Kingdom Come: Deliverance – Band of Bastards | Xbox One | Review

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Band of Bastards is the third major expansion for Kingdom Come: Deliverance - Warhorse Studios’ medieval simulation RPG, which is holding up well a year after release - bringing with it a cluster of combat-oriented missions for battle-hardened players to get stuck into.

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 by Liam
 Andrews

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@liam_andrews5

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Developer: Warhorse
Studios
Publisher: Deep Silver
Platforms: Xbox One,
PlayStation 4, PC
Players: 1

Bandits are raiding the lands of Sir Radzig Kobyla, your liege Lord, and it’s up to you, along with a group of mercenaries who happen to owe Sir Radzig a favour, to restore order.
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With battles often taking a backseat in the main game, where flashpoints are saved for random encounters on the road and set-piece skirmishes many hours into the campaign, we were particularly excited by the prospect of teaming up with the titular bastards and giving our sword arm a proper work out. Things wouldn’t be quite so easy, however.

This being a combat-centric experience, the developers (along with the bands’ leader, Sir Kuno) want to make sure you’re battle ready by having you overcome two obstacles. Firstly, players must have completed the main campaign’s Baptism of Fire mission - the first big fight which takes place about a third of the way through - and secondly, you need to beat Dangler.

Who’s Dangler? He’s one of the eight not-so-merry men you’ll be riding out on missions with, should you be able to prove your ability to the rest of the gang by beating him in single combat. While no Jaime Lannister when it comes to swordplay, we’d managed to hold our own so far, so one measly mercenary wouldn’t be problematic… Right?

​Wrong. We were massively underprepared for the confrontation; confidence, pride, armour and flesh were quickly cut to ribbons by our extremely dexterous foe, across multiple attempts. It took a lot of levelling, gear tweaking and combat practice to eventually take him down. Returning players with high-level characters shouldn’t have a problem, but those still working their way through the campaign would do well to give Band of Bastards a wide berth for the time being.

So, once you’ve polished off Dangler and been accepted into the nefarious crew, what adventures await? With around five hours of new content, Band of Bastards is comprised of six quests - five main and one side - plus the opportunity to explore your new camp and get to know the mercenaries within it.

Each of these characters feel unique and well-rounded, sharing entertaining backstories about how they became members. Particular highlights are the tale of how Dangler acquired his moniker (that’s sure to have set your mind racing) and how Sir Kuno’s family fell from grace.

The DLC’s solitary side quest, where head bastard Kuno asks you to retrieve a ring that grants its holder unlimited booze in taverns, unfortunately proves to be little more than a series of fetch quests taking place entirely within the borders of the small camp area.

​Main mission wise, four of the five on offer feature combat situations for players to get involved in, with some decent armour components up for grabs to those willing to pay the iron price. The action’s tied together by some impressive cutscenes, and, while the story may be relatively straightforward, it does explore the questionable morals and irresolute loyalty of a sellsword company.

Unfortunately, it’s over all too soon. Just as you’re growing emotionally invested in a character, the conversation options dry up, and the same goes for Band of Bastards’ narrative as a whole. More disappointingly, the big finale ends on rather a limp note; the game’s framerate tanks and enemies display bizarre behaviour, doggedly chasing you around the battlefield whilst ignoring the rest of your party hacking them to bits. Granted, it’s possible to avoid a brawl altogether and settle things in single combat, but doing so means you miss out on a lot of extra loot, including a significant amount of coin.
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None of that’s to say we didn’t enjoy the new content, though. The opportunity to venture out with your own crew and battle loads of baddies is exactly what Kingdom Come: Deliverance needed - the problem is, it needs even more of it! Band of Bastards is good, but it could have been great. All the components are here - the memorable characters, backstories and adventures - they just needed a bigger stage to flourish upon.

Pros

• Combat-centric gameplay
• Memorable characters
• Loads of good loot up for grabs
• Explores the questionable morals of a mercenary

Cons

• Inaugural battle locks out lower-level players
• Disappointing finale
• Framerate suffers during large conflicts
• It’s over too quickly

6/10