The Epic Games Store’s New Year’s Gift is Kingdom Come Deliverance from Warhorse Studios. You’ve got until 5 PM today to permanently add it to your library. Like Christmas’s gift, Remedy’s Control, Kingdom Come Deliverance was also previously featured as a freebie in early 2020. Likewise, just as Control, in case you didn’t grab it at the time, you absolutely should do it now.
For one thing, it’ll get you prepared for the sequel, which is scheduled to launch in just a month. That’s around the right amount of time you’ll need to complete, as just the main story requires over 40 hours of gameplay on average. If you add side content, it’s easily going to double that figure. This is just the base game, mind you – there are also a few DLCs, which you can grab for $3.99 (with an 80% discount) with the ongoing Holiday sale.
Originally funded via Kickstarter, Kingdom Come Deliverance has sold over eight million units to date. It is a first-person roleplaying game set in a fully historical setting, 1403 Bohemia (modern day Czech Republic), at the time of King Wenceslaus IV. This would already be enough to make the game stand out from most RPGs. Adding to that, the main character, Henry of Skalitz, is the mere son of a blacksmith. And no, he never gets magic powers or anything like that.
It’s all quite realistic, and so are the missions, which sometimes ask the player to perform regular chores as would be required for a relatively lowly person in the medieval ages. Even so, Warhorse managed to make it feel fun on most occasions, although you’ll definitely need a greater deal of patience than in most RPGs, especially as you learn the unique direction-based combat system. The characters are very well-written, and some scenes are absolutely memorable.
