Kingdom Come: Deliverance

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  Kingdom Come: Deliverance launched on the 13th of February 2018, and at release it drew 95,863 players at once on Steam. That peak topped the 90,780 recorded by The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. The game, from Warhorse Studios, is an action role-playing adventure set in the real medieval Kingdom of Bohemia in the year 1403. Its hero is not a chosen one. He is a commoner caught up in a war. This documentary asks how a studio that struggled to find backers built a hit on that premise. It asks how closely the game's medieval world matched the period it set out to recreate. It also asks why critics who admired its devotion to realism so often disagreed about whether that realism was fun.

  7332

• 2. A Throne in Dispute

  ›

  When Charles IV died in 1378, the Kingdom of Bohemia had just lived through a golden age under a ruler who also held the title of Holy Roman Emperor. His eldest son, Wenceslaus IV, inherited the throne. The new king proved idle and frivolous, and he became a nuisance to the Bohemian nobility. Wenceslaus never sought a coronation ceremony as emperor. After that, the nobles turned to his half-brother Sigismund, who was King of Hungary and Croatia. Sigismund answered by kidnapping Wenceslaus to force an abdication. He then exploited the disorder with a brutal campaign that pillaged Bohemian lands and punished the allies of Wenceslaus.

  The playable map lies between Sázava, also called Sasau, and Rattay, in what is now the Czech Republic. At the time, the land belonged to the Lands of the Bohemian Crown and to the Holy Roman Empire. Real settlements appear throughout, including Ledečko, Mrchojedy, Přibyslavice, Samopše, Sázava Monastery, Stříbrná Skalice, Talmberk, Úžice, and Vraník.

  Many of the game's characters are based on historical people. The hero is the exception. Henry of Skalitz is fictional, and the credits attach Tom McKay to the role. Hans Capon of Pirkstein, heir to Rattay, is credited to Luke Dale. The main antagonist, the Hungarian nobleman Istvan Toth, is credited to Logan Hillier. Henry's love interest is the mill maid Theresa, credited to Victoria Lynn Carroll. Daniel Vávra, the game's director, appears in the credits alongside Peter Hosking for the acting lord of Rattay, Hanush of Leipa. That invented commoner begins his story in a silver mining town called Skalitz.

  785769

• 3. Henry and the Sword

  ›

  Henry, a young apprentice, lives in Skalitz with his mother and his blacksmith father, Martin. Together the father and son complete a sword ordered by Sir Radzig Kobyla, hetman to King Wenceslaus. Radzig arrives to admire the blade, accompanied by the Hungarian nobleman Sir Ištván Tóth. Soon afterward, an army of Cuman soldiers under Sigismund's command attacks the town. Sigismund's adjutant, the German nobleman Sir Markvart von Aulitz, kills Henry's parents. Henry escapes with the sword and flees to Talmberg to warn its lord, Sir Divish. During a storm that night, Radzig smuggles the survivors out of Skalitz castle toward Rattay.

  The next morning, Sigismund's army appears outside Talmberg. Divish talks with Markvart and persuades Sigismund to leave. Henry cannot bear that his parents lie unburied, so he slips back to Skalitz against Divish's orders. A bandit named Runt defeats him in a duel there and takes the sword. Another survivor, Theresa, and Talmberg's Captain Robard with his guard rescue Henry. They bring him to Rattay, where the miller Peshek, Theresa's uncle, gives him shelter.

  Determined to win back the sword and avenge his parents, Henry enters the service of Sir Hanush of Leipa, acting lord of Rattay. Hanush is guardian to his young nephew, Lord Hans Capon. Henry saves Capon from Cumans on a hunting trip and then becomes Radzig's envoy. He investigates a bandit raid on a stud farm in Neuhof. The trail ends at a hidden camp in Pribyslavitz, which shelters both bandits and Cumans. Henry helps the soldiers of Radzig and Divish overwhelm the camp, and he kills Runt in a duel. The sword is not there.

  The camp convinces the lords that someone is quietly building an insurgency. Henry follows leads to bandits near Sasau who recruit mercenaries with counterfeit coins. He infiltrates their ranks and reaches their stronghold in Vraník. There Tóth recognises him and has him captured and tortured. Tóth boasts that he now carries Henry's father's sword. He plans to conquer Bohemia with his mercenaries and expects Sigismund to reward him once he rules as king. He also reveals that Henry is Radzig's illegitimate son. A former Skalitz villager, Zbyshek, helps Henry escape and warn the lords. Radzig acknowledges Henry as his son, and the combined army storms Vraník. Tóth and some mercenaries then slip into Talmberg, seize the castle, and take Divish's wife Stephanie and Radzig hostage.

  The lords besiege Talmberg and recruit Konrad Kyeser to build a trebuchet, which breaks open the castle walls. Their soldiers overwhelm Tóth's men. Hanush then negotiates the hostages' release in exchange for letting Tóth leave safely. Henry is furious that Tóth departs with the sword, while Radzig predicts they will meet him again. Radzig also explains that he and Henry's mother were lovers when they were young. He could not marry a commoner, so he allowed Martin to be Henry's father.

  In the epilogue, Martin visits Henry in a dream. He praises Henry's courage and perseverance, then walks away with Henry's mother into the afterlife. Jobst of Moravia, cousin of King Wenceslaus, then arrives with news of an alliance among nobles across the empire against Sigismund. Seeing the war as futile, he wants the Bohemian lords to join so that they can push Sigismund's supporters toward peace. The lords hesitate but agree that Wenceslaus must return to the throne. To test the situation, Henry and Capon must visit Otto von Bergow, an ally of Sigismund, at his estate in Trosky Castle. They carry a letter asking whether his loyalty has weakened. The pair leave with a small armed entourage.

  785657

• 4. Pitch After Pitch

  ›

  Daniel Vávra left 2K Czech in 2009 with an idea for a medieval role-playing game. With a small team, he began looking for investors. His pitch brought in Martin Klíma, founder of Altar Games. Even so, major investors in the Czech Republic turned the project down. The team was preparing to abandon it when a private investor, the Czech billionaire Zdeněk Bakala, agreed to fund a prototype. Warhorse Studios was founded on the 21st of July 2011.

  On the 9th of February 2012, Warhorse said publicly that it was working on an "unannounced role-playing game." The same day, it licensed CryEngine 3. After seventeen months on the prototype, the studio set off to pitch international investors. The project did not generate the hype the team had hoped for. Resources dwindled, and little progress was made toward an investment.

  On the 22nd of January 2014, Warhorse launched a Kickstarter campaign. The goal was 300,000, a tenth of a 5,000,000 budget, and the aim was to prove to investors that an audience wanted the game. By the 20th of February, the campaign had raised 1,106,371. Crowdfunding then continued through the studio's own website. On the 1st of October 2014, Vávra announced in a YouTube video that the total had reached 2,002,547 from 38,784 backers. Public alpha access began on the 22nd of October 2014, and backers received the beta on the 3rd of March 2015.

  On the 29th of September 2016, Warhorse announced a deal with Deep Silver, the publishing division of Koch Media. Deep Silver would publish the console versions and the retail PC version. The adaptive soundtrack was composed by Jan Valta and Adam Sporka, and a symphonic orchestra recorded its parts at the Rudolfinum. Linux support, mentioned on Kickstarter, was later cancelled. The finished game reportedly cost 750 million crowns, about US$36.5 million, including marketing. A day-one patch brought an extensive update to the code and gameplay, yet bugs would still dominate many reviews.

  910121319

• 5. Life Without a Class

  ›

  Played from a first-person perspective in an open world, Kingdom Come: Deliverance uses a classless system. The player can shape a warrior, a bard, a thief, or a hybrid of these. Abilities and stats grow according to what the player does and says through branched dialogue trees. In conversations, the time taken to decide is limited and affects relationships. Reputation follows from the player's choices and can bring consequences.

  The clothing system offers 16 item slots, with layers on many parts of the body. A heavily armored knight might wear a gambeson, then mail and plate armour, with a tabard or surcoat on top. That adds up to four clothing items in the chest slots. Each type of clothing protects differently against different weapons, and garments grow worn, dirty, or bloody with use. Weapons include swords, knives, axes, hammers, and bows. Horses have their own AI, and they move or jump to avoid small obstacles or dangers. The player can fight from horseback or use a steed to carry extra items. Warhorses are capable combatants in their own right, and steeds come with five slots for armor and attachments.

  A needs system demands that the hero sleep and eat to stay healthy. Equipment and clothing degrade and must be repaired, and perishable food spoils over time. Skill-based mini-games govern repairs, lockpicking, pickpocketing, distilling alcohol, and making medicines. Combat uses a physics system built on inverse kinematics, so the reactions of both fighters depend on the speed and weight of a blow. Different weapons suit different purposes. A sword is quick for striking and parrying but not very effective against heavy armor. Some combination moves are unlocked with skill points.

  Quests are meant to be nonlinear, with several ways to finish objectives so that different character types remain viable. The storyline includes large-scale events such as castle sieges and big battles. Every non-player character has a daily routine, and the player can disrupt any of them. Characters react to what the player does and adjust accordingly. Witnesses report crimes to authorities, who punish the player with a fine or time in jail. Crime also affects the local economy, and people grow suspicious or aggressive after crimes go unresolved.

  234569

• 6. Critics Divided

  ›

  Metacritic recorded "mixed or average" reviews for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of Kingdom Come: Deliverance. The PC version fared better, with "generally favorable" reviews. GameRevolution described the game as Skyrim stripped of fantastical creatures and magic, and judged it good enough to warrant enduring its bugs and shortfalls. GameSpot praised the "Incredible attention to historical detail" and "Extensive, lifelike quests." It also warned that "Overly rigorous core mechanics can get in the way of your enjoyment." IGN liked the story, characters, and combat but faulted the lack of technical polish. HobbyConsolas called it "one of the most immersive and ambitious RPGs in recent years." Hardcore Gamer praised the visuals, and the Official Xbox Magazine called it "A huge action RPG that is bursting with love and detail."

  Not every critic warmed to the cast. Dimitry Halley of GameStar called the villains one-dimensional. Digitally Downloaded appreciated the detail but disliked what it called a "juvenile" tone. Its examples included "manly odor" as a stat booster, a stat boost for visiting a brothel, and the need to drink alcohol in order to save progress.

  Technical trouble drew the sharpest complaints. EGM logged 30 hours of real-time play, only 19 of which went toward advancing the game. It concluded that "What could have been an intriguing, unique, if somewhat underwhelming RPG is completely crippled by a terrible save system and game-breaking bugs." Glen Fox of Push Square called the loading times "ridiculously lengthy." Game Informer also criticised the save system and the bugs, and judged the game worth buying only for those drawn to its setting and realism. Charles Singletary Jr of Shacknews said technical issues repeatedly hampered the game. Andy Kelly of PC Gamer and Alice Bell of VideoGamer.com also criticised the numerous technical problems. Dave Yeager of RPGFan found the combat "brutal for casual types." Kotaku noted more glitches on the Xbox version, with patches fixing fewer errors than on other platforms.

  Kat Bailey of USgamer thought the commitment to realism, including the hunger and sleep meters and the restrictive save system, felt "contrived." She felt she "was piloting Henry as if he were a robot, constantly monitoring his vitals so that he didn't suddenly keel over dead." Charlie Hall of Polygon found the realism overplayed, because only a small fraction of the many people in the world could be interacted with. Robert Purchese of Eurogamer pointed to the cumbersome inventory system as another weakness born of realism. Questions of realism would soon move from game design to history itself.

  3031393553

• 7. Quarrel Over the Past

  ›

  Historians commended Kingdom Come: Deliverance for aiming at accuracy, but some commentators criticised its picture of 15th-century Central Europe. Scholars objected to the simple portrayal of Cumans and Hungarians as cruel invaders. The developers replied that the game was historically accurate and that people of colour did not live in early 15th-century Bohemia in significant numbers. One researcher checked the game against medieval life. He found that melee weapons, armor, and food matched medieval sources. He called the absence of crossbows and firearms anachronistic. He also said the Cumans would not have been Hungarian-speaking "barbaric" nomads with outdated gear, as the game shows them.

  Reid McCarter of Unwinnable accused the game of policing cultural borders. He felt it showed Cumans and Hungarians as cruel invaders and Czechs only in a positive light. He added that Sigismund was treated as Hungarian even though he was as Bohemian as his half-brother Wenceslaus IV. Andreas Inderwildi of Rock Paper Shotgun was puzzled by the lack of ideological diversity across the economic classes. Jan Hus appears unpopular among peasants and nobles alike, yet he was the flashpoint for the Hussite Wars of 1419. Those civil wars set peasant revolutionaries against nobles who backed the Catholic Church. Inderwildi felt the idyllic Bohemia on screen missed the "powder keg" of tension about to explode.

  Martin Bostal, a medieval archaeologist at University of Caen Normandy, compared the developers' quest for authenticity to historical reenactment. Both rebuild the past from sources and are limited by the detail those sources hold. He observed that the game stripped away fantasy yet remained a chivalric romance, full of adventure, violence, and romance unrealistic for a peasant. He acknowledged the controversy over the absence of people of colour and pointed to evidence of Moors in the region. Even so, he concluded the omission was logical given the size of the game's open world. Helen Young, a literature professor at Deakin University, argued that creators chasing "historical authenticity" end up including "audience expectation." She noted that Henry's rise from peasant to knight would have been anachronistic, but it suits a modern audience's expectations of a hero's journey. Dr. James Cook pointed out that Henry is the adoptive son of a blacksmith, a trade "highly prized of the peasantry of the period," and the illegitimate son of a lord. He wrote that "there is just enough narrative reason for the suspension of disbelief, even if the trajectory presented is one that would have been unlikely in the extreme in the middle ages."

  The Czech newspaper Lidové noviny called the accusations "out of place" and said most Europeans would answer that there were very few, if any, black people in early 15th-century Bohemia. The German magazine M! Games put the question to scholars at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. They said dark-skinned Turkic peoples such as the Cumans would have appeared in courtly settings, but their presence in rural Bohemia is not known.

  Some publications also criticised Vávra, who supported GamerGate. Eurogamer objected to a shirt from the band Burzum that he wore while promoting the game at Gamescom in 2017. Vávra and Martin Klíma answered in an interview that Vávra might be a little "quick with words," and they apologised to anyone who felt offended.

  In late 2018, Klára Hübnerová, a history professor at Masaryk University, lectured on the game's accuracy. She argued that it misrepresented the gender roles of the era and that its villainous Cumans rested on modern stereotypes rather than sources. She also said the game bent history through national myth, which produced an oafish Wenceslaus IV and a cruel Sigismund. Joanna Nowak, the historical consultant for Warhorse Studios, spoke in the same lecture series. She said the goal was a "historically credible" game, with compromises made to keep it fun. Her words were "It's a game, it's not an open-air museum, it's not a medieval simulator!"

  In 2020, Vávra posted a 2.5-hour video response on YouTube that attacked the methods of contemporary historians like Hübnerová. David Francis Wagner of Heroine magazine faulted both sides. He said Hübnerová had not played the game thoroughly, which led to inaccurate statements. He said Vávra could not tell biased historical sources from unbiased ones. Wagner also contrasted Vávra's candor in a 2015 Polygon interview about changes made for story and gameplay with his uncompromising defense in 2020. Vávra shared the video on his Facebook page, and Hübnerová then faced abuse, harassment, and violent threats. Academics compared that behavior to the conduct of members of GamerGate.

  5657586162

• 8. Sales, Sequels and Awards

  ›

  Kingdom Come: Deliverance topped the Steam top-sellers list on release day. Game director Daniel Vávra said it sold 500,000 units in its first two days, 300,000 of them on Steam. Within two weeks it passed 1 million, and after a year it passed 2 million. In June 2020, Warhorse announced 3 million units sold, plus 1.5 million units of additional downloadable material. The total passed 5 million by June 2022 and 8 million by November 2024. The sequel in February 2025 boosted the original, and by May 2025 it had sold over 10 million units. In Japan, the PlayStation 4 version sold 13,058 units in its first week, placing fourth on the all-format sales chart.

  On the 27th of May 2018, the developers revealed a roadmap for added material. From the Ashes, the first story expansion, hands the player an abandoned village to rebuild. The Amorous Adventures of Bold Sir Hans Capon and Band of Bastards followed before the end of 2018. The fourth and final story expansion, A Woman's Lot, arrived in early 2019 and was free for early crowdfunding supporters. A Royal Edition with the base game and all additional material came out in June 2019. Other additions included combat tournaments, a "making of" documentary, and "Combat Academy" videos. Modding support followed in late October 2019, and Warhorse said "it is the last thing we want to release for Kingdom Come Deliverance." The modding tools are free on PC.

  On the 10th of June 2021, Warhorse announced a partnership with Saber Interactive to port the game to the Nintendo Switch. That version released on the 15th of March 2024. PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S versions followed on the 13th of February 2026. A live-action adaptation from Erik Barmack and Warhorse was announced in October 2020. Sumerian Comics released a four-issue comic prequel in 2022, and a graphic novel collection followed in March 2023.

  Before release, the game was nominated for Best RPG at the 2017 Game Critics Awards and at Gamescom, where it won Best PC Game. It was nominated for PC Game of the Year at the 2018 Golden Joystick Awards. Jan Valta and Adam Sporka received a Special Achievement in Multimedia Award at the 2nd International Festival of Film Music and Multimedia Soundtrack in Poděbrady. At the 1st Central and Eastern European Game Awards, the game was nominated for Best Game and Technology and won the award for Narrative. GameRevolution also gave it an Editors Choice award.

  On the 18th of April 2024, Warhorse Studios revealed Kingdom Come: Deliverance II for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X and S. The sequel continues the story of Henry, in an open world twice the size of the original. After a delay from its first planned year, it was released on the 4th of February 2025.

  7577798081