Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 Has Evolved Without Sacrificing Its Heart

After four hours with Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, I was struck with the thought that this is a game that is exceedingly challenging to demo. The original Kingdom Come: Deliverance had an impressive level of depth and authenticity, and these are elements that have been broadened and expanded on in KCD2, but this meant that the time I spent in the world of Warhorse's virtual Bohemia were far too brief. Nevertheless, it's a place and experience I am excited to revisit.

While the original Kingdom Come: Deliverance was a difficult game for a lot of people to get into, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 aims to be more approachable in both story and gameplay without compromising any of the elements that resonated with the first game's hardcore fans. Players won't need to have finished or even played KCD to enjoy KCD2, but the sequel's 80-100 hour experience will certainly be elevated for anyone that already has a foundation in the series.

The demo opened up with a massive siege, as my character took to the walls with crossbow in hand. The crossbow is a new weapon for the franchise, and one I was immediately tasked with using, so I began firing bolts towards a formidable number of foes.

I had to take a beat to take in the impressive visuals on display in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2--I can't recall playing through a better-looking siege. I was snatched out of admiring the impressive visuals and the grim-looking arms and armor wielded by my allies, as sword slashes began to come my way.

Combat is one of the main elements that has received a bit of streamlining, and this is something that I believe was much-needed given the hours I spent trying to figure out the melee in the original game. The Warhorse team said they aimed for "easy to learn, hard to master" and admitted that they fell short of the mark in the original KCD, but are renewing that goal for KCD2.

Parries and blocks are slightly easier, but players will now have more freedom in how they fight. Those who wish to wail on their opponent with a little more reckless abandon will find that strikes from different directions flow together more fluidly. And while flashy combos still exist, and offer a lot more utility, they feel less essential to victory than they did in the original game, at least with the enemies I fought over my four hours.

There is also much more variety and utility to be found across the various weapon types of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2.

Previously, weapons like swords, axes, and maces shared a lot of the same moves and combos. Warhorse commented on that, saying that this was due to the team being much smaller during the development of the original Kingdom Come: Deliverance. This time around, however, they have expanded on individual weapons by working with weapon masters to give each weapon their own move sets and combos, recreating real, historical fighting styles but also allowing weapons to further lean into idiosyncrasies to tap into how they were used throughout history.So hopefully that means no more awkward pokes with the flat end of an axe.

One of the other new weapons is the firearm, a basic black-powder weapon that was used to devastating effect in the trailer. While the preview did not offer the opportunity to use one, Warhorse said that the gun is more of a rare super weapon that can open up a fight with a big bang and plume of smoke before you then enter the fray with sword and shield, rather than something that will see frequent use, once again similar to how firearms were used in the medieval period.

On the subject of historical accuracy, it is clear that this remains a key focus for Warhorse, although they are slightly altering how they approach "accuracy" this time around.

During the preview event, we saw both the virtual Kuttenburg (or Kutna Hora), as well as the real Czech town. Seeing the locations in the flesh, as well as in-game, really drove home how much care and attention is going into authentically re-creating them.

And that "authenticity" is the main driving factor for Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, rather than adherence to complete historical accuracy, with the goal to create an "authentically medieval, epic historical drama."

This means there are plenty of weapons, armor, locations, events, and characters that have been recreated with a combination of love, research, and a few educated guesses. But Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is also embracing a little more of its dramatic and cinematic side too, while still keeping hold of elements like drinking potions to save your game.This was a divisive gameplay feature in the original, but another one that has been tweaked to better fit with the player experience of KCD2.Firstly, the concoction is now called "Remedium Savegameum," and those who played the original may be happy to learn that it is now somewhat easier to acquire. It remains in the game because it is important to the team that there is a "minimum investment" in the decisions you make, and both your successes and failures have an impact, which actually nicely complements how Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2's quests are built and how you can interact with the world.

Another element of this is how Kingdom Come: Deliverance's titular character, Henry, is thrust into the adventure of this new game.

A common trope for RPGs that receive a sequel is for the character to go through some event which steals from them their power and resources so they get a fresh start and a new journey to progress through.

This is somewhat of a necessary evil for Henry to go through in order for the rest of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 to make sense and deliver on the power fantasy of growing into a knight once more. I won't spoil exactly what happens, but it does at least make some narrative sense. While your hour-zero KCD2 Henry won't be quite as wealthy or as handy with a sword as your hour-70 KCD1 Henry was, the character retains things like the ability to read and knowledge of the setting, history, and culture. It did feel a little clumsy, but it does work quite well and sets you up nicely to dive into this new journey and fresh quests.

Quests are now more dynamic, with a lot of freedom as to how you approach each objective, and the quest changing depending on what happens as you complete each part. For example, during the preview we were presented with a quest to help a sword master open up a new sword fighting school in the city of Kuttenburg. The quest saw us stealing a sword from a rival sword fighting school and mounting it in the town square, as doing so would signal to onlookers that the school was open to challengers. Doing this required sneaking into their guild house. If you are able to steal the sword, escape unseen, and mount the blade without any witnesses, a fair and balanced duel will proceed, with the winners being the new town's sword master. However, if you escape with the sword but are seen doing so, the duel will still go ahead but the adjudicator has decided that it is only fair if the wounded party gets to throw on their armor and helmets. This may sound like a small change in one quest, but it is an interesting look at how the quests can evolve and mold themselves around the actions of the player, as well as their failures or successes.

The Warhorse team were keen to explain that this was not a one-off twist, but that they are taking this approach with all of their quests across their 100-plus-hour adventure. Not only did this add an intriguing element to the quest that made the final fight all the more challenging, but it also made the quest feel much more grounded in the world and connected to my specific playthrough, which only made me more excited to see what the other quests had in store for me in the full game.

This has not come without cost, however, as it appears to be one of the factors that has caused Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2's release date to be pushed back to February 11, 2025, as I experienced a couple of quest-related bugs during my time with the game.

During an interview with the Warhorse PR Manager Tobias Stolz-Zwilling, he said, "The game, performance-wise, I think is absolutely rock-solid. But then, while the performance is fine, it's a huge RPG with 100 hours of gameplay, and it has a few bugs. And if you think back on KCD1, we didn't want to repeat the same situation where we released the game and it was in a somewhat wonky state."

The message we were left with was that Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is an "evolution, not a revolution," and saying something like, "If you enjoyed the original game then you'll enjoy this one," might be trite when previewing a sequel. But it is almost inescapable here as you can clearly see how much of the original DNA is still present in KCD2, and also see exactly where it is being expanded upon for the benefit of both veteran players and new adventurers.

It's encouraging to see the team not wanting to repeat some past mistakes, and seeing just a snippet of what they've been putting their resources into since the success of the original Kingdom Come: Deliverance has only made me more excited to explore more of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2.