I would like to start off by saying thank you to the @warhorse team for taking on a project that this industry so desperately needs. its been far to long since we have had a game that pushes the expectations of a gaming forward.
I have played 12 hours of the Kingdom Come Deliverance v0.2.1 alpha and I logged 20 hours on V0.1 build so I feel comfortable giving my impressions and opinions on the project thus far.
The experience begins at the menu. the view is awe inspiring, the warm glow of the sun cascading its light across the hills and distant woods down to a lovely patch of tall grass; with what I believe to be Chicory flowers dancing in the wind. the visuals draw you in but the sound captivates you the birds chirping, insects buzzing in the distance the only thing keeping me from being fully sucked into this reality is the menu options and the lovely soundtrack(I play with Music Disabled). If you sit idle watching long enough you will begin to hear the ping of the blacksmiths hammer adding another layer of the depth of this world, and if you wait even longer you will see just beyond the tall grass farmers beginning to work the field. within the menu screen you are drawn into a full living world that functions with or without your input.
Once into the world you find yourself on the road, to your right a lovely patch of forest and to your left in the near distance the village of Samopše. if you can manage to contain your unbridled joy and not sprint head strong into the village, but rather take a calm tour up the road you get the full experience of what is to come.
As you make your way into the village you see the villagers beginning their daily routines; some are headed to the fields to work the land, others gathering wood to stoke the fires, a few filling basins with fresh water, and then…well then there is Farmer Jerry sitting out front of his house on a lovely wooden bench looking miserable as all hell.
Should you choose to approach Jerry he tells you of his dire situation. His life is leaving him, straight out his ass and its all because of some harlot who poisoned him because he wouldn’t satisfy her unchristian like desires; you can leave it at that and leave poor Jerry to his fate or you can be decent and choose to help him and even investigate that matter further to uncover a deeper conspiracy and complete a multi-branching quest line.
Personally I’m less interested in helping Jerry and more interested in making the antidote that he needs, after being introduced into the herbalist through Jerry’s quest I stopped bothering with Jerry all together and committed the recipes to memory.
I spent a great deal of my time collecting plants to create the two available potions at this time so I can barter with the merchant taking everything from him I want.
The sense of achievement you get from the alchemy mini game is great, unlike most games where your hardly involved in the process (usually just picking ingredients and tools and then viola a potion is made) you really feel in control/responsible of the results of your labor. Timing and methodology play apart in being able to successfully create a potion.
Aside from Jerry King Poop Butt, there are some other little quests you can find yourself entangled into. the plot of land just outside the blacksmiths house is a farmer who isn’t too particularly fond of the blacksmiths Noisy habits. Then there is the old grumpy blacksmith bastard himself he is rather clumsy and has misplaced his hammer. you can meet up with the archer and shoot for some groshes if you got the skills. There is even a lost sheep that’s needs your help to find its way to its home.
As far as alphas go this is the most put together build I have seen, it is not without its faults there’s several bugs and its far from being fully optimized but, it leaves you with confidence a strong sense of faith in the WarHorse team the they may finally deliver us from the dark age of game development.
I see a bright future for this project and I will continue to invest my time and money into seeing this project come to its fruition.
things I would like to see for the next alpha build.
No birds flying at night IDK if bats would fit into this region but it would make more sense then seeing the same birds you are seeing during the day.
Save Feature I understand that this may not be high on the list of things to implement but it would be nice to have would help keep continued interest in playing for many.
Some kind of storage of course this would be useless without a save feature. It would be nice to have something to store collected goods in. what will I be collecting? everything! I’m one of those RPG hoarders I crashed Skyrim, Oblivion, Fallout 3, and Fallout New Vegas countless times decorating my homes with all my treasures and precious trophies from smashing skulls an such.
Anything else your willing to throw at us!
its a pleasure to be apart of this process Keep on Keeping on.
-McWonderBeast aka MahatmaGamer
