For better or worse, fast travel is a staple in the open-world genre, but Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 isn't content to simply follow the rubric laid out by its contemporaries. Indeed, while fast travel is little more than a convenience in games like Elden Ring, Assassin's Creed, and Cyberpunk 2077, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 manages to make it far more engaging.
Just like its predecessor, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 urges players to remain active when engaging with its fast travel mechanics. Rather than just clicking on a destination in the game map and waiting a few seconds for the new location to load, KCD2 simulates the process of in-game travel. This means that Henry's energy and hunger levels will be affected the same as they would if the player traveled in real time, but it also allows for random events: bandits, con artists, and even friendly fellow travelers will cross Henry's path during these fast travel sections, and players can decide whether they want to stop and engage with them. Through this relatively simple design choice, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 manages to attain the best of both worlds: convenience and open-world reactivity.
How Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 Makes Its Side Quests Worthwhile
Side quests aren't always the most fun or rewarding thing in video games, but Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 ensures they are more than worth the effort.
Other Games Should Follow Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2's Lead with Fast Travel
Why Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2's Fast Travel System Is So Effective
Fast travel may be a somewhat essential quality-of-life feature in open-world games, but they can also cause a bit of trouble. Take a game like Elden Ring, where the heart of the experience is, in many ways, nuanced and thoughtful exploration: analyzing topography, looking for secrets, and uncovering paths to wild unknowns. This essential aspect of the game is somewhat undermined when fast travel is introduced, as players can, and often do, skip over major swaths of the game world that they are meant to explore. Some games attempt to remedy this by limiting fast travel functionality, such as by making it only possible from certain locations, but the fundamental clash with open-world exploration still exists in these cases.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance and its successor alleviate the problem of "skipping the game" by marrying fast travel and the unpredictability of a dense and vibrant open-world. The convenience of fast traveling still exists, but players don't have to choose between making use of such a convenience and enjoying Warhorse Studios' colorful medieval sandbox. The threats, opportunities, and small-scale narratives inherent to open-world design aren't replaced by fast travel.
How Other Franchises Could Adapt Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2's Fast Travel Mechanics
Comparing Kingdom Come: Deliverance to other ambitious open-world IP, it's surprising to note just how many other franchises could benefit from a similar fast travel mechanic. A few examples include:
- Red Dead Redemption
- Grand Theft Auto
- The Witcher
- Cyberpunk 2077
- The Elder Scrolls
- Fallout
These series all leverage unpredictability to create immersive, dynamic open-worlds. IP like Red Dead and GTA are famous for featuring random encounters, whether that be someone getting robbed on the street or an escaped convict looking for help getting out of their chains. These small encounters are unlikely to be what sells these games, of course, but they contribute to the sense of their worlds being believable and worth exploring.
Thus, applying Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2's simulation-style approach to fast travel could work wonders in open-world titles moving forward. One could even imagine ways that other developers may build upon Kingdom Come's foundations in this area, perhaps even making room for greater mechanical complexity within this system, such as through a luck stat or something similar. Fast travel may be an unavoidable reality of open-world design, but Kingdom Come: Deliverance proves that it can be more than just a pragmatic necessity.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
-
OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 89 /100 Critics Rec: 95%
- Released
- February 4, 2025
- ESRB
- Mature 17+ / Use of Alcohol, Blood and Gore, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Intense Violence, Partial Nudity
- Developer(s)
- Warhorse Studios
- Publisher(s)
- Deep Silver
WHERE TO PLAY
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is an exhilarating Action RPG, set amidst the chaos of a civil war in 15th Century Bohemia.
You are Henry of Skalitz – an ordinary man doing extraordinary things – caught in a gripping tale of revenge, betrayal, and discovery as he embarks on an epic journey, 'from a humble blacksmith's forge to the court of Kings', searching for purpose in this beautiful but brutal medieval world.
From bustling city streets to lush forests, explore this open-world Medieval Europe through an unforgettable adventure filled with action, thrills, and wonder.
- Engine
- CryEngine
- Number of Players
- Single-player
- Steam Deck Compatibility
- Playable
- PC Release Date
- February 4, 2025
- Xbox Series X|S Release Date
- February 4, 2025
- PS5 Release Date
- February 4, 2025
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PC
- Genre(s)
- RPG, Action-Adventure, Open-World
- X|S Optimized
- Yes
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
