Kingdom Come: Deliverance Next Gen Review - Henry’s Come to Visit Us
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 really put the series in the limelight, and well deserved. Many people I know had played the sequel only, and were looking to dip their toes into the first, only to find it much more challenging to play due to lack of quality of life features and older graphics. I was secretly holding out hope for a remake, and when I got code in my inbox for the first game again I was excited. But this isn’t that. That doesn’t mean I’m less excited, but let’s roll it back.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance is an unapologetic simulation of medieval life. It’s as hard as nails. Henry, the protagonist, is a blacksmith’s boy who doesn’t know how to do almost anything, but is thrust into a life that demands a lot from him. He’s clumsy with both his words and his actions; he doesn’t know how to deal with nobles; he’s an oaf. A lovable oaf, but an oaf nonetheless. The game, too, is showing some age. Picking herbs takes forever and has a cutscene that plays each time, combat only has two modes: way too easy or way too hard, changing outfits/armour is a chore, to name just a few bugbears. On consoles, the game is locked to 30fps, which can be very problematic.
If you can look past these issues, then KCD is an immensely rewarding game. Henry starts out as a character who’s rough around the edges, but by the end of the game can hold his own in both charisma and combat. He grows on you, and once Henry has sunk his teeth, you won’t easily forget him. This game falls into the spot ‘between’ review scores for me. It’s both incredibly charming and clunky. It’s one of my favourite games of all time, but it’s not one of the best games of all time. It’s so much better than the sum of its parts.
No, this game isn’t a remake. As much as I’d love it, I know that this isn’t made for me. I play on PC, where some of these changes (such as 60+fps) are already common, and mods fill in the gaps. Instead, this is for my siblings in the console world. Provided as a free update to existing owners, this is an update for those of the newer generation of consoles. No more shall you be limited to the older generation of the game. This is an update to provide a native port. It’s an update to bring the HD texture pack, and give 4k resolution. These are probably minor things to some people, but the framerate change itself is a huge boon. It’s a huge step to partially modernise an old title, especially when the new game has gotten so much traction.
On returning to KCD, it was like greeting an old friend. I’ve put maybe a hundred hours into the game after it launched, and playing it again on console felt good. Sure, I missed some of the mods which I enjoy – but this is still an incredible experience. My wife sat down next to me as I played through some of the Talmberg and Rattay sections. She was enjoying some of the excellent dialogue and meeting some of the characters, as well as my reactions to them.
That’s the thing. This has always been a game dripping with charm. It skipped by many people’s attention because it was old and didn’t have the greatest reputation at launch. Through time and effort, Warhorse have turned this into a special game. They’ve worn down some of the rough edges and turned it from a rough gem into an actual gemstone. It’s not perfect, and I just know that if they ever release a remaster with some of the changes from KCD2, I’ll sink another hundred hours into this game easily. Does that mean this enhanced edition isn’t worth it? Absolutely not. This is still something special, now it just looks better on console.
The long story short is this: if you’ve been holding off playing KCD on consoles because it was older and the graphics were less amazing, then now’s the time to jump in. If you’ve played before but wanted a fresh coat of paint, now’s the time to jump in. If you can’t handle some jank, then I doubt an upgrade to the graphics will change your mind. Still, you’ll be missing out on a truly unique experience that’ll stay with you.
Kingdom Come Deliverance was reviewed on the PS5 with code kindly supplied by the publisher.
