BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY

KINGDOM COME: DELIVERANCE 2 is huge, ambitious and brilliant

- By Joshua Wolens

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 might be the most specific RPG I've ever played. Everything from its location, to its era, to its combat, to its clothing feels hyper-tuned, dialled in with precision to suit oddball tastes. Looking for a sweeping fantasy romp? You won't find one.

Like its predecessor, this is a game whose story springs inevitably from the politics of its time and place: the Kingdom of Bohemia in 1403. Want to mow down your foes by the dozen? Good luck. Combat is a strange dance of positioning both your hands and feet relative to those of your enemies, and charging into the fray even in the late game is liable to get you cut apart. Want to equip a hauberk without first equipping a padded gambeson beneath it? What are you? Some kind of moron?

LADS ON CHORE

KCD2 follows on directly from the first game. You’re still Henry of Skalitz: blacksmith’s son, noble bastard, orphaned when mercenaries attacked your town, and companion to Lord Hans Capon of Pirkstein.

Bohemia is in the grip of war, torn between supporters of the abducted King Wenceslas of Bohemia and supporters of his abductor and brother, Sigismund. Capon’s lordly guardians are Wenceslas supporters, and have dispatched him, Henry, and a retinue of protectors to deliver a letter to Otto von Bergow, one of the foremost supporters of Sigismund, with an eye to putting an end to the whole internecine thing. It all goes well and everyone gets to go home.

Oh no, wait, sorry, it all goes to hell pretty much immediately, and before long Henry and Hans are AWOL on a quest that sees them jumping through all the mad loopholes and imbrications of 15th-century central European politics, hopping from faction to faction in a plot that gets intriguing, particularly if you’re the kind of dork who will get very excited by the presence of historical figures like Jan Zizka and Emperor Sigismund.