Summary
- Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 excluded children to avoid potential PR or ethical issues.
- The team wanted to include kids, but not being able to attack them would hurt the title's realism.
- Several DLC for the game will be released throughout 2025.
According to the game's executive producer, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 doesn't feature children because of both ethical concerns and potential controversy. Since Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 was released in February 2025, players have wondered why the historically accurate title lacks a single kid, something jarringly obvious throughout Henry's adventures in medieval Europe.
Selling five times more than its predecessor in its first month on shelves, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 has been a major success for Warhorse Studios, continuing to see impressive player numbers and steadily releasing updates and useful patches. As with the first game, the sequel emphasizes realism, forcing players to eat and sleep, degrading equipment and clothing as time passes, and causing food to spoil if not consumed fast enough. Despite the studio's faithful recreation of life in 15th-century Bohemia, many players have taken to social media to point out the game's lack of children, something that seemed to be a curious oversight until their absence was recently explained.
'I Have To Make It My Life's Mission' Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 Hans Capon Actor Reveals Dream Role
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 actor Luke Dale reveals he is making it his 'life's mission' to snag one particular role in the future.
As reported by CzechCrunch (and spotted by TheGamer), children were entirely omitted from Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 to avoid any PR or ethical issues that could arise from their inclusion. During a panel at Prague Comic-Con, the game's executive producer, Martin Klíma, explained that the development team was eager to include children as a way to break up the monotony of similarly built characters, but the implications were too frightening to pursue. "The problem with adding children, is you're then relying on players to be good people in-game, something which a large portion of the gaming world just wouldn't be able to commit to," Klíma said. "Adding children would increase the realism. But if you couldn't attack them, it wouldn't be such a realistic simulation. And if you could, you don't want people making videos of them throwing another body on top of a pile of child corpses." Realism is the main draw of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 for many players, and many in the community were quick to understand the team's dilemma.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 Hoped to Avoid Controversy by Excluding Children From the Game
April 15 saw the release of Hardcore Mode in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, allowing pain-seeking players to take on an entirely new challenge. The mode will force gamers to select three permanent negative effects to apply to their character, including things like decreased carry weight and increased hunter. No cardinal directions will be made apparent on the game's compass, and players cannot utilize fast travel, making the experience all the more realistic.
Despite only having just been released months ago, Luke Dale, the voice actor behind Hans Capon, has already suggested a Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 sequel. While it's unclear whether this will ever come to fruition, players have plenty to look forward to, with several DLC planned for release throughout 2025. "Brushes with Death" will be released in summer, "Legacy of the Forge" in the fall, and "Mysteria Ecclesiae" in winter, all offering new story quests, equipment, locations, and more.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 72 /100 Critics Rec: 48%
- Released
- February 13, 2018
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ due to Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Nudity, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, Use of Alcohol
- Developer(s)
- Warhorse Studios
- Publisher(s)
- Deep Silver
WHERE TO PLAY
- Engine
- cryengine
- Genre(s)
- RPG
