretty cool.
KC:D is fantastic. Very immersive. I think the graphics are fine, they suit the game. I played it very early when there were plenty of bugs and still had a good time with it. I haven't been back to play any of the DLC yet but I have bought them all and plan to at some stage. Ignore the haters, just enjoy the game for what it is. A game.
Great game, but be prepared for ridiculous long loading times on standard PS4... like two minutes to even load into the game and another minute or two to load a save game. Wouldn't recommend it on PS4 if you got good PC. Otherwise it's good game with lot of attention to detail, an authentic combat system and interesting quests, main and side quests.
Combat is legit busted. Master strikes are so powerful you can't do much without them and enemies spam them too so what could have been deep combat basically becomes "wait for them to swing then master strike"
According to the book Historical Dictionary of the Gypsies (Romanies) they've arrived earlier than that since their first mention was in "1399 Bohemia: The first Gypsy is mentioned in a chronicle."
Who do you think you are killing in the game, mate?
Good question, because the Cumans depicted in the game are the ones from Hungary who did not wear armour like in the game (especially by the 15th century). It doesn't even make sense that they'd speak Hungarian in the first place. They were pretty much a part of Hungary by that time but spoke their own language which was a turkic one - they are however not Turkish since they've lived and fought with European rulers for 100 years by the time Kingdom Come takes place.
Also according to Wikipedia: "By the 15th century, the Cumans were permanently settled in Hungary, in villages whose structure corresponded to that of the local population, and they were Christianized."
A really good and imersive RPG. I played mostly with a no-combat non-violent aproach and it was extremely refreshing, it becomes an engrossing medieval detective game. There's a really great quest in a monastery that I really remember foundly.
It's good jank, apparently made more for fans of the games that preceded Skyrim like Morrowind or Gothic or something. Takes some of the Elder Scrolls mechanics in interesting directions. The combat system starts out kind of frustrating but you can eventually break it with some of the later moves, and a lot of people miss a really important combat tutorial. Really interesting and quests.
There's some controversy over the creative director's political leanings though, and it kinda does come through in the game itself. Beyond the total absence of nonwhite characters, you could probably make some observations on how KCD's storyline depicts different groups of Europeans, and the female characters are sort of a mixed bag (I haven't played the Woman's Lot DLC).
It's a really good game, especially if you liked Morrowind, but it is problematic in its messaging and one of the main designers (and the co-head of the studio) is a raging asshole.
One of the best games of the generation for me but I have to admit I played on PC. The game looks gorgeous and is ridiculously immersive. I made a thread back in 2018 if you'd like to get some more detailed impressions.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance was one of my most anticipated games for 2018 and when it finally released in February I gave up after 30-40 hours because of a long list of issues. Half a year later and after building myself a new rig I came back to the game and was pleasantly surprised to see that...
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I'd say my favourite aspect of the game is its scale: the entire game is set in a region of roughly 20 km² and is filled with small villages, forests and valleys. This has allowed the developers to really flesh out the world in a detailed manner. I've yet to see a game with better forests than this one!
I can't comment on the PS4 version, but the game itself is very very good. Be warned though that it makes no efforts to ease you in to anything. The game can be brutal and frustrating, but if it clicks you're in for a pretty rewarding gameplay experience.
In the same scene your father also mentions how the German pays well and they're trading with him. Other than that he only acknowledges to win arguments with conversation rather than violence. The whole dialogue makes no mention of this being an attack on a foreigner in the first place.
Regarding racism in this game: jewish, Turkish or even southern European people aren't present for no good reason. Romani people are absent too despite reaching Bohemia a century earlier. Since armour in this game doesn't have that pesky brown skin colour it is, lo and behold from Italy and Milan! In 15th century rural Bohemia! Sold from several vendors. How is that possible I wonder? Hey but having PoC in there would be like introducing magic or dragons to this game.
Fyi: for the game to be racist you don't need to have someone standing in the middle of a town spouting racial slurs. PoC are excluded on purpose, despite many historical inaccuracies and gameplay elements like perks straight up from Fallout or something you'd find in a fantasy game. Actually, the only PoC in the while game is Runt, you know the first main bad guy. That's it. The whole historical accuracy thing is just window dressing and only consistent with the games architecture at best.
Moving on to their portrayal of women: The only female characters with extended dialogue Henry is meeting will actually end up in bed with him. Sure, the son of a blacksmith was irresistible back in those days, amirite? Let's also glance over the fact that when Henry's
parents die
he only ever mentions his father. In fact the scene where he
buries them
, he completely ignores the mother as if she was invisible. It's almost comically bad. Which becomes even weirder when towards he end he has
a vision of his dead father only
. His mother being never mentioned, apart from the intro sequence. Actually it's not that weird since women in this game are written to be either close to invisible or sex objects.
I'm also most likely the person who has spent the most time with this game in this thread, so the whole "Where's racism? There's no racism in this game" is quite hilarious to me.
- true, the father doesn't stress Deutsch's "otherness", but I thought that the framing of the entire sequence, with Henry attacking the outsider's property leading to a lecturing from an authority figure, imparted a pretty clear lesson to the audience, even if the dad has more pragmatic reasons for wanting to avoid conflict.
- Romani probably started filtering into Czechia during the 14th century, but it isn't thought that they had a more established presence until some time after the year depicted in the game. It is both reasonable to think it highly unlikely to to have come across a Rom or other PoC in the small parcel of land represented in KCD as well as bemoan the missed opportunity the game had to examine the effects of their arrival. Crucially, though, their omission does not by itself imply racism. Consider that there are no children in the game. As in I literally cannot remember a single infant, kid, or adolescent being shown. Does this fact demonstrate the game or its creators to be ageist? No, obviously. Limited budget, time, and manpower are the realities of game development. Moreover, the gameplay concessions the developers made don't somehow invalidate their attempts toward authenticity in other areas. KCD is an interactive video game, of course it won't be a perfect reproduction of history. We can quibble about whether including Milanese plate merely served to increase the number of fashion options for the player or actually showed how different styles of armor were dispersed across Europe rather than remain localized to their area of origin, but just because the game might have fallen short in some ways in accurately representing the period doesn't mean the general efforts of the devs were somehow in vain or pointless.
- minor point, but I never got the impression that Runt is a PoC.
- I won't argue with you on this, I agree that the depiction of Henry's mother wasn't handled very well. I'm not really sure why they sidelined her so hard, maybe it was to focus on the reveal of Henry's true father and his coming to terms with the contrast between his noble birth and his common upbringing, but whatever the case, I think they could have done better.
- that being said, I would say there are plenty of examples of positive representations of women in KCD. See Theresa, Johanka, or as an example from perhaps my favorite side quest, Mistress Bauer, the only person in her family who from the outset is determined to stay and potentially die for her faith in the face of persecution against the Waldensians.
Thank you for the detailed response, by the way. Makes for much better discussion than some throwaway one-word post.
I watched a friend play some on Twitch. She's getting into games and streaming pretty late in life. She seemed to really enjoy it, warts and all. It looked too difficult for me, the combat anyway, but it looked like there was almost always an alternative. Or you could just cheese the enemies.
She has a PS4 Pro and the load times didn't seem all that bad to me, but take that with a grain of salt, I only watched her play for about an hour on two occasions.
As for the controversy, I didn't find out about all that until later. Nothing seemed evident or overt in the story. The studio head, or whatever he is, made it a controversy by being so adamant about it only having white people. I remember reading some of his comments and they came off as trollish, dancing around the borders of flat out racism. Hard to support a product created by a guy like that, even if he is a member of a larger group.
I'm nearing the end of the game and although I'm playing it on the PC I'm sure the enjoyment factor would be more or less the same across platforms (barring loading times of course).
The gameplay mechanics are fairly unique and some people might find them frustrating. So it would be a good option to further explore those on your own before purchasing the game.
The main quests are great but the side-quests feel very "fetchy" after a certain point in time, mainly because you're already well aware of the gameplay elements by then. Jank also exists but I think it's a consequence of the company's limited budget and over-ambition.
CDPR vastly improved The Witcher games after the first one and Warhorse Studios seems all set to follow the same trajectory. And for all his faults one can't deny that Vavra is a great story-teller.
There's a part in the main story where you get threatened by three armed dudes to tell them the location of a guy you're trying to interrogate so they can go and kill him. I couldn't beat all three or talk my way out of it so I just told them, beat the one guy the left behind, raced past the other two to the village where the guy I was supposed to interrogate was, and then kited the last two armed men to an encampment where a bunch of knights were hanging out.
youtu.be
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