Kingdom Come: Deliverance

Kingdom Come: Deliverance is an RPG without dragons or magic, set in Bohemia at the start of the fifteenth century, during the conflict between Wenceslaus and Sigismund. The player takes on Henry, the son of a blacksmith from Skalitz, whose village is burned down by soldiers, and follows his journey from an inexperienced young man to someone who can hold a sword and deal with nobility. The world is a scaled-down but fairly faithful reconstruction of the actual Sázava region, including the Sázava Monastery, Talmberg, and the town of Kutná Hora with its surrounding mines and villages.

The game pushes for authenticity in nearly everything. Henry can't read at first, shoots poorly with a bow, and quickly runs out of breath in combat. Swordplay works with attack directions, blocks, feints, and combos, and against multiple opponents, defeat is real and frequent. Add to that managing hunger, sleep, the cleanliness and damage of clothing, armor repairs at craftsmen's shops, alchemy where potions are genuinely mixed according to a recipe at a brewing stand, and lockpicking and pickpocketing. Investigating the main storyline often proceeds through conversations, following clues, and persuasion, where eloquence, reputation, and how the player looks all matter. Quests have a time limit, so delay can change how they play out or close them off entirely.

Technically the game runs on CryEngine and, at release, offered very convincing nature, lighting, and draw distance at the cost of high hardware demands and a number of bugs that subsequent patches addressed. Today it still looks great and runs noticeably better than at launch. Its sound is carried by Czech folk and period music arranged in orchestral form, along with voice acting that comes across especially well in the local release. Reception was strong, especially in the Czech Republic, where it represented an exceptionally large domestic project. Its influence lies chiefly in showing that there's a market for historical RPGs without fantasy elements, and that such a premise can carry a game even outside major publishers. Today it's a demanding, slow game that rewards patience and a player willing to accept its rules.