Kingdom Come Deliverance was billed to become a cult favourite. Emphasising and featuring
what is perhaps the most realistic medieval setting, combined with a highly technical
combat system and numerous facets of living life in the Middle Ages, Kingdom Come launched
to the fanfare of dedicated fans amidst an immense number of bugs, ranging from minor
inconveniences to game-breaking quests. Much of this was exacerbated by the rigid save
system. Though subsequent patches within the last month have addressed numerous issues,
the game has a long way to go before it is polished or, to some, playable.
The game depicts the harsh learning curve of archery quite accurately – perhaps too
accurately. One of the biggest complaints from players is that archery is ridiculously
difficult, to the point where some players completely bypass it in favour of the deeper
swordplay. And in fairness, archery isn’t important to the game overall. Apart from
hunting quests, everything else can be solved by poking someone with a sword.
However, while archery can feel clunky and frustrating, I believe that Kingdom Come Deliverance
has the most realistic archery I’ve seen in a video game, and the things that make
archery extraordinarily difficult fall in line with the developer’s intention of creating
an immersive game.
The player steps into the boots of Henry, a blacksmith’s apprentice. True to history,
a commoner like Henry would not have received weapons training. His desire to go on adventures
leads him to learn the basics of swordfighting – and frankly, he is terrible at it until
a couple of hours into the game when he finally learns to use the long pointy thing in his
hands to guard and attack. And alongside that, he is introduced to archery.
He’s pretty bad at that too.
That said, his struggles with using the stick and string have a grounding in real life.
Archery was not a widespread skill that everyone knew how to do. It was a specialised skill,
used by soldiers or huntsmen, and where possible, by poachers. A skilled bowman from the peasant
stock might be looked at with suspicion, but people who live or die by the meat they harvest
make fine marksmen. This is also the path that Henry must follow if he is to improve
his archery skills quickly.
As much as we might want to play as a dashing rogue, we have to remember that Henry’s
background isn’t likely to produce a military archer in the time span of the game. With
patience and practice, the player can make Henry a competent shot, but we shouldn’t
get our hopes too high.
The first thing players find difficult is the lack of a crosshair. Crosshairs are a
must in first-person games, as it is extremely difficult to orientate your view on a flat
screen. While there is a hidden crosshair, removing the crosshair forces the player to
shoot instinctively – a skill that real life archers would also have had to practice
and master only after years of practice.
The strange angle of the bow and arrow is explained by the historic shooting technique.
While modern shooters will anchor more in line with the face and eye, medieval archers
would have anchored at the ear, with the arrow pointing left due to the archer’s paradox.
It’s a bizarre look compared to other games, but it’s very close to what a traditional
archer actually sees.
Interestingly, many players make the same mistake as real-life novice archers: they
typically aim too high because of this parallax. I find that aiming lower than you think you
need to, and further right, will give you a good sense of where your shot will land.
You could download a crosshair mod, but we’re only interested in playing the game the way
it was intended, right? There’s no reason why you can’t hit a rabbit or an eyeball,
and it feels rewarding when you do.
The awkward shot rhythm might feel slow and rigid to a gamer. However, the bows used in
this time would have been much stronger than the bows we use today for recreation. Such
bows were designed to bring down deer and man alike, and the heavy war bows required
the archer to put their entire body into the draw, a process substantially different and
slower to what we’re used to. This is also realistically used by Henry and his opponents,
leading to some clumsy archery duels. If there’s a fault in this aspect, it’s that every
bow is shot the same way, with no distinction between heavy and light bows, or how having
high strength should make drawing faster and easier, but doesn’t.
Sure, archery is sluggish, but it is intentional, designed to slow the player down and present
the most authentic archery technique. If you don’t want to bother with it, you’re not
missing out on much.
Behind every RPG is a stat system – the way in which games portray the growth of a
character. Kingdom Come make use of a few key stats: Strength, Agility, Vitality and
Speech, along with separate progression for each skill and weapon. The more you use the
skill, the more the relevant stats go up. This makes a lot of sense. As far as archery
is concerned, you actually have to be a very well-rounded character to be competent – as
was the case in real life. We’re not talking about dancing elves or mystical wraiths.
Firstly, bows require strength to use. The game allows Henry to equip weapons that he
isn’t strong enough to use, but with severe penalties. With a bow, Henry can’t pull
the bow back to full draw, and releases it prematurely. You can still hit a target with
it, but with zero control over the shot, it’s a liability. And again, this is entirely realistic
– and from an instructor’s point of a view, a huge problem with beginning archers
in real life. Fortunately, repeated use of bows and other strength-based weapons will
increase strength.
Agility, in this case, is realistically used to improve accuracy. Holding a bow steady
requires coordination. With poor stamina and low agility, Henry’s aim is absurdly shaky.
Remembering that he has zero training, this is what you should expect. For players who
persist with archery to the end game, you will find that he is a steady shot with the
stamina to hold for longer, making it significantly easier. Improve the Bow skill, and you do
more damage.
As an extra nod to realism, the game portrays the much-hated string slap. Henry doesn’t
actually know how to hold a bow until he reaches Level 5 in Bow skill, and as such he flays
his arm with the bowstring. Unless he is wearing a bracer, he will actually sustain arm injuries
that reduce his overall health and stamina. Once he goes past this novice phase, he no
longer needs to wear one. Again, true to life. Beginner bows can turn an arm black and blue
and cause lesions, and we still wear arm guards for modern archery. Medieval war bows would
have carved up skin.
To further praise the game, the progression is subtle. There’s never a point where you
feel like you suddenly turn into an expert marksman. Every stat boost gives you a marginal
improvement, but looking at end-game archery, it looks so smooth and natural compared to
Henry’s first shots, and you as the player become more confident in taking shot are more
difficult targets, growing with the character in the game.
There’s another reason why people find archery to be unfulfilling. Generally, arrows don’t
do much damage. This might be OK when using hunting arrows against bandits wearing padded
armour, but once you start facing plate armour, you see sparks fly and very little harm done.
A shot may literally do nothing. The same applies to you. Wearing a full plate harness
with mail and gambeson makes you nearly impervious to damage. As we’ve consistently seen, this
is very realistic, and avoids the trope of armour being made of paper.
This can be defeated, nonetheless. The game offers a variety of arrow types, from wounding
broadheads to long-range piercing arrows and bodkin points for punching through armour,
all realistically modelled. As most foes in the game are armoured, piercing damage is
the key. With the right arrow and a high Bow skill, you get that satisfaction of bringing
down a bandit with a lung shot, or pelting an armoured swordsman until he drops.
Or you can shoot them in the face. That works.
Technically, you can fight on horseback in the game, both with melee weapons and bows.
There is even a perk that gives bonus damage. However, there are no sections in the game
that make use of this mechanic, and many players forget that it even exists. You can shoot
from horseback, with a realistic amount of flexibility. That said, your character is
unable to bring the bow to full draw, so it is loosed with much less power and accuracy.
The European armies in this time did not much use of mounted archery as a military application,
unlike the Eastern armies, and shooting from horseback would have only been done for hunting.
Even so, hunting is much easier on foot.
As much as I have praised archery in Kingdom Come, there’s one element of reality that
pulls that rug from underneath you: archery doesn’t really have a place in the game
world. This isn’t a large-scale battle with hundreds of archers lined up to shoot volley
upon volley. You’re dealing with handfuls of bandits and raiders using light bows. Even
when you’re involved in sieges, you’re flinging arrows against armoured foes. All
of these fights are much easier with a sword, and the game was designed around that.
As in real life, most of your accurate shooting is going to be done in very close distances.
If there’s a benefit of using a bow in pitched battles, it bypasses the clumsy auto-target
mechanic that makes fighting against multiple enemies frustrating. Even as an archer, I
don’t find archery in these battles to be fun, and you kind of do feel like a dirty,
dishonourable whoreson. Which is also realistic. Knights and soldiers really hated archers.
I can’t fault the game for marginalising archery. As much as we want to expand and
experience more of this authentic art in a realistic setting, we have to remember where
we are. Henry is a blacksmith, not an archer. He’s involved in a small-scale regional
conflict, with only a hundred men-at-arms at most. Archers did not make up the body
of medieval armies, especially outside of England. You seldom face archers, and your
own assaults don’t make use of them. I still would have liked to see more sections where
a creative player who has invested in archery can take advantage, but I’ve literally only
seen one such moment, and in that instance the battle mostly fights itself without your
intervention.
Truly, Kingdom Come Deliverance has the most realistic archery I have seen in a video game.
It doesn’t even try to make it easier for the player. While most games make the player-character
a weapon master who can always shoot perfect shots, Henry is so bad that it literally makes
players drop their bows.
We have been spoiled with archery in video games, with fire arrows and speed shooting
shenanigans. I will admit that as a real-life archer, my time spent in agonisingly progressing
archery as Henry has actually helped reinforce my rhythm and instinctive shooting in real
life. It might seem slow and awkward in the game, but this is really how it is. The developers
have modelled the archery in the game as close to reality as possible, even at the cost of
fun.
Even the split between players who use the crosshair mod and shooting instinctively is
a replica of what happens in the archery community in real life – because using sights is cheating.
The hidden gem is none other than your trainer, Sir Bernard. A grizzled veteran, everything
he says is absolutely true. His harsh words on the archery range might be background noise
in your head, but what he says is exactly what I say when I am teaching new archers
on the shooting line. Feeling the shot, letting the string slide off the fingers. He even
looks down on archery as any soldier would, but praises it for its utility, and hints
at its role in warfare – and the game. Drop the bandit with an arrow, then pull out your
sword.
Until next time, shoot straight and aim for your best.