I was pleasantly surprised today to stumble upon a project I haven’t heart about previously, from a studio not many people know of. I’m referring to Kingdom Come: Deliverance, a first-person open-world RPG from Warhorse, a recently founded studio founded by some very competent people.
The reason this project is relatively unknown is because there aren’t any publishers backing it, apart from a private and unknown investor. Which is why the developers of Deliverance have turned toward kickstarter to get things further along. And, before you stop reading just because we’re talking about another low-budget indie game, take a look at what Deliverance has to offer.
I must say, the concept is something I personally have been hoping to see for a long, long time. It’s that perfect mixture of Gothic, The Witcher, Chivalry and Skyrim. It’s that realistic medieval RPG that not many developers dare to develop, or fail to do properly. And, for a kickstarter project, it already looks really really good. Which is why I personally funded it a bit already, and I don’t do that often.
The locations of the game look great, with realistic medieval architecture and gorgeous landscapes. The developers have clearly focused on a realistic approach, and everything from buildings to clothing is properly documented. Don’t expect fancy over-the-top armor in Deliverance. Expect to see an arsenal and armory that most likely resembles what warriors of the time would have worn.
And then there’s the gameplay. Even at this phase, sword fighting looks amazing. It’s realistic, it’s dynamic and is most likely going to be skill-based. Of course, it’s hard to tell without actually testing it out, and many other games have failed to create an amazing sword-fighting combat system (yes Age of Conan, I’m looking at you). Still, there’s no doubt that parrying and dodging already seems solid, and hitboxes look responsive and accurate. Horse-riding could use a lot more work, but the graphical details of the horses themselves look mighty fine.
Cooking, crafting and alchemy will also be a part of the game (well, doh, you play as a blacksmith after all). Deliverance will have detailed character progression, 3 distinct classes (warrior, rogue and bard), an open-world waiting to be explored (with castles, towns, villages and farms), dynamic day and night cycles, large-scaled battles and a non-linear story. Sounds good so far? That’s because it probably is.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance is set at the beginning of the 15th century, and will not feature dragons or other mystical creatures. Instead, the developers urge us to think about Deliverance as Braveheart: The game, or what happens when Game of Thrones meets Vikings and moves to your desktop.
The game makes use of Cryengine’s capabilities to bring the world to life, and because of the great visuals, will only be coming for next-gen consoles. Initially, the developers are planning the release of Deliverance’s first Act (about 30 hours of gameplay) at the end of 2014 or the beginning of 2015, with Acts II and III following several months after. The PC and Mac are the first platforms to receive the game, but with approvals from Sony and Microsoft, Deliverance will also come to the Playstation 4 and Xbox One a bit later.
There is a lot more to be said about Deliverance, but you should have a clear picture of what to expect until now. It’s questionable if the game will receive its required funding of £300.000 (around $500.000). So far it has raised about half of that, with almost a month left to go (the project expires on the 20th of February). Given the fact that I have seen it rise from around £120.000 to £147.000 in about 6 hours, I strongly believe Warhorse will reach its desired goal, helping them with finding some proper publisher backing as well.
If this is a project you’re interested about, you can read more about it on its kickstarter page, where you can also throw the devs a helping hand. From what’s been shown so far, Deliverence certainly deserves to see the light of day!