Warhorse Studios has officially announced Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, the sequel to its popular RPG set in medieval Bohemia. Warhorse Studios fully unveiled the sequel at a private event last week, confirming among other things that it will be twice as large as the original, touting it as a “behemoth” of a game.
“What we are making now is what it was supposed to be in the beginning, but we weren’t able to do it because we didn’t have enough resources and experiences and all that stuff,” creative director Daniel Vavra said in a presentation. “We’ve proven the concept works, so now we can take it to another level, which is what we always wanted.”
To that end, Kingdom Come will be “much bigger in scope,” with “five hours of cutscenes instead of three” and a story that’s “much more epic.” It will pick up the story where the original left off with the game’s protagonist, Henry, and his traveling companion, Sir Hans Capon, but where the previous game was about “small nobility,” Kingdom Come II will be about the “problems of kings.”
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II will seek to build on the success of the original game, which drew attention for the way that it mixed Elder Scrolls-like first-person exploration with a granular focus on historical detail. While it received mixed reviews from critics, who among other issues criticized its technical performance, it managed to sell around 6 million units by February 2024. Warhorse Studios has grown considerably since then, rising to around 250 employees from a team that numbered just 11 a little more than a decade ago, and is currently one of the studios under Plaion – a subsidiary of the Embracer Group.
We’ve proven the concept works, so now we can take it to another level, which is what we always wanted
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Like other recent RPG success stories, most notably Baldur’s Gate 3 and Cyberpunk 2077, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II will seek to craft a highly-reactive world in which players can develop Henry in any way they see fit.
“Henry is a young guy, so he’s not so deeply entrenched in his already, you know, set character traits,” lead designer Prokop Jirsa explains, “so you can build your Henry in different ways.”
Among other details revealed by Warhorse, Kingdom Come II will include a reputation system in which NPCs will call out Henry if he develops a reputation for drinking or thieving, and he can respond in kind. At a higher level, Henry will be able to “save the world” or “punish it for its sins,” implying a multitude of different paths for the young knight.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II will once again utilize the CryEngine, which studio spokesperson Tobias Stolz-Zwilling attributed to familiarity and established pipelines, and will feature a variety of environments, including lush forests and other areas. Players will be encouraged to explore the countryside, which Warhorse Studios hints will be “serene and full of secrets.” It will also be dangerous, of course, and the initial trailer shows plenty of period accurate medieval combat, but Warhorse didn’t delve into too many details on that front. That said, players can expect new missile weapons like crossbows – which were sorely missed in the original game – as well as early firearms.
Kuttenberg may change Kingdom Come in more ways than one
Beyond the countryside, Kingdom Come II’s story is mainly set in Kuttenberg, also known as Kutná Hora in Czech – a real-life silver mining city mentioned multiple times in the original game but never shown. It figures to be one of the game’s stars as a large, explorable medieval urban center.
“Kuttenberg is a huge step forward for us and I will say it was the biggest challenge in the game,” art director Viktor Höschl said.
Vavra added, “It’s really big, it’s even too big in my opinion.”
Kuttenberg may also be a change for the series in another notable way. When the original Kingdom Come: Deliverance was released in 2018, it came under scrutiny for its decision to more or less leave out people of color, which Vavra attributed to a desire for historical accuracy. In a 2015 tweet he wrote, “Would you please explain to me whats racist about telling the truth? There were no black people in medieval Bohemia. Period.”
But when asked if Warhorse’s philosophy had changed at all for the sequel, or if it would incorporate more stories like the original game’s DLC, A Woman’s Lot, Stolz-Zwilling told IGN, “The story and plot of KCD has evolved — it’s darker, deeper, and more cinematic, yet also crueler with pivotal decisions and plot twists that challenge the players’s conscience. Nevertheless, it retains its humor and down-to-earth approach. As mentioned already, Henry is embarking on a journey from the countryside and local quarrels to a relatively sosmopolitan city that is besieged and occupied by the invading king. Naturally, in a place like this, people can expect a wide range of ethnicities and different characters that Henry will meet on his journey.
“Kuttenberg is playing a very important role in Henry’s story, so I can’t really tell you too much for spoiler reasons, but as I mentioned before — in KCD I, Henry grew from a boy to a man, and now in KCD2, he is growing from a man to a warrior. However, he can’t do this by himself, and he needs a strong cast of friends to help him on his journey.
Naturally, in a place like [Kuttenberg], people can expect a wide range of ethnicities and different characters that Henry will meet on his journey
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“We are trying to depict a realistic, immersive, and believable medieval world that is being reconstructed to the best of our knowledge. And naturally to achieve that we are not only having our own in-house historian, but we are very closely working together with universities, historians, museums, reenactors, and a group of experts from different ethnicities or religious beliefs that we are actively incorporating into development as external advisors.”
One way or another, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II will be a test of whether the series can take a step forward as Warhorse Studios seeks to broaden its ambitions. It is currently targeting a 2024 release date, and will release on Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and PC. For more, check out our full Kingdom Come: Deliverance II interview with Warhorse Studios.
Kat Bailey is IGN's News Director as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.
