Hands-on: Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is a game where every choice matters, even when you stay silent

It’s a general rule of thumb with open-world RPGs that if you run across a man yelling in the street, he may have an important quest. That’s how I met with Meister Menhard, who swept me into a narrative tale of swords and noble thievery in Kingdom Come: Deliverance II.

The Kingdom Come: Deliverance II demo I played at PAX West wasn’t geared toward the expected combat and exploration aspects of the massive RPG. There was some swordplay, mind. But mostly my short time with the game introduced me to the choices I can make and their consequences, good or ill.

Choices matter

The demo was roughly 50 to 60 hours into the 80-to-100-hour campaign. At least, that’s what Tobias Stolz-Zwilling, the international PR manager at developer Warhorse Studios told me. But before I hit the dusty streets of 15-century Kuttenberg in Bohemia, I was told something else. Stolz-Zwilling directed me to speak with Menhard to start his quest but, in a cryptic tone, asked me to choose any dialogue option except to stay silent. He would explain why after the demo had finished.

With a cloud of foreboding hanging just above my head, I struck up a conversation with Menhard.

He was upset. Based on our conversation, Meister Menhard von Frankfurt, a boisterous German man, was invited by King Wenceslas to start a sword-fighting school in Kuttenberg. Unfortunately, some internal politics have kept him out of class and in the street where he stood issuing challenges. I took him up on his request.

Learning the ropes

As an admission of guilt, I never played the first Kingdom Come game — it’s on my backlog! After a gentle razzing by Stolz-Zwilling, he explained that people who didn’t experience the original could still enjoy the sequel without needing to play it. You again step into the dirty boots of the former blacksmith Henry, who is on a new adventure. The sequel also won’t gloss over the mechanics for new players. In this case, it was sword-fighting.

I took up the blade against Menhard, who promised to teach me the ways with a solid thrashing. This was good news for me because I had no idea what I was doing.

Combat is more intuitive in Deliverance II, but the aspects are the same: You use the mouse or controller to angle your attack; watch your opponent’s weapon; strike where their weapon isn’t, and guard in the direction of their swing. A rosette in the center shows the direction of your attack via a red arrow.

Menhard and I fought, but I was on the back foot most of the battle. In my defense, this was my first sword fight in the series, and it’s not quite as rudimentary as something from, say, The Elder Scrolls. But I somehow managed to turn the fight around, and with a few lucky ripostes, the Meister was on the defense. Before I could claim victory, our fight got interrupted by the guild leaders of the established sword-fighting school. And they weren’t happy about the public display.

This was the conversation hinted at earlier. I had the option of saying nothing, but I dutifully defended Menhard against the agitators. There are multiple persuasion techniques you can employ in the game. You can tackle things using a Speech skill, or woo people to your side with Charisma. With Henry’s own blood splashed across his face, I somehow managed to convince them to back off — after exchanging some choice words and a bit of coin. But things weren’t settled yet.

Backroom schemes

I soon ended up in a tavern with Menhard, who was hatching a plan. To get his training school established, he needed to challenge the current guild and win. But that can only happen if the guild is seeking duels. Naturally, they weren’t. And that’s where Henry comes in.

I agreed to take a covert mission to sneak into the sword-fighting hall and steal the guild sword. It felt logical at the time. Once the sword was mine, I would put it on display on the walls of the Kuttenberg town hall, indicating they were open for challengers. Easy.

The streets of Kuttenberg were bustling during the day, as townsfolk moved through the streets with supposed purpose. I traveled toward the quest marker, pointing the way to the guild. The trip across the city took longer than expected based on the hand-drawn map. Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is a bigger game than its predecessor, boasting a 25% larger world. Kuttenberg is one of the key locations in the game, and it’s certainly no hamlet.

At last, I managed to make my way to the guild. The rectangular building looked unassuming, but the shields decorating the front and the two armed guards were dead giveaways. I staked the place out, looking for methods of ingress. The locked door in the back looked like my ticket in.

Sneaking in the dark

Like with many open-world RPGs, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II lets you wait a set amount of time. I waited for the cover of night. Henry must automatically equip a torch because I had one in hand after the timer ended. I tried putting it away, but Stolz-Zwilling told me it was a bad idea. If a guard happened to be walking by, they would get suspicious of a man meandering in the streets at night without a torch. But what about when I’m inside the guild? Well, that’s okay, he said. But how would I see anything? Fair point.

I wandered over to the locked door in the back, where I was introduced to my next challenge: lockpicking. Like with many RPGs, you can pick locked doors. To do so in Kingdome Come II, you drag the cursor around the lock until you see it glow. Next, you need to select it (in my case, holding down the left mouse button), hold right (or the D key), and move the cursor in a circular pattern while staying within the glowing spot. I’m not sure how much the lock difficulty mattered in the demo I was playing, but I managed to clear two locks on my first try.

Regardless, I was in. I ignored the paranoia my still-equipped torch was providing and crouched down to stay quiet. I heard snoring, but that didn’t mean I was in the clear. Sneaking through the guild, I managed to find the sword hanging from a wall upstairs. I shoved it into my woolen pantaloons and headed back down.

I was right to be worried; someone was awake. A guard must have heard me because he was stalking the pantry while muttering that he knew I was there. I waited for him to wander into another room before darting to the exit.

Challenge accepted

I hung the sword on the town hall and returned to the tavern, where I waited for Menhard. After giving him the good news, and promising I pulled off the heist without killing anyone, we went to the town hall. Sure enough, the opposing guild showed up, and they were pissed. But the scheme worked, and they agreed to a duel.

Before the demo ended, Menhard said he wanted me to join his motley school as its first student. With blood still caked on Henry’s face, I agreed.

Mine was just one tale, and many players may not experience it the exact same way. For example, if I lost the battle against Menhard earlier in the quest, he would have required me to pass a test before joining his school. I guess stealing a sword from under the opposing guild’s nose wasn’t enough. Instead, I was initiated after pointing out that I narrowly handed him his ass.

Many branching paths await

Wait, what about that warning about staying silent? According to Stolz-Zwilling, refusing to defend Menhard and his crew would result in them getting kicked out of the city. You can still do the quest, but that requires looking for them stewing outside the city walls.

In the roughly 40-minute demo, I experienced multiple situations in which Henry’s path could change. I managed to sneak out with the sword. But what if I got caught? What if someone was killed? I can only imagine just how many different ways Henry’s story will change based on the consequences of my actions, from swordplay to conversation choices.

The game will feature more than 2.2 million words in its script, which may just eclipse the current world-record holder, Baldur’s Gate 3. This suggests that, no matter what choices you make, Warhorse Studios may have thought of an answer. Kingdom Come: Deliverance II could end up providing many water cooler conversations, and I don’t plan on missing out when the game launches on February 11, 2025.