Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 offers a refreshing take on the sequel tutorial, trusting players and avoiding a pitfall many other games fall into.
Have you ever completed a game, unlocked everything, and fully upgraded your character before finally putting the controller down? You’ve done all there is to do, so now it’s just a case of waiting for the sequel to do it all again.
However, when the next game arrives, it instantly levels the playing field by stripping the protagonist of all the powers and abilities players worked so hard to get in the first outing. We’ve come to accept this in our gaming sequels, and while we may roll our eyes at the predictability of it all, we get why it happens.
If we started the second game with the demi-god we controlled at the end of the first game, the sequel would be a relatively short adventure. There’s often an in-lore explanation for our downgrade, but we all know it’s really designed so that we can repeat the gameplay loops of the original experience.
However, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 does the exact opposite of this – and I love that.
A warrior forged
Those who played the original Kingdom Come will remember that our protagonist, Henry of Skalitz, started life as a bit of a weakling. A simple farm boy with big aspirations, young Henry was thrown into a story of court intrigue, war, and danger.
Our hero had never used a sword or a bow nor spent time with nobility before, so as Henry learned how to navigate this new world, we did, too. As the players, we needed to upgrade our skills and go from a novice to an expert in what felt like a realistic, if not sometimes tedious, learning curve.
By the end of the first game, though, Henry is a much more confident and skilled warrior, and as we were with him from his transition from zero to hero, everything feels earned. However, this is where my anxiety about the second game started to set in.
Kingdom Come is historical fiction and features no fantasy elements like Skyrim, Dragon’s Dogma, and The Witcher all do. Therefore, it would have made no sense if we had started again with no skills and needed to return to becoming a mighty warrior.
There’s no all-powerful wizard or godlike being that curses us at the start of the game, nor does some calamity befall us, which causes us to lose the McGuffin that grants us our powers. So there was no explainable way to make Henry go back to being a rookie, at least, no way that wouldn’t insult the players of the first game.
For a time, I was very worried that they’d go down the overused amnesia route, but thankfully this isn’t the case. Sure, they could have made us do it all again as a new protagonist, but I’d argue that too would have been frustrating. We all wanted to see a continuation of Henry’s story, not the start of somebody else’s.
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I’d also argue that after going through the experience of learning the ropes in the first game, and even though I enjoyed it, I still don’t want to have to do that all again.
Back to Bohemia
Fortunately, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 takes the refreshing step of respecting the player’s intelligence and time. The game dives straight into the action and is fun from the beginning.
There is a brief tutorial segment that introduces new players to the basics of combat, but as this all takes place during the siege of a castle, it’s exciting and doesn’t bog the player down with boring tasks. Shoot some guys with a crossbow or kick down ladders while some hapless goons climb up? Sure, I’m down!
The Henry we see at the start of Kingdom Come 2 isn’t the frightened little rabbit we met at the start of the first game. Henry of Skalitz is still the self-assured badass he was when we last saw him. He’s now the bodyguard of Sir Hans, and the two have become close friends since the end of the first entry.
The banter between the two men – who are far from equals in terms of societal position – at the start of the game is rather heartwarming, but it’s also a testament to how far Henry has come. While Hans is the master, Henry’s the one calling the shots and keeping his overly adventurous charge in check.
Our full review for Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is still in progress, but as a returning player to this franchise, I wanted to assure other fans that they can rest easy and that the game isn’t going to make you walk the same arduous path the first one did – it’s going to reward you for it.
Diving back into this universe felt like putting on a familiar pair of comfortable slippers, and there’s so much more to say we could have written a second preview on top of this one.
However, when it comes to respecting players’ time and effort, lots of other games could learn a thing or two from this sequel – and would do well to borrow from it.
