Kingdom Come Deliverance:
While the last article complimented Kingdom Come: Deliverance's atmospheric visuals, and criticized its pop-in effects, the appearance of the characters bring them to life. The characters are well acted and engaging, though the cast is marred by a lack of female characters. The only two women with adequate parts are Henry's love interests. Compared to the other woman, Theresa is a developed character, though her existence only serves to serve Henry as a date, and demeans her with a surprisingly explicit sex scene. The other characters, from Henry himself, to the shorter parts like his blacksmith father, are well characterized. Henry's Lord, Radzig, plays a particularly significant role, and generates enjoyable conversations. The Lords Hanush, Capon, and Robard are worth speaking with as well. The developers even managed to find a part for the spectacular Brian Blessed as a the military engineer Konrad Kyeser. Only one character seems deficient; the villain. While the acting is acceptable, the rebellious adversary is also gay, an odd addition that contributes nothing to the plot. It's like the developers were so immersed in the mindset of 1403 they thought, what is associated with evil; homosexuality. It also plays into the flamboyant villain trope, because the enemy wears nicer clothes then the other man, and he has a male lover. It's a strange and unnecessary juxtaposition with Henry, who is all boyish charm, and can only romance women.
After advancing from blacksmith's son,
to city guard, and from Lord Radzig's servant to his right hand man,
the the player plays an extended ending to confront the villain.
While the mid-game of Kingdom Come Deliverance
is well paced, with action following action, the last few hours of
Deliverance plays in fits and starts. Kingdom Come
warns the player that any remaining quests won't be available after
they begin the grand battle which leads to the ending series of
quests. Yet, after the battle, the Lords inform Henry that they need
two days before their next action. They repeat this claim twice
more, until the final battle arrives. In these extended dialogues
Henry learns a hidden fact about his life, a twist that was obvious
in the outing. After the final battle Deliverance enters its
epilogue. The player must reconcile that Henry completes neither of
his quests: He does not recover his Lord's sword, nor does he
complete his quest of vengeance. Though he does purge this region of
Bohemia of rebellious thugs, he fails in his stated goals. Then the
player is subjected to an extended epilogue without game-play.
Through a series of long cut scenes, and minor in game elements, the
Lords endlessly expound on the exposition of Wenceslaus, Sigismund,
and other Lords in neighboring regions. Not only does the player
have no input, Henry barely even speaks, because he isn't spoken to.
Finally Henry is given a quest with
the princeling Capon to deliver a letter. The Lords Radzig, Hanush,
and Divish want to rally other lords in the service of Wenceslaus.
Before riding off the edge of the map into the sunset, the player is
free to explore and adventure to their heart's content. Kingdom Come
never ends if the player doesn't want it to.
With this exposition, this final
ending, and Henry's unfinished goals, Kingdom Come
Deliverance demands a sequel. Yet, though KCD was released in
early 2018, Deep Silver has not released any news about Kingdom Come
Deliverance 2. Details are difficult to come by, and any guesses are
based in rumor. But if the developers did produce a sequel, it would
be unbelievable to begin with a new character, as one rumor
speculates. And if they did continue with Henry, what happens to the
player's progress? Would he retain his levels? Some RPGS, like
Neverwinter Nights, managed to develop sequels that
allowed a player to craft a new character, or keep an old character's
progression. Still, Henry accumulated a lot of expensive equipment
by the end of game one. This is an easier problem to solve. On the
delivery of his letter he is imprisoned, and all his equipment is
taken from him so he has to begin again in a different region.
In Conclusion, Kingdom Come
Deliverance travels with a wide array of features, which
combine together to craft an first rate open world experience. It
suffers from an overly expository, manipulated and railroaded
introduction, and a similarly over explained, sluggish, and
unfinished ending. But in between those two parts, Deliverance
is packed with content. The developers took their best ideas from
The Elders Scrolls: Morrowind and placed
them in Bohemia of 1403. The towns, the Lords, and the threat the
protagonist faces are grounded in historical reality. Henry himself,
who at first seems like an overgrown baby, grows into his role as
right hand man to a local Lord. He rises to each occasion, and as he
does he become more proficient in whichever skill he uses. Kingdom
Come engages the player with a deep combat system, forcing
Henry to fight a single foe along the road, or pitched battles with
scores of allies and well armored enemies. All of it happens while
traveling around a beautiful scene of the modern Czech Republic.
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