Warhorse Studios announced Kingdom Come: Deliverance IIthe sequel to an ambitious and fascinating medieval role-playing game from 2018 this had many technical defects and also became one Lightning rod for controversy about its director’s comments about race and historical accuracy. The development team promises that the next game, due out later in 2024, will be much larger and will include “a wide range of ethnicities” this time.
Coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC. Kingdom Come: Deliverance II will once again put players in the shoes of Heinrich von Skalitz as his quest for revenge for the murder of his family sows chaos in 15th-century Bohemia, Central Europe. A new trailer
Think The Witcher 3 if it were in first person and had emergent gameplay as a priority Grand Theft Auto, but with an emphasis on simulating the everyday experience of the his torical period. The story takes players to the metropolis of Kutná Hora and focuses on a conflict with an invading king.
“What we’re doing now is something [Kingdom Come: Deliverance] “It was supposed to be at the beginning, but we couldn’t make it happen because we didn’t have enough resources and experience,” said creative director Daniel Vávra in an extended gameplay reveal. The studio promised Liberation II will be “twice the size” of the first game with many more immersive systems.
Here’s some of what the game will offer, based on the trailers and a Interview with IGN:
- Reputation system where NPCs respond to players’ habits
- Crossbows and early firearms
- Blacksmith mini-game
- Chat mode for quick replies to NPCs
- Reworked combat to be more accessible, but still realistic and crisp
Most important among the additions to Liberation II there will be more diversity. “Of course, in a place like this, people can expect a wide range of ethnicities and different characters that Henry will encounter on his journey,” said Warhorse Studios spokesman Tobias Stolz-Zwilling IGN. Even before the first game, Vávra insisted that there would be no black people.
“Would you please explain to me what is racist about telling the truth?” He tweeted back in 2015: “There were no black people in medieval Bohemia. Period.” Vávra’s use of historical accuracy to defend the lack of people of color in fictional role-playing games and his frequent acceptance of people of color Pro-Gamergate rhetoric
“We try to present a realistic, immersive and believable medieval world that is reconstructed to the best of our knowledge and belief,” said Stolz-Zwilling IGN. “And to achieve this, of course, we not only have our own historian, but we also work very closely with universities, historians, museums, reenactors and a group of experts from different ethnicities or religious beliefs, whom we actively involve as external consultants into the development.”
While the first game was crowdfunded, Warhorse Studios was acquired by Koch Media in 2019, which is now owned by Embracer and renamed Plaion. Stolz-Zwilling said that the profound cuts, cancellations and closures in the parent company had no impact Liberation II‘s development.
