What you need to know
- Developer Warhorse Studios has announced Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, a direct sequel to its popular 2018 medieval open world RPG.
- Kingdom Come 2 is scheduled to release at some point in 2024, and will be available on the Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and PC platforms.
- The game looks to follow up on where the first left off, with Henry's pursuit of revenge against Markvart von Aulitz for burning his village Skalitz and killing his family continuing amidst the 15th Century conflict between Bohemian lords and Sigismund, the half-brother of King Wenceslas IV of Bohemia who kidnapped him to take the crown.
- Notably, the news came from a special livestream in which Warhorse showed a reveal video it recorded in St. Barbara's Church, a famous cathedral in Kutná Hora (Kuttenberg). Kutná Hora will be a major location in Kingdom Come 2.
Following a tease that it would reveal the next game it was working on last week, developer Warhorse Studios has announced Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, a follow-up sequel to the original historical open world RPG from 2018. It's scheduled to release sometime later this year, and is headed to Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and PC systems.
The news came in a livestream on YouTube and Twitch, though this wasn't just some run-of-the-mill trailer drop. Instead, the studio filmed an entire 15-minute long overview video at St. Barbara's Church in Kutná Hora to introduce the game, complete with a sweet horse, appearances from KCD actors Tom McKay (Henry) and Luke Dale (Hans Capon), and commentary from several Warhorse developers like co-founder Daniel Vávra.
St. Barbara's Church stands as one of Europe's most famous Gothic cathedrals, with its construction taking place over the course of 500 years (1388-1905). It's an absolutely beautiful piece of architecture, and along with Kutná Hora (Kuttenberg) itself, it's been made a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The fact Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2's reveal was shot here easily makes it one of the coolest I've ever seen, and it's also quite fitting since St. Barbara is known as the patron of miners and KCD protagonist Henry hails from the silver mining town Skalitz. You can watch it below:
Pretty awesome, right? What's even cooler, though, is how amazing the actual game looks. Kingdom Come: Deliverance was beloved by fans for its rich open world, deep roleplaying, and historically authentic combat mechanics, and its sequel looks to deliver all that and more in spades. Its map is said to be two times larger than the first game's, with five full hours of cutscenes — and based on what's been shown thus far, the graphics of its "Bohemian paradise" landscapes look stunning, too. Kingdom Come 2 is also introducing a reputation mechanic that's influenced by your actions and affects how the people in its world react to your presence, and on the action side of things, there are new weapons like crossbows and the oft-forgotten handgonne.
Narratively, the game will pick up where the first left off, continuing Henry's quest for revenge against Markvart von Aulitz amidst conflict between men loyal to King Wenceslas IV of Bohemia and those fighting for his half-brother Sigismund. In case you're not familiar with the real-world history KCD adapts, the TL;DR is that Sigismund kidnapped Wenceslas in 1402 to take the crown, and his men — including Markvart — began warring with lords that didn't swear fealty. In the first Kingdom Come game, this led to an attack on Henry's village Skalitz that resulted in the killing of his parents. Swearing to avenge them, he enters the service of knight Sir Radzig Kobyla and joins the fight against Sigismund's forces.
Radzig is sure to come back for this new chapter of Henry's story — no spoilers about who he is here, but he plays a very important role in it — as are several other characters from the first game, such as the escaped traitor Istvan Toth and perhaps even Henry's close friend (and possible love interest) Theresa. The return of Hans Capon, a spoiled nobleman who grows up quite a bit during KCD and eventually enters something of a bromance with Henry, was directly confirmed by the reveal.
Just a few weeks ago I was thinking about how much I enjoyed the first Kingdom Come and that I hoped Warhorse was going to announce its next project soon, so I'm sure you can imagine how happy I was when I was given the opportunity to watch this video early at a press event. There's really nothing else quite like KCD out there, and I'm ecstatic that it's back.
Speaking of the original game, I strongly recommend grabbing it and getting started with a playthrough now if you've never played before. Though it originally launched with some serious performance issues, it's in a much more polished state now, and is one of the best Xbox games and best PC games out there for RPG fans. It's got some interesting quirks you'll have to get used to — for example, Henry's combat actions are initially pretty clunky since the poor lad doesn't know what he's doing until he gets training — but once you do, you'll fall in love with it.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance is available for $30 on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, and PC, though right now, it's on sale for a huge 80% off. There's also a Royal Edition that includes all of its DLC, which is the only version of the game you can get on the Nintendo Switch.
