For me there wasn’t a game which got me interested into medieval stuff.
I was always interested in these kind of things. This means since I was a kid I was interested in the middle ages and (european) history in general.
Actually, I’m not too fond of that fantasy stuff. It’s okay sometimes but most of the time it seems rather silly. Or I don’t like the style of it. For example WoW has this childish comic style while other games are too colorful or oversaturated. I prefer a more dark and serious atmosphere. Also, I’m not that much of an RPG gamer. I’m more into games where my skill as a player has also some say in the outcome of an encounter. Not just some numbers decide my fate. There has to be some challenge involved.
As for medieval themed games. I can’t remember exactly which game my first medieval game was but I think it was maybe Defender of the Crown for C64. That was a fun game. I think it was set in England.
Another true classic is Moonstone for Amiga which was a very violent game and it had a nice dark atmosphere, too.
Later I enjoyed the Legacy of Kain Saga on PS2 & PC. Although it’s completely fantasy it’s one of my favorite game series. Unfortunately, Crystal Dynamics decided to make Tomb Raider games instead of new Legacy of Kain content.
Someone mentioned Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. That’s one of my favorite games. It’s in 1st-person, too. In this game there’s also body awareness (you can see your body at all times). What I also really like is the movement in combat. Your head moves realistically with the weapon. Which feels very natural. I myself didn’t play Morrowind but what I saw watching a friend playing seemed just awkward compared to Dark Messiah because when he did some attack with the sword the head of the character just remained in the same position and the hand with the sword did some simple moves. It looked very seperate and therefore not very immersive. I didn’t like it. But because of the good things I explained about Dark Messiah, I think, I really will like Kingdom Come because it delivers more of the same stuff.
Every now and then I play Knights of Honor, a strategy game. I’m always starting with a small kingdom to keep it challenging. Last time I played it with the Holy Roman Empire mod installed, starting with the Teutonic Order which was really hardcore because the surrounding kingdoms attacked me all the time for no reason. I was only trying to build up my cities and armies. But finally after a long struggle I conquered their territories, one by one.
Some weeks ago I started playing Anno 1404. In this game you have to build a settlement on an island and advance it to the highest civilization level. A very time consuming game but nonetheless a lot of fun.
So, finally, how did I get to know about Kingdom Come?
I learned about it from a hardware/gaming-site.
That was around the time when the Kickstarter campaign started.
The stupid thing about Kickstarter is, I can’t pledge with PayPal.
But two days ago I eventually decided to order a credit card from my bank.
And now I hope it will be here before all king tiers are gone.
(Czech DnD but more subtle I would say) It led me to the history as a hobby (was curious how functional the weapons were in real life, then who used them and how, made them… etc).