Hands-on with Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2’s gritty medieval world and Holy Roman Empire politics
8.30.2024
By Francisco Dominguez, Contributor
It’s the details that sell the illusion of Kuttenberg in 1403, which is a late-game location encountered 50 hours into the story. It’s the clamor of peasants going about their daily routines, the merchants’ street stall cries, bureaucrats parading like high school bullies, and the looming timber-beamed medieval dwellings lining the city’s muddy thoroughfares.
What makes Henry of Skalitz’s adventures feel like far more than a scenic ren faire jaunt, however, are the giant horse turds festering in the street, the stinking rats scurrying before my path, the uncouth dialogue, and the combat whose complexities demand a lifetime of disciplined training. The result is a grubby, believable setting that punctures any delusions of knightly grandeur.
Forget chivalry: I’m knee-deep in the muck, filth and petty politicking of the Holy Roman Empire in the year 1403. And it’s a fine setting for a 100-hour RPG.
Back in the muck
Warhorse Global PR Manager Tobi Stolz-Zwilling tells us that the studio's raised profile from the success of the original Kingdom Come: Deliverance (which sold 6 million copies) has opened doors to exclusive historical research to better bring the city—once Prague’s rival in economic and cultural influence—to life, startling a few present-day politicians along the way. “The mayor, when he found out that KDC2 is set in Kutná Hora, was absolutely s******g kittens, opening up all the archives for us," Stolz-Zwilling says.
Shortly after hitting the muddy streets of Kuttenberg, I found myself challenged to a duel on account of the grand title Henry acquired in the last game. We opted for training swords only, with nothing but pride and a 200 Groschen wager on the line.
Like the original, swords are among the game’s more complex weapons, sporting multi-directional attacks to guide blows past the opponent's guard and several stances to outmaneuver foes. Stolz-Zwilling jokes about their combat: “Hard to master, we really nailed it. Easy to learn? Not so much.” He adds a helpful tip: Maces and axes are better options for beginners to start whacking enemies on the head before learning the intricacies of sword fighting.
My artless bludgeoning sufficed to win this duel, only for the town council to interfere. It turned out my adversary Menhard, once the city’s preeminent swordmaster, is banned from sword fighting—only some diplomatic dialogue choices and a prompt fine payment on my part saved him from exile and my own unwelcome trip to the stocks.
Menhard was aggrieved at the injustice, and since my own wallet was lightened by the councilmens’ obnoxious power trip, I agreed to help him regain his right to bear arms by pinching the brotherhood’s sword from their dwelling and hoisting it atop the rathaus (town hall). Once up there, the sword serves as a declaration of an open challenge for all takers to compete for the title of swordmaster, offering Menhard a chance to return to his former position.
I take the wise advice one character gives to favor stealth: “Murder can make things awkward.” I timeskipped to night and vaulted into the guildhall’s courtyard—avoiding patrolling guards (not holding my torch, a crime in the city) and scoping out the joint before I found entry through an unlocked door. The experience of first-person creeping through medieval guilds by torchlight felt very Thief. I saw other player’s attempts descend into fisticuffs and chases through Kuttenberg’s side alleys when the night watchmen were alerted, but my own approach is tense and less eventful.
Once the sword was hoisted atop the rathaus, my time with the demo came to an end. The quest itself was far from over, proceeding in many permutations depending on Henry’s decisions and manner of conduct in the quest itself—if you're seen taking the sword, the referee will call out your foul play and give the brotherhood’s duelist superior armor.
Into the woods
My second demo session takes me into the woods, a picturesque early-game location that’s a world away from Kuttenberg’s urban griminess and even its own predecessor’s version of similar rural settings. Bohemia’s had a significant graphical glow-up since. Henry and Hans Capon’s escape from pursuing soldiers takes them to a secluded cabin; they're both severely wounded. Henry blacks out as they fall through the cabin’s door.
After Henry came to, this quieter passage introduced me to the simulation features underpinning the game—washing myself to look presentable (pretty privilege existed in medieval times, too), helping myself to ladles of soup to restore my energy, and hunting for herbs to heal Hans with a camomile concoction.
So far, so tranquil, except for the small matter of the soldier’s corpse who the cabin’s owner left rotting in the manure pile for you to deal with. Known only as that “dead bastard,” this sequence illustrated the earthy, convincing approach that permeates the game; I trudged forward to find soft ground by the stream to dig his grave. Wash your face, eat lunch, then traipse through a forest to conduct a daylight burial.
The components and systems that made the original such an engrossing experience are all here: bigger, better and more fully realized than ever. The new city, gunpowder weapons, and blacksmith mini-game show how Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is the game that Warhorse wished they had the resources to make the first time around. For example, the game's two maps add up to 25 kilometers of dense, systematically rich environments, a massive increase over the first game.
Stolz-Zwilling says the experience is as absorbing as a good book (now boasting a script even longer than Baldur’s Gate 3). “You open it up and you sink yourself into that world for hours and you don't even know four hours have passed," he said. "We're trying to achieve the same effect, that you really believe what you see on the screen is plausible.”
You can pre-purchase Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 on the Epic Games Store. The game releases February 11.