Kingdom Come: Deliverance

[Art Blade]

this game.. this is different. It's not like anything I ever played. And I do like it

It is so real. Forget saving for now, so, no saving.. and you start as a young man who apparently can speak. The rest? You need to learn everything. Lock-picking, for instance, is a skill you slowly develop with some kind of XP levelling system.

Once you reached the next stage, and they are like 2,4,6,8.. up to I think 20 or some such, every other level you get a new perk to spend on lock-picking. Read that sentence again and emphasise the end, "to spend on lock-picking." Perks, only for lock-picking.

One that I've got is either a 20% chance that all broken lock-picks get restored, or lock-picks are more durable and last twice as long. I chose the latter. Then you can buy books and ask certain people to train you (up to five classes) but you can't just go from one "class" to the next, you'll have to practice and gain more XP until you've reached a level that allows the next step in training lessons.

Imagine, it's almost like a whole career if you want to master lock-picking. Same goes with almost everything, like reading. You can't read yet. You need to learn it. From pupil to student to professor, you can learn to read a little or so much that you're becoming a professor. Crazy.

And in a way, regarding the incredible amount of detail, the same goes for "living" -- you need to wash yourself or take a bath, have your clothes washed (blood stains don't look too good to certain people) and take care of hunger (but don't stuff yourself too much, stamina goes down) and sleep (refill your energy bar).. alcohol can make you speak better (charisma sort of thing) but you may get a hangover if you overextend yourself, unless you train to become a known alcoholic.

Get hit by a sword? Not good, without armour it's only over faster than with. It will likely end the same: you'll bleed to death if nothing else kills you until then. One hit already drains life and temporarily some stamina. You can't go berserk because you'll run out of steam (stamina) after a few blows and if you get hit right then, you'll suffer an injury taking some life energy. In other words, you can die within a few seconds if you're not prepared (trained, equipped) but even if you survive, you'll leave a dead body behind.

That might eventually end with you having some explaining to do. If anyone saw you, you'd be hunted down in a very short amount of time. If they catch you (best surrender) you can buy your way out of prison (actually preventing getting thrown into) but it's not cheap (you may not even have enough money) so you might end up in prison. Although you may buy your way around prison, with or without prison, you cannot get rid of the stigma "criminal." People will remember you and what you did, and guards will be very suspicious of you. Apparently that vanishes after some time but I don't know how long it takes. I suspect it lasts quite some time.

With all the above, it is generally speaking an adventure of its own just to survive the day, let alone the night. But there are some deeds ahead.. revenge, fight the leader of the invading army who killed your parents.. Damn, it will take QUITE some time to gather all the skills and whatnot to get to that point. Cool.

[Art Blade]

something I have to add:

I mentioned lock-picking and then I thought you guys would be reminded of other games that included lock-picking so you might guess what it's like, but I think it's different. I don't recall that type of lock-picking. Here it is some kind of mini-game that involves actual skill. Both on controller and on keyboard, you need to use both hands, simultaneously doing something different. With one key (or left thumb-joystick on a controller) you rotate the mechanism that looks like a spiral with a centre around which it needs to be turned while with your mouse (or right thumb-joystick on a controller) you need to balance a round "golden spot" (the visualisation of the sweet spot) in between the free space within the spiral but without losing the position of the spot while the spiral is being turned, hence you need to "follow" the spiral's movement with that spot and you need to keep the spot big and golden. If you can't keep up, your spot will become smaller and smaller as well as turning from gold to silver. Which is about the moment your lock-pick will snap. (Which is why I used the perk for stronger lock-picks)

That snap isn't just a snap and a lost lock-pick. That snap is loud enough to alert anyone nearby, even anywhere in the house. And the tough part: "a trained guard" and some such will be able to identify that sound and know someone is trying to pick a lock nearby. And believe me, unless you manage to escape running and then hide properly, you don't want to have what's coming. Once I got caught because I hadn't heard that someone had entered the room and that guy was a guard who instantly yelled at me to surrender. Well.

Which is why I am very, very wary when it comes to picking locks.

And now imagine all the above for picking pockets. Steal from someone's purse that is still attached to said someone who could notice you and that's what people like to call, that's when the *bleep* hits the fan. And you really, really don't want that

You got it.

[Art Blade]

and by the way,

the devs explicitly support modding


Isn't that great

[fragger]

Sounds like quite an investment in time will be required to get anywhere significantly. Which is good, if it's a good game Sounds pretty cool so far, except for the saving part. I wonder why they did it like that, instead of having something like an "ironman" option?

[Art Blade]

yes, it is very interesting and challenging. Essentially, they created a hardcore medieval RPG and their solution to make things harder is to avoid saving, indeed almost like the ironman difficulty in XCOM but from the start. There are no difficulty options but failure actually is an "option."

[Art Blade]

I finally got my own horse It was a reward for saving a young lord from getting killed by bandits. Now I can move around in the world a lot faster. The horse can die so you need to take care of both the horse and yourself.

It is a realistic medieval game, and in a way it's a daily-life simulator. For instance, you need to eat and your food can go off, spoiled food can make you sick -- or someone else: you can poison say, a bandit's shared pot over the fire with some type of stew in it by dropping in something, like a rotten piece of meat. Just consider how detailed your daily life is. Apart from toilets, you need to do virtually everything you need to do in real life. And injuries or death are very "real" threats in this game. You could try and imagine to be an egg with a stick on a horse. I don't think that egg can stomach a blow with a mace. Well, the character you're playing (Henry) can't survive anything you could in other games but despite that, he can still manage when trained and experienced, and properly geared up.

I like the game a lot. I'm surprised at the fact that I almost had no choice but to become a thief and burglar. Well, if I hadn't gone down that lane, I would have missed out on a lot of entertaining side missions. And now, picking up the main quest again, I got my horse and a protector (some lord who knew Henry's father intimately) and I got a few contacts to noblemen. Now I only have to keep the thievery to myself and play along with the nobles. I hope to rise in ranks and reputation so I can become part of the nobility. I could still pick locks and so on or I could try to avoid nobles and make myself at home at some bandit's camp. I think nobility is better, more to be gained.

Very interesting, this game

[PZ]

That level of detail in daily life does sound interesting 

[LowPolyOWG]

Maybe do like your FO4 playthrough, multiple saves and different paths in the saves

[fragger]

Sounds pretty detailed. Maybe it should have been called "Medieval Life Simulator"

Is there actually a story, i.e. do you w0#k towards some overarching goal? Or is it just kind of open-ended and you create your own goals?

...you need to eat and your food can go off, spoiled food can make you sick...

Not like FO4, where you can chuck any kind of raw meat and cooked food into a desk drawer and it remains viable forever

I'm enjoying reading about your experiences Art, glad you're having a good time with it

[Art Blade]

cheers

Yes, there is a story and it develops. Sometimes quite dramatically. Essentially it is about Henry wanting to avenge his parents who got butchered before his very eyes. The only problem: Henry is a young nothing while the murderers are nothing short of enemy army leaders. In other words, it might take a while

[LowPolyOWG]

Just slap them hard enough 

[Art Blade]

oh I did that, however not with those warlords. One of the side missions consists of beating up three guys. You only want to beat up the known brawler but he doesn't accept you right away. He tells you that first you have to beat two of his cronies. And there were several other fist fights before that Also, sword fights.

Oh, I also got my first bow and arrows

And in a bow tournament I beat and won a good bow off the same lord I saved later, which resulted in the horse. I was hunting hares and a few deer as collateral. You don't have any cross-hairs for the bow and it's swaying around constantly. That is quite something and a world of a difference between shooting static targets at a tournament and hunting rabbits in a forest. 

[PZ]

... You don't have any cross-hairs for the bow and it's swaying around constantly...

Reminds me of the Fallout games - I never did like the feeling of being drunk when aiming a weapon.

[Art Blade]

hehe, there are some things in games that are weird, like a wildly swaying aim. I'm pretty sure that KCD will allow your archery to improve and you're likely going to end up with a steady aim after enough practice.

[PZ]

I hope so - we had to install mods in FO to become sober again