In the silver mining town of Skalitz, Henry is a young apprentice living with his mother and his blacksmith father, Martin. Henry and Martin finish a commissioned sword for King Wenceslaus' hetman, Sir Radzig Kobyla, who visits to admire the weapon with Hungarian nobleman Sir Ištván Tóth. Skalitz is then attacked by an army of Cuman soldiers under Sigismund's command, and Henry's parents are killed by Sigismund's adjutant, German nobleman Sir Markvart von Aulitz. Henry flees with the sword to Talmberg to warn its lord, Sir Divish, of the attack. Taking advantage of a storm during the night, Radzig sneaks the survivors out of Skalitz castle and towards Rattay. Meanwhile, Henry is devastated that his parents have not been properly buried, and sneaks back to Skalitz against Divish's orders.
It utilises a classless role-playing system, allowing the player to customise their skills to take on roles such as warrior, bard, thief, or a hybrid of these. Abilities and stats grow depending on what the player does and says through branched dialogue trees. During conversations, the time a player takes to make a decision is limited and has an effect on their relationships with others. Reputation is based on player choices and therefore can bring consequences. Character bodies and faces are created through the combination of multiple, individual pieces with finishing touches. The clothing system features 16 item slots and items on many areas of the body that can be layered. For example, a heavily armored knight may on his upper body wear a gambeson, followed by mail and plate armour, with a tabard or surcoat over top, for a total of four clothing items in the chest slots. Each clothing type provides different levels of protection against different types of weapons. Clothing also gets progressively more worn, dirty, or bloody through use, affecting the character's appearance. The player is able to use a variety of weapons, including swords, knives, axes, hammers, and bows. Horses are featured heavily in the game, and are designed to act with their own AI while under the player's control, moving or jumping to avoid small obstacles or dangers. The player can also fight from horseback and use their steed to carry items if they need additional inventory space, but warhorses are also competent combatants with their own AI. Steeds come with five slots for armor and attachments.