I've got the biggest crush on Kingdom Come: Deliverance. I haven't been this stoked on a role-playing game since The Witcher 3. Which makes sense, since the visual parallels to The Witcher 3 are obvious. It's just that Kingdom Come takes a realism approach. It's like The Witcher 3 is the man, the myth, and the legend of what would actually grow out of the reality of a Kingdom Come. Where The Witcher goes high fantasy, Kingdom Come goes realistic fiction.
Here's 16 more minutes of gameplay. "Great Haste Makes Great Waste," it's called. We start in a small military camp, with tents arrayed, horses by the fence, and soup on the fire. The map is so gorgeous with its medieval pen-and-ink style that it makes me want to scream expletives. Combat reinforces its thoughtful For Honor stylings. It welcomes stealthy gameplay; to the point where he waits for night, changes into black clothing, puts on soft shoes, and grabs his dagger. Going in guns blazing is an option, but it's not the only option, and certainly not always the best option. Here, for example, he uses a stealth perk that makes him even harder to detect in the rain, before he stealth stabs some guards, poisons their food, and even Hitman-style changes into guard's armor and sneaks past some others. But, again, if that's not your style, then there's a good-sized 20-man (or more?) melee. Looks brutal.
Just have to give yourself a minute to acclimate to the two developers' scripted narrating. I wasn't sure if my player, an NPC, or the devs were talking, from time to time. Also, there's a bit of mature language from the devs. But hey, it's spoken with an English accent, so it magically comes off as more intelligent (ha).
I have to go for a walk. I need to calm down. Every time I see some Kingdom Come footage I start losing my mind. This game, man. Only thing that vaguely concerns me is that each cool tactic—poisoning the food, lighting a distraction fire—seem like they're mission sub-objectives, which seemingly makes them a little less fun to discover for yourself.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance comes to PC, PlayStation 4 (!), and Xbox One (!) on February 13.
