Kingdom Come Deliverance is a Warhorse Studio, medieval, survival, RPG, simulation game. Today we are going to review the story of this (according to my opinion) great game. BE AWARE we do not take into consideration the gameplay aspects. Have fun and enjoy!

****SPOILERS AHEAD****

Historical Events

KCD takes place at the Bohemian Kingdom, a part of the Holy Roman Empire, during an unstable period both politicaly and religiously Western Europe. King Charles the Fourth, is now dead and his son Wenceslas, is ready to rule. The problem is he does not know how. The Pope has no interest. And the big powers of Europe (Hungary, Germany) they just doon’t care. Bohemia is left to the wolves, to be eaten.

The events that the game takes place (around 1403) are blurred at the history books. We have plenty of info about Wenceslas the Idle and his reign, and the raze of Skalitz as well, from Sigismund. Although the guerilla warfare of Hanush, the battle of Privislavitz and the whole Sassau conspiracy maybe are in the sphere of fantasyt.

Although, the game tries to create a historical atmosphere with a historical world, real places, realistic people and social standarts. For example, they represent really nice the life of a monk when Henry is needed to infiltrate a monastery. Also, the lifestyle at the villages or the big cities (if we can call Sassau a city) is pretty realistic, giving the player the impression of a real historical time.

Characters

The characters of the game are real life characters. People like Radzig or Sir Hanus of Leipa are real historical figures, with their names written in a more English way (for example Radzig’s name is Racek). The use of Radzig’s character was quite smart. Historically speaking, we don’t have many historical data about Racek. We know that he was the Lord of Skalitz and that Sigismund burned to the ground his property and his Skalitz, at the year 1403. He escaped at Talmberg and then Rattay, where he was received by Hanush. As we said earlier, we do not really know if the events of the game really happened.

The character of Henry is clearly fictional. This is the reason the creators chose to connect him with Radzig, because we don’t know about any decendant of Radzig, it is easy to create a character as his illegitamate and later legitimazed son. The purpose of a story is to create the illusion of reality, and Warhorse, we believe, that they succeded. Henry is a could-be-real character. Using his fantasy, a player that will research about the history behind the game, can put Henry in a historical perspective, like he acted during a real historical time.

The rest of the characters are also historical. Hans, Hanush, even Freyfar and Konrad. Toth is a fictional character too. But yet another could-be-real character, like Henry. Overall, all of the characters are well designed, to keep the player interested.

Kingdom Come Plot – The Sword of Destiny

It’s no random title, calling the title Sword of Destiny. Our story starts with Henry the son of the Skalitz blacksmith Martin. Together, they are making a large sword for teir lord, Radzig Cobyla. Radzig will never get the sword. Sigismund attacks and destroys Skalitz. Henry escapes with his life, only to risk it again, when he is almost killed by a thug, called Runt. He escaped Talmberg (against Sir Radzig’s orders) in order to give Martin and his mother a proper burial. During his encounter with Runt, he loses the sword and almost getys killed. He is saved by Theresa, who takes him to Rattay, where she helps him to get well.

After all that, Henry, thirsty for revenge, he hunts down Runt and his thugs, while he enters the service of Radzig. There he will become a warrior, a charismatic knight. He rises really, from zero to hero, and that’s why Kingdom Come succeded as a game. The concept is simple enough, but nor boring. You can identify yourselve with Henry, because he is a simple lad. And yet he achieved greatness. Henry helps to locate Runt, and he manages to kill him, with Radzig and Robard by his side.

But it’s not over. As time passes, Henry finds that many more are involved at this conspiracy. His investigations will lead him to Sasau, where he will be forced to enter a monastery to kill someone and gain the trust of some thugs.

The Plot Twist

At last, Henry learns about an encampment of bandits above Sasau. He succeds to infiltrate the camp, but he is captured by Lord Toth, the lord who betrayed , well everyone, and he is tortured. There we learn that the real father of Henry is Kobyla. Personaly, I was quite shocked, but the game leaked from the very beginning. At the prologue, Martin refers to Henry as “blueblooded idler”, and after Henry finds the Merhojed remedy and Radzig gives yet another task to Henry, he says “Good luck, son” while Henry goes away, making sure Henry does not hear him. Henry escapes and returns to Kobyla seeking answers. But they have to wait, as they lead a massive force down to the encampment and burn it to the ground.

Although Toth, went and took Talmberg, as the encampment was just a decoy. After some adventures, the commanders with Henry, create a trebuche, in order to enter Talmberg and kill Toth. They succeed to liberate Radzig, who was taken captive, during the first battle. In order to release Radzig and lady Stephany, they let Toth leave. The story ends with Henry finally bonding with his real father, while finally becoming royalty and living at the castle.

During the epilogue, Henry has a dream. Martin, his second dad, is checking up on him. A last goodbye, from a past life. He reassures Henry he will always be there. But now Henry is ready to move on. To a new life. A different life.

Kingdom Come Overall Thoughts

It’s a fact that the game has been criticized as slow paced or even boring by many of the players. Also, many of the gameplay bugs have led many to have a negativie opinion about the game. But time showed that gamers had really appreciated the effort that Warhorse is putting to this game for three years now, with all these cheap DLC’s or the HD audio updates, concept arts etc. People enjoy the game more and more, and that has also led to the increase the number of medieval survival games and the medieval genre overall.

If we take a look at the top game platforms we can realise the appreciation of the audience. For example Steam has a “Very Positive” critics, while PC Gamer, IGN and Gamespot give an 8/10 (you can take a look here).

Kingdom Come, has it all. Adventure, violence, sneak, romance, humour all in the right analogy. A great experience, not boring at all, but quite entertaining (it cmes from a man at his 3rd Playtime).

We hope you liked the article!