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Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 – The First Preview
It's about to kick off in the centre of Kuttenberg, the sprawling medieval city at the heart of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. Menhard the sword master has offered to teach protagonist Henry of Skalitz a few tricks with the blade, but the lesson has been interrupted by Kuttenberg's official fencing guild. They won't let Menhard teach so much as a pommel strike, despite him having a charter from King Wenceslas to do just that. Moreover, they're going to fine the old Fechtmeister for breaching their rules.
Things are getting heated, with the chance of a real swordfight breaking out growing by the second. But Henry has an idea. "Menhard wasn't teaching me anything," he blurts out. "We were duelling because I insulted his honour!"
Unconvinced, the guild master asks what the duel was about, at which point I'm given an array of choices for Henry to respond with. Reacting quickly, I decide to have Henry say that he slept with Menhard's daughter. I don't know whether Menhard has a daughter, but it seems like the sort of thing medieval people would get into a duel over, so I roll with it.
It works. The guild master buys my bald-faced lie and waives the fine, though Menhard is still prohibited from teaching longsword in the city. With a fight avoided, I turn to Menhard expecting him to be grateful. Instead, he's furious. It seems Menhard really does have a daughter, and the very idea of Henry sleeping with her has genuinely insulted his honour. Oops. With their relationship damaged, Henry must desperately placate the raging swordmaster before they can focus on more important matters, like plotting how to get back at Kuttenberg's fencing guild.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is shaping up to be an even bigger RPG than the original, a 100+ hour epic featuring massive battles, sweeping Bohemian landscapes, and a fully simulated medieval metropolis. But at Warhorse Studios' preview event hosted in the real-life city of Kutná Hora (the modern Czech name for Kuttenberg) it was this throwaway detail that stuck with me the most. Warhorse claims every choice the player makes in its RPG will feel like it matters, and this dramatic response to a decision I barely thought about was the first (but not the last) indicator that KCD2 could well deliver on this promise.
It'll be several hours before KCD 2 opens-up to you in this way, however. Warhorse provided access to two separate chunks of the game, the first of which took place right at the beginning. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 opens in medias res, with an explosive castle siege where you defend the ramparts with crossbow and longsword. Warhorse says KCD 2 will feature substantially larger battles than the previous game, and this initial sequence was an impressive taster of playing at a larger scale, from booting down siege ladders from the castle wall, to firing crossbow bolts into a crush of enemy soldiers as they come barrelling through the gate.
Following this exciting opening, KCD 2 rewinds to connect with the end of the first game, as we rejoin Henry and his friend and liege lord Sir Hans Capon on a mission to deliver a letter to neighbouring lord Otto von Bergow. This initial hour is strictly linear and heavy on cutscenes, but it keeps you engaged through the feelgood vibes of Henry and Hans' friendship. Like the first Kingdom Come, the sequel is written in a very humanistic style. Henry remains a deeply affable, fish-out-of-water protagonist, while his position as Sir Hans' squire leads to an interesting blend of camaraderie and tension between the two.
Together, the pair have big "lads on tour" energy, clearly revelling in the rare freedom their position and assignment affords them in medieval society. It isn't all fun and games, however. An encounter with a retinue of Bergow's knights emphasises the danger that lurks around every corner, as the two have to convince the armed horsemen that they aren't bandits. It's the first of many elaborate dialogue sequences, with numerous player choices and a lot of exposition. Indeed, while KCD's conversations are generally interesting, I did wonder if they might benefit from some sterner editing at times.
KCD2 is built to be played with no foreknowledge of the original. As such, the opening hours fold in several refresher tutorials, such as Henry and Hans having a friendly duel that reintroduces you to KCD's unique swordfighting system. This has been refined for the sequel, reducing the number of directions you can swing your sword from five to four, and making actions like parrying and riposting easier to pull off. While it's been years since I played the first game, I was nonetheless able to hold my own against Sir Hans after a few minutes of instruction, suggesting that Warhorse's changes have indeed made the system easier to grapple with. The sequel also introduces bespoke fighting systems for certain non-sword weapons like maces, letting players who don't fancy mastering the blade to adopt the simpler approach of cracking skulls.
The introduction culminates in Henry and Hans taking a bath in the river, followed by a goofy scene where they sneak through the reeds along the riverbank, drawn by the sound of peasant women singing nearby. The scene quickly takes a darker turn, however, as the pair's camp is attacked by bandits, whereupon they're forced to flee into the woods wearing nothing but their pants. It's a sequence that shifts between dramatic and comedic multiple times, and the game handles those tonal changes well.
Through a series of unfortunate events, Henry and Hans end up in the care of a local peasant woman, where we get a chance to see the quieter side of KCD2. One of the original’s strengths was how it strived to immerse players in moment-to-moment play, and KCD2 seems just as indulgent in this regard. Simple actions like eating stew from a pot and picking herbs to make potions are depicted with intensely detailed first-person animations, while the Bohemian forests you explore are verdant and alive with birdsong. There's a chance to experiment with the updated alchemy system, which is even more tactile and involved than the first game, with you sprinkling ingredients into a big cauldron, before adjusting its height with a lever to change the heat level. Later, when Henry has to fight and kill a couple of bandits who come looking for him, an optional objective unlocks to bury the bodies away from the peasant woman's home, and you can go through the entire process of putting these wayward souls to rest.
Everything in this initial demo suggests KCD 2 will retain the original’s capacity for letting players steep in its medieval setting. What it didn't show was anything wildly new. For this, the second demo was more promising. This fast-forwarded the campaign to the 50-hour mark, where Henry arrives in Kuttenberg. This medieval metropolis is the largest urban space seen in the series yet, a bustling environment where every NPC has their own daily routines and behaviours.
It's here where Henry encounters the swordmaster Menhard and becomes embroiled in the dispute over who has the rights to teach longsword in the city. To settle the disagreement, Menhard hatches a plan, and asks Henry to steal the fencing guild's official sword and hang it on the wall of the Rathaus (the town hall). This, Menhard explains, is the formal way of issuing a challenge of arms to the town, a challenge which Menhard could then accept to prove his martial superiority.
Of course, this means sneaking into a guildhall filled with master swordsmen, which Menhard wisely suggests you do at night (though you are free to try it in the daytime if you wish). Yet even in darkness, clandestine activities are a risky business in Kuttenberg. Anyone walking around at night is expected to carry a torch, and not doing so will get you in trouble with the guards. Having successfully evaded the city watch, I then have to climb over the wall of the guild house, pick the lock on one of several potential entrances, find the sword, and escape.
Here, the open-ended nature of KCD 2 becomes much more apparent, with the quest feeling closer in spirit to a game like Dishonored than the more directed sequences of the early game. The first time I attempt the theft, things go south quickly. I pick the lock but attract the attention of one of the nightwatchmen, who relocks the door after searching for me. I pick the lock again, and proceed three steps into the building before I'm rumbled. I try to fight my way out with fisticuffs, managing to knock out one of the nightwatchmen, but another has roused the town guard, who come barrelling in with swords drawn to quickly cut me down.
In my second attempt, I'm more careful, and succeed in lifting the sword unnoticed and hanging it on the wall of the Rathaus. This would be a natural endpoint for the quest, but it proves to be far from over. Succeeding in the theft leads to a multi-stage longsword tournament between Menhard and the swordmasters' guild, and you can choose to be sworn in under Menhard's stewardship and fight for his honour and right to teach longsword in the city. Moreover, the quest can alter in multiple ways depending on your actions, both in narrative choices and general play. If you steal the sword but are spotted doing so, for example, the guild will accuse you of the theft when Menhard accepts their challenge. Consequently, the swordmasters' guild is given heavier armour during the tournament, making the fight more difficult on your end.
This elaborate structure isn't entirely surprising; quest design was one of the first game's strengths too. Nonetheless, it certainly feels like the sequel is operating at a higher level amid the busy streets of Kuttenberg. And if Menhard's quest is reflective of the sequel's 100+ hour total, then Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 could end up being something rather special indeed.
