Kingdom Come Deliverance: Advancing toward Victory, Royalty, and a Sequel

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Kingdom Come Deliverance:

While the last article complimented Kingdom Come: Deliverance's atmospheric visuals, and criticized its pop-in effects, the appearance of the characters bring them to life. The characters are well acted and engaging, though the cast is marred by a lack of female characters. The only two women with adequate parts are Henry's love interests. Compared to the other woman, Theresa is a developed character, though her existence only serves to serve Henry as a date, and demeans her with a surprisingly explicit sex scene. The other characters, from Henry himself, to the shorter parts like his blacksmith father, are well characterized. Henry's Lord, Radzig, plays a particularly significant role, and generates enjoyable conversations. The Lords Hanush, Capon, and Robard are worth speaking with as well. The developers even managed to find a part for the spectacular Brian Blessed as a the military engineer Konrad Kyeser. Only one character seems deficient; the villain. While the acting is acceptable, the rebellious adversary is also gay, an odd addition that contributes nothing to the plot. It's like the developers were so immersed in the mindset of 1403 they thought, what is associated with evil; homosexuality. It also plays into the flamboyant villain trope, because the enemy wears nicer clothes then the other man, and he has a male lover. It's a strange and unnecessary juxtaposition with Henry, who is all boyish charm, and can only romance women.

After advancing from blacksmith's son, to city guard, and from Lord Radzig's servant to his right hand man, the the player plays an extended ending to confront the villain. While the mid-game of Kingdom Come Deliverance is well paced, with action following action, the last few hours of Deliverance plays in fits and starts. Kingdom Come warns the player that any remaining quests won't be available after they begin the grand battle which leads to the ending series of quests. Yet, after the battle, the Lords inform Henry that they need two days before their next action. They repeat this claim twice more, until the final battle arrives. In these extended dialogues Henry learns a hidden fact about his life, a twist that was obvious in the outing. After the final battle Deliverance enters its epilogue. The player must reconcile that Henry completes neither of his quests: He does not recover his Lord's sword, nor does he complete his quest of vengeance. Though he does purge this region of Bohemia of rebellious thugs, he fails in his stated goals. Then the player is subjected to an extended epilogue without game-play. Through a series of long cut scenes, and minor in game elements, the Lords endlessly expound on the exposition of Wenceslaus, Sigismund, and other Lords in neighboring regions. Not only does the player have no input, Henry barely even speaks, because he isn't spoken to. 
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Finally Henry is given a quest with the princeling Capon to deliver a letter. The Lords Radzig, Hanush, and Divish want to rally other lords in the service of Wenceslaus. Before riding off the edge of the map into the sunset, the player is free to explore and adventure to their heart's content. Kingdom Come never ends if the player doesn't want it to.

With this exposition, this final ending, and Henry's unfinished goals, Kingdom Come Deliverance demands a sequel. Yet, though KCD was released in early 2018, Deep Silver has not released any news about Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. Details are difficult to come by, and any guesses are based in rumor. But if the developers did produce a sequel, it would be unbelievable to begin with a new character, as one rumor speculates. And if they did continue with Henry, what happens to the player's progress? Would he retain his levels? Some RPGS, like Neverwinter Nights, managed to develop sequels that allowed a player to craft a new character, or keep an old character's progression. Still, Henry accumulated a lot of expensive equipment by the end of game one. This is an easier problem to solve. On the delivery of his letter he is imprisoned, and all his equipment is taken from him so he has to begin again in a different region.
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In Conclusion, Kingdom Come Deliverance travels with a wide array of features, which combine together to craft an first rate open world experience. It suffers from an overly expository, manipulated and railroaded introduction, and a similarly over explained, sluggish, and unfinished ending. But in between those two parts, Deliverance is packed with content. The developers took their best ideas from The Elders Scrolls: Morrowind and placed them in Bohemia of 1403. The towns, the Lords, and the threat the protagonist faces are grounded in historical reality. Henry himself, who at first seems like an overgrown baby, grows into his role as right hand man to a local Lord. He rises to each occasion, and as he does he become more proficient in whichever skill he uses. Kingdom Come engages the player with a deep combat system, forcing Henry to fight a single foe along the road, or pitched battles with scores of allies and well armored enemies. All of it happens while traveling around a beautiful scene of the modern Czech Republic.

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