Kingdom Come: Deliverance is a historically accurate medieval RPG. If you want swords, armour, and horses, but can’t be fucked with the dragons, this is the game for you.
In Czech developer Warhorse’s quest for a properly realistic adventure, they’re putting together a number of educational videos about how certain things back then really worked.
We’ve already had a lesson in layering armour – now it’s time to see how swords and other weapons impact said armour.
In most representations of armour in videogames, we see that swords either slice ’em up a treat (as in Witcher 3) or do little to no damage whatsoever.
The disturbing reality is that weapons were often intentionally blunted, with the aim of attacking someone in armour to break their bones (or at least severely damage the offending limb).
Anyway, the video (which you can see below) showcases a number of weapons experts as they test out real life weapons and armour while Warhorse leader Dan Vavra discusses his game – it makes for odd viewing.
Check it out for yourself below, although I should point out that a pig carcass is hacked apart in the video. It’s not overtly grim, but there’s a chance it could upset some.
Vavra explains:
As you can see it’s very different to how people think, and it works exactly the same way in our game. We have three types of damage, four layers of armour, and more than 30 damage zones on every character in the game, so it really matters where, how and by what you hit your enemy.
This uber-realistic non-fantasy RPG has caught the attention of many a gamer, not least thanks to the genuinely interesting premise of a swords ‘n horses RPG with zero fantasy elements. History buffs should (hopefully) be thrilled.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance comes to PC and consoles in 2017.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.