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At the very beginning of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, I feel like a real fish out of water. Amidst an arrow-laden battle in a medieval fortress, I've taken on the role of an older man by the name of Godwin. From the build up to reveal his face, I can tell he's likely someone players of the previous game might know, but since I'm new to Warhorse's RPG, he's a complete stranger to me. Armed with a crossbow, I'm instructed to go and take out some archers aiming at the front wall. The first-person perspective quickly immerses me in the battle as I crank the bow string back and aim another arrow at an enemy soldier. Before long, I'm lashing my sword at foes on the top battlements and pushing a ladder over.
Suddenly, it transitions over to two blokes on horses – one being the protagonist Henry and the other being his pal Hans – talking about their journey. At first blush, the fear that I'm going to feel lost in the freshly released sequel begins to seep in. I have no idea who anyone is, what they've been through, or how well this adventure will cater to players like me. But within just the first hour, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 proved I needn't have worried at all. With a strong set-up to lead you into the story, it not only does an excellent job of guiding you through the combat and RPG ingredients it has on offer, but it also establishes the events of the first game in a surprisingly effective way.
Choices and conversations
Despite the fact that Henry is a returning lead with a history, I appreciate the way he doesn't feel like an entirely established character. That's thanks to the fact that I'm given the reins to make choices that let me decide what kind of person he is almost immediately. The very first encounter with a group of soldiers on the hunt for some bandits lets me put my persuasion skills to good use. With the leader raising suspicions against me, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 introduces me to the many different ways I can convince them I mean no harm, with each response tapping into a different facet of Henry's personality or strengths.
Whether you want to come across as a hero or evoke dread, or you want to use lies and manipulation over honest resolutions, I'm being handed the freedom to decide how I want to play, and by extension, what kind of protagonist I want Henry to be within the first conversation. As a longtime RPG enjoyer, this is really my bread and butter, but it also means I can fill Henry's medieval boots easily because I'm the one who's deciding how they fit.
The sense that I'm shaping Henry is constant, from selecting responses when speaking to Hans on our journey on horseback, to deciding how to get my hands on some sausages from the camp's cook, Oates, to feed to my loyal hound Mutt. With other helpful tutorials such as a practice sword fight that lets me get to grips with the basics of combat, it isn't until I'm sitting around a campfire chatting with my party that I start to see that Warhorse is going fill in some gaps about Henry's past experiences for new players like me. Framed as a casual conversation among friends, the group asks Henry questions about his love life, how a previous sword fight went, and a few other instances, and once again, I'm able to give my own input to color the events of the past myself.
Formative flashbacks
I'm sure I would appreciate some of the quips and references more had I played the first game, but at no point did I feel lost or excluded from any necessary context. Of course, there's only so much a conversation can do to illustrate Henry's past, but the best is yet to come for a newbie like me. After being pursued by enemy soldiers – in my underwear no less – and taking a tumble, I take a hazy trip down memory lane. With Hans propping my concussed self up, hallucinations start to fill in some blanks and establish the tragic events of Henry's past that the first game explores. Yet again, I can react to what I'm seeing, which allows me to decide how these moments still weigh on him in the present.
It's definitely a bit of a process to learn the ins and outs of the inventory and the different commands and attacks you have at your disposal, but the onboarding process and tutorials available make everything quite welcoming. And while you might think you have all of these skills at your disposal in the beginning, that unfortunate tumble takes you back to square one, wiping out your level, skill, and perk points, so you have something of a clean slate to work from. It's quite a humorous way of offering up a fresh start, and it also means that I can learn alongside Henry without feeling overwhelmed.
I may have felt a little like a fish-out-of-water right at the start, but that no longer matters, because that's kind of what Henry is now. With skills to relearn and only his underclothes to speak of, I'm free to get stuck into some good old fashioned role-play and decide who he's going to become. How challenging it gets from here is something I'll have to discover for myself, but I can't wait to see where my adventures will take me and my medieval boots (once I've got them back on my feet, of course).
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 review: "Even if some friction can lead to frustration, its realization of medieval life remains utterly absorbing".
