Kingdom Come: Deliverance describes itself as a realistic and historically accurate role-playing game, which are dangerous words for any game to throw around. History, like beauty, is often in the eye of the beholder, while “realistic” should indicate more than just “visually detailed”. Kingdom Come: Deliverance’s version of historical realism is obsessive in certain areas, but curiously neglectful in others.

The epic, if familiar, narrative centres around Henry, a blacksmith’s son living in 15th-century Bohemia. Young Hal’s life is flung into chaos after a power spat between the king and his brother results in his village being torched and his parents being murdered. Fleeing with nothing but the last sword his father made, he embarks upon a quest for vengeance that sees him claw his way up the rigid social hierarchy of medieval Europe.

You can’t fault developer Warhorse Studios’ commitment to its vision. The Czech company has reconstructed a sizeable chunk of its own historical back garden. Players can ride along bridle paths through picturesque farmland, hunt for game in sun-dappled forests alive with birdsong, or stroll through the muddy streets of thatched peasant villages and bustling fortified towns. Remarkable castle cities are vast and foreboding from the outside, bustling, dynamic and delightfully colourful within. History in fiction is often presented through a sepia lens, but that certainly isn’t the case here. Medieval Europe is vibrant.

Deliverance’s world yearns to be explored, and the game lets you do so in an impressive number of ways. Henry’s role falls somewhere between squire and page, running errands for everyone from millers to lords and learning as he goes. You’ll retrieve lost horses, investigate murders, ride out to defend villages and partake in bloody battles. Many scenarios can be resolved in myriad ways, such as sneaking, talking or fighting your way into an enemy camp, and learning skills like reading or alchemy opens up yet further possibilities. One quest about tracking down heretics relies on using a written confession to find their secret place of worship. If you haven’t been developing his literacy, Henry will be completely stumped by the cryptic allegory that reveals its location.

However you choose to play, at some point swords will clash and blood will spill. Combat proves a handy watermark for Warhorse’s interpretation of authenticity, employing real fighting techniques that players are encouraged to learn via a system that lets them strike, block, and perform combinations from five different angles. It’s tricky but satisfying, and leads the player to approach combat with caution that few other games encourage. Unless you’re on a horse or have a bow to thin enemy ranks, battling more than one opponent is extremely difficult. Another pleasing touch is that duels aren’t always to the death. Losing combatants can surrender themselves to mercy, and it’s up to the victor to decide whether to respond honourably.

There is, however, a noticeable delay between pressing a button and Henry swinging his chosen weapon, which means that combat looks more authentic than it feels. Deliverance’s unyielding focus on detail and simulation comes at the cost of finesse. Movement, picking up objects and vaulting over obstacles all feel unwieldy, while the writing and voice acting ranges from professional-grade to downright mediocre. At the scene of a grisly village raid, one soldier laments: “These are dark days, when there’s more kindness in horses than in men.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Kingdom Come: Deliverance has realistic combat, encouraging caution when approaching foes. Photograph: Warhorse Studios

That’s about as close to introspection as Deliverance gets. Though it depicts its medieval world with panache and uses the setting to create entertaining adventures, it doesn’t have much to say about the history it draws from. The narrative focus is on the politics of war and the role of honour in chivalry. Henry’s lowly class origins are occasionally remarked upon, but never present much of a barrier to him. Meanwhile, contentious issues such as the role of women and the medieval attitude toward race are conveniently sidelined, while the church’s persecution of witches and heretics is presented as little more than set dressing.

This isn’t to say Deliverance is a cold or mean-spirited game. Alongside the spectres of war and death are frequent warming moments of love and laughter, while Henry himself is pretty likable for a vengeful peasant. Deliverance simply isn’t that interested in exploring the topics it presents us with. In one bizarre scene, Henry sits down in a tavern to question a village priest about a murder. They discuss the sanctity of confession and the corrupting influence of wealth on Rome. It seems like Deliverance is reaching toward some actual commentary, but then the evening descends into an absurd spectacle of drunken debauchery that leads to Henry giving the morning’s sermon because the priest is too hungover to do it.

This is Deliverance in sum. It wants us to take its medieval world seriously, but also wants it to be a playground, and it constantly struggles to balance these two sides of its personality. If you can embrace its quirks, it’s easy enough to lose yourself in its luscious and dynamic medieval landscape, but you’re unlikely to emerge with much insight into the historical period that it so faithfully depicts.