Kingdom Come: Deliverance trailer sets up a 'Blacksmith's Tale' of war and revenge

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Henry, the hero of Kingdom Come: Deliverance, is in reality no hero at all. He's the son of a local blacksmith, but more than that, he seems a little dim: He throws poop at people's houses, for instance, and enjoys cheap booze just a little too much for his own good. But you don't need a great intellect to be handy in a fight.

The new trailer doesn't tell us much that we didn't already know about the game, which is billed as a "realistic" story of civil warfare and murderous payback in the Holy Roman Empire: Henry's family gets offed by some roaming goon squad, and his quest for revenge leads him sword-first into a swirling morass of political intrigue and burning towns. But it looks fantastic—far beyond what anyone could have reasonably expected when the Kingdom Come Kickstarter landed in early 2014.

The downside to looking so hot is that it could actually contribute to unreasonable (possibly wildly so) expectations. The Kickstarter goal was £300,000 ($428,000) but things have come so far since then that I suspect anything less than the equivalent of the next Elder Scrolls game will somehow be perceived as a disappointment.

James said in his recent hands-on preview that he'd be surprised if the game isn't buggy at release—"not to speak ill of the team, it's just a massive undertaking for a relatively small studio"—and I share his concerns. But the complexity that could undo Kingdom Come: Deliverance is what sells it, too: The potion-making video in the preview hits me like a first-person Darklands, and that, my friends, is a game I really want to play.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance comes out on February 13, and for the benefit of people who want a little more convincing, will be on the stage at the PC Gamer Weekender on February 17.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.