Hands-on: Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 makes it easier to go medieval
At Gamescom 2024, I got hands-on time with Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, the upcoming action RPG from Warhorse Studios. The original Kingdom Come: Deliverance’s combination of a historical setting in Bohemia (modern-day Czech Republic) and brutal, realistic combat was met with critical acclaim — and everything fans loved looks to be bigger in the sequel.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 picks up where the original left off. Protagonist Henry continues to make his way through 15th century Bohemia, seeking revenge for the death of his parents, and gets caught up in local politics and skirmishes. This time around, the power struggle is intensifying, Warhorse public relations manager Tobias Stolz-Zwilling explained at Gamescom.
“In Kingdom Come: Deliverance you were mostly on your own dealing with bandits and some local lords in relatively rural areas, but now they invite you to the big stages in a battle of kings,” Stolz-Zwilling said. “You become part of a gang that tries to wage guerrilla warfare against an invading king. It’s more of a buddy story like Ocean’s Eleven or Inglourious Basterds.”
The game marks the conclusion of Henry’s revenge saga, but it’s not just the story that has been refined for the sequel, which Stolz-Zwilling said would take 80 to 100 hours to complete.
“We took every element from the first game and made it a few levels bigger — even the dice minigame,” Stolz-Zwilling said. “Everything about the combat has been improved. We took a lot of feedback from Kingdom Come: Deliverance with us.”
Warhorse wanted to create a combat system that was easy to learn and hard to master, though players found the combat in the first game difficult to learn, which is also addressed in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, Stolz-Zwilling said. “It’s still very deep if you want to invest your time in it, but if you don’t want to, there are different weapons and move sets that are easier.”
The private, hands-on demo area for Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 at gamescom.
In a booth decorated with flags and props to look like a Bohemian-era marketplace, I sat down at a PC to play the demo: In a side mission in a minor town, Henry gets caught up in a feud between a new swordmaster, who has the blessing of the exiled King Wenceslaus to establish a swordsmanship school, and the town’s existing swordsmanship school. As a swordsman and a man of honor, Henry feels obligated to aid the swordmaster — or at least that’s how I played him. In the preview room, among a roomful of players next to me, Tobias advised us to make a specific dialogue choice to keep the mission on track — an example of how small choices change the game’s world.
As Henry, I followed the swordmaster’s plan to sneak into the sword school after midnight, steal the ceremonial sword, and hang it outside the town hall to announce a combat challenge. Lo and behold, the school is not one to back down, and a challenge is issued for which swordmaster will be allowed to lead the town’s official school. Unfortunately, I was seen stealing, and the town official gave the school’s fighters permission to wear armor in the non-lethal three-on-three duel, while the swordmaster, his assistant, and Henry were only given padded shirts.
Small decisions, big consequences.
Combat was a big part of the first game, and I felt the smoother slope for less skilled fighters like myself. Swordplay is all about timing — knowing when to swing and when to block, though a good parry can create a great opening. I held my own, though I had my swing and block timing set incorrectly in a way that I was able to fine-tune much more as I played the game. We were only allowed to use swords, so I didn’t get a feel for how different weapons felt this time around.
The dialogue system has also been revamped a bit, with choices grouped around different profession types: In the aforementioned argument between the new-to-town swordmaster and the xenophobic sword school members, I could attempt to intimidate the haughty school folk by saying something intimidating, urge them to honor the wishes of their absent King Wenceslaus, pressure them into accepting a combat challenge, and more. Success at each is based on stats that grow as you progress through the game, gathering experience and making connections.
The game’s playing area is twice as big as the original game. The city of Kutná Hora (at the time the second largest city in Bohemia after Prague) offers players plenty of opportunities to explore the medieval lifestyle. Stolz-Zwilling: “We wanted to make the game even more immersive, to show players what medieval city life could have been like and what the problems of ordinary people could have been like.”
Much of what we were told would change to combat, dialogue and maps wasn’t shown in the demo; with less than half a year until the game’s February release, Warhorse is keeping things under wraps for now. It’s a promising glimpse into a sequel to a game with a fiercely dedicated fanbase, and Stolz-Zwilling assured us that Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 will deliver on what the first game promised.
“General, [Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2] is the game we always wanted to play, but couldn’t before,” said Stolz-Zwilling.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 will be released on February 11, 2025 for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC.
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