We always come back to the time of medieval story-telling where we wanted to be knights, hunters, mages, and whatever other role scoffs at electricity. It’s brought us great games like the now fairly-oldSkyrimand the slightly less seniorKingdom Come: Deliverance.
Both games deal with one determined warrior expected to save the land, ruin it, or just take all the good parts for themselves. One leans harder toward the fantasy side while the other tries to ground itself in a more real experience. But that doesn’t matter, because what does matter is what one is better at doing that job.
6Main Character - Skyrim
With its historical medieval setting, Kingdom Come: Deliverance makes a solid effort with Henry; he’s just your everyday son of a Blacksmith who wants to explore the world, spend some time with his love interest, and throw poop at anyone saying anything remotely treasonous. His life is turned upside down when the usual massive army of death sweeps through his home, kills his parents, and forces him to go on the run, giving him grounds to shape himself into a different adult, but at the end of the day, he’s just a guy with an understandable grudge.
With Skyrim, you’ve got the blank slate known as the Dovahkin, and yes, they area custom characterthat you’re able to make look ridiculous, but they are Dragonborn at the end of the day. This protagonist’s goal isn’t just to be a dragon slayer, but one that wields their power against them and anyone else who dares to give you the side eye. Even with all this destiny, there’s room to make yourself into any kind of member of this society or be multiple at once; you can be a werewolf thief assassin politician and no one will even bat an eye.
5Challenge - Kingdom Come: Deliverance
The thing that Skyrim never fully grasped in all its versions, remakes, editions, remasters, and whatever, is the difficulty; this is old news now, but if you’ve spent any amount of time on this game, you’ve entered THAT scenario. You know, the one where you go through a dungeon fighting decently balanced enemies only to be suddenly curb-stomped by a guy who looks like everyone else, but maybe glowing slightly. It can still put your skills to the test, but suddenly throwing a gas can onto the hot coals you’re walking is not the best way to do so.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance, on the other hand, knows how to establish avery understandable challenge. It spends a lot of time setting up the fact that Henry is a young villager who is tough and brave, but has zero experience. Even a lone mugger can pose a threat to pretty boy Hal which is why you need to act accordingly.
Henry has to build himself up and get better gear, and you need to practice fighting in favorable conditions that you can create. Expect to die often, so don’t take unnecessary risks so that you can stay alive enough to learn your lesson.
4Combat - Skyrim
Part of what makes Kingdom Come: Deliverance difficult is how it handles combat, since you don’t have the standard video game hero starter pack, you’re just a guy. Not even a guy, you’re a young guy who’s never had to run and jump at top speed while carrying an entire house’s worth of junk.
This means that every singlebattle encounter, even after you get the swing of things, can be life or death. If you want to reach that point where you see an enemy and charge gleefully into battle, it won’t come any time soon and every death is a crushing setback without the right booze.
Skyrim is part of a series that has always had awkward combat but has also consistently been fun to play, and despite some bugs, the creators have tightened up the combat, making it faster, more dynamic, and with greater impact. It’s also pretty flashy when you land a sweet final blow on an enemy and get a nice little animation; you can see a group of humans, undead, beasts, or a dragon, and think, “I can take that!”, and part of the reason why is because you can unleash your arsenal one after the other.
3Realism - Kingdom Come: Deliverance
Skyrim is a fantasy game with an emphasis on both fantasy and game. I mean, this is a world where giant lizards and cat-humans walk around and bid you good morning. Dragons own the sky and are fighting to own the world, while demons scheme behind the scenes and undead warriors walk around with unfinished business.
Despite all this chaos which would keep the average person up at night, you don’t need to sleep, eat, or drink, and an arrow to the face can be treated by rubbing some cheese into your mouth. It’s fun but can be too easy or broken at times.
For a game that doesn’t mess around with how real it can be, Kingdom Come: Deliverance doesn’t hold back. Moments after you get control of Henry, chances are he’ll get hungry, which will quickly havesome dizzying effectssoon enough. He needs to sleep regularly and can only focus on improving himself when sitting down to think.
There’s also a lot of attention placed on Henry’s appearance, which directly affects how people respond to him. Is he dirty? Is he bloody? What’s he wearing? Is he well-known? Is he casually talking with a bloody sword in hand? These are important questions you need to answer before you talk to anybody.
2Variety - Skyrim
Kingdom Come: Deliverance is so real to the point where it severely limits what a human can do, as you still have some mallet space allowing you to carry a lot of stuff in your pockets, but not everything is nailed down. You’ll be using traditional medieval weaponry that’s dependent on your skill and Henry’s strength, and your main obstacles are other enemies that may or may not have better equipment and skill than you do; there are lots of options, but they are restricted by the pesky ideas of reality.
Looking at Skyrim, you might as well be looking at the RPG equivalent of a ball pit filled with monsters and magic. It starts things off by giving you the special Dragon Shout power that lets you speak Words Of Power to do everything from launching giants over mountains to whispering until you’re intangible. Then you’ve got the standard array of medieval weapons andarmor setswith some of them carrying magical qualities and charges for extra power.
you’re able to also master all sorts of magic if you’re more of a walking arcane hurricane. Finally, the amount of skills and roles you can spec into can make you seem like an indecisive DnD player, so nothing can stop you from being a cat-man werewolf thief alchemist destruction specialist if you wish.
1The Winner Is… Skyrim
Even though Kingdom Come: Deliverance is the newer title, Skyrim is still a strong RPG that has aged well and has only improved over time. It’sa huge worldwith tons of things to do, use, and be, while also giving you dragons to slay and yell at so hard that it breaks their bones. However, if you’re looking for a more realistic and grounded experience that’s focused on the challenge of being a young man learning to fight and survive in medieval times, then Kingdom Come: Deliverance could be the ticket.
