A review of the game Kingdom Come: Deliverance: from rags to riches

About the game that I first heard from my good friend who is a huge admirer of Czech game designer Daniel Vavra, gave us a wonderful game of Mafia. After in 2009, Vavra left 2K Czech, he founded an independent Studio Warhorse Studios using crowdfunding to raise money for my new video game. It was an incredibly ambitious project, combining elements of RPG, action and hardcore simulator of the middle ages. Today I'd like to tell you about this game, paying maximum attention to the smallest detail, because she deserves it like no other.

Game: Kingdom Come: Deliverance
the Platform: Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
the Genre: RPG
the release date: February 13, 2018
the Developer: Warhorse Studios
the Publisher: Deep Silver

Should Start with the fact that Daniel Vavra has always been famous for the fact that suited to the creation of their games with an incredible meticulousness. If we talk about Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven, he meticulously recreated the atmosphere of 30-ies of XX century, focusing on the clothes, the cars, the authentic scenery of the time, while thoroughly studying each character, bringing the scenario of the game to perfection and filling it with excellent dialogue and wonderful sense of humor. In the case of his attention to detail and desire to make the game as realistic as possible has reached a fundamentally new level of quality.

The dream Project, which Vavra was carrying in my head for several years, is a role-playing first-person game that unfolds in the beginning of the XV century on the territory of the Kingdom of Bohemia (now part of Czech Republic). Work on the game began in the composition of the absolutely tiny team. A while Vavra was looking for a decent investor to put their ideas in life, but in the end decided to use the platform Kickstarter, which enabled him to collect over a million pounds to develop. After such success immediately and investors tightened, and publisher in the face of Deep Silver was found. In the end, the game's budget was more than $ 35 million (including marketing costs). Impressive amount, given where the project began, but still do not reach the same "the Witcher 3" with its 67 million.

To Create a video game, the setting of which is based on the history of your native country, — it is exciting and good, but is extremely difficult. Specifically to work on the Kingdom Come: Deliverance Vavra resorted to the help of several experienced historians. Together they worked the scenario of the game, carefully reconstruct the lives of people who lived at the time, paid special attention to clothing, weapons, architecture and even the open world game created on the basis of old maps, taking into account the height of points above sea level. Have you ever faced with a similar fastidiousness to recreating stories in other video games? Just below for example, here is a photo of a real location and photographed in our days, and the scene from Kingdom Come: Deliverance. Appreciate the work done by the staff of the Warhorse Studios, to accurately transfer a video game to real world locations.

The game's Plot is based on real historical events that took place in 1403. An old and very dear king Charles IV dies, and instead ascend to the throne of his goofy son Wenceslas IV. Václav by and large to spit in their state, so all my free time he spent in a drunken stupor with half-naked girls. Meanwhile, his half brother Sigismund, feeling weak ruler, decides to play the situation in their favor. He kidnaps Vaclav and force trying to force him to abdicate. The army of Sigismund, for the most part consisting of the Polovtsy, invades Bohemia and begins to ravage the rich resources of land and to suppress the unhappy situation of the gentry.

Unlike many other role-playing games, Kingdom Come: Deliverance will not allow you to create your own character in a special editor. All spelled out in advance, and will have to play by the rules the writers and Director. The main character is the young son of a blacksmith named Henry (for ease of pronunciation all called Indro, and the English voice acting in the name of the protagonist turned into Henry). Hometown the main character Silver Skalica attack the Cumans, and since it is not courage, and the sword in the hands never held, he had no choice but to watch helplessly as those of the arms of the barbarians killed his parents, and then shamefully running aimlessly, trying to save his life.

Not a very encouraging beginning, isn't it? In Kingdom Come: Deliverance, the main character — not an experienced fighter, and one left able to overwhelm any opponent, and green, inexperienced commoner, which is not enough to stand up for themselves can not, he can not even read. He had no horse, no special skills, no weapons and money. Surprisingly, this approach developers to create role-playing impresses the most. Initially armed only with sticks and shit (excuse my French) the protagonist must have the courage to learn to keep a gun, make useful contacts and to make new friends, and then take revenge on the killers parents and return the stolen Polovtsy sword forged by his father especially for the local Lord.

The Game slowly introduces you to the Bohemia of the fifteenth century, and with a huge variety of game mechanics, some of which can scare pampered with modern amenities gamers and, conversely, to fall in love with once and forever. Daniel Vavra is making its games as realistic as possible, which is not like all the players. Recall the fact that his Mafia you could be fined for violation of traffic rules. In Kingdom Come: Deliverance is still more tricky. You truly live the life of the main character, feeling all of his suffering, deprivation and passing with him through heavy blows of fate. You grow with him, so every achievement of Jindřich is your personal victory. A very rare feeling in video games today almost never occurs.

Just a couple of hours of play in Kingdom Come: Deliverance you realize that you were present in the middle ages. In the game there is no hint of magic or dragons from fairy tales, so forget about it immediately. Extremely harsh and merciless realism. This is not some Skyrim or The Witcher. In my head all the time to keep a huge number of important parameters. The hero can get hungry and die from hunger, tired from lack of sleep and physical stress and just collapse in the middle of the road, and can be poisoned rotten food (which deteriorate with time in your bag). You can break her legs, just tripped over a stump in the woods, or roll neck, clinging to the tree branch while riding, and if you got wounded in battle — do not expect that all will pass by itself if you just step aside and wait a bit. Will have to run away from the enemy to bandage wounds, and then somewhere to lie down and take medication to full recovery. To die in Kingdom Come: Deliverance — a trifling matter. The game is merciless to modern players. But therein lies its special charm.

Don't be fooled by the fact that the total area of the open world game is only 16 square kilometers. Medieval Bohemia stuffed with points of interest, unique places and most importantly, exciting adventures, in which you can participate. To cross the entire map on foot you'll need more than an hour (69 minutes!!!) real-time, therefore the most convenient way to travel on horseback. However, the main character will get her at their disposal immediately, so some time will have to tread the dusty roads of Bohemia his two. The game has a system of rapid movement, reminiscent of the one that was in the Fallout series of games. You can only move between open you key transfer points on the map. In the process of moving you can see the figure of the protagonist, moving along the map route. With this you can randomly encounter in your journey, bandits, points of interest, new settlements or NPCs who need your help.

People treat the main character as well as you would in reality. If you are dirty and don't wash in the local baths for a couple of weeks, your scent will repel even homeless vagrants. Ragged old clothes, blood stains on the mail, open wounds on the body — all this is taken into account during the communication with the NPC. In addition, your social status, gradually changing in the course of the story also leaves its mark on how others treat you. In the dialog you can use the art of rhetoric, to try to bribe the interlocutor, to emphasize their social status in society, or simply to threaten to break his nose with a fist. All good here, and the choice of tactics of the dialogues is entirely dependent on the player.

The best part, in my opinion, in this game that the main character gradually grows and develops, turning from a cowardly brat and paste into a brave and experienced warrior. Grows and his social position in society: he gets his friends among the nobility and gains access to previously inaccessible opportunities and resources. I just used it as the subtitle of the review the phrase "from rags to riches", because it perfectly describes the process of personal growth of the protagonist during the story. This approach, of course, met in video games before, but the way the matter came Daniel Vavra, — a whole new level of quality for the gaming industry. The first time you really feel like the protagonist developed, and not just watching the growth of its main parameters.

About...