Some spoilers for the opening of the Amorous Adventures of Bold Sir Hans Capon follow.

One of the standout characters in Kingdom Come is undoubtedly Hans Capon. He makes a terrible first impression, the very picture of a stuck-up, self-regarding lord. But over time he warms to you and reveals himself to be a charismatic, thoroughly likeable character—something Warhorse was clearly aware of, as they’ve made the hedonistic, wine-loving heir to the Rattay throne the focus of its latest paid-for DLC expansion.

The Amorous Adventures of Bold Sir Hans Capon, to give it its full, unwieldy title, can be accessed after completing the quests Next to Godliness and Robber Baron. Capon will tell you about a woman in Rattay he’s fallen for, and asks for your help in wooing her—without her knowing. Keeping your love for a woman secret, Capon tells me, is all the rage in France, and he wants me to help him win her heart secretly. The first stage of which is recovering a family heirloom, a necklace, that he lost in a drunken dice game.

I travel to the tavern in Ledetchko where Capon lost the necklace, but the local dice champion tells me he already lost the heirloom to a fancy-looking chap who was last seen at a river crossing near the town of Sasau. I travel to Sasau and comb the river for clues until I find the nobleman in question—murdered and, importantly, no longer in possession of the necklace. The savage nature of the killing leads me to believe bandits were responsible.

As I’m investigating the crime scene, a well-spoken man calling himself Sir Anselm of Domky emerges from the woods and tells me the nobleman was killed by bandits, and that they have a camp set up nearby. I instinctively reach for my sword and get ready for a bit of brigand slaying, but Anselm has a more subtle plan in mind. He asks me to pose as Alphonse, the dead man, and infiltrate the camp to find out who the killer is—and maybe find that necklace I’m looking for in the process. I agree to help him and sheathe my sword.

Making sure I know enough about Alphonse to deal with any questioning in the bandit camp, I grill Anselm about the dead man. Where he hails from, the lords he’s served, things he enjoys. Apparently he’s a keen dice player (no surprises there) from Slany and once worked for Prokop of Luxembourg. I make a mental note of these details, hoping they’ll save my skin later on, and get ready to pose as Alphonse. But there’s one problem: I look like shit. I’m wearing a raggedy shirt and a ramshackle collection of battered armour. It’s obvious I’m no lord.

I visit my house in Rattay and access my stash, where I have heaps of clothes and other junk I’ve pilfered and purchased over the course of the game. I find a fashionable cap with a feather in it, some nobleman’s hose, other assorted finery, and suddenly rustic, battle-scarred Henry looks like a prancing toff. Capon would be proud. I also stop in at the bathhouse to clean myself up and get a fresh new haircut and beard trim. Satisfied I no longer look like a peasant, I head to the bandit camp and announce myself to the guard.

Immediately I’m glad I quizzed Anselm about Alphonse. The guard asks where I’m from, assuming Prague, and I confidently correct him, saying I’m actually a native of Slany. He lets me in, but tells me that the bandit leader—presumably Alphonse’s killer—is busy, and that I should play some dice to pass the time. As I explore the camp and eavesdrop on the foul-mouthed bandits, I learn that the champion of a dice tournament wins a precious necklace: the very same one that once belonged to Capon before he foolishly lost it.

I throw 1000 groschen into the pot and enter the tournament, but I absolutely stink at Kingdom Come’s dice minigame, and I lose spectacularly. But I have another plan in mind. I ask the tournament organiser who won, and he tells me it’s a guy called Pechuna. I corner him and congratulate him on his victory, and consider buying the necklace off him or pickpocketing it while he sleeps. But where’s the fun in that? Instead I ask him how he’ll be celebrating, and he tells me he’s walking through the woods to Sasau to drink. Walking through the woods. Alone. With the necklace I need in his pocket.

I follow Pechuna through the trees until we’re well away from the camp, then I pull out my sword and run it through him. He has no armour, and he doesn’t know I’m there, so the ‘fight’ is over in seconds. Then I grab Capon’s necklace, which will help the cocky lord begin his quest to win the heart of that lovely lady in Rattay. A nice final detail: as I look through Pechuna’s possessions I notice that he’s carrying loaded dice. The swine cheated! I mean, he is a bandit, but what about honour among thieves? Suddenly I don’t feel too bad about stabbing him in the back and leaving him to rot in the forest.

I’m immediately won over by The Amorous Adventures of Bold Sir Hans Capon. This is a brilliantly constructed opening quest with a lot of different outcomes. And while Kingdom Come can often be quite self-serious, this DLC seems, so far, a lot more light-hearted. I’m looking forward to seeing where it goes next, and what trouble Capon’s romantic quest will undoubtedly get us both in. The DLC is out now and costs £8/$10. We’ll have a full review up on the site soon. And next time you decide to try and swindle someone in a dice game, make sure they don’t have a sword stuffed down their silky pantaloons.

Watch the first trailer for Kingdom Come: Deliverance's next DLC, featuring a loved-up Hans Capon above. And know that the action role-player's Amorous Adventures is due next week.

So, what's going on above? Well, the bold Hans is in love, says publisher Deep Silver, and requires Henry's guidance as he attempts to woo romantic interest Karolina. Things are far from straightforward, though, and a lost family jewel, a magic love potion and "the most romantic poem of all" all promise to thwart Cupid's arrow. 

That's sort of teased up there, as is the Rattay Combat Tournament—a contest fit only for the fiercest warriors, keen to hone their fighting skills. Enter, win and net Henry some unique armour parts. 

The fanfare that accompanied Kingdom Come Deliverance at launch may have subsided, but it still holds strong on our list of the best RPGs on PC. Here's how we describe it there:

In this historical RPG set in the muddy fields of Bohemia, 1403, you play as a peasant called Henry who gets swept up in a war for his homeland. It's a detailed RPG, with a deep sword fighting system, hunger and thirst systems, crafting and more than a dozen equipment slots to fill with meticulously modeled gear inspired by the raiments of the time.  It's also surprisingly open-ended. If you want to wander into the woods and pick mushrooms for meagre coin then off you go, just be careful of bandits as you explore the pretty rural locales.

It's by no means perfect—there are plenty of bugs and wonky moments—but this is an RPG in the Elder Scrolls vein. A few bugs can be excused when the wider experience is this atmospheric.

Kingdom Come Deliverance's Amorous Adventures is due on Tuesday, October 16.  

Warhorse Studios has released a teaser trailer for its next serving of Kingdom Come: Deliverance DLC, called the Amorous Adventures of Bold Sir Hans Capon, in which you'll help Sir Hans win the heart of Karolina, the butcher's daughter. 

I hated Sir Hans early in the game, but he slowly grew on me, so I'll probably be happy to lend him a hand. He wants Henry to sneak some jewelry and a love letter into Karolina's trunk but, judging by dead bodies and the angry butcher in the trailer, it won't be quite as simple as it sounds. In total, it should take you a chunky 10-15 hours to complete, Warhorse told PCGamesN.

You'll be able to pick up the quest at the end of the game or by making friends with Sir Hans earlier on.

We don't yet have a concrete release date, but Warhorse says it'll arrive in roughly a month alongside a free DLC called Tournament, which adds combat tournaments throughout the world. You can compete in them to win armour sets and money,  but first you'll have to finish a quest chain that will last around five hours.

Amorous Adventures will be followed by a number of other paid and free DLCs—the two big, story-driven ones are called Band of Bastards, due late in the year, and A Woman's Lot, which will arrive next year. For the full DLC roadmap, click here.

The Kingdom Come: Deliverance DLC From the Ashes is live today, and developer Warhorse Studios has rolled out a new video providing a closer look at what players can do when they're given the job of bailiff of a village being rebuilt on the ruins of a bandit camp. 

From the Ashes is a little different from most DLC releases because it's not an "extra," but is integrated into the primary campaign. As the bailiff, you'll make the calls about how the village is rebuilt, but it's not city-building sim; instead, it's more of a financial management system, where you tell your Number One Guy what you want (and ensure he's got the cash to cover it), and then stand back while he makes it happen.  

Different types of buildings will cost or generate money, but more importantly they open doors to new and unique opportunities. A stable, for instance, will enable you to purchase new horses that aren't available anywhere else, and having an alchemy table in your town hall eliminates the need to look for one elsewhere. You'll also have the opportunity to higher special NPCs to join you on your adventures, and help settle disputes between your citizens, which will influence their well-being and your finances.

Eventually, the village will start churning out regular revenues for you, unless you botch the job. Screw things up enough and your erstwhile benefactor will step in, liberating you from the weighty responsibilities of management that are clearly too much for you to handle. (I guess he hadn't heard about the poop-throwing thing when he decided to put you in charge.)

Kingdom Come: Deliverance goes for $10/£8/€10 on Steam, GOG, and the Humble Store.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance has rolled out a new Hardcore mode, alongside its latest 1.6 patch. And if you thought survival in 13th century Bohemia was challenging before, trying staying alive minus fast travel, quick saving and compass indicators. 

Then try taking on board two permanent negative perks—such is a requirement of the new mode. Ailments cover everything from Nightmares that inflict short-term debuffs, to Tapeworms that heighten your appetite, and Claustrophobia that lowers attacks whenever your helmet visor is closed. 

The Somnambulant perk, however, is my favourite. "There is a slight chance you will wake up somewhere else than where you fell asleep," explains this Steam Community update. "Provides quite a challenge when you wake up in an unknown place and can't see your position on the map. Very rarely you can also sleepwalk your place to some secret areas."

Which reminds of a more gruelling slant on Skyrim's A Night to Remember side quest. The full list of negative perks can be read here. 

Hardcore mode also prevents Waypoints from being seen unless the player is up close, combat is more realistic—"strikes have a more realistic impact"—traders pay less for goods, and repairing items is more costly. Moreover, in the absence of compass indicators players must determine the time of day against the sun's location in the sky, which sounds pretty neat.    

Read more on KC:D's Hardcore survival mode this way, alongside patch notes for update 1.6. There, developer Warhorse Studios says more on the action role-player's incoming From the Ashes DLC is "coming soon".

Update: Since publishing the above, Warhorse has released a brief trailer for its From the Ashes DLC. Here's that: 

Kingdom Come: Deliverance will get three pieces of story DLC, a free hardcore mode and tournaments before the end of the year, developer Warhorse Studios has revealed.

The DLC roadmap, which you can see at the bottom of this post, doesn't give release dates for individual pieces of DLC, but tells you roughly when they're due out. From the Ashes is up first, and it'll grant you control of an abandoned village that you have to build back up to its former glory. That will be shown off at E3, and it's due this summer alongside a free Hardcore Mode.

Two more story DLCs—The Amorous Adventures of Bold Sir Hans Capon and Band of Bastards—are due before the end of the year, as are combat tournaments. We'll also get two new videos: a "making of" documentary and "Combat Academy", which will presumably help you get better at fighting off enemies.

The fourth story DLC, A Woman's Lot, will arrive early next year, as will modding support. A Woman's Lot will be free for early crowdfunding supporters.

I really enjoyed Deliverance (particularly its save system), but I haven't returned to it in the last month. Some chunky DLC would be the perfect excuse to go back.

If you're on the fence, here's Andy's review.

I’m a serial save scummer. In open-world RPGs my finger snaps to F5 at the first hint of danger, ready to quick save. As soon as things go south I’ll reload, and try again until I get the outcome I want. It’s a viable—and often very fun—way to play. You win virtually every fight, pass every skill check, and get the best loot, which helps you build powerful characters. 

But Kingdom Come: Deliverance’s save system has shown me that the aftermath of my mistakes is worth sticking around for, and that living with the chaos is often more enjoyable than reloading and trying again. By taking away your ability to quick save it forces you to consider your actions more carefully and react to your own failures, which makes you feel more attached to the game’s main character, Henry.

It’s a system I’d like to see more games experiment with. To save your game, you must sleep in a bed that you own or drink a Saviour Schnapps potion, which you can either buy or brew. A recent patch added the option to save and quit the game, too, so that next time you’ll pick up where you left off.

Taking the L

That means if something goes wrong, and if an arrow you fire at a bandit whistles over his shoulder and hits a guard, you have two choices. You can either reload your previous save, which might mean you lose an hour of progress, or roll with the punches (the literal punches of the guard’s friends, in this case), which can reveal some of the game’s best moments.

For example, early on in my Deliverance life I stabbed a man outside Rattay because I wanted the fancy trousers he was wearing. Yep, I’m a monster, but at least I'm a fashionable one. I thought nobody was around, but a witness down the road started screaming for the guards. I knew that I wouldn’t win the ensuing fight, and I didn’t have enough money to bribe them. So I fled to Ledetchko and spent a few days getting to know the town, pottering around its shops, playing dice at the tavern and taking on some odd jobs to earn some coin along the way. When I had enough saved up, I stashed all my stolen gear in a chest, rode back into Rattay, and bribed a guard. Voila, a clean slate, at least as far as the law was concerned (I’m pretty sure the witness in question still runs away whenever she sees me). My screw-up led to a nice little vacation, something a quick save system would've taken from me. 

And when I was caught choking out a wayfarer near Sasau because he looked like he might be carrying a pile of coins, I couldn’t simply reload—I had to chase the witness across the countryside and cut them down before they could raise the alarm. I dragged both of the bodies off the road, looted them, and then hid them in bushes, before strolling away like nothing had happened. 

In both cases, my mistakes sparked mini storylines that emerged organically and felt unique to my play through. Not only were they fun, but they were chances to roleplay—to make decisions away from quests, and to shape the character that I wanted to create, or didn’t even know I wanted to create. If I’d decided my Henry never backed down, I could’ve gritted my teeth and squared up to the guards in Rattay. With the right gear I could’ve won, but that would mean living with the aftermath, and making plans for repairing my tattered reputation. 

By taking away your ability to reload, Deliverance forces you to make tough, character-defining choices and then amplifies the consequences. There’s no going back. That gives Henry more personality, and a real sense of place in the world outside of the main story.

Bruised, smiling

I realize that such a cold, unforgiving save system  can make Deliverance feel brutal at times. I know that if I’m caught picking locks in a nobleman’s house—which I tend to do from time to time—then a guard will demand I hand over any stolen items that I’m carrying, which normally includes some of my most-valued possessions. If I don’t have enough gold to bribe him, I’ll be thrown behind bars. That costs time, and reduces my skills for a short time after I’m out.

But far from being annoying, it helps get me into Henry’s head. I don’t just wade into someone’s house and start stealing—I plan thoroughly, I pick my spots carefully, and I know when to give up a lost cause. Without the ability to zip back in time Henry feels more fragile, and more human, than protagonists in other open world games. 

I understand that there are ways around the system. The ingredients to a Saviour Schnapps potion are easy to find, and later in the game you’ll have more than enough money to buy stacks of them. But there is still a cost. The time you spend at the brewing station could instead go towards some of the game’s excellent side quests. The money you spend at the apothecary could go further if you walked down the street to the armourer and splashed on a new helmet. I’m more likely to just live with the daily saves I get from sleeping: I’ve used maybe three save potions in my 60 hours with the game. 

Sure, you can play just as thoughtfully with unlimited saves, and just leave them for when you absolutely need them. But that requires a level of self-discipline that I, and many others, don’t possess. I really enjoyed it when things went wrong in Skyrim or The Witcher 3, and I could feel some of those same mini stories that I’ve experienced in Deliverance begin to take shape. But that didn’t stop me mashing the quick load key, and I probably missed out on some great moments because of it.

I know a lot of people feel that the save system makes death in Deliverance overly punitive, and even boring, because it forces you back to your last save and slices off a chunk of progress. That’s fair. But it’s more a critique of Deliverance’s death mechanic than the save system. The harsh penalty for death, and the fact that it crashes too often, would make anyone pine for their good friend F5. But by restricting your ability to reshape Henry’s tale on the fly makes every choice more meaningful. More than any other game I can remember, Kingdom Come: Deliverance shows, somewhat forcefully, that failure is one of the best conduits for fun, painful as it might be getting there. 

One of the rewards offered in the Kickstarter campaign for Kingdom Come: Deliverance is a documentary film on the making of the game. That's still in the works, but developer Warhorse Studios have released an "Epilogue" documentary that follows the final days and hours before the game was released to the public, and the tense time immediately after it went live.

"The release day actually isn't such a big deal for me," creative director Daniel Vavra says in the video, in the days before the game was actually released. He acknowledges that the first week of sales is important, but qualifies that by adding that for big RPGs, the situation is a little different.   

"With a normal game you can sell 500,000 in the first week, 250,000 in the second, and then it goes down linearly, so in the end you sell 900,000 and that's it," he says. "But with an RPG it's different. For example, Skyrim is still selling five years after release and still in the top 20 or 30, even if the price is a bit lower. So these games have a longer lifespan, so it can be a bit deceptive." 

He admits that he'd be nervous during the first week of sales, though, a point he comes back to near the end of the video when he says that he was worried about how Kingdom Come: Deliverance would sell.   

"The preorders—a month ago they weren't all that good. We were thinking, 'Shit!' I asked Swen Vincke how many preorders Divinity sold, only he had Early Access, and he sold an awful lot. So I was thinking, 'Jesus Christ, this is fucked. We can't match that!' But in reality we've almost matched it in a couple of weeks." 

The video doesn't delve into the process of making the game as the full documentary promises to, but it does serve as a nice happy-ending coda to its creation. Just be sure to have subtitles turned on when you watch—it's almost entirely in Czech. 

Vavra also tweeted today that the Kingdom Come: Deliverance 1.4.2 patch, which will fix "some crashes and a few other issues," is complete and in testing. "I would love to give it to you before the weekend," he said, "but we know how it 'worked' last week, so give us some more time." 

The Kingdom Come: Deliverance 1.4 patch arrived yesterday, featuring new hair and beard mechanics, Easter eggs (actual Easter eggs, not the videogame type we generally deal with), NPC resurrections, and 200 "major" bug fixes. Unfortunately, it also brought with it a wee little problem that resulted in "a distinct possibility that the save files created with version 1.4 might be corrupted." Thus, the Kingdom Come: Deliverance 1.41 patch is out today. 

The 1.41 patch notes are on the vague side, saying only that it fixes errors that arose "due to obsolete data having been published as part of 1.4." Developer Warhorse Studios didn't indicate the actual likelihood of save files being corrupted under the 1.4 update, but the words "distinct possibility" are generally not ones you want to read when they're attached to bad news. 

"We highly recommend going back to your old save files that were created with version 1.3.4 or older," Warhorse wrote. "If you finished main quest Baptism of Fire and the following quest (Questions and Answers) did not start, reload any save from Baptism of Fire and progress through the battle. The quest Questions and Answers should start after the duel with Runt." 

As for that 1.4 patch, this is the list of the good things it does: 

• New Hair and Beard mechanics.
• Customize your style in bathhouses and gain extra charisma with freshly cut hair.
• Unarmed mercy kill added for a more "subtile" way to solve quests.
• Real Easter eggs added. The hunt for the golden egg can begin!
• Traditional Czech Easter-themed weapon to be found, called "Pomlázka".
• Resurrection day is upon us! Some NPCs that have died due to the physics glitches have risen from their graves.
• Fixed problems with the "Mightier than the Sword" quest related to the scribe.
• Rattay archery competition works on advanced difficulty.
• Fixed save issue for the "House of God" quest.
• Another 200 major bugs fixed

Alongside the 1.4 update, Warhorse also released a free HD Texture and Audio Pack for the PC version of the game. HD audio is provided for all three voiceover languages (English, German, and French) and enhances all in-game sounds, while the hi-def textures can be toggled from the game menu but require a minimum of 6GB VRAM to run.   

There's good news and better news for Kingdom Come: Deliverance players looking forward to the arrival of some much-needed fixes. First up, a new 1.3.4 patch hit Steam and GOG today, which fixes a random encounters bug and adds support for Nvidia Ansel and Shadowplay so, as creative director Daniel Vavra said, "you can take cool screenshots on GeForce." 

Unfortunately, that's all it does. Behold the full patch notes:   

• Fixed random encounters bug.
• Adds support for Nvidia Ansel and Shadowplay.

The reaction to the patch is what you might call lukewarm, as many fans were expecting a much more substantial update. That's where the better news comes in:

Vavra said Warhorse hopes to have the patch out next week. That one should be much more substantial: Vavra tweeted last week that the 1.4 patch will have "lots of bug fixes and cool new stuff."