It’s been more than three months since the release of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 – not enough that many players probably still have a long way to go to finish the game, and enough for those who saw the story’s finale to yearn for Henry’s new adventures in medieval Bohemia. The appetite is whetted by the fact that the additions to the previous installment were far more creative than simply pasting in a few new quests. They introduced, for example, interesting mechanics for rebuilding a village or allowed us to look at events from a completely different angle when we took on the role of Theresa.
This time, however, Warhorse studio adopted a slightly different tactic. We’re paying for a single “content package,” which, a couple of months apart, will include three expansions. The first of these, called Brushes with Death, is thus only 1/3 of the total, and in this form it evokes somewhat mixed feelings. It is simply a series of several side quests, which on the one hand are interesting and well-written, and on the other – they bring practically nothing new to the game and look like mere content cut from the base.
Something you’ve made up here Wojciech….
You get access to the side story To Whom Death Painted after completing the quest To Whom the Bell Tolls. A marker of the place where we first meet painter Adalbert will then appear on the map with Trosky Castle. After a few quests, we move to the town of Kuttenberg and the next couple of quests already take place on the second map.
Probably this was the deliberate intention of the creators, because in the dialogue scenes our protagonist complains to Wojciech that, like what: he has to go somewhere again, get something done, and in return he will receive lies and vague explanations? And the painter himself at one point asks Henrik: “Why do you seem to be helping me with everything? What for?”. And therein lies the essence of the whole story, the potential of which, in my opinion, was completely missed.
Wojciech is a very mysterious and at the same time interesting character. He’s constantly hiding something from us, lying and stalling. The story is hooked on occultism, paganism themes, and you could really make a total brainteaser out of it, or a reference to a cult theme from a certain “B” game, and then there would be no end to the divagations and discussions online about what, who, why, how and why.
So come on, paint my shield….
After completing the story, which, depending on the level of character development, shouldn’t take more than 3-5 hours, we’ll be left with a few pieces of new, unique equipment – and that’s enough about it so as not to spoil. The only novelty previously unknown in KCD is the long-announced shield painting – a service provided to us by Wojciech. For this purpose, a clear and easy-to-use shield editor has appeared in the game, where we choose colors and patterns from predefined themes. It’s just that the most said about this feature is the paid DLC available for some time now with a bunch of patterns. For completed quests we will receive a considerable number of such motifs for decoration, so there is no point in paying extra for them.
Besides – we can see our shield from the front, with a custom motif, only in photo mode and on the inventory screen. So, in my opinion, it’s such an “attraction” for more or less 2 minutes of fun – I checked, chose a design, took a photo and that’s it. There is a bigger impact on the game if you change your hairstyle – after all, Henry’s head is seen in cutscenes much more often than his shield.
For free, and a lot of fun
For these reasons, during my brief return to Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, I had the most fun with the novelties of version 1.3, the add-ons that everyone will receive for free. Horse racing and horse archery competitions appeared in the game world. A big plus for the fact that this is not a simple addition of an icon in the game world firing off a new activity, but again – a long and complex quest that involves us interacting with new side characters, while explaining all the rules and allowing us to practice both challenges.
The races are distinguished by the fact that the checkpoints are very far from each other, and it’s only up to us which way we get there – overlaying the roads with a route or taking a shortcut, but risking breaking through terrain obstacles. However, you can cheat a little here and stick to the peloton, focusing only on the condition of the horse, especially since even on the highest of the three difficulty levels the opponents are not very fast.
On the other hand, the competition with a bow or crossbow is quite different, because here the challenge is already really big. We have a time limit in which to fit in, and the most difficult tracks still contain obstacles over which the horse must jump. On them you can’t turn on the steed’s “autopilot” and you have to concentrate on both riding and shooting – and hitting the target while rocking in the saddle is even more difficult than usual. In any case, the challenge is big, engaging and gives a lot of satisfaction with each accurate shot.