Interview: How Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 Will Be Bigger and Better

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is set to once again immerse players in the medieval machinations of warring kings and lords. The game is set to release on February 11, 2025.

We played a few hours of the game, experienced the opening storylines, and then jumped straight into the big city of Kuttenberg and the broader historical RPG action. You can read all about it here . But we also got to talk to Warhorse figurehead and PR manager Tobias Stolz-Zwilling about a game that an entire console generation has been working on.

TSA Security Service: There’s almost exactly 7 years between the games, which is basically a full console generation, which is a lot of time in terms of technology, gaming, and people’s attitudes. Has your approach to Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 changed as a developer compared to the original, other than the studio just getting a lot bigger?

Tobias Stolz-Zwilling: Yes and no. No, it’s still the same kind of game, so we’re trying to stay true to Warhorse, stay true to KCD and deliver what we believe is a real, authentic medieval experience, but again, now with more people and the cushion of a successful KCD1, we can make things bigger – everyone always says it’s going to be bigger and better, but in our case we have more people, we have the financial resources that can support development, but we also now have the technology and the skills to bring things into the game that we couldn’t afford to do before.

For example, we and (director) Daniel Vávra always wanted to have a city in the game, and in KCD1 they tease and talk about how something happens in Kuttenberg, but we just couldn’t (go there), because we couldn’t have more than a few people on screen, the task of building a huge medieval city was too big, and so in KCD1 we basically have a bunch of villages and one exaggerated village, which is Rattay. Compare Ratai to KCD2 and it’s like one street in Kuttenberg. Now we feel confident to tackle bigger things and that’s what I think changed the most.

TSA Security Service: You pretty much answered my next question, which is how KCD2 changed from the original? The scope, sure, but are you sticking with the alchemy system, the fighting style, and stuff like that?

Tobi: Yes, the scope is the easy answer, but virtually every element of KCD1 is being tweaked, refined and upgraded. Even the dice minigame is getting deeper and there will be a number of badges to earn.

I think the most prominent example is combat (…) We said about KCD1 that combat was easy to learn but hard to master, and I think we’ve mastered the hard-to-master skills, but the easy-to-master skills not so much. A lot of people liked it, but some people struggled with it, so the idea now is to have different animators come into the studio, so they all feel different, but they can also offer different play styles. So if you want to play the complicated combat system, you can grab a sword and do all the combos and moves, but if you’re a character who doesn’t want to fight at all or wants a more straightforward style, there are weapons like the mace where you just hit the opponent on the head!

Then in the UI there are less attack zones, it’s a bit easier, the combos aren’t as hard, and so on. It’s also stayed true to each weapon historically and what it was used for – of course the crossbow was easier than a bow, that’s why they invented it, and of course a polearm is easier than fencing, that’s why they used it. The idea is to make a more entertaining game that gives you that choice.

TSA Security Service: You mentioned hitting enemies in the head, and video game developers have a rich tradition of exploding watermelons. Mostly that’s for first person shooters, I think, but did you use a lot of watermelons during development?

Tobi: (laughs) I don’t want to give too much away, but quite a few watermelons were damaged!

TSA Security Service: It also feels like you’re taking a step forward in the storytelling and cinematic style. Maybe that’s mostly just experiencing the opening hours and bringing people into the setting, but does that continue once the open world is exposed to you?

Tobi: Daniel Vávra is a huge movie fan and wants to make a movie himself one day, so of course you see that in his games – you see that in Mafia and Mafia 2, his previous products. He has that knack for dramatic scenes and sequences, and KCD 2 is certainly no different.

In the beginning of the game, it’s a bit more hands-on and we’re going to bring you up to speed with the video sequences to introduce you to the game and the environment. It’s going to be less so in the rest of the game, but I think we have 4, 5, 6 hours of cinematics in the game, and they’re extremely powerful and important for us to tell the story. After all, we have a 100-hour game, and it’s a story-driven game first and foremost, and an action RPG and the combat and so on, so the cinematics are very important.

TSA Security Service: I like that you can bring Henry and Sir Hans together in this game as two characters who still have a lot of growing up to do.

Tobi: And that’s what makes them so fun! Hans Capon in the first game, if you look on Reddit and stuff, most people say the same thing: “I hated this guy at first, but then he became my most loved character!”

He had this arc of interest in KCD where he became a friend to Henry, but there’s still that difference where he’s a noble and Henry is a Squire, a bastard. That’s still there, but KCD2 is going to focus heavily on the bromance between those two as they encounter horrible situations throughout the game where they’re on the edge of survival (maybe even further), and that’s a dramatic component that we’re focusing heavily on.

Henry solved almost everything himself in KCD1, but in KCD2 that will not be the case. He will quickly find out that he needs friends and other misfits to get things done.

TSA Security Service: I have a feeling Hans wants Henry to sort everything out for them after all! (laughs)

How important is it to you to keep Mutt in the game? Was that a day one addition to the plan?

Tobi: Yes, and you can finally pet him! That was a big deal and even our own boys said we had to have a pet dog, and to take it a step further, we also have a pet horse, which is awesome.

Some advantages and statistics we will carry over to KCD 2, like the dog for example or the fact that Henry can read. It doesn’t make sense to have him learn to read all over again. Things like fighting and other complicated things he has to rediscover though.

I like to say he is the champion of a Sunday league, but now he goes to the Premier League, so he will be poor in most things in comparison. However, he knows how to play football now, but now he has to step up his game to deal with armies, knights, lords, nobles and so on. It is not that he has forgotten everything, it is more that he has to refine his skills.

TSA Security Service: He didn’t just get hit on the head with a club and then forget everything.

Tobi: Precisely.

TSA Security Service: There are clearly still areas that you can improve and add in the future, so you mentioned not having jousting in the game, which I’m sure a lot of people would like you to do. Is that the biggest thing that’s still on the wishlist?

Tobi: Honestly, I think everything that’s in the game and everything that’s not in the game is exactly how Warhorse intended it to be. This is how we do it, this is what we wanted to deliver and we’re looking forward to releasing it.

Jousting and stuff like that comes from fans who know a lot of Hollywood scenes, like A Knight’s Tale. Yeah, jousting was a thing in the middle ages, but it definitely wasn’t as present as people would think…

TSA Security Service: And it was probably only for the rich people.

Tobi: For the terribly rich people. Mainly for the nobility, and even then, when they did participate, it was a problem because you were actually hurting a nobleman!

But there will be tournaments: sword fighting tournaments, archery tournaments, horse tournaments, and so on. There will be cool stuff in there, but jousting would be like a Quidditch game for Harry Potter. Of course everyone wanted Quidditch in there, but…

TSA Security Service: I mean, you can understand jousting, but it’s impossible to turn Quidditch into a usable game!

Tobi: Just catch the golden ball! (laughs)

TSA Security Service: Finally, I was wondering what the big picture of Kingdom Come looks like. Obviously you’re telling your own story in KCD2, but is there another chapter in a grander saga? I’m not sure you’re allowed to say that now…

Tobi: I can say anything! KCD1 ended on a cliffhanger, and KCD2 will end a story, but I won’t tell you what story. What the future holds, we don’t know yet.

In our history at Warhorse we’ve had two sink or swim situations. The first was the Kickstarter and the other was the release of KCD, because even then we weren’t sure if it would be a success or not. It’s not a sink or swim situation anymore, touch wood, but we have to see how KCD2 does. I’m sure, I think the game is great and already in a very good state.

I can tell you right now that Warhorse is trying to get bigger. We want more people, bigger studios and we are taking on bigger challenges again.

Our personal time and conversation with Tobi about Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 came about thanks to a press trip to Kutná Hora, modern-day Kuttenberg, with travel and accommodations provided by Warhorse and Plaion.