The long wait for Kingdom Come: Deliverance finally ended little over a month ago, giving the opportunity for gamers all over the world to play and enjoy this ambitious project by Warhorse Studios.

Officially released on February 13th 2018, Kingdom Come: Deliverance is a massive open world action role-playing video game, set in medieval Bohemia around the year 1403. During this time in history the great King Charles IV of Bohemia died and his son, King Wenceslas IV took his place upon the throne. However, unlike his father, Wenceslas “the idle” was a poor ruler, and his half-brother King Sigismund of Hungary took this opportunity to take Bohemia for himself. Sigismund captured and imprisoned his brother, and led his armies against Bohemia, raiding and pillaging it’s lands. This is where Kingdom Come: Deliverance begins. Taking on the role of Henry, the son of a blacksmith, the player follows the personal story of Henry during these troubled times.

The game opens up to you, or more specifically Henry, waking up from a night out on the town with his friends. After being scolded by his mother for staying out late and practicing sword craft Henry goes to his father to help him complete the sword they have been working on for the local lord. After gathering some of the materials for the sword your father and you complete the sword, however things quickly turn bad. All of the sudden an army descends upon the town, killing, anyone in sight. Your father sends you to the castle while he looks for your mother in the village, but as your running to the castle you notice him defending your mother, fending off attacker after attacker. You run back to help him but you’re too late, your mother and father are cut down right in front of your eyes. Dazed for moments Henry finally comes back to reality. With little other option beside run you find a horse and ride hard to the next town over to warn them of the attack and to plan your revenge.

Without going too much more into the plot Henry goes on to train and become a warrior, something his father strongly advocated against, but words alone will not get you the revenge Henry seeks. You have to ability to fully customize the gameplay of Kingdom Come: Deliverance. Through a simple perk system and standard ability tree you are able to customize your Henry to be whatever you want him to be. You have a great deal of versatility in what kind of role you want Henry to fit in, however once you chose a path, you will become very good at that specific skill but weak in other areas. For example if you want to be a looming and powerful swordsman you can, but it will give you penalties on your ability to convince people of things or your ability to sneak up on people without them noticing. This, although feeling somewhat limiting, makes sense for a game that is trying to be hyper realistic; you can’t be amazing at something you have never trained for.

Gameplay wise Kingdom Come: Deliverance lives up to the ideal of being a realistic medieval simulation. You have a hunger and exhaustion level, which if not managed properly by eating and sleeping enough Henry starts to incur penalties fitting for the lack of food and sleep he has. For example, if Henry hasn’t eaten enough his energy levels will become low, making it harder for him to run far and have enough stamina during a fight. Adding to the realism of Kingdom Come: Deliverance is the combat itself. When you begin the game Henry doesn’t know how to fight at all, in fact he really sucks at it. He’s the son of a blacksmith, sure he’s held a sword but not to use it. It takes time for Henry to become adept with a sword or mace or bow or whatever you want him to be good with, and most likely it will take you just as long. The combat mechanics of Kingdom Come: Deliverance are not the easiest thing to master at the beginning, taking hours of practice to become comfortable with. However, if you stick with it, you will be thoroughly rewarded, getting to enjoy the techniques that were used back in the 15th century, not the theatrical sword fight that is seen in today’s video games and movies.

Overall Kingdom Come: Deliverance is a very good, well rounded game for anyone interested in medieval history or anyone who enjoys a game with a polished, well written story. Although Kingdom Come: Deliverance does have a few bugs here and there, making walking up stairs or through doors hard, from my experience there has been no game breaking issues. Also, this is a very graphic intense game, and if you are planning on playing this game on PC make sure to do your research because if you don’t you will have the game, but be unable to enjoy. Other than those small issues I would fully recommend Kingdom Come: Deliverance to anyone who wants to spend hundreds of hours immersed in medieval history.