I want to preface this article by saying that this is not going to be a full, in-depth review. There are plenty of those around, and there’s a huge chance that you might already have the game in your library, as Kingdom Come: Deliverance has often gone on sale, and was even offered for free during one of those Epic Games freebies. If you’re here, you’re probably the kind of person who wants to know if Kingdom Come: Deliverance is any good in 2026 and if it’s worth the time investment or not.

Let me save you time there, chief. Yes, it is. Kingdom Come: Deliverance is certainly a really good game, an excellent RPG, and an amazing recreation of History. Quite possibly, one of the best ever in the history of video games. I have been playing Kingdom Come: Deliverance for the last couple of weeks, and given the fact that Strategy and Wargaming also focus on historical titles, even if they’re not necessarily strategy games, I wanted to give my opinion on it.

• Genre: Role-Playing Game | Historical | Story-driven RPG
• Developer: Warhorse Studios
• Publisher: Warhorse Studios, Deep Silver
• Price: $29.99 | 29,99€ | £26.49
• Release Date: 13 February 2018
• Reviewer: Nuno Marques
• Target Audience: RPG-Players, History Buffs, Medieval Fans
• Final Score: 8.5/10

What Is Kingdom Come: Deliverance?

Kingdom Come: Deliverance is a story-driven role-playing game set in medieval Bohemia, and players take on the role of Henry, the son of a master blacksmith with a storied past that’s left ambiguous at the start of the game. During the opening hour of the game, Henry’s hometown of Skalitz is attacked by the forces of Sigismund, and he barely escapes. After that, the game starts to open up, and Henry finds himself without a home to go back to, his family slain, and most of his friends dead and missing.

Looking for revenge and purpose, Henry pledges himself to the service of Lord Radzig, who welcomes him into his retinue out of respect for Henry’s father and the courage Henry showed during the whole ordeal. I don’t want to spoil the story going forward, because it’s a huge part of the game’s appeal, but what follows is a series of main and side quests that are highly reminiscent of Witcher 3. These are multi-phase affairs; they’ll often lead you into several hours-long rabbit holes of content and story, and keep you entertained and engaged for the whole ride.

Medieval Role-Playing Done Right

What led me to play Kingdom Come: Deliverance in 2026 was all the stuff I had heard about it when the game came out, in 2018, about how committed it was to historical accuracy. After spending these last weeks playing it, I have to say that those hearsays were absolutely true. For the first time ever, in any videogame, I found myself planning my day around a night-and-day cycle, what sort of food I had in my sack (was it spoiled, or not?), where would I spend the night if I found myself far from my home, and how would I get back in time to start another quest or activity. This is because the game forces the player to take care of Henry’s needs, like food, comfort, sleep, bathing, etc. Now, for some of you, this might make Henry sound more like a Tamagotchi, especially when compared to most RPGs, which demand nothing of the sort, but in Kingdom Come, it works surprisingly well.

This kind of detailed system that focuses on immersion, even if the tasks themselves are mundane, is elevated when paired with other aspects of the game that go above and beyond to make the world as authentic as possible, and the terrain and architecture are almost spot-on, minus a few things here and there. The game’s dedication to accurately recreating medieval Bohemia did a fantastic job of immersing me into its world. Having visited several dozen castles in my life, I have to say that a lovely job was made by the team who worked on the game in bringing them to life. I’m not an expert on Bohemian architecture, and I won’t pretend to be, but as a former historian, this really tingles my brain in the right way and has me exploring every nook and crevice of what’s available, constantly reminding me of things I saw during my travels to real-life castles of the same era.

Towns and Castles

The towns are equally well-made, and you can literally enter every house, tavern, and workshop, even if by illegal means. Town layouts seem somewhat realistic, even if they’re a tad too small for my liking, especially around larger towns and castles. There are also a lot fewer people than I would expect to see, but I’m assuming that was made to keep the game somewhat optimized and working properly, and even then, Kingdom Come: Deliverance does require a hefty rig if you want to make the most out of its graphics. Forest, roads, and meadows are equally well designed. Poachers and hunters will patrol forests. Charcoal-burners and millers will be near rivers. Workshops and burgher activities will take place inside towns, and the surrounding countryside near cities is filled with all sorts of agricultural activities. Everything fits together really nicely, and the scale of it does reflect KC’s willingness to bring medieval Bohemia to real life as closely as possible.

This immersion is reinforced by the fact that the role-playing aspect of the game has some serious depth to it. Henry isn’t a chosen one or a particularly strong and charming fellow. He is an apprentice blacksmith, and not even a very enthusiastic one at that. He doesn’t know how to read or how to fight. He can’t hunt, doesn’t know how to farm, and he’s not a particularly good thief either (yes, you can be a criminal). If you want to do something in KC, you’ll have to learn it. This can be done by paying someone to teach you, or by doing it yourself and leveling up that way. It’s by repetition that you become better in KC, and this organic-level up system does a lot of the heavy lifting for people like me, who really don’t want to obsess over RPG builds. It also incentivizes you to try out new things. Of course, the game will give you some basics, and some of the first things you’ll be doing are going to be learning how to fight (more on that in a moment) and hunting.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance Combat System

Kingdom Come: Deliverance introduced one of the most unique combat systems in… well, ever. Games have struggled, since forever, in creating a realistic melee fighting system that just works, is easy to play (especially in real-time and in first-person), isn’t a clunky mess, has depth to it, and most importantly, it’s fun to play. While I do recall some people not being a fan of the way KC did things, I think the system works really well for a single-player, historical RPG. I don’t think combat systems like those of The Witcher 3 (which isn’t very good, to be honest), Skyrim, and Dark Souls would work in a game like this. Yes, even if I consider Dark Souls to be one of the best games ever made in Human History. Instead, Kingdom Come: Deliverance opted for a slower-paced, 6-point (one is a stab), directional-oriented combat. Essentially, you swing your mouse in one of 5 directions or stab, and Henry will perform that attack. There are plenty of combos, master strikes, and quite a lot to learn, including how to perfectly block and parry attacks.

It’s a complex combat system that makes combat significantly slower compared to other role-playing games, and while that can be boring for some, I think it’s for the best in a game like this. You’ll find yourself being a lot more considerate of attack timings, being a lot more defensive than you would otherwise, and side-stepping and keeping distance from your foes, especially when there’s more than one enemy. This multi-enemy affair is my main problem with this system, because in duels it works great, but add more than 2 enemies and things can become hectic and clunky very fast with the game’s locking system. You can argue “well, 3 vs 1 fights aren’t supposed to be fair and should be hectic”, and while that’s totally true, I think the problem has more to do with the rigid nature of the fighting system than any other factor.

The game has great armor and weapon systems, with dozens of pieces you can buy, loot, and find while wandering around Bohemia. Different weapons serve different purposes, and they’ll act as you would expect them to work. Swords are great for slashing unarmored or lightly armored foes, and maces and axes will dent breastplates and break ribs with blunt force. Pretty cool, especially if you manage to beat a strong enemy early on and get his gear, and even if you’re unable to use it because you’re not strong or skilled enough, but at least you now have something to work towards equipping.

Graphics and Presentation

The game’s graphics still hold extremely well for a game that’s nearly a decade old, and the animation work, especially for the first-person combat, is intricate and very well done. Terrain and foliage look fantastic, towns and castles are probably the most detailed of any game, ever, especially when you take into consideration the 1:1 scale used here. Towns always feel big, and even smaller castles in the game feel powerful. With a lot of winding paths and hallways, you have to learn how to navigate. I know I keep hammering home the fact that I love the environments, but it’s something that’s so well made that I can’t help but let you know about it. However, there’s a lot of clipping around characters; sometimes, you’ll find them “working” a stack of hay, except that they’re floating 3 meters in the air. Fortunately, those moments are rare and have never affected my gameplay, but they do exist. And I do wish towns had a lot more people wandering about.

As for the role-playing aspect of the game, so far, there have been plenty of moments when the dialogue does feel right, but there’s some disconnect between the choices made during your gameplay and the choices Henry makes during cutscenes. I enjoy playing a more laidback character, an explorer type of guy, and the game does give the chance to try and talk my way out of situations, but then comes a cutscene, and Henry starts to act out like an absolute menace, a stark contrast from the character I was building. I get it that there’s a story to be told, and I don’t really mind this a whole lot, but it’s there, just so you know what to expect if you decide to jump into the game after reading this. I’m currently loving the freedom of exploration the game provides me with, and trying to make the most of the main story and available side quests before jumping into the several available DLCs.

Final Verdict and Score

8.5/10

To round this off, I’ll reinforce my answer on the question of “is Kingdom Come: Deliverance worth playing in 2026?”, and it’s a strong yes. Yes, it is. If you’re looking for a medieval RPG that sticks as close to being authentic as possible, has a tremendous attention to detail, and is unapologetically complex and has systems built on top of other systems, then you’ll have fun unwrapping and discovering KC. There’s plenty more to the game aside from what I mentioned here, and I’m sure I still have a lot to discover during my travels in medieval Bohemia. Now, if you don’t mind, I’ll jump back into my saddle, let the scribe finish off this review, and keep going on my quest to avenge my family.

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