When it comes to authenticity in the gaming industry, few experiences compare to Warhorse Studios' Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. With a world that can be enjoyed by simply sitting in it just as much as actually playing the game, the RPG is one of a handful of games that offers players a believable, reactive medieval society where landscapes, architecture, social systems, and even consequences reflect a lived-in, historically accurate world. To foster that kind of authenticity and make players feel like they truly are experiencing something real, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is built on hidden systems that aren't outright explained or revealed—so much so that some of the game's testers thought they were encountering a bug when its stealth mechanics felt a little too real.
Stealth is a perfectly viable way to play Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, especially if players want to fast-track their way to heavier pockets, better gear, and survival when the odds are stacked against them. However, the medieval RPG has one of the most realistic stealth systems in gaming, which largely means players can't rely on old habits that might have formed when playing games like Assassin's Creed, Dishonored, or Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell. In Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, stealth can be immensely unforgiving, and in a recent interview with The Best War Games, design director Viktor Bocan revealed that even the game's testers couldn't keep up at first.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2's Stealth System Is So Realistic That Testers Thought It Was Bugged
Most games with stealth mechanics of some kind design them around accessibility. With mechanics like predictable and simplified enemy detection, obvious stealth indicators, simple stealth tools and abilities, and soft fail states, these games ensure stealth remains a fun, clear, and approachable playstyle at the cost of realism. The fun of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2's stealth system isn't founded on accessibility, however, and is instead rooted in authenticity and the satisfaction of learning its mechanics through trial and error and then improving as a result.
During the interview, we asked Bocan if there was anything in the game that players haven't discovered yet. While we expected that he would talk about some surprise Easter egg or random side quest in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, he began delving into the game's stealth system instead, within the context of the hidden mechanics that contribute to its living world. Bocan explained:
"We really don't want to explain everything. We don't want to overwhelm you with hundreds and hundreds of tutorials. We are creating an authentic world, there are real people living there, so they behave like real people. There are a lot of hidden mechanics that aren't meant to be discovered."
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 may be a video game, but Warhorse, in their efforts to create an "authentic world," didn't want it to feel like one all the time. It does feature plenty of tutorials, but not only do they take a very minimal approach to guidance, they don't divulge every single detail about the game's mechanics—the stealth system being among them. It doesn't necessarily avoid giving players tips about how to succeed when taking the stealth approach in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, but it doesn't babysit them when it comes to how the world reacts to their presence either.
In the vast majority of stealth-based games, players can get away with just about anything. After being spotted by a guard, for instance, players might slip back into hiding before the detection meter fills up, with the guard then concluding their search and saying something along the lines of "I must be seeing things." The Assassin's Creed games, in particular, have been known to feature flexible stealth systems like this, but stealth in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 requires players to treat the NPCs around them as though they are real people who can see, hear, and think for themselves. In fact, the artificial intelligence in KCD2 is so smart that some of its testers thought they had encountered a bug when the world refused to dismiss them as it does so easily in other games. Bocan continued:
"When we started with this hidden, invisible design work, even inside the team, we had some complaints. There were these technicians that came to us and said, "Hey, the crime system is broken. I committed a crime and nobody saw me, but they knew it was me." So, we said, "Okay, what did you do?" And they said, "I was in the shop, and when the shopkeeper turned his back to me to check on something, I took him down, but he couldn't see me because I was approaching him from the back. Then I stole everything and ran away, and nobody saw me stealing. But now, they're saying I'm a thief and I need to pay some money for that." And we said, "Okay, but you were the only one in the shop, right?" They said, "Yes." We replied, "So, the shopkeeper turned away from you, and he was magically, by someone unseen, taken down and everything was stolen. Well, then he just assumed it was you." They said, "Yeah, but he didn't see me, so it’s a bug." We responded, "No, he’s just not stupid.""
In other games, players might be able to commit crimes as long as their victim's back is turned. They might also knock out or assassinate an NPC in an attempt to leave no trace—but Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2's crime system simply won't allow it. Firstly, it's exceedingly difficult to get away with murder in KCD2, so it's best to avoid it unless players want to spend the rest of their time in the game on the run. Secondly, as some of its testers discovered, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2's NPCs are reactive to the player's presence, not just their actions. As a result, even if the player has merely been spotted in the vicinity before or after a crime has been committed, they will most likely be charged as guilty and expected to receive punishment befitting the crime.
"These small, invisible touches are something that isn't obvious to players, but it brings this feeling that the world works like it should," Bocan said. "And the people there are not stupid, but are real people who have some brains and understand the world around them." That philosophy is really the key to understanding why Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2's stealth system left even its own testers second-guessing what they were experiencing.
Warhorse didn't set out to make stealth comfortable or familiar, and it certainly didn't want it to behave like a system players could casually game. Instead, it asks players to think about presence, context, and suspicion in the same way a real person would. When guards and shopkeepers draw conclusions based on circumstance rather than clean detection rules, it can feel unfair to players coming from more forgiving stealth games. But that discomfort is really the whole point. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 treats intelligence and consequence as part of the world itself, and once that clicks, it becomes clear that what looked like a bug was really the game refusing to pretend its people are fools.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
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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
- Genre(s)
- RPG, Action-Adventure, Open-World
