Kingdom Come: Deliverance's Rural Idyll

Kingdom Come: Deliverance makes medieval life look so pleasant in its latest trailer. Developers Warhorse have built something beautiful in CryEngine, and are showing off its fields, ponds, meadows, sheep, villages, and taverns in little slices of life. How splendid. They don't show any of the warfare the open-world not-fantasy RPG's actually built around, though. Still, just imagine men with swords hitting each other in the background of these tranquil scenes. Soldiers march between the pines. The fisherman stares intently at his rod, hoping the two blokes duking it out ignore him. A severed head flies past the praying lady's window, briefly obscuring the moon.

Oh, it's not all murder. The social side of things sounds pretty clever. Along with typical consequence-bearing dialogue and all that, it has a nice touch with clothes, where people will treat you differently based on your appearance. Apparently Medieval Europe was big on that sort of thing.

It is very much set in Europe, do note, free from dragons, wizards, and ancient prophecies that (gasp!) are coming true. Starting as a lowly blacksmith's son, you'll get to roam around, complete quests, murder men, and all that. And look how pretty it is!

Warhorse, you might remember, was founded by a few folks from Mafia creator 2K Czech. They raised a whopping £1,106,371 on Kickstarter, and are still accepting pledges themselves to help reach stretch goals. The next one's to add an illustrated codex with info on historical places and folks you'll come across. They're planning to release an early, feature-incomplete version to backers on October 22. It'll cost you at least $45 (£28) if you want in.