The first post! Well I’ve spent work weeks worth of time in Kingdom Come Deliverance (Royal Edition to be exact) gameplay, which has been a long road considering the whole theme of this blog about not having enough hours to play (only half way through !!!).
I snagged the game when it was free on Epic and it only took a few hours for me to decide to purchase the upgrade to the Royal Edition (includes all DLC). I do recommend buying the Royal Edition at the $40.00 it is right now (or during the inevitable sales that will come).
As a side note, I think the that’s part of the free Epic games hook – give the base game free, knowing people will get hooked on things like Kingdom Come’s gameplay and then spend on the DLCs or microtransactions. It worked on me.
Combat
Melee Weapons
I love how you control the sword (axe, mace, etc.) with the mouse in Kingdom Come Deliverance gameplay. There’s a five point star that let’s you know whether you are going to swing at the opponents head, arms or legs.
You can even stab straight with a right click. There are combos you can learn, feigning, master strikes, etc.. Hand to hand combat uses a similar system.
Archery
There’s no reticle to know exactly where you are pointing, so it takes awhile to get used to. The swaying when you have low skill makes it hard to hit things. Building up the skill gives you more stamina/ability to not sway so much, handle a stronger bow and to draw the bow longer.
I’ve focused Kingdom Come gameplay sessions more on melee weapons, but it is so satisfying when I am able to pick off an enemy with the bow.
Alchemy
I usually hate having to chase potion recipes and ingredients, but Kingdom Come Deliverance’s gameplay makes this so much more fun than any other game I’ve played. The bench has a book with known recipes, so you can read the directions and see the ingredients. It will then give you an option to setup those ingredients.
Once you have the set of ingredients you can grab handfuls of, then you have the options to put them in the cauldron or use the mortal/pestle to crush them first. You can choose from water, spirits, oil or wine as the base.
Bellows are available to boil the ingredients and a flask to distill based on potion directions. I could write a whole post about Kingdom Come Deliverance alchemy gameplay, but the missions you use it for are much more fun due to the system. You can eventually get a perk to auto prepare potions, so the mechanic won’t become too boring if you use it enough.
Grindstone
I mostly pay for blacksmiths to repair my sword, but KCD does have a pretty good mechanic for doing this repair yourself. You control the speed of the grindstone with a pedal, the angle of the sword, pressure and position. It’s a fun Kingdom Come Deliverance gameplay mechanic worth trying out once or twice.
Horseback Riding
It’s pretty standard to other games I’ve played, except fighting on horseback feels so satisfying. The timing is a bit tricky, but I can easily take on 5 to 10 armored soldiers in an open field. Swing the sword, gallop away, turn around repeat.
Kingdom Come Deliverance Missions
I have not even touched on the missions, but I’ll leave that for my play posts. Soon … I hope.