Kingdom Come: Deliverance

Kingdom Come: Deliverance is an RPG that does the medieval era right with a refreshingly small-scale story and strong realistic combat.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance offers enthralling medieval history alongside demanding systems and troublesome bugs.

A focus on history makes this an RPG like no other, but its pleasures can leave a sour taste.

Kingdom Come is a seriously satisfying role-playing experience set in a rich, reactive world.

Kingdom Come serves up an intriguing personal story and a detailed world worth exploring. However, on a technical level, the game is broken

This lush and dynamic RPG prides itself on the historical accuracy of its recreation of 15th-century feudal Bohemia

The measure of an open world is ultimately not the story it tells but whether you're happy to kill time within it, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance offers plenty of ways to do that, even if a lot of them will, in fact, get you slaughtered.

Warhorse Studios took a big risk with this game and hopefully in the long run the technical issues can be addressed, because as of right now, they prevent Deliverance from reaching greatness. If you can climb over the mountain of jank and poor optimization then you'll be in for an incredibly authentic experience, that when it works, truly puts role-playing front and center in a fabulous way.

I'm not angry at Kingdom Come, I'm just… disappointed. It was touted as this grand historical representation, an abandonment of fantasy for a true medieval setting, a game that would let us live the middle ages. But the game we got is just this busted, inconsistently ambitious RPG that shines in points, but falls apart in most others.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance is very difficult to score because it's more than just the sum of its parts, and the appeal will differ greatly by person. If you absolutely love simulators and really appreciate realism and the little details in games, then this will really grip you. But at the same time, many will find the game far too frustrating and unforgiving, both because of the intense focus on realism that doesn't always result in fun gameplay experiences, and the number of bugs and severe loading times. There's a compelling game here, but it needs a polished edge only a series of patches or a sequel can deliver. We can't wait for either.