Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is the game that Warhorse Studios always wanted to make - Preview
Even though I own it three times over (I’m weak when it comes to seeing a video game on sale), the original Kingdom Come: Deliverance is a game I haven’t sunk much time into. As someone who loves the Elder Scrolls games, there’s an allure to playing a stat-heavy, super crunchy RPG, and the fact that these games are based around large historical events is just a nifty added bonus. So, when I had the chance to check out the upcoming sequel, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, at PAX West recently, I threw on my best tunic and leather pants and got to it.
Described to me as Dungeons & Dragons without the dragons, KCD2 is set in medieval 15th-century Bohemia (modern-day Czech Republic), where you once again control the former blacksmith turned hero, Henry. Picking up directly after the first game, players will be thrust into a story that sees good ol’ Henry going up against Sigismund of Luxembourg, aka the Holy Roman Emperor. In the demo I played, I got to explore a snippet of the new, large city of Bohemia and witness how the team is incorporating branching decisions into their quests by testing Henry’s sneaking skills in an attempt to steal a rival swordsman school’s sword.
Tobias Stolz-Zwilling (he goes by Tobi), International PR Manager for the game’s developer, Warhorse Studios, sat me down and directed me to speak to a gentleman in the street to begin the quest. Moments later, I was dueling a master swordsman from Germany. As Tobi later explained, this duel would impact events later in the quest and could have allowed me to skip an additional duel with his apprentice. It was just the beginning of the branching situations that would tailor this event and make it unique to my playthrough.
Naively, I thought this little quest discovered on the street would conclude by the end of the demo. I was wrong, and each task I completed pulled back additional layers of the goal. In the 30 minutes I had, I negotiated my and the German swordmaster’s way out of being thrown in jail, agreed to take part in a robbery, failed at said robbery, got beaten up a couple of times, bribed my way out of more than a few predicaments, and managed to have a combat tournament scheduled—with me getting a penalty because I got caught during the robbery as mentioned above. It was a lot, and it wasn’t until after my demo, when I spoke to another player, that I realized how differently the game could change based on the outcomes of my actions.
As someone who loves the immersive sim genre and games like Dishonored, few things will get me on board a game faster than knowing I can tackle tasks my own way. While Deliverance 2 is far more grounded in reality than something like Dishonored, going so far as even having characters speak in their authentic language, the options I had were more subdued and subtle (not being able to climb or pull me up over walls or onto window sills during my botched robbery was especially disappointing). However, the game still whetted my appetite enough to make me want more.
I have to compliment the team on the visuals and the scale of the city they dropped me into. I found the streets bustling with life, with townsfolk going about their day, hawkers at stalls trying to sell their wares, and taverns raucous with clientele. Even with about five months left until its release date of February 11, 2025, what they have is impressive, and with the extra time, I’m excited to see what they do with it.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, as Tobi put it, is the game the team always wanted to make, and thanks to the success of the first game and the passionate community that has built up around it, Warhorse Studios can make it a reality. With stats aplenty, an interesting combat system (that I 100% was not able to grasp by the end of the demo), and a healthy dose of history thrown in, I think I’m finally going to bust out one of my copies of the first game and start playing it so I’m ready for this new adventure next year.
