Kingdom Come: Deliverance's latest video breaks down the combat system
Hit him with the pointy bit
Kingdom Come: Deliverance, the historical RPG set in the 14th century, will feature rather a lot of brawling with grunting, armoured men, so Warhorse Studios has put together a detailed video on how the game’s combat system works. The studio is going for realism, basing the fighting techniques on medieval martial arts, so it looks a bit more involved than simply swinging your sword and hoping for the best -- my favoured combat style.
There’s quite a lot to take in during the five minute video. Fights are physics-based, meaning that when you start hacking and slashing, your sword will smash up against your opponents’ weapons and slide along armour when you strike it. The game actually detects over 30 target zones on every character and several layers of armour.
When duking it out against a heavily-armoured character, you’ll want to keep your eyes open for weak spots, where the armour isn’t protecting them as much, and use your directional attacks to hit those tender areas. If there isn’t an obvious weakness, you can also just keep hammering away at the same area, reducing the armour’s effectiveness. Of course, your opponent is bound to notice that, and they’ll start protecting that spot -- that’s where feints come in. You can trick an enemy into thinking you're about to hit their right side, for instance, before quickly switching it up and catching them off guard.
On top of that, there are different weapons, like spears that allow you to keep some space between you and your foe, or bows if you don’t want them to see you coming at all. You’ll have a bag of advanced tricks, too, including counters, parries, knockbacks and other skills that should keep your enemy on their toes.
The story trailer might have been a bit awkward, but combat seems anything but. And while it seems pretty elaborate, Warhorse says that it’s goal is to make it as easy to pick up as a first-person shooter.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance is due out on February 13, 2018.