Kingdom Come: Deliverance [official site], you may recall, is Warhorse Studios’ heartily-crowdfunded medieval RPG that drops fantasy in favour of realism. It’s a novel idea – stripping the genre of orcs, magic and dragons; instead focusing on meticulous combat, stat-building and consequence-bearing dialogue – and its CryEngine-powered getup has so far impressed in both its astute sword fighting sequences and moments of reflection.
Originally scheduled to release in late 2015, then this summer, it now won’t be ready until sometime in 2017, Warhorse have now announced.
Community manager ‘DrFusselpulli’ explained that they want to make Deliverance, y’know, really good. He said:
“We want Kingdom Come: Deliverance to be an exceptional RPG and that requires exceptional treatment and polishing. Since the successful Kickstarter campaign, we have listened intently to the opinions of our fans and with the new language packs, we hope to get even more feedback that will help us deliver the best possible gaming experience. We believe that the result will be a great collective project and will be well worth the wait.
“A new release date will be announced later this year, but is estimated for 2017.”
While it’s always a shame when promising games get delayed, Kingdom Come: Deliverance looks like it could be worth the wait from what we’ve seen so far. With E3 just around the corner, might we hope for a solid release date announcement then? Who knows, but here’s another look at the trailer from last year’s expo in the meantime:
27/05/2016 at 12:19 Matt_Ceb says:
I just love it when a company that’s putting out a product has a community manager (who seems to also handle official PR) whose name is “Dr lint-pullover”.
Smacks of… Respectability and professionalism. ;)
27/05/2016 at 12:45 Kohlrabi says:
He has a doctoral degree, so what are you complaining about?
27/05/2016 at 12:47 Matt_Ceb says:
From Fuzz University? :p
27/05/2016 at 12:36 Ethaor says:
Last I heard, it was mostly a delay to have a simultaneous release with consoles as per their console publisher’s request.
If they can take advantage of that time to keep working on the game I guess that’s welcomed. I just hope that statement isn’t the usual “polishing touches” PR BS as an excuse to cater to console publisher’s requests to not ‘favor’ the PC, you know, the people who funded the project.
Anyway, I find it all a bit worrying to have delays after delays, with 2017 being claimed as a mere “estimate” that doesn’t inspire confidence.
27/05/2016 at 12:57 Sandepande says:
The project is quite ambitious and they might’ve taken on too much.
Somebody over eurogamer.net claims that the problems can be traced to the big egos of the management (Vávra & co.). Other accusations have been leveled at CryEngine.
Who knows?
27/05/2016 at 13:44 ZIGS says:
I don’t know why developers (other than Crytek) keep using CryEngine. It’s notoriously hard to use and most games that use it run like absolute dogshit.
27/05/2016 at 17:05 tomimt says:
It’s because it makes really pretty games.
27/05/2016 at 13:02 JiminyJickers says:
Not surprised by this one. It always seemed to be very ambitious. Looking forward to it releasing next year then.
27/05/2016 at 13:59 TΛPETRVE says:
I wish them all the best, but I’m not holding my breath. The game is vastly ambitious, and has a hype train rolling behind it that is threatening to run it over. PC gamers are a notoriously resentful bunch when it comes to disappointed expectations, after all :-3 .
27/05/2016 at 14:48 Jim Dandy says:
I see they’re going for historically accurate alchemy. So that’ll be years of concocting smelly, occasionally dangerous failures, trying to ensure your wealthy patrons remain ignorant of the utter futility of your endeavours, and slowly going insane from fiddling about with mercury. Good times!
27/05/2016 at 15:59 Rince says:
I will pass on this game. They went too much in the realism side for my tastes. I prefer when games take acceptable breaks on reality in favor of being fun.
You can’t even play as female.
I guess that I must wait for the new Mount&Blade instead.
27/05/2016 at 19:37 TΛPETRVE says:
If anyone wants similar combat, but with less of a focus on dry realism, you might want to have a look at Mordhau. It’s essentially Chivalry, but with a more complex combat system (and gratuitous stuff like half-dismemberment, where the severed limb still dangles from the sinews).
27/05/2016 at 23:01 Sandor Clegane says:
Thanks for the tip! First I’ve heard of it. I’ve competed in HEMA tournaments (including “normal” archery and fencing) for a few years and I like how we’re seeing more videogames appear like this. I wonder… if Mordhau actually features half-swording too? In a videogame… finally?! If so, definite buy!
As for KC:D, yeah, I heard this (late for RPS) news last week. Not too unexpected, since the previous beta seemed terribly unoptimised and was becoming clear there was “more than a few weeks” of work left to do. My hope is, they see sense to keep the developing storyline relatively tight and not fall into the trap of forever going off in different directions, adding quest after new quests, forever trying to “perfect” the game and not just go for it. Ultimately that’s a never-ending task and failure. I feel if they don’t release something substantial this year, even if it’s just a bigger beta, they might lose momentum and the passion for the game might dry up. Regardless, -WWIII and various civil wars popping up all over the globe notwithstanding- I hope that at least some of us will finally get to play this game before we die.
28/05/2016 at 14:08 TΛPETRVE says:
This here Mordhau footage should give you exactly what you want :-) .
29/05/2016 at 14:15 onodera says:
I am still waiting for a game that will adequately represent armored fighting. Mordhau, unfortunately, decided to go with bleeding plate armour.
27/05/2016 at 16:48 metagrim says:
If they’re taking that extra time, I really hope that they’re going to be adding spears, pollaxes and pollhammers into the game. They are really integral to combat in that period.
27/05/2016 at 23:29 Sandor Clegane says:
Same here. What about Jousting Tournaments?
27/05/2016 at 16:55 cxvv says:
I’m conflicted. I’m a European history student currently loving Whaley’s history of the Holy Roman Empire (I’ve also got a soft spot for Darklands), and this game looks perfect for me, but I hesitate to financially support this studio.
Creative director Daniel Vávra has a twitter full of pro-gamergate, anti-immigration stuff. He’s also into global warming denial, Ann Coulter, Breitbart, Trump, complaining about the addition of women to Call of Duty, etc.
Now, my bookshelves would be empty if I didn’t separate art from artist (and it’s easier when the artist is long dead), but I wonder how much of Vávra’s worldview will be reflected in the game. How many people in the studio share his views? (I wouldn’t worry about his worldview if he was a programmer or texture artist or something.) Is Ye Olde Bohemia actually the Visegrád Group? Is the Holy Roman Empire the European Union? Both political systems were dominated by Germans, and Vávra really dislikes Merkel’s refugee policies (and the EU in general).
Honestly, an anti-EU fable could be interesting, but I worry about all that other stuff seeping into the rest of the game.
I don’t hold it against anyone for being excited about this, and I hope this game inspires more studios to attempt projects like this, but I’m just personally very conflicted.
27/05/2016 at 18:43 tormos says:
I feel like if anyone in Europe gets a pass on having terrible politics it’s ex Eastern Bloc citizens of a Certain Age. Vavra grew up in pretty dystopian “communist” Czech republic (judging from this picture he was well into his teens when the Soviet Union fell apart: link to twitter.com) and then was a young adult during the highly chaotic decade after the fall of the Berlin Wall, without even the economic benefits that the return of capitalism brought to the Russians. If any set of experiences is going to turn you into a conservative weirdo, it would be those. Reading over his timeline I see him as longing for the “better days” of the middle ages because they represent stability and identity for him. I don’t think that makes it any better that he hates immigrants and trans people, but I do think it probably means his game will be more inclined towards rose tinted lenses rather than out and out xenophobia.
27/05/2016 at 19:56 TΛPETRVE says:
Ironically, the Czech republic is a lot less streaked with right-wingers than e.g. Poland. In fact, the communist party still ranks pretty high in terms of popularity.
28/05/2016 at 00:05 MrObvious says:
Is it? The Czech Communist party is a whole mixed lot of total opportunists, hardliners and stalinists, whose anti-EU/putinist agenda is not a step removed from far right extremist parties. It’s the same bunch altogether. And as any student of social sciences would tell you, the political spectrum is not a grid, it’s a circle – often the very far left and very far right meet right at the extremist bottom of the circle (or unfortunately now, top of the circle, as many European elections results seem to confer).
28/05/2016 at 14:07 TΛPETRVE says:
Circle? More like a hypercube, I’d say ;-) .
28/05/2016 at 00:58 stonetoes says:
There was an interesting interview with him which touched on how his experiences growing up under communism did affect his view on “censorship” significantly. Essentially, because he has seen the effects of government censorship he is very much opposed to it and views Anita Sarkeesian’s criticism of game developers as another form of censorship to be resisted at all costs.
Of course he doesn’t view gamergaters’ criticism of Sarkeesian as akin to censorship. Imagine that.
27/05/2016 at 23:22 Sandor Clegane says:
Cool story, bro. Not entirely relevant to this medieval RPG tho, was it? Unlike your “good” self, some of us don’t actually waste our lives on twitter and aren’t obsessed with group-think gossip. And in case you wasn’t aware of it, “Global Warming Denial” is a term known as a “weasel phrase”. Weasel words are deliberately used to encourage target victim groups to think of a similar-sounding term; “Holocaust Denial” and to bias criminally fraudulent debates. The people probably most well known for using NLP techniques, “spin” and weasel words like these are prosecuting lawyers, high-ranking Freemasons and members of the Fabian society like Tony Bliar (sic), Angela Merkin (sic) and Hitlery “Killary” Clinton (sic). You know, professional liars? The sort of people who love twisting reality? The sort of low-life criminal psychopaths whom you no doubt admire as “champions of humanity”? In either case, your irrelevant and obnoxious comment has simply resulted in you being *blocked*. Your schizophrenic “social justice warrior” mental illness is no longer required reading on RPS, thanks anyway.
28/05/2016 at 00:51 stonetoes says:
This is quite literally the most deranged response on RPS that I’ve ever seen.
28/05/2016 at 01:13 caff says:
Techospazzwibblebiscuits are our true mighty overlord. PRAISE BE THE BATTENBURG cake, surveyor of all judicial social feathery ticklers. May your cups of tea be blighted by a pestilent yoghurt. Stud wall brackets for all! AND CHEESE. ABOVE ALL CHEESE. Camembert maybe? Why not? SEE HOW THE TOASTED CRUMBS follow me through the vale of whistling bottoms as lights gently flicker through the undergroves of indifference and vagueness.
(I hope this is now the most deranged response you have read on RPS, and the one above doesn’t seem quite so disturbing in context).
28/05/2016 at 09:48 LionsPhil says:
Ah, inverse clockwise sasquatch. Don’t mind if I don’t. Seven?
28/05/2016 at 08:40 Hanban says:
I like that you seem to think your views are widely represented on RPS. Is this the first article you ever read on the site?
28/05/2016 at 09:43 Llewyn says:
Well, this is the first article he’s commented on, if not the first he’s read. With that account, of course; he may have had others.
28/05/2016 at 09:42 Klayz0r says:
Is that you, Ignatius Reilly?
28/05/2016 at 07:28 ffordesoon says:
Try being a KS backer of the project. I would love for it to be great, and Vávra’s resume is pretty impressive, but the man’s beliefs are abhorrent and diametrically opposed to my own. Alas, I did not learn this until about a year after the project closed. I’ve considered asking for a refund, but I’m actually pretty satisfied as a backer, so…
Ugh. Is there anything worse than an asshole with talent?
28/05/2016 at 09:49 Klayz0r says:
Vávra’s resume is heavily doctored to make him look like an accomplished developer.
He has repeatedly gone on the record saying that his first (and, in truth, only) game, Mafia 1, was the best game in the world. It was very good, granted, I’m a fan, but best? No way. Also, that was 15 years ago. He also talks as if it was a solo achievement, when in truth, it was a group effort. Since then, Mr. Vávra was a project lead on Mafia 2, and then left due to internal friction with Take 2 and creative differences. This pattern of abrasive ego and appropriating the credit of a group for everything that went well while refusing responsibility for everything that went wrong is something that is very familiar throughout Vávra’s professional history.
Tl;dr – he might have some good ideas, but I absolutely don’t trust him to convert them into a good game, at least not while he doesn’t have a boss that knows what he’s doing.
31/05/2016 at 14:14 paddymaxson says:
Let’s hope this isn’t a sign that things are going wrong. I honestly keep forgetting I backed this until it gets mentioned again