Spoilers! I ended up wring about Kingdom Come: Deliverance a lot this week so I cut the other segments. I had little to write about them anyway since I spent so much time playing KCD.

YouTube Obsession

There is a distinct twang to Atun-Shei Films and his unique brand of youtube media. Historical accuracy above all else is definitely a cornerstone of his content, no matter how ugly it may be.

It’s also extremely anti-fascist, anti-racist and anti-anti-woke. He also has a sense of humor about himself that I find lacking in other youtube essayists. Meaning, he’s not presenting a message everyone wants to hear. What he talks about can be uncomfortable precisely because it is not editorialized history to support an argument.

I highly recommend all of his stuff, especially his recent chat with Esoterica (another great channel) about 2024’s Nosferatu.

Playing

God of War: Ragnarok recently became free to PS+ members on the PS5 so I finally gave it a go. And I just did not enjoy it at all.

Before I go on I have to admit that I was hopeful but I was not expecting to like Ragnarok. Not because I disliked the first game, but because I by the time I was done with the God of War 2018, I was done. It is a game that just keeps going and it has the audacity to end on a cliffhanger. D-U-N, dun¹ .

That is my first problem with Ragnarok, it’s stuck in the same place as the last game. Same plot, same MacGuffin, same characters, same gameplay (I was just praising Sniper Elite: Resistance because it is basically the same game as Sniper Elite 5. Why? What’s different about GoW? Sniper Elite is not a 400million dollar first-party game). Now maybe it goes places and introduces wholly different characters but after 3 hours I’m still talking to a Whedon inspired anal-retentive dwarf and gameplay is halted every 5 minutes for a cool scene that always makes me think: Wow, I wish I was doing this² .

And I know I’m going to get some flack for this but: It’s ugly. Yes, I can appreciate the graphics are good but I cannot say that it’s objectively fun to look at. I feel on the spectrum of Sony Studios games from Ghost of Tsushima -Stylized, bright, colorful and timeless, to Horizon Zero Dawn -hard to read, busy and Lisa Frank vomit color theory, it falls somewhere in the middle. It’s most apt to say it looks like if Horizon Zero Dawn had dirt on everything. I kept looking at Kratos’ detailed, real-looking beard and asking myself: Is this what gamers want? Metal Gear Solid 2 and Silent Hill 3 both released in the early 2000s and they are both still beautiful games. My most played game is Risk of Rain 2 a game with PS1 era graphics but the gameplay is so good I don’t need to see hair physics to enjoy it.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that AAA developers are complaining about the rising costs to make games but are handcuffed to the idea that games must have the most realistic graphics.

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I want to contrast my feelings on Ragnarok with how I felt while playing Warhorse Studios’ 2018 freshman outing: Kingdom Come: Deliverance.

From top to bottom this is a beautiful game. Entirely imperfect but beautiful. Up close, you can tell that plants are just two jpegs intersecting at 90 degrees but riding by on horseback it looks perfect. It does what it needs to to get across the feeling of a large world.

And it’s UI. Omg, it’s UI is so beautiful and lovingly designed. Just look at the map screen for just one of the areas.

Now to really shit on Ragnarok, compare the Inventory UI in KCD:

to Ragnarok:

What’s more interesting is that in KCD’s first hour, player control is taken away multiple times yet I never found it annoying. I really contemplated on why.

First off, the game’s commitment to setting and character. I’m sure there are tons of anachronisms but I’ve never played a game that made me feel like a peasant in 1403 Bohemia. The “real” setting made cutscenes feel warranted, necessary and informational.

Secondly, when the game does give you control in the early moments, it is complete control. I spent a good 10 minutes collecting herbs at point to raise my herbalism stat, just because I could! I’m sure there’s things I missed but even the tutorial area is filled with tons of activities.

Lastly, KCD is a game that is meant to be played as Henry, the main character. Every little thing I was doing in that first hour was essential in creating my Henry. Not “my character” mind you, the character is always Henry, I was just figuring out what kind of Henry we were going to be. It’s a subtle and perfect difference that is very hard to pull off.

The world is so reactive as well. I was trying to woo a lady with my considerable speech skills but she could only comment on how dirty my clothes were. I was aghast, but after looking my my inventory, it was true my clothes were soiled af. One bath and launder later I was able to have a more productive conversation.

I’ve lambasted games like Red Dead Redemption 2 for it’s over-designed mechanics; Leaning animation down every time you loot, skinning an animal feels like it takes 30 seconds, the inertia of character movement feels like I’m piloting a lead ball through pudding. KCD has very intricate designs as well: alchemy and smithing are multi-step processes that require reading and memorizing procedure. Fights are very unforgiving until learning how to position your weapon to block or attack properly. Laundering your clothes so you don’t look like a mud-slopped peasant. I embrace the deep mechanics in KCD because they are so deep; My actions while in Alchemy and smithing determine how well the potions come out, weapon placement actively keeps my character alive, NPCs reacting to my condition only draws me deeper into the world. Oh and moving in the world is smooth and not annoying. RDR2’s cantankerous mechanics only exist so the game can show you an animation.

Also, KCD has my favorite kind of skill system: The more I do a thing, the better I get at it. Almost every action in KCD is linked to a skill that will get better as I do things. When I first started picking herbs I could only pick one at at time. Now, at level 10 herbalism, I can pick 10 herbs at a time (WOW). This kind of incremental growth is key to enjoying the slower parts of the game.

I’m still very early in KCD but I am completely hooked. It’s taken over most of my free time and I want to spend all weekend playing it.

Other Notables

** Mapping the Soy Right

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1  Also, I can feel when I’m just “not in the mood” to play a certain type of game and Ragnarok is game I am completely willing to believe that someday I may be in a better mood to play it.

2  After the initial sled fight where the player has very marginal/meaningless control, they player is briefly given control…to walk Kratos up a small hill and directly into a cutscene. I scrumpt.