Earlier this year I had the awesome opportunity to review the great game Kingdom Come: Deliverance. I spent countless hours playing, simply hooked by the story and side quests. I was never worried about the game length, as by the time I completed the main story campaign I was already at 61 hours of game time. I have done more than a few handfuls of side quests, lots of killing bandits, but most simply enjoying the world and story. So when I heard about From the Ashes I got pretty stoked. That is until it actually came out.
From the Ashes was portrayed as a new story-driven “Expansion.” Not just a DLC, but an expansion, the first in fact. I came into this review really excited, really wanting to dive into more amazing story from this expansion. It just wasn’t there. There is a small story, yes, but all in all it’s very limited and very linear. It doesn’t hold a candle to the entire game as a whole. Which is actually pretty sad considering how amazing Kingdom Come: Deliverance actually is.
So what does From the Ashes bring to the table? A story about rebuilding the small town of Pribyslavitz. You are locked out of it until you finish the story portion that involves Pribyslavitz by the way. The story entails you being appointed Bailiff of Pribyslavitz by Lord Divish and his demand that you rebuild the town…out of your own pocket. He sets a goal of completing the construction while obtaining a sufficient income while doing so. You are also the Bailiff, so you have to decide actions to take against your citizens. Good or bad, or abstain completely, it’s your choice. The game does hint, however, that you can upset your citizens, not too sure that happens however. Once you finish all of the construction, you get the income he wanted, congratulations you finished the DLC! You now get a steady income from the town, but that’s pretty much it, so far at least.
When you start out nothing is there but a provisional camp for the workers and Rathaus. You talk to the worker guy Lord Divish leaves with you to start a conversation menu to build whatever you want to build, given the sufficient materials. Each building having an increasingly higher cost of building, as well as materials that you have to obtain from around the map. You are given side quests to obtain these materials, such as Talmberg stone, just added fluff to drag the DLC out a little while longer.
There are a couple buildings that you can’t build together as I would assume they utilize the same plot. For example ,if you build a Butcher, you cannot build a Baker shop. This kind of sucks but in the end doesn’t truly make a difference in the outcome of things. It’s basically all just personal choice.
For players who have completed the campaign already, or have put in numerous hours as I have into the game, you will find yourself finishing all of the buildings rather fast. Almost instantly. I had a substantial amount of money on hand, and therefore breezed through the construction. The idea of adding this feature to the game was a nice thought. The implementation was somewhat half-cocked. While it would work for new players that have never played the game before, for older players returning in hopes of new content, it was really just not worth the effort. I feel like this was something that either should have been in from the get go, or never added, or at least implemented in a better way.
Overall I was seriously disappointed. The hopes of new content, new story, and a pretty cool town building aspect made me really look forward to it. Yet once it was released, it was just like “that’s it?” I wanted more story, more content, but ultimately received something I’d pass off as a free mod. For the price tag of $10, I can’t really say I’d recommend it. If anything it feels like a $3~$5 DLC, I can’t really justify saying it’s worth a full $10. Warhorse Studios is far from done with the game, though. They have promised several story expansions. I’m unsure if the rest will be better or not, but one can hope. They did put out a pretty stellar patch recently with a new hardcore mode! I suppose that does make up for this somewhat.
