Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is one of the most successful open-world games and RPGs of the modern era and will hopefully serve as inspiration for many games of the future. While much of the game's essence was first pioneered in the original title, the sequel perfected these mechanics and features.
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Many of these KCD2 mechanics could be used by other open-world games to help increase immersion and make players feel like their actions truly impact the world and have consequences, but with fantasy or sci-fi twists.
6 Fast Travel Is A Journey Rather Than Teleportation
Players Can Stop Halfway Or Deal With Encounters
In most open-world games, fast travel is essentially teleportation, where the main character disappears in one location and appears in another. The time of day often sees no change, and nothing changes in the world. In KCD2, and the first game for that matter, players can instead see Henry traveling across the map, and time ticking away.
They can stop at any point along the road, and they may be encouraged to do so due to a random encounter, such as bandits on the road. This adds a certain amount of weight to the decision to travel fast and can create interesting gameplay that would never happen if Henry had teleported to his destination. Other games could incorporate this feature, with characters instead riding dragons or driving cars across the map in real time.
5 The Crime & Punishment System
Previous Crimes Result In Increasingly Worse Punishments With Gameplay Consequences
One of the biggest improvements from the original game and a feature that other open-world games should look at is KCD2's crime and punishment system. While players may end up paying a fine, if they don't have the Groschen to pay, then they are in store for one of the Bailiff's four punishments.
For first minor offenses, Henry will be put in the stocks, lowering his reputation and incurring small debuffs. If he commits another crime, he will be caned, coming out of the deal physically weakened. For more serious crimes, Henry can be branded, meaning that he will be shunned from normal society until the wound heals. In the event that Henry commits another crime while branded, he will be executed. Similar tiered crime systems with real consequences would be great to see in other games, but with different punishments to fit the setting.
4 The Immersive & Varied Reputation System
Each Group Of People In Different Locations Has Their Own Opinions Of Henry
Many RPGs and open-world games often have morality systems where doing good deeds improves one's standing, and doing bad deeds decreases their honor. KCD2 does this slightly differently, however, with Henry having a unique reputation with different groups of people in all the various locations. For example, he may have a good reputation with the poorer folk in Kuttenberg after helping them, while having a bad reputation with the merchants of Kuttenberg after haggling mistakes or offending them.
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This helps make the player's actions feel more impactful in each region or when interacting with different people. In the more traditional honor system, one bad deed would barely put a dent in a character's impeccable standing, whereas in KCD2, there could just be one blacksmith who truly hates Henry. The world and inhabitants are also more reactive to Henry's reputation, especially with how this ties into the crime and punishment system. Shopkeepers may refuse to serve Henry or at least call him a vagabond. Serious swings in reputation can also travel across the map like real-life rumors. This level of simulation would work great in many other games, too.
3 Level Skills By Doing, Rather Than Having Skill Points To Freely Allocate
Leveling Characters This Way Feels More Rewarding & Realistic
In most open-world games, players will gain XP and be rewarded with skill points to allocate to various stats, such as strength or magic. It would therefore be possible to farm XP by killing enemies with melee attacks, but put all the skill points into magic without ever using magic.
The stat leveling system is much more realistic in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, as Henry can only get better at something by actually doing it. For example, when training with a sword in the practice yard, players improve their own technique, while Henry improves his strength, warfare stat, and a specific skill for swords. While this concept isn't exactly new, with old games like RuneScape being famous for it, KCD's implementation of it in an open-world game should guide the way for other franchises.
2 Suspicious NPCs Check Their Belongings
The Intelligence Of NPCs Means Players Have To Be More Careful
KCD2 has some of the most realistic and alive NPCs in the industry, and one feature is particularly impressive. In most games, characters will only call the guards if they witness crimes in action, and in some games, they won't even blink an eye as the player robs their store or house in plain sight.
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The medieval folks of Trosky and Kuttenberg are not so easy to fool, however, and are capable of putting two and two together to become suspicious. If they see Henry leaving their house, or a previously closed door is now open, they will go to check their belongings. In the event that anything is missing, they will confront Henry or call the guards. All of this means that players have to be even more careful when sneaking around, and they won't experience that loss of immersion in other games where players know they should be punished for a mistake, but an NPC doesn't care, as they haven't been programmed to do so.
1 The World Has A 24-Hour Day & Can Be Skipped By Any Length
This Makes Days Feel More Real & Gives Players Full Control
Most open-world games have some kind of day length, but often the time is not displayed, and players only have the option to skip to morning or night, rather than to specific hours. In KCD2, however, players have complete control and, unless they are in the middle of an important quest, they can sleep or skip time to any hour of the day.
While the options are by the hour, players can cancel their wait at any point if they only want to advance 30 minutes, for example. The whole world also operates around this 24-hour day, with NPCs having real schedules which include eating, work, time at the tavern, and sleeping in their own beds. It would be great to see more and more games take this realistic approach and give players full control over how long they wait.
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
