Kingdom Come: Deliverance

I used to be the biggest contributor of the blog and now I'm merely a simple observer... What in the world happened?

Anyway. Hi everyone, it's your usual medieval history nerd here to talk about of a long awaited game which finally comes out. Now you probably know that I love two things: history and video games, and this game is a very unusual mix which offers a fantastic case study when it comes to how to entertain with historical accuracy. To help you see clearer, here is what the game is about: the story takes place in Bohemia (now part of Czech Republic) after the death of Emperor Charles IV. The emperor's son, Wenceslas is but the shadow of his father and his half-brother, Sigismund king of Hungary senses that and decides to raid the Holy Roman Empire to get to the throne. In the midst of all this, you are Henry a son of blacksmith whose village has been pillaged by mercenaries and you will have to play a role in this political turmoil against your will.

I know, it sounds classic and cheesy, but the story of the game is not the central part of the game: it's its history which really matters. And here are some reason why this game is more interesting that you might think:

1) Historically accurate.

And it's rare enough to be noticed. The game actually makes it its main selling argument. And it's not just the story of the game that is accurate, it is everything. WarHorse Studio worked with teams of specialized historians to recreate as accurately as possible how life was back in XVth century Bohemia: from the habits of the villagers, the designs of the villages, the combat... everything wishes to be as accurate as possible. And you know what? This is extremely convincing!

2) Historiography in a videogame?

I know that most of you have nightmarish flashbacks from history lessons when they hear "historiography", but here it is not what you might think. Ask anyone around you about the history of the Czech Republic and you might not be surprised by the lack of answers. And here is a noble vocation of the game: teach others about their history. And it's actually a very valid point, because when we think about history in video-games, we usually have images of American-glorifying WW2 shooters. Here it is the dedication of a bunch of Czech people who started a game on kick-started and end up being an international hit while teaching about the unknown history of their country.

3) This is how we get people to like history.

You might know it already, I'm a reenactor and I hold much pride in this activity. More than hanging out in armor every once in a while, we have a central role in bringing history to people, especially young people. And this game helps us greatly. The elder the history, the more approximation and the least knowledge people will have of it, and this game helps us fighting against it. Because it makes history look nice, entertaining while being accurate, it's an interactive lesson open to anyone curious. And I believe that this kind of initiatives should definitely be encouraged in the future as they offer the opportunity to know more about history in one of the best ways possible.

4) Reproducing inacuracies.

This might not sound like a positive point, but it definitely is. In an interview with the developers, the question of HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts, basically how to fight with a sword, a poleaxe, etc...) came on, and the team had a great idea. Back then, military and martial training was exclusive, and not every soldier in the battlefield could fight like a master of arms. So when they did the motion capture, they captured both the moves of professionals and of casual. This might sound like nothing, but it is a fantastic idea when it comes to having a balance gameplay with growing levels of difficulty as well as more accuracy on the battle field where everyone wasn't fighting professionals.

The list could go on forever, so I'll leave this here. I know this might not motivate anyone to buy the game it needs time and involvement that we do not have here, but I think it is necessary to share this kind of initiatives which really help to increase our knowledge of history. If you want to know a bit more about the game, here is one of the latest episodes of History's Creed which aired on Arte and it's about KCD.

See ya Charlie!

Kellian.