I've been keeping a close eye on Kingdom Come: Deliverance ever since I got the chance to see its branching questlines, complex armor system, and AI-driven combat encounters for myself. While some folks are mourning the 'death of the immersive sim,' Deliverance is set to keep the genre kicking, albeit under a much more realistic guise than most.
To keep things realistic without sacrificing the modern conveniences most games come with nowadays, Deliverance even gives the immersive sim staple of quicksaving a medieval touch. You can save by sleeping, and autosaves will keep you from losing hours of progress, but in order to save on the spot anywhere in the world, you'll need to stock up on Saviour Schnapps, an alcoholic drink that lets you reload from the moment you down the sucker. See for yourself in the latest dev video above (it starts around the 13-minute mark).
I know most of us have come to rely on F5 like an old friend, and I'll miss the convenience of tapping a button whenever I want, however many times I want, as a safe way to experiment in a tricky situation. But I dig the weight that an expendable item places on how you approach challenging scenarios. Also, it gives you a damn buff to courage, which, as unhealthy as self-medicating yourself to bury anxiety is, is a clever way to express an age-old game system within the world. It also makes your character exhibit drunken characteristics over time because that's what alcohol did in medieval times and that's what it still does today. I get the impression that Henry, the low-born character you play as, would probably stop to knock back some liquid courage and catch his breath before charging headfirst into danger anyway.
Let's just hope Saviour Schnapps aren't too expensive or hard to come by. We'll know soon enough though, because Kingdom Come: Deliverance releases in just a few weeks on February 13. And if the drinks aren't enough to compel you, Kingdom Come: Deliverance will also be playable at this year's PC Gamer Weekender in London.
