Kingdom Come: Deliverance II announced, and it’s coming this year
Six years after their first release, Kingdom Come: Deliverance overcame a lukewarm critical reception and middling review scores to become a cult hit on PC, Czech outfit Warhorse Studios have announced the sequel will be released later in 2024. During a hands-off online event, we were shown new footage of KCDII, and talked through the features by Warhorse Studios’ Director Daniel Vavra, and two stars of the game, Tom McKay and Luke Dale.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II continues Henry’s story, picking up after the events of the first game and exploring the protagonist’s quest for revenge even further. The world is twice the size of the original, with much of the action taking place in the Bohemian city of Kuttenberg in the early 15th Century.
Warhorse has grown considerably since they began work on the first game almost a decade ago, swelling from just 11 developers to a team of 250, aiming to bring this world to life with over five hours of cutscenes and a much tighter grasp on the core concepts. In our review of Kingdom Come: Deliverance in 2018, we said: “…ultimately Warhorse are victims of their own ambition, throwing too many ideas into the pot and failing to thoroughly cook any of them.” While we still feel that was true of the first game, which we scored a 6/10, Warhorse seem to have taken these and other criticisms to heart for the sequel.
The combat looks much tighter and more balanced this time round, with a focus on making the weapons feel weighty and realistic, but also satisfying to use. The original had some ambitious combat mechanics that never quite landed right, but there’s been a lot of work put into the sequel to right those perceived wrongs. In addition to the melee combat, KCDII also features crossbows and rudimentary firearms, two items conspicuous by their absence in a game that prided itself so strongly on historical accuracy.
But the scope of the game has also changed in the sequel. As Vavra explained: “The previous game was about the issues of small nobility, with bandits in their villages. Now it’s about the problems of kings.” And Henry, customisable and malleable from player to player, will be tussling with several kings, including Sigismund the Red Fox, as well as attempting to either fight, charm, smarm, or murder his way out of various situations.
Design and Combat Designer Viktor Bocan reiterates this b y explaining that “It’s on you, who you want to be. You can save the world, or help punish it for its sins.”
Kutternberg is huge, too, much larger than anything Warhorse built for the first game. Lead Character Artist Anna Pačesová wants players to go and explore a world that is “really colourful and isn’t dark at all.” There was a conscious effort to present Kuttenberg and its surroundings as authentic, capturing the verdant beauty of the area at the time. Just because the story goes to some dark places doesn’t mean the visuals have to be muddy and dirty all the time.
You can check out the reveal trailer below, and see how Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is shaping up. Those eager to jump back into Henry’s medieaval tale of chivalry and knighthood can look forward to a full release at some point during this year.
