Kingdom Come: Deliverance was a big hit when it launched. Warhorse Studios was able to deliver a thrilling medieval action RPG. However, there were some areas players weren’t too thrilled about. For instance, some players were not too keen on the combat mechanics. Fortunately, it looks like the studio opted to make Kingdom Come: Deliverance II far more accessible when players head into battle.
WCCFtech recently spoke with the folks over at Warhorse Studios about their upcoming Kingdom Come: Deliverance II installment. At one point in the conversation, the topic of combat came up. The executive producer for the game, Martin Klima, managed to touch on what areas they wanted to clean up for the combat. One of the areas they wanted to tackle was eliminating the three-button setup for combat. If you recall, the first game had a stabbing, slashing, and blocking button. However, this new combat setup will just rely on two buttons. These will be a button for attacks and one for blocking.
I think it’s a confluence of several decisions that we made. We wanted to streamline the way you control combat. Previously, we used three buttons: one for slashing, one for stabbing, and one for blocking. It felt too cumbersome, so we streamlined that, and now we have just one button for attacking and another for blocking.
The attack zone determines whether you are stabbing or slashing (provided you have a weapon capable of doing so, as blunt weapons cannot). Currently, we have four attack zones. Because we limited the number of attack zones, we were also able to limit the number of guards, leading to a much smoother transition between attacks and blocks. Combat looks much clearer and more natural than before.
We were also able to hire more people to guide us through the true medieval fencing techniques and we employed more people for motion capture. Each weapon has a more distinct style to it. Also, enemies won’t repeat the same animation like in a synchronized swimming competition, making combat look more realistic.- Martin Klima
That should hopefully make it far easier to use when heading into battles than its predecessor. Meanwhile, developers have also added new weapons to the game. We know that polearms and firearms are being implemented into the game. Martin notes that polearms were accessible in the first game, but they were too cumbersome to put away in the inventory system.
Later on, Martin noted that another area the studio opted to improve on was NPCs. This next game should have a far more lively world for players to explore. It’s even noted that almost half of the game’s dialogue lines are unrelated to its story. So expect to mingle with the various NPCs you’ll meet on your journey.
It was always our ambition to create a living world where NPCs have their routines rather than just standing there and waiting for the player to go talk to them. I think we improved on this a lot in Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. We were able to create a world that I think behaves more believably and reacts to player actions in a more nuanced way.
To give you an example, we have been recording a huge number of dialogue lines, and almost half of that is not related to the game story at all. They are NPC reactions to the player’s actions, such as when you steal something, when you enter an area where you shouldn’t be, when an NPC finds a body, or when they open their chest and realize it’s been emptied. It is very nuanced; even depending on what was stolen, you might get different reactions. – Martin Klima
Again, we have a little bit of wait on our hands before we can dive into Kingdom Come: Deliverance II. The game is set to launch on February 11, 2025. When the title does launch, you’ll find it available for the PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S platforms.
