Regarding Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2’s future and new DLC…
So, the new DLC for KCD2 aims to fix one of the few frustrations I had with the base game, which is significant because I thought that KCD 2 base game was a masterpiece. Like, for me, it is one of the top two best games of this year, and it is in a neck-neck race for game of the year. I adore KC 2, but I did have one pretty significant problem with the end game and the later stages of the game that came up, specifically with the economy that I’ll tell you about in just a minute. But this DLC aims to basically fix that entirely while adding some new narrative components and a bunch of other quality of life improvements such as the one in this door which is like literally gamechanging. And I’m going to tell you all about it while avoiding spoilers of course. But overall, this is a pretty interesting one. Like honestly, it’s such a compelling DLC mechanically that it might even justify a fresh playrough. And I’ll explain that as we go. That being said, over the course of this video, I want to talk about, of course, the DLC. I also want to talk about the current state of KCD as a franchise and what the future may hold for Henry and Hans and this whole universe that they’ve built because I just got the opportunity of a lifetime to go out to Prague and meet a bunch of the developers and other fans of the franchise. The event was called KCD FanFest and as a result, Playon and Warhorse are sponsoring this video. But of course, as always, I’m allowed to say whatever I want to say about the DLC, blah blah blah, but they are technically sponsoring this video. So truly, thank you Playon and Warhorse for the incredible opportunity. This was hosted at Fort Malashv, which is in the game. Like, no joke, it it’s in the game. Malachave, I was there. Like, I went inside, took pictures. It was crazy. It still stands today. This event, KCD FanFest, hosted 25,500 people. They had dice tournaments. They had crossbow shooting. They had horse riding. I actually rode a horse. Imagine that. They served smoked pretzels and sausages straight out of the game. They served savior schnaps as an actual drink. There were hundreds of people dressed up in actual medieval attire and cosplayers that looked indistinguishable from the in-game versions of their characters. And of course, a bunch of the developers were there and people instrumental to the creation of the game, such as Yanva, who is the composer of the game. And he actually put on an hour concert with like a whole band concert, orchestra, whatever you want to call it, and singers for the choir. Like, it was pretty incredible. They even finished out the night with an exclusive look at the launch trailer for this DLC and Fire Dancers. It was insane. And the next day we got the chance to go and explore Prague and see a lot of the locations, architecture, and different things that inspired the world of KCD. And it was pretty remarkable. Truly an opportunity of a lifetime. And thank you Warhorse and Playon for making it possible. And all while celebrating one of my favorite games in recent memory. I mean, it was a pretty remarkable thing. And so truly truly thank you to Playon and Warhorse. I can’t say it enough. And over the course of this video, I’m going to make a few references to what we saw in Malachave and in Prague because I uh heard a couple of things that made me think I may have an inkling as to where the franchise is going and what’s next for Warhorse and stuff like that that I’m going to tell you about because I’m so excited and I want to know what’s happening and all of that. I’m I’m just giddy with excitement. I’m I’m I’m excited. So, we’re going to talk all about it in this video while talking about the DLC itself as well. But first, let’s get into the DLC and the nitty-gritty details of that. So, like I said at the top of the video, the goal of the DLC is basically to fix a couple of key problems and frustration points. Thank you much for that. From the base game, specifically in the base game, you run into what is colloquially termed an economic nightmare for everybody else, not for you. Basically, you will collect by the end of the game so much stuff that’s very valuable that you will be overflowing with currency. Like seriously, it’s ridiculous. I mean, you can get a glimpse just at some of the stuff I have equipped here. Like my helmet is worth 5,300. My curious is worth 5700. My uh gauntlets are worth 3,400. My sleeves are worth 3,100. And this is the stuff that I chose to keep. I sold everything else that was even slightly less valuable than this to shopkeeps around Gutenberg mostly because you can move from one blacksmith or one armorer to the next selling everything. You wait a couple in-game days and then they have their inventory refreshed so they have more money that they can use to pay you for the stuff that you have and as a result you can end up with like 12,000 13,000 gion just sitting in your inventory without having to do much. Like it really does break the challenge of the endgame cuz you can just go buy whatever you need whenever you need it and it’s no big deal. Like you need some potions. Okay, well I’ll just go buy whatever I need because I have 13,000 gion. Oh, you need some poisons? Just buy whatever you need. Oh, you need food? Just buy whatever you need. There’s no need to engage with any of these other systems in the game that are meant to add complexity and variety, whether it’s brewing potions yourself or hunting food and then cooking it and stuff. You don’t need to do any of that because you’re just overflowing with money. And the problem is there’s basically two ways to fix that. You can either give players less money or you can give them a way to spend that money. And that’s what this DLC aims to do. You see, what will basically happen now is that when Henry is exploring the southeastern side of Gutenberg, he will come across an old dilapidated Smitty. He has a flashback to when he was a kid and he traveled here with his father who mentioned that he spent some of his best years here. That’s because he used to be an apprentice here. And so, as you go through the DLC, you can find out more about your father by talking to people that knew him and worked with him within the guild and everything like that. It’s honestly a pretty clever way of giving more exposition to a character that is no longer with us. It also gives Henry motivation to get this place fixed up and improved. So, you meet the old widow that’s been taking care of the property as best she can for years and years since her husband passed away. And you basically formulate a plan to revitalize this entire property, fix it up at your expense, and in effect turn it into the blacksmith paradise that your father would have been proud of. And as a result, they have a way to let you spend a lot of money. And that’s the point. So, as I mentioned earlier, I’m not going to do spoilers or anything of a later save. So, this is only like 90 minutes into the DLC. And you can see some snippets of what is possible later in the DLC. We can splash this on screen here. I’ll have Jacob put it up from like the trailer and stuff that they put out. But basically how this works, you can see there’s three boards. We pop to one and it gives you the chance to go and fix certain elements. So, if I want to fix the ruined upper floor, I can select that and I can change how I want it to look, but it’s going to cost me. As you can see, it’s 1,260 gion just to fix this. In this case, I want to do it with limestone. So, I’m going to select that, hold down E, and it’s going to immediately change that. I want to fix the damaged ground floor. Okay, I can just select what I want to do. I’ll match it with the limestone. Boom. And just like that, I can back out, go back outside, and look at the building again. And it’s completely changed. It’s overhauled. It’s beautiful. And at the same time, just like that, they got me to spend well over 2,000 Gian that I had accumulated by playing the rest of the game. Now, that being said, I do want to mention one of the other core mechanics here, which I think is very, very important to note. As you can see, I can then go select some other stuff that has symbols. Like for example, if I want to do another adjustment maybe to the windows, I can select that. But all of these are red. Is that a term? Out. So I can’t do it. And there’s a number in parenthesis next to them. This is the new prestige system. And effectively what it is is a rank within the guild that you have to improve by completing side quests. Many of which can be very repetitive. It’s things like playing a game of dice with somebody, get in a duel with somebody else, complete a delivery for this person, stuff like that. They’re dynamically generated every in-game day, and they repeat occasionally. But basically, it’s something that you’re supposed to do occasionally while you play through the core body of the game, and you’ll kind of level up your prestige with the guild as you do that because this DLC unlocks when you enter the Kutenberg region and basically are led out into the open world. And as a result, I think the core intention is for players to experience this while they’re going through the rest of the game. So if you play the DLC now, having finished it, it’s going to feel really grindy because it’s not really designed around late game players, even though it’s the second major expansion and the most expensive one so far, which seems a little weird to me. Like, I appreciate that this is here, don’t get me wrong, but it’s kind of frustrating to have a DLC that fixes a core problem from the base game, but it doesn’t really fix it in a way that’s that actionable for late game players. I think it would fix it if you’re starting a new save file and you play through the DLC with the story of the game, cuz when you first arrive in Cutenberg, you have a lot of game left. So, doing the occasional guild mission will not feel that grindy. it won’t be that upsetting or frustrating, but if you’re playing it in the end game having already finished it, it’s going to feel grindy because frankly it is. But that being said, there’s a lot of improvements to be made in your new property in all sorts of different ways. Whether it’s the outside area, the chamber which is on the top floor that allows you to improve like your bed that you can sleep in, customizing it however you want. The robber’s righteous bed. This damned, uncomfortable bed is meant for all penitants who seek to ease their soul and conscience through their own suffering. This is amazing. It’s like a manachean bed. That’s amazing. It won’t rid you of your sins, but it’s never too late for sincere remorse. And for every hour of sleep up to a maximum of eight, you gain a 4% bonus reputation gain for the next 24 hours. So, like there’s actual gameplay affecting buffs to some of these things you can choose, which again is I think why this could be really incredible if you went through a brand new save file with this. Like, you could totally add another layer of complexity to your roleplay and your build by just simply swapping out what bed you’re using. Like, that’s crazy. In the same vein, there’s other things you can do that would totally change a playthrough, like these different little uh cubbies. You can upgrade these to add things like an armorer’s shelter and then you can have NPCs that work for you. As you can see, if you hire an armorer, you can have an armorer based or armor made based on an armor sketch and trade with him, which is incredible. And like this one, the uh the ruin shed, you can go here and you can add a foundryman. Like there’s so many little bitty things here that they’ve added that will basically make it so this is the ultimate hub for all of your stuff. An entire alchemy cabin, for example. So, if you played through the base game with this, I think it would totally change everything because in the base game, what you’ll often do is that you’ll go to like Cutenberg and then you’ll zip over, take a nap, and then you go over to a blacksmith, you go over here, you go to the grocery, you go to the the cobbler, you go back to the baths, you go over here. Like, you’re just kind of bouncing like pingpong all over the map doing all of your little errands for what you need to do just to keep your character’s armor repaired or buy what you need or what have you. But with this, it pretty much puts all of that in this little complex right here. So you have one center of operations with a dedicated fast travel point that you can go to and it allows you to just go to one spot and do all of that busy work. Like I really think it would streamline a lot of that frustration people have with the base game in terms of those mechanics that you just have to keep up with naturally. Now you can just do it in your own property. But actually, the biggest deal I think in this entire DLC, which I alluded to a little bit ago is behind this door. As I mentioned, what you would previously have to do is if you collected a bunch of stuff and you wanted to sell it, you had to go to one blacksmith, sell him however much he had money to buy from you, which is often like not much. Maybe it’s 1,200 gion or something. You sell your stuff to him. And then you run over to another one, sell everything that he’s able to pay for. And then you go to the cobbler and you sell that stuff. And you go to the ger, sell that stuff. You go to the the armorer, sell that stuff. And you just kind of go around the city doing that for half an hour. And then you wait a few in-game days and do it again. It was really, really frustrating. What they’ve done though completely negates the need for that. Look, you open this door and inside is a chest. This is called the sales chest as you can see. And all you have to do is open it. You go to the player side and you can just put stuff in here that you don’t want to deal with anymore. And the old woman will go and try to sell it for you, which is crazy. Like it basically just fixes this huge component of the game that was so frustrating for so many of us. And as you can see, like if I want to sell, I don’t know. I just dumped a bunch of stuff in here. Uh I I don’t know. What do I want to sell? Maybe wounding bolts. Actually, I don’t want to. I’ll do sell the common bolts. I do that. It’s going to go into the sales chest. And when I come back a little while later, you can sell I’m selling some uh noble’s plate legs for 5300. It’ll come back less than that, of course. But I just have to leave and then wait. and in a little bit I’m going to go talk with the old woman and she will have that money for me because she took care of selling it. So you can just dump all of the stuff you want to get rid of at one spot and not have to worry about the busy work of running around and selling it to individual vendors. Again, it just fixes one of the core frictions and frustrations from the base game in a way that is like truly truly transformative. Like it really does change the game, I think, in a good way. But what about the story of the DLC itself? Well, it’s pretty much tied around one basic theme, which is this uh astronomical clock. And effectively, what they want to do is have you fix it using your brand new smithy that you’ve improved and upgraded so much. It’s a simple, straightforward quest, really simple objective. There’s not much more to say about it, but for me, the real highlight are the gameplay affecting changes they’ve made and then also some of the conversations you can hear about your father. Like I the the clock is cool. I don’t think anybody is like, “Oh, I was stressed about that from from my time with the base game. I was hoping we’d fix the clock.” Like I don’t I don’t think anybody was really freaking out about that. So I I don’t think it’s that big of a deal, but I do appreciate it as a detail. Fun fact, when we were exploring Prague, I actually came across like an actual astro clock that’s in the oldtown square of Prague. And uh we saw some of the inner workings of it when we went on the tour of the building. Just a fun like little tiein, you know? It’s it’s just cool. Like these things are real and they’re crazy. Like again, Prague is so beautiful. And again, I’m so thankful that I got the chance to like go and explore it cuz literally no matter where you go in the city, it’s just gorgeous. Like there is not an ugly spot that we saw, it’s unbelievable. Like seriously, I don’t know how anybody that lives in Prague gets anything done ever. Like, how would you get anything done if you lived here? I just I don’t know. It makes me really excited though at the prospect of KCD3 potentially going to Prague and exploring that whole thing. Like if you don’t know, basically the obvious next place for them to go would be the Hussite Wars or also called the Bohemian Wars or the Hussite Revolution. The guy Yan Hus was executed by the Catholic Church in 1415 and it basically kicked off a massive conflict that changed everything. I mean, the the war lasted for 14 years and it like tore the country apart. It’s insane. And actually in this video I just showed you of the astral astronomical clock whatever um you can actually see a statue as I round the corner that is of Yan Hus right there that commemorates that whole war debacle conflict whatever you want to call it um but it’s like a core part of the history of this part of the world and it’s something that is right next to KCD like KCD happens right before it effectively And so it seems like a natural place for the story and everything. But here’s the deal. I don’t know if that’s what they’re going to do. I don’t think they’re going to do another game with Henry next. I think Henry’s story is probably largely over. And there’s a couple of reasons for that. For one, there was this post which I very well could just be reading too much into. It was posted by Warhorse specifically thanking Tom McCay, the actor for Henry, for his nearly nine years on KCD as a franchise. They do specify that it’s his last day in the booth and on the mocap stage for KCD 2, but they do say for 9 years he’s been giving life to Henry and has helped shape our story. We celebrated with a little surprise. Yes, K included. Thank you, Tom. You’ll always be a part of Warhorse’s history. It could just be like, yay. moving on to the third game which you’re also in. Or it could be that okay, this is the end of his time at least with Henry as a character within Warhorse. I don’t know, maybe reading too much into it, but it does have a a scent of finality to it, at least to me. The other piece has to do with a couple of comments made by Warhorse over the last like couple of years, specifically referencing the finality of KCD as a franchise that they wanted to do loser that they wanted to do like a threeact story for Henry, but that the second game kind of merged those last two acts together. And I think at least if you play through the base game, it feels like Henry’s story and character arc are pretty well completed. Like I think you could still continue playing with him, but I just don’t know where you go from here. Like I don’t know what the next character arc is, you know, cuz that’s a a consideration. You have to have somewhere for the character to go. Otherwise, there’s just nothing of substance. You know, you can have a character like contained within a story in the form of like Geralt in the Witcher, but if you did The Witcher 4 with Geralt, but his character arcs are already settled and he’s committed like in a committed relationship. There’s no conflict. There’s no substance. It just doesn’t have anywhere to go. You know, you’re just playing the game going through the motions for the sake of going through the motions. And that’s not super compelling narratively. So, I think they want to have a a protagonist that has some meat on the bones still, that has a place to go, which I think there’s lots of opportunity for that. I mean, they could fast forward do like a KCD3 with Henry in 10 years or something as an older man and maybe there’s other things you could do. He’s got a family and he’s trying to defend them. Something like that, you know, could work. But I think it’s more likely that we see the Kingdom Come franchise kind of evolve into something a little bit bigger than just Henry. Like one thing that KCD FanFest shown me with 2500 attendees in person in honestly like the middle of nowhere in the Czech Republic because like this was an hour and a halfish car ride from Prague. like this was not close to most people, okay? A lot of people flew out from all over Europe. There were some people from America who flew over to the Czech Republic just for this event. There’s that level of commitment to the franchise. And there’s that many people that love KCD as a franchise. And that makes me think that they can take some chances. You know, they don’t have to play it super safe like they did with KCD 2 coming from one where they’re just trying to perfect the formula. I think they could do something much more bold with their next game and the fans would be there for it. And this was a sentiment that I heard from a number of devs who of course I won’t call out or anything, but it was basically just an overall excitement. Like there was a real excitement among the team themselves for what’s next. There were comments of like, “Oh my god, we’ve loved everything we’ve done with KCD 2.” KCD1 of course, you know, we we’ve loved that. We’re just really thrilled for what’s coming next. They’re very passionate and they’re very excited for whatever it is. And they’re also pretty confident about it. And that excites me all the more because I think you could take the formula and the the structure of KCD2 and you could apply it to many other settings, many other historical periods, different characters and archetypes, and it would work tremendously well. I don’t know if they’ll stick to just medieval stuff. I’m not saying necessarily that they’re going to go like full sci-fi, but I think that Warhorse is in a similar spot to where CDPR was after The Witcher, where they did The Witcher 3. It’s tremendously successful. People love it and are eating it up, but they’ve been working on that franchise for years and years and years, and they want to try something fresh. They want to try something new, something that they didn’t think they could do before, but that now they’re confident they could pull off. And I I get the vibe from them. call it a gut instinct that that’s where Warhorse is that they want to do that big bold next thing and they want to prove to everybody that KD2 was not a fluke they actually are that good and honestly the idea of whether it’s a pirate game or like a sci-fi game or a dark dystopian I don’t know like fantasy game whatever it is if they can do that but with the systems and complexity and depth of KCD2. I’ll be there for it. Like seriously, I will be so so there for it. My primary hope is that they just learn some of those lessons from the second game. You know, that they learn that the endgame economy, I think, is important. You got to have some plan for that. And I just totally missed him. Damn it. That was going to be cool. There we go. Okay. Uh, ignore why my health bar is so low. I may have I may have uh messed that up. I was really relying on the crossb doing more. Oops. But anyway, like I was saying, I’m just getting the vibe that Warhorse is ready to prove to everybody that this wasn’t no fluke and that they got it, that they really are that good. And I’m here for it, dude. Like I’m I’m here for them to do it again, but with something fresh and and a little different. Like if they do a KCD3 right after this and it’s like a year from now and they just pumped out another one that’s just KCD2 but in Prague and a little bit bigger and crazier, that’s going to be totally fine and I’ll be super excited and I’m sure I will love it. But I also think that if they wanted to take the leap and do something just totally different, they totally could do that. And I think the fan base would be there to support them and would be really excited to see what that looks like. Uh because again, I’m just getting the vibe. And it maybe it’s just a gut instinct, maybe it’s delusional, I don’t know. But I get the feeling that Warhorse is on that like CDPR right after The Witcher 3 cusp where they just want to prove everybody wrong and take it up a notch and do something totally totally different. I hope that this next project goes better than Cyberpunk did. But Phantom Liberty, you know, proved that that the concept was strong. It was just about the execution. And that’s what of course all of this goes down to at the end of the day. But what I do know is that this DLC, I think, does add some really interesting mechanics and things that I’m excited to continue exploring because while I haven’t finished it, I have put a good amount of time into it. And I’m really excited to see kind of how it settles out as time goes by. But I think the primary interest in this DLC will be from brand new players and players that have not gone through the entire thing, at least through the Kutenberg region. I think that’s where it’s really going to be transformative primarily if you can go through and if you can experience this fresh for the first time with these improvements and enhancements to these smaller like gameplay mechanics like the selling chest and places to spend your mass hordes of money. I think you’ll be very very thankful and it will go way way smoother for you. So, I mean, who knows? Maybe I’m going to just start a brand new playthrough now that I’ve I’ve seen what’s possible. You know, maybe that’s what’s going to happen. But, as you can see, I mean, it it’s it’s pretty uh crazy just how quickly you can make the changes and improvements. But that’s the idea. That’s the idea. Get your own little house and make it yours. And it’s a pretty fun concept as well. What’s up, babe? Good to see you. All this to say, I thought KCD2 was a masterpiece to begin with, and I think that this DLC just makes it even more compelling, especially for people that are playing through it for the first time and have not gone all the way through it. I think this is just another reason to get it if you have not already and give it a try. Like, this DLC, I think, will ease a lot of the tension and smooth out a lot of those rough edges that people might have felt with some of the busy work and endgame problems that you can get into. And uh it just is making the game better and better and better. And like I said, I already thought it was a masterpiece. You can go back and watch my review from February, I think is when it launched, and see what I thought of it there. And specific points and complaints I had in that video are being addressed here. And I think that that’s awesome. So, two thumbs up for me. I mean, it’s I I I just I’m a happy camper. And it gives me another reason to play through KCD2. And who knows, maybe I’m I’m just I’m getting tempted to go through it again from the very very start. It’s not been typically long enough. Like I’m one of those guys. Usually I’ll play through a game again if I love it like once a year. That’s my limit. I have to wait a year and then I can play through it again and some of it feels like, oh, I remember this, but it’s still just like a little fresh because it’s been so long. It’s not been that long. It’s been like what, six months or or so? Seven months. But no, I’m tempted. I just love it so much. I love it. Anyway, thank you again for watching. Thank you to Warhorse and Playon for making the video possible, for flying me out to the Czech Republic to experience KCD FanFest in person. It was incredible trip of a lifetime and I’m truly truly thankful for it. And they gave me a reason to talk about KCD2 again and discuss this DLC. So, I’m truly thankful to them for making this possible. and I can’t wait to put more time into the DLC and sink my teeth further and further into it because oh baby, I love this game. But with that said, I will be discussing my trip to Prague and KCD FanFest in even more detail over on my live channel, Luke Stevens Live. Links in the link tree below, so check that out. And of course, I’m doing a PlayStation 5 Pro giveaway this month just to say thank you for watching and make my dreams a reality every single day. So, go again, check out the link in the link tree and check out the link. It’s at the top of the list and you can enter the giveaway for this month. It’s free and cool and you could win a PS5 Pro. So, why not? But with all that said, thank you for watching. Honestly and truly, I never ever take it for granted. Never think that I do. And I’ll see you in the next video. Hugs and kisses. Bye-bye.
Thanks to Plaion for sponsoring this video! Click here to get the game for yourself: https://gsght.com/c/3tfr73
🔥 Live Channel: @lukestephenslive 🔥
👉 All my links: https://linktr.ee/lukestephens 👈
—————————————————————–
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 (commonly called “KCD2” or “KCD II”) is a critically acclaimed action role-playing game developed by Warhorse Studios and published by Deep Silver, serving as the direct sequel to the 2018 historical RPG Kingdom Come: Deliverance, immersing players in a realistic 15th-century Bohemia amid a brutal civil war between King Wenceslas IV and his ambitious brother Sigismund of Hungary. Following protagonist Henry of Skalitz, a blacksmith’s son turned reluctant hero, the story unfolds as a gripping tale of revenge, betrayal, and personal growth, where Henry navigates political intrigue, joins the resistance, and confronts his past in an expansive open-world filled with bustling medieval towns, dense forests, and treacherous battlefields, all without fantasy elements for authentic historical immersion. Gameplay emphasizes skill-based first-person combat with swords, maces, crossbows, and early firearms, alongside deep RPG mechanics like character progression, dialogue choices, stealth, alchemy, and horseback riding, enhanced by improved AI, dynamic weather, and a larger map twice the size of the original. Released on February 11, 2025, for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC via Steam and Epic Games Store, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 has garnered praise for its narrative depth and realism, drawing fans searching for Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 reviews, gameplay walkthroughs, story spoilers, DLC updates, and comparisons to the first game in the medieval RPG genre.
TIMETAMPS:
Intro: 0:00
KCD Fan Fest: 1:19
The DLC: 3:36
What’s Next For Warhorse?: 16:07
Closing Thoughts: 24:40
—————————————————————–
╔═╦╗╔╦╗╔═╦═╦╦╦╦╗╔═╗
║╚╣║║║╚╣╚╣╔╣╔╣║╚╣═╣
╠╗║╚╝║║╠╗║╚╣║║║║║═╣
╚═╩══╩═╩═╩═╩╝╚╩═╩═╝
—————————————————————–
Subscribe and I’ll be your bestest friend!
#gaming #ps5 #kcd2