Kingdom Come: Deliverance Review (Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5 & PC)

Kingdom Come: Deliverance is the first RPG of its kind to make me feel absolutely useless, whereas in other Dark Ages colonial sims I tend to feel powerful—symbolic, even. Here, though, I’m having to resort to my own mother to bandage my wounds after failing to engage in fisticuffs with the local drunk. I have no skills, and I have absolutely no idea how to forage, fight, or make heads or tails of a moral compass. In some instances, I’ll say the wrong thing and ultimately turn the tide of the town against me, whereas in other situations I’ll accidentally say the right thing and somehow develop an extra point in an overarching tree of skills that I haven’t the slightest clue how to adopt. Frankly, I have no idea how I’m still alive, much less how I’m on the precipice of thwarting a tyrannical regime when I literally have nothing going for me. Strange, that.

When the world needs a hero, it shouldn’t fall to the idiotic son of a prestigious blacksmith to restore order to the hierarchy, nor should it put all of its faith on the shoulders of a peasant who can’t tell their neck from their elbow. Yet, when push comes to shove, even the most unlikely people can often surprise you. Well, sometimes. As it turns out, Kingdom Come has this awful habit of making you feel futile and redundant. For instance, during the early chapters of the game, you don’t know how to throw a punch, and you don’t have the faintest idea how to be anything other than a cardboard cutout of a Dark Ages errand boy. No, you don’t have the status of a warrior; you have the moniker of an imbecile.

Weirdly, I feel drawn to the idea of filling the boots of an underdog. It’s exciting, and it leaves open so many doors for you to explore and develop a repertoire of skills over an unorthodox journey. Unlike your usual RPG, you don’t embark on this seemingly noble quest with a wealth of experience under your belt, but with your tail tucked firmly between your legs and a vague image of a world that’s locked in conflict between incompetent kings and foreign factions. You don’t play a crucial role here; you just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. A fickle son; a deadly massacre; a kingdom on the verge of collapse; and a glimmer of hope in the face of a powerless mortal.

An Unlikely Hero

While Kingdom Come: Deliverance plays into the usual trappings of a first-person Dark Ages RPG à la Elder Scrolls, the game opts for less conventional route to establish its narrative and, eventually, your gameplay experience, in general. Here, you don’t fill the role of a charismatic hero; you merely exist as a generic civilian who can barely wield a sword, and is unable to navigate right from wrong without having to lean on accomplices to project their inner strengths and weaknesses. In other words, all odds are against you, and it falls to you to shape a character who can, with the aid of an empire, pivot the tides of war.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance is just as much a cinematic experience as it is a bare-knuckle RPG. It’s a bit of a slow burner I’ll admit, and it does take its time to craft the narrative and introduce you to its vast boroughs and warring factions. There’s a lot of dialogue and, true to the nature of traditional RPGs, countless choices that alter your relationships, fate, and abilities—speech, vitality, strength, and so on and so forth. Kingdom Come: Deliverance doesn’t shy away from any of that. If anything, it expands on the standard blueprint to incorporate more strands and opportunities for character progression. It’s a bit of a headache at first I’ll admit, but honestly, the more time you spend with your useless sack of bones, the more invested you become in their evolution and their rightful place in the world.

Suffice it to say, Kingdom Come: Deliverance isn’t the  sort of RPG to usher you into battle once every few minutes, nor is it one to take every opportunity to mince epic feuds with cinematic elements. It’s humble—realistic, even, at least through the eyes of a regular civilian with a lack of combat experience. Combat is a little taxing, and it’s a far cry from graceful. But then, that’s a small part of the charm here, weirdly. Frankly, the whole “point” here is that nothing is perfect, but everything is possible with the right amount of effort, training, and aimless stabs in the dark.

A Silver Lining in the Dark Ages

While the storyline is a little grueling (at least to begin with), Kingdom Come manages to pique your interest and keep you emotionally invested the more you play and scrub through its world. And before long, it’s almost as if those strangers become friends, and those acquaintances become lifelong companions, and little by little, the world around you becomes your backyard for lofty quests and adventures. After that, it keeps you captive. And honestly, that’s something that so few RPGs can imitate in this day and age. So it’s a little slow — but boy does it know how to entice you and keep you feeding from the palm of its hand.

Coupled with a seemingly bottomless development system that stretches out to countless nodes and viable avenues of growth, Kingdom Come also comes clean with a ton of quality features, including a time-appropriate Dark Ages setting and a world that bends and weans to your every action, as well as a quaint but time-appropriate backdrop that harkens back to the heyday of medieval and Roman Empire times. Add the fact that it also juggles a solid plot and a good amount of believable dialogue, and you’ve got yourself quite the tribute to the source.

I will stand by my word and say that, gameplay-wise, Kingdom Come does take some getting used to. For instance, the combat is a little sluggish and requires precise timing and a bit of dumb luck to master. And that uphill battle more or less applies to most of the aspects of the game, too, with conversations requiring careful consideration and actions culminating in acts that shape and influence the world. Like an RPG — but with lower odds of winning. But again, that’s sort of the point. Stick with it, though, and you’ll come to realize that, beneath a constant stream of curveballs idles a genuinely enticing expedition that has plenty to offer. It isn’t epic, but it does make for a fantastic ode to the source material.

Verdict

Kingdom Come: Deliverance delivers a masterclass in unorthodox storytelling and role-playing—an original powerhouse that carefully combines a realistic period drama with gradual character development and world building in a way that feels awfully alluring and more-ish. It’s a little slow, sure, and it does require a keen eye for detail and some level of patience to overcome. Yet, I can’t help but feel that Kingdom Come is a game that just gets better with age. Of course, it’s holding out long enough to witness the fruits of your labor, that’s the tough part.

With it certainly isn’t your conventional RPG, I will say that, with its in-depth character development and curious stepping stone-based plot points, Kingdom Come makes for an excellent medieval role-playing game that honestly deserves to be celebrated. That being said, if you’re looking for a Skyrim lookalike, then you might be disappointed here. Oh, this falls into a different realm—a pocket that favors dimly lit fires over roaring infernos, snail-like progression and organic world-building. If that sounds like your cup of tea, then you should definitely consider dipping your toes into this Dark Ages timepiece.