First off, Kingdom Come: Deliverance was never marketed as a AAA title. They’ve been very clear from the beginning that it’s a kickstarter with one wealthy independent donor. Their final budget was somewhere between $3-5 million when Skyrim’s base game by Bethesda was about $85 million. With a considerably larger development team.
Okay, would you mind pointing out any other RPG that is out, without any mods whatsoever, as a base game, that is closer to realistic in combat techniques, social structure, as well as historical events that really did happen during the events of the game?
I think you mean “the modders” had to add. The realism you taut has nothing to do with the base game that was developed. Heck, I could use a bow without issue in Skyrim without much practice and skill only counts in how much damage and what type of bow I can use, things like strength needed for the draw of the bow and agility not taken into account. You need a mod to deal with weather affecting the dovahkin or to even add the need to eat or sleep. These things weren’t included in the game and Bethesda never developed them.
The whole point of a mod is that the gaming community sees an alternative they would like in the game, or to make up for real or perceived fault with the base game itself and fundamentally alter it to become the game they want it to be and not the game it is.
That is, in essence, what a mod is.
It’s disingenuous to say Skyrim and Bethesda added these features if modders had to make them.
Every feature that has to be modded into Skyrim is a feature that isn’t in the game. Which is why I said if you want to compare Skyrim to KCD, remove all mods and compare base game to base game.
Only old fashioned games made in the late 80’s and early 90’s that were RPGs had all these features. KCD has sleep, food, a buff if Henry goes to wench and, in your words, fulfill those needs, gets dirty, has to wash if he wants to make a good impression, his health doesn’t regenerate and needs a physician or recover slowly in bed when badly injured, often with bandages when he’s bleeding, and can’t pause in the middle of battle to take care of his wounds.
KCD has more realism in its base, bugged game before patching than Skyrim, Witcher, Batman Arkham games, Oblivion, the Fable series, or any other modern RPG.
Every other game I mentioned needs mods to make them more realistic.
So, unless you can give me an example of a modern role playing game that has the same attention to detail and realism that KCD has without any mods whatsoever, then this argument may hold water.
Also, if you want to see how much attention to detail Warhorse had for this game, go to Google Earth and look at Talmberg, Rattay, Sassau, and you’ll see, minus a few modern adjustments like paved roads, that the entire game is based on the actual geography of the area. The road to Talmberg Castle is exactly the same. The bridge Henry passes over on his flight from Skalitz to Talmberg is there. The roads are nearly identical. The forests are the same.
I respect your opinions on games, and agree with many of them, but comparing a heavily modded Skyrim to the base game of KCD in terms of realism is like comparing apples to oranges.
Fact is, if you need mods, not made by the developer, to make a game more like a “realistic simulator,” and outright ignore the base game as it was designed and released, the entire arguments premise is no longer valid.
