There seems to be a tendency for staircases to randomly decide, “You shall not pass!” and moving between areas of different elevation in general too often results in getting hung up on invisible walls or even stuck entirety. But others are less of a laughing matter because they got in the way of gameplay in significant ways. Some are of the goofy, largely unobtrusive sort you’d expect from an open-world game of this size, like a shopkeeper’s head loading in after the rest of their body. The fantasy breaks down a bit too frequently under the weight of bugs, though.

And there are no loading screens between areas anywhere unless you’re using fast travel, which I always appreciate quite a bit in open-world games. Towns, farms, and logging camps are all laid out with a strong internal logic and built on a scale that makes sense for a real place, as opposed to the standard RPG city in a game like Skyrim that’s designed to feel large, but really isn’t. Likewise, walking into an inn covered in blood with a sword drawn is a good way to intimidate people into seeing things your way.Īll of this takes place in a large chunk of wooded, medieval Bohemia that shows significant attention to detail and is filled with little historical touches that help it feel like a real place. This extends beyond BO simulation: if, for example, you’re trying to be sneaky, wearing clothes that don’t make noise when you move and are dark in color to blend in with the shadows decreases your chances of being detected. Keeping relatively clean isn’t a chore because bathhouses are easy to find, and you can always dunk your head in the nearest trough of water in a pinch. “This required me to frequently take baths, visit the laundry, and have my outerwear mended by a tailor to make a good impression. The biggest example is how clothes will accumulate wear and trail dust as you traipse through the wilderness, leaving nobles less than impressed with your scruffiness. Not only are there survival mechanics that track hunger and fatigue, but every aspect of your character’s appearance has an impact on how NPCs perceive you. Warhorse’s tale of tribulation and betrayal shines brightest in the little ways it sells the fantasy of living in the Late Middle Ages. Without a single spell or magic sword, Kingdom Come gave me the abundantly satisfying feeling of transforming from doe-eyed scrub to stone-cold killer. This wasn’t merely a change in stats and equipment. By the end of the almost 70 hours I spent with it, I was sizing up a trio of bandits with a smirk on my real-life face, knowing even together they were no match for my steel and the extensive training I’d received under some of the toughest knights in this beautifully recreated medieval land. Within my first hour of playing Kingdom Come: Deliverance, I was beaten up by the town drunk.

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