The development team at Warhorse Studios, known for their dedication to historical precision in Kingdom Come: Deliverance, has presented a distinct tone in their upcoming sequel, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. This new installment seems to embrace a more fantastical approach, featuring a violent world where knights possess almost superhuman strength and peasants appear with perfectly healthy teeth. However, I can’t help but lament the absence of a significant combat mechanic that could have enriched the darker, more fantastical elements of Kingdom Come 2.
According to CzechCrunch, this action RPG originally intended for players to experience the consequences of their moral choices through dreams and nightmares. For instance, a player engaging in deceit, theft, or violence could find themselves facing spirits and demons in their sleep. Successfully vanquishing these foes would provide experience points in the waking world, whereas failure would result in a drop in sleep quality.
Conversely, players who choose to uphold virtue would embark on different dream adventures, potentially leading them to discover hidden treasures.
Unlike many RPGs such as Red Dead Redemption and Fable, which have implemented morality systems primarily through dialogue options, storylines, or visual transformations—like the dark angel wings in Fable 3 for nefarious characters—Kingdom Come Deliverance 2’s approach with interactive dream sequences presents a less common but intriguing method of integrating morality into gameplay.
Warhorse’s ambitious plan seemed to include a karmic element that could have transformed the player’s subconscious experience into a fascinating aspect of gameplay. I feel a sense of loss over this missed opportunity to delve into the psychology of knights and the other intriguing elements that were left behind in Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. Among the cut content is a substantial blackmail storyline in the main quest and the removal of infants, as the developers feared these characters would be subjected to harm by those who play with a predilection for nightmares.
One of the voices behind Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 remarked on the challenges faced during the voiceover work, describing it as “quite a lonely experience”: “That is incredibly challenging.”