Balancing with its difficulty and need for the player to really think about which method of involvement - combat, dialog, stealth or something else more unconventional - works best. Number-crunching stats to deduce and work out via the multi-layered armor system XP to accumulate across a wide assortment of perks and skills - which one can tailor depending on their play-style or preference, rewarding you the more you invest in, for example, honing your fighting skills or merely picking as much edible flora and fauna as possible, as opposed to just one general tab dictating all other attributes - and while the game does deviate a little into survival-esque obtrusion with its food/sleep/health statistics to keep a tab on, perhaps Kingdom Come: Deliverance‘s greatest feats are in its balancing foremost and believability thereafter. Yes there are of course the standards with which to meet and uphold.

And at its best (and most stable), Warhorse succeed - occasionally triumphing - on proving a game, embed in historical bearings it might be, devoid of magic or dragons or anything else aesthetically superfluous, can stand just as highly as those set in more imaginative premises. That an RPG of course should be one for its player to get actively involved in - working out solutions otherwise hidden or simply letting them loose in a world that demands exploring. Less some retaliating against the norm, but more an alternate look on the potential this particular corner of RPG development can carve out.

While long-standing series and fellow contributors alike in The Elder Scrolls, Dragon Age, Fallout, The Witcher and perhaps Gothic to a degree have often dictated the perception of which RPGs are regarded - that this sub-genre is more about the fantastical and/or exaggerated than it is about the down-to-Earth mechanics - Kingdom Come‘s clear intent on its backdrop without sacrificing the intricacies or enjoyment of such an open-world RPG is an understandable one. Minute circumstances and seemingly insignificant elements that, when combined, help developer Warhorse Studio’s debutante flourish into one of the most striking and intriguing western RPGs of recent times.

It goes without saying that some of the most striking and resonant moments to be found among the fifty-plus hour venture (and that’s just skimming the abundance of content on offer) that is Kingdom Come: Deliverance are in the little details.

Kingdom come deliverance review