Kingdom Come Deliverance: Combating Chaos Across Bohemia

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Kingdom Come Deliverance:

Last week's article introduced the historical grounding of Kingdom Come: Deliverance, but also its subversion of the player's control in order to tell its story. This second article looks at the RPG elements, combat,

Though the settings and stories have little in common, Kingdom Come Deliverance compares favorably to the famous The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind. While one is set in a fictional, magical realm, both feature the same style of game-play in a medieval-esque world. Like Morrowind, the protagonist improves in numerous Skills by performing them. Henry is composed of a Core Level, nine Stats (like Strength, Vitality, Speech), ten Skills (Alchemy, Horsemanship, Drinking), and seven Combat Skills (Defense, Warfare, Swords). Deliverance resembles Morrowind, but improved the leveling system. In Morrowind, an insufficient sword skill displays a sword hitting the enemy, but not inflicting damage. Attacks in Deliverance never miss. Instead, the power of each attack improves as proficiency increases. Each Stat and Skill also includes perks to choose from, like classic role-playing games. Some Skills are difficult to improve, like Stealth, because it requires unnecessarily sneaking around enemies to practice. Even if the player doesn't want to steal they still need to pick locks whenever possible, so they can open that one locked chest for a mandatory quest.

The protagonist's Skill improves in combat in the same way, but unlike Morrowind, player skill impacts the outcome. The player swings with their mace, sword, or axe from one of five different angles, making blocking difficult. During combat the duelers attack and dodge, parry, and counter-attack. Damage prescribed by hits is deflected by armor with the rest absorbed by the character's stamina. Damage is easily inflicted in the early game, as low level characters have limited stamina and poor armor, but plate armor and an extended endurance in the later game leads to drawn out battles. If Henry has no stamina to deflect damage then he loses health. Stamina returns slowly when Henry is not giving or receiving blows. A winded foe is a vulnerable target, and following up with attack after attack is a winning strategy.
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Even as Henry learns from experience, combat retains its difficulty against one foe. Two enemies are frustratingly unbearable, while its impossible to fight three or more. Deliverance doesn't include a button to switch battle targets manually. Instead Henry targets whichever foe in nearest. But sometimes the target doesn't switch when the enemy changes positions, forcing the player to attack the foe in back, leaving Henry open to attack from the closer enemy. I never felt like I mastered combat, but it's a deep system with its five angles of attack, stamina, parrying, and armor. Part of my failure was using swords against armored foes. Bladed weapons may be effective against unarmored foes, but against chainmail or platemail, they inflict minimal damage. What I never understood about combat is how enemies could parry my attack, and immediately flow into an unblockable counterattack, which I find very frustrating.

Though combat is always relevant to protect oneself riding the roads and woods of tumultuous Bohemia, Deliverance features three large scale battles. In each Henry is only one solider in a massive attack led by Lords against rebels. The first battle is a surprise, and I wasn't properly prepared for the event. While it was fun at first, it became frustrating as death followed death. Kingdom Come doesn't allow the player to save at any point in the battle, even though it is separated into three scenes. After fifteen attempts I won, only to arrive at Kingdom Come's only boss. It's odd that this singular boss appears fifteen hours into a forty hour game, but at least the game did deign save between the battle and the boss. This was easier than the massive melee. It only took five attempts to defeat him. The next two engagements, which occur in the last third of the game, are much easier with a well trained and equipped Henry.
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While combat is a significant part of Deliverance, before it can begin the player must arrive at their destination. The world of Kingdom Come is massive, with ten towns of varying size. Some hamlets include no more than a grocer, while the largest contain taverns, blacksmiths, apothecaries, and a castle. Each include a fast travel point which is unlocked by visiting once. Many games implement fast travel poorly, with no restrictions, but Deliverance avoids these pitfalls by imposing limits. During fast travel time passes and Henry needs to eat. Manual travel seems faster in in-game time, but fast travel saves the player real life time. At first Bohemia seems full of locations to explore, and yet reveals itself as mostly empty. But over time, one comes to appreciate the detail and the beauty of the hills, rivers, fields, and woods, even if they lack activities to perform. 

It helps that the developers made riding a horse enjoyable. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was an open world game that mangled both regular and fast travel. Fast travel had no penalty. The horse in Breath of the Wild wasn't able to traverse any but the flattest terrain, and Hyrule contained too many cliffs, valleys, and rivers. In contrast, Henry's horse, Pebbles, can cross almost any terrain. He can jump fences, climb all but the steepest terrain, and cross streams, though not rivers. Also, Link's horse could only be stabled or recovered from one of a few locations scattered across Hyrule. Deliverance solves this problem by making Henry's steed a magical appearing horse. All he has to do is whistle, and Pebbles appears instantly out of the corner of his eye. This detracts from the realism the developers works hard to create, gameplay successfully trumps realism. If Henry does employ fast travel, it isn't an instantaneous teleportation from one location to another. In addition to the passage of time, Henry's travel is likely to be interrupted by a pilgrim seeking aid, an ambush by vicious Cumans, a wayfarer selling a treasure map, or a wanderer interested in a friendly duel. The opportunities are endless and create a fast travel experience both engaging and risky. Whether traveling by horse through the woods of Bohemia, or cruising from town to town with fast travel, travel is a delight in the wide world of Kingdom Come: Deliverance.
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Part of what makes travel enjoyable is the visual effects. Admittedly, Kingdom Come is a mixed bag on visuals. Riding through the woods and fields is enjoyable, and the characters look realistic. They appear even better during the cut scenes, but are overly prone to exaggerated head and hand gestures during in game conversations. But the real issue is pop in visuals. Imagine riding along the road and seeing a man in the distance. He appears to be dressed in a simple peasant garb. Upon closer inspection, the man appears to be wearing the basic equipment of a soldier; sword, chain mail, and shield. But as they approach each other, the player now sees that the peasant is a fully armed and plated knight eager for a fight. The problem isn't as obvious with the terrain or buildings, but it isn't negligible either.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance is full of these little issues mixed into an otherwise expansive campaign. Next week will conclude with further details about the characters, story, and conclusion.

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