Kingdom Come: Deliverance

[Grifman]

You also have to equip arrows as well as a bow.

Duh! Ok, I guess that's so you can decide which arrow type you want to use.

[stimpy]

Tip:
You can retrieve arrows that have missed their target.
Finding them in the grass? That's a mini-game unto itself.

[jztemple2]

Glitches? You want glitches? We got glitches.

[MonkeyFinger]

Oh my.

[Grifman]

New patch is out. lots of enhancements, bug fixes:

The game now has Save and Exit feature.
Saving is much more robust and saves won't get corrupted even if the game crashes while saving.
Performance improved
LoD switching tweaked, reducing pop-in and improving texture streaming.
Stuttering in some areas reduced.
Slightly smoother framerate on Vsync 30. (Consoles and some PCs)
Improved lockpicking
New interface design makes it much easier to hold the sweet spot while turning the lock.
Easy and Very Easy trunks are now easier to lockpick when playing with controller. (Mouse difficulty unchanged)
Improved pickpocketing
You will no longer get caught if you stop at the beginning of the minigame. (Unless someone sees you)
The risk indicator is now much more precise. When green, you are sure not to get caught.
Alchemy bench will no longer shoot you into the air.
The last quest with Lord Capon is now visible on the map when he is ready to assign it to you.
Guards won't frisk you so often.
Your horse shouldn't get stuck when jumping fences.
Horse items are cleaned along with player items in bathhouses.
You can see when looking at a bed whether it will save your game.
You can sleep on beds without having to sit down first.
Levelling up stealth by sneaking past enemies is more consistent.
Sneaking past sleeping NPCs is now easier.
Some easily accessible trunks with extremely good loot have been removed.
Cave mushrooms can now be found in many other damp places.
You can no longer autocook potions that you haven't brewed by hand at least once before.
German voicovers will no longer cut off in mid-sentence in cutscenes.
Late game player strength tweaked
Some combat perks that were unintentionally overpowered were tuned down.
Weapons scale less with high level stats.
It should now be much harder to kill high level enemies with one hit. (Unless they're helmetless. Stupid Runt...)
Other combat system tweaks
"Untargeted attack" exploit fixed.
Enemy combat archery AI improved.
Guards now react to combat more aggressively.
And many other minor tweaks.
(PC only) It is now possible to select different types of anti-aliasing.
(PC only) It is now possible to set VSync to 30 or 60, or disable it completely.
(PC only) Steam Cloud saving enabled.
And over 300 other fixes in various quests.

[stimpy]

"Alchemy bench will no longer shoot you into the air."
Awwww....I loved that feature.

[Torfish]

This is on my list to play. Good to see they are making updates.

[stimpy]

The update borked my saves. I cant save now when I quit. I saw something about the save mod needing to be uninstalled, but not sure I want to do that without knowing my saves will be okay...

[MonkeyFinger]

"The game now has Save and Exit feature."

That's what I was waiting for.

Well, still waiting... for it to make it to the PS4.

[Daehawk]

I just watched a streamer on a quest to follow 3 ladies into the forest and it had to do with ointment. This game has moved up on my want list now. Such a cool quest lol.

[stimpy]

I just completed that quest last night.
It's.......umm......yeah.......anyway........

[Octavious]

Hmm that's A LOT of fixes. I'm still leaving it on the shelf for a bit longer for more fixes. Might as well let it bake some more while I try and break 1,000 hours in PUBG. And then Far Cry 5 will come out and then I won't come back for 3-4 months.

[Jaymann]

I have been holding off due to teh bug reports. Let me ask a couple questions:
How difficult is it to obtain equipment?
If you kill someone out in the middle of nowhere, does every guard on the planet instantly know?

[Max Peck]

I have been holding off due to teh bug reports. Let me ask a couple questions:
How difficult is it to obtain equipment?
If you kill someone out in the middle of nowhere, does every guard on the planet instantly know?

Gearing up starts off a little slow, but it picks up quickly enough once you get out in the world.

If you kill someone and there no witnesses, the guards won't automagically go after you. If there are witnesses and you kill them before they can report to a guard, then the guards won't automagically go after you. However, if a lot of people go missing in an area then the locals start to get paranoid and that is reflected by your reputation taking a hit.

[stimpy]

Annnnd...once again, update borks the save mod.
I hate that they keep forcing me to update the game when I haven't been having any issues.

[neofit]

Annnnd...once again, update borks the save mod.

This is what preventing me from buying the game. From the description it feels like a game that I would enjoy a lot, but I hate all kinds of gratuitous save restrictions. Sure, some smart person came up with a save-anywhere with no schnapps mod, but we are facing a team who thought that a save on exit feature was too OP, I wouldn't put it beneath them to completely destroy any mod of this kind before I finish the game.

[Max Peck]

I haven't bothered to mod the save function. I keep a schnapps on hand for when I want to save before trying something stupid, but aside from that the sleep-saves and save-on-exit (the critical feature that they were missing at launch vis-à-vis saves) have worked fine for me.

[stimpy]

Annnnd...once again, update borks the save mod.

This is what preventing me from buying the game. From the description it feels like a game that I would enjoy a lot, but I hate all kinds of gratuitous save restrictions. Sure, some smart person came up with a save-anywhere with no schnapps mod, but we are facing a team who thought that a save on exit feature was too OP, I wouldn't put it beneath them to completely destroy any mod of this kind before I finish the game.

FWIW, they fixed the mod. Working again, thank goodness.

[coopasonic]

I just started playing and am a little over 8 hours in according to steam and I have yet to use any schnapps. I sold one to get that first lockpick and that's about the only use I've had for them. With the relatively rare autosaves that generally happen after something big, I think the save limitations adds a lot to the tension of some of the seedier activities. I am not sure I will ever pickpocket because of the risk (except maybe first thing in the morning when I can undo it without losing much). I've committed some thievery and it's so scary sneaking around knowing you have no backstop. I think this game would be kind of boring if everything went your way (not that anything actually goes Henry's way story-wise early on ).

[stimpy]

Yeah....thats cool and I'm sure it's a great way to play this game.
Me? I scum save the crap out of it.

[neofit]

Yeah....thats cool and I'm sure it's a great way to play this game.
Me? I scum save the crap out of it.

Exactly, to each his own. There should be a choice when you start a campaign to use a proper unlimited save system or not, and you have to stick with it till the end. For me, just the thought of losing time and progress makes me want to do something more useful in another game, forget about tension or fun or whatever .

[coopasonic]

On the flip side, I've had the game break on me three times so far.
1) in the middle of a quest my companion just stopped, sitting there staring into space. Had to reload prior save.
2) when attempting to fast travel out of a small town, game crashed to desktop
3) when finishing up an encounter, ended up in an endless load screen
All in the past couple hours of play.

[coopasonic]

Finished it last night. What a buggy mess. I liked the story and gameplay. I never *really* got the combat down, but I learned how to abuse clinches and that was enough. Oh.. and I never even drank any schnapps. I used "sleep & save" and "save & exit" only.

[jztemple2]

Finished it last night. What a buggy mess. I liked the story and gameplay. I never *really* got the combat down, but I learned how to abuse clinches and that was enough. Oh.. and I never even drank any schnapps. I used "sleep & save" and "save & exit" only.

About how many hours did you put into it? I burned out after 41 hours when I figured out that my campaign would be stuck on this one boss battle for quite a long time till I got much better weapons and skills. I played a number of side missions but just got tired of the gameplay.

[coopasonic]

65 hours per steam. I did a LOT of the side content, maxed out a couple of skills but didn't hit max level.

I think Runt is the only boss battle in the game so I am guessing that is where you got stuck? I was stuck there too until I decided to start using my bow. It was close quarters so not easy, but at least I was able to hit him with the bow. That was before I figured out that clinching was the real key to melee combat. clinch -> kick -> cut. I don't think I ever landed a combo except possibly by accident.

[jztemple2]

Yup, it was Runt. I left that quest and started doing others to level up, but I just lost interest in the game.

[coopasonic]

I really liked the game, but I wish they would fix it. Even now, two months after release it has so many bugs and I'm possibly the most forgiving gamer who never runs into gameplay bugs because I pretty much always do things as expected.

Going back to this exchange:

You shouldn't have issues with basic things like walking up stairs and going through doors.

You obviously never played Daggerfall.

Daggerfall is exactly what it reminds me of.

[Sawyer]

As the patron saint of overlooked or underappreciated games, I feel it is my duty to put this game back on the OO map.

At some point in 2018 I bought this game but bounced off it hard. For whatever reason, I just loaded it up last week to give it another go. It is surprisingly fantastic. Initially, I was not convinced I was going to like it due to the lack of fantasy elements (Witcher III, KOTOR, and Ultima 5 being my top 3 favorite RPGs). The initial maybe 3-4 hours is fairly on rails, like an extended tutorial introducing you to all the systems, which is well done but not great. Then you get to play the real game.

The game is just clearly made with passion for the material (see Witcher III), which I always appreciate. The environment feels real (ish - for a video game) and there is simply great attention to detail. I have done a couple just fantastic quests (to veterans, the Priest quest was memorable to say the least). The combat is difficult, but I'm catching on and while the system is definitely different, it is quite clever. The feeling of taking Henry from village wanker to mildly adequate warrior/wannabe noble, at my current point in the game, is great.

As far as I can see, the big concern when the game was released was the number of bugs. I'm about 25-30 hours in now and the biggest bug I've had was a character acting like they were bent over a table working but he wasn't at a table. Another big issue people cited was the save system. There is a mod for that, but frankly I have really embraced the lack of saves. The game is quite clever in never taking you down a path where failing, except for getting killed, truly borks your game.

Anyway, if you're looking for an open world sword and boards type of RPG, think about putting this back on your list.

[jztemple2]

As the patron saint of overlooked or underappreciated games, I feel it is my duty to put this game back on the OO map.

I put in over 40 hours on it and thought it had a lot of potential. I didn't find any bugs that couldn't be worked around. What finally stopped me was a boss fight that I simply couldn't beat. I tried several times but failed, so I played a lot of the side content and then uninstalled. It is a pretty good game and certainly is in a niche by itself, medieval non-fantasy RPG with lots of dialog and places to explore.

[Daehawk]

I wanted it for months. I finally got it for $6. I played a week and put it away then deleted it later. I dont enjoy stuff much and it was just one more thing I didn't enjoy that greatly.

[Fardaza]

I put in 34 hours and was having a great time. I loved the world and the idea of the nobody looking for revenge. I just never got the hang of the combat. I never knew if I was doing the right thing, but the game was "missing" because I wasn't skilled enough, or if I was doing it wrong. The difference between player control mistakes and simulated incompetence always left me baffled.

My favorite completed quests were the ones where I could use stealth, no combat needed.

I was commiserating with a key female character early on. She later opened up and poured out her soul to me. Next thing I knew she was asking me to come to bed and cheat on her husband! I kept expecting him to walk in on me and screw up all my plans!! The erotic tension was palpable.

I put it aside because of the combat though. I may pick it up and try a new character sometime.

[Smoove_B]

I think I only have about 5 hours into the game. It wasn't at all what I was expected (that wasn't a bad thing, I was more surprised). The controls were (are?) a bit wonky and I wasn't sure if it just wanted me to use a controller instead of M/KB. Anyway, I did enjoy it and I too should probably circle back and spend some more time with it.

[Sawyer]

My enjoyment of this game continues. I was stuck for a good while on a key duel

Spoiler:

with Runt in the steeple

This may be the duel jztemple got stuck on and, after hitting the message boards, I discovered he definitely is not alone. The sword skill of this boss is way beyond anything seen in the game until this point. Some people found a way to cheese the battle, but I definitely wanted to out duel this dick. Cheesing it would have broke the tremendous immersion this game creates and, simply, would just be wrong. Then it occurred to me,

Spoiler:

he's not wearing a helmet

Beating this guy in a duel was one of the great moments I've had in a video game in a good while. Somehow it was better than beating a tough boss in Dark Souls, for instance. I think it was because the combat is so different than other games. It feels like sword fighting, whatever that feels like.

On the bug front, I did have a CTD that cost me about 10-15 minutes at one point. That sucked. But that has been the exception, not the rule.

I cannot overstate the immersion this game can give. Everywhere I turn I see a game created with attention to detail and care. You are a 15th century knight. Love it.

[jztemple2]

This may be the duel jztemple got stuck on

It was. Thankfully there was a lot of content to the game without being able to win that battle.

[Sawyer]

Finished the game at about 110 hours, without doing all the side missions nor DLC. My enthusiasm for the game never really waned... except maybe for

Spoiler:

the dreaded monastery section. Not sure what they were thinking there.

I wouldn't say the game cracked my own holy trinity of RPGs, but absolutely top 10 and maybe top 5 (I'll have to see how the game sticks with me after a few months). I wanted to take one last opportunity to tell you all about the game.

Bugs - I want to address this again as it was such a big issue when the game first came out. During my play I had two serious bugs. One was a CTD I mentioned in an earlier post and one was a bug related to playing dice where the game got caught in a loop that cost me about 40 minutes. There was a repeating bug where a tailor would be bent over an invisible table; immersion breaking for sure.

Music/Voice - I never turned the music off, though turned down pretty low. This is a rarity for me, especially for a game this long. Voice is generally quite good. Found a video which pictured the voice actors with their characters and found they basically used the actors faces in game. Cool. The only voice I found completely out of whack was Sir Divish. Though the voice actor looked like a younger version of the NPC, that was basically the problem; he sounded way too young.

Graphics - Generally good to really great. The in-game forests feel like a Michigan forest. They are simply the most realistic I've ever seen in a game. The rest of the graphics really are great, for a game that isn't AAA. I could nitpick, but for every complaint I could tell you about a special moment where the graphics just blew me away.

Let's talk briefly here about my #1 pet peeve in open world RPGs: reused assets. I hate reused assets and I'm looking directly at you Bethesda (going back to specifically to Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall). Nothing breaks immersion faster for me and I'm particularly sensitive to it. Kingdom Come does great on this front. Each town feels like its own discrete place. If I go to an Inn in each city, they all feel unique and I developed my favorite places to spend the night. I think I specifically noticed one re-used face and storefront floor plan that they reused a couple times, if cleverly. There is no doubt in my mind that they re-used assets, clothing for sure, but they did it really smartly.

Gameplay - I have a love/hate relationship with the combat system. In one-on-one combat, the system is exceptional. A duel with a high-level opponent is something I ended up looking forward to, though initially stumbled with. The system doesn't work nearly as well in a bigger fight, i.e. Henry vs. a party of 5 bandits. At the end of the game I could take a party of 5 bandits at one time, head-on, but it was still fiddly. The other systems in the game are well-layered and deep, though maybe not as fully realized as the developers first intended. For instance, the potion brewing is quite in depth but, with the exception of Saviour Schnapps, I rarely brewed potions because I could just find them on dead bodies.

The quests range from terrible to great, but overall rank as very good. There are very few true fetch quests and they are of the optional variety. The quests feel real and made it easy to get into the game as an RPG.

Overall - In case it isn't obvious, I think this game is great. I was wary of playing an RPG without fantasy elements and those hesitations likely delayed me from playing the game until it was in its best state. If you're even thinking about playing Kingdom Come, do it. It's worth your money.

[Scraper]

I've been playing the hell out of this on the PS5. At this point I'm about 20 hours in and I haven't run into any major bugs, I have had some small ones that required a reload, but nothing serious. I am totally loving the game and I would call it a realistic Skyrim.

As everyone else has pointed out the combat is a bit difficult, but somehow I was able to beat the Runt fight on my first try by constantly blocking with my shield and then counter attacking. I find that I can beat most opponents 1 on 1, but add in other guys and I'm toast. I also have been leveling my bow up quite a bit so I can usually get some cheap shots in with that prior to switching to close combat.

Also, the save system can suck, but it's not hard to brew the Savior Schnapps and keep a bunch on hand. It literally took me about an hour of game time to start alchemy and then brew about 10 of them. So from there out it is simple to brew more if I am running low.

This game is totally worth taking another look at if the bugs scared you away around launch. It doesn't hurt that it's free via PS Plus Premium.