As an RPG fan with a need for all NPCs to adore me, I’m not usually very good at playing morally grey characters. Sure, I thrive in Skyrim‘s Thieves Guild and will lockpick my way out of any situation, but when it comes to getting caught and making an NPC cranky with me? I fold like a napkin – yes, my so-called Renegade run of Mass Effect lasted about three conversations before I meekly went back to my Paragon roots.
Given this predisposition for virtual people pleasing, you’d think that while playing through Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, I would try a lot harder to stay out of trouble. You’d think I’d continue a trend of good behaviour, opting to play as somewhat of a paragon of virtue. Except, well… I just can’t seem to.
I’m a fiend for criminal behaviour, a felon on the run. I’ve been committing crimes left, right and centre, and I have no intention of stopping. Kingdom Come: Deliverance II has been humbling me so convincingly that I want to keep coming back again, and again, and again.
Taking stock of my crimes
When I first started Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, I had an unbridled amount of hubris. I’d played the preview build alongside my colleague and gotten through largely unscathed, even after being caught trying to nick a rival’s sword. I was oozing with the arrogance to think I was savvy enough to get away with anything – so long as I was sneaky, quick, and just charismatic enough.
Problem is, at that point in the game, my version of Henry wasn’t. He did his best (bless him), but I can’t pretend I wasn’t throwing him under the bus in a big way – sneaking around willy nilly, thieving whenever the opportunity arose, and causing a general ruckus. And man, it’s been fun. Thing is, though, there’s only so many times you can talk yourself out of trouble.
I learned this when, upon committing a series of what I had personally deemed to be “pretty chill crimes, actually,” it was decided that I should actually get chucked directly into the pillory – do not pass go, do not collect a hundred bucks. Straight to the stocks for me!
Now, I’ve actually been in a pillory in real life. Before his retirement, my father was a history teacher who used to help run a medieval day at the high school he worked at, and they’d have all manner of fun recreations of era-appropriate costumes, props and furniture. Sure, they were a heck of a lot more cushy than the real deal, and I was admittedly only in there for maybe 10 seconds, but at least in my mind, it still counted.
As a kid, it was the funniest thing in the world to get chucked in the fake stocks. As an adult people pleaser, playing a game like Kingdom Come: Deliverance II where the NPCs are pissed off enough that they’ll do it for real? Only slightly less funny – and it completely changed the way I’ve approached the rest of the game.
Upping the stakes
I’d already been enjoying Kingdom Come: Deliverance II plenty at that point, but with this one interaction, it felt like the stakes had risen in a big way – this is one crime system that doesn’t joke around. Suddenly, I was actively aware of how quickly Henry could wind up reaping what I was sowing. You’d think this would be a turning point for me, that I’d repent and see the error of my ways. And yet…
My people-pleasing instincts seemed to fall out the window with a raging crash. Despite my instincts telling me to leave this life of crime behind, my goblin brain craved further chaos and fun, and I was itching to see just how far it would go.
Turns out, it goes pretty damn far – my choices so far have taken me from a pilloried fool, to a branded criminal, to getting sent to the gallows and dying. I mean, proper “reload your last save because this is the end of the line” kind of dead. I would give anything to have a photo of the look on my face when I saw that cutscene play out.
Pushing the boundaries and copping the consequences has been a wild ride. Like a kid learning where their parents drew the line, I’m feeling out the farthest reaches of what I can get away with in Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, and it’s energising in a way I didn’t expect it to be.
Because sure, as an RPG player, I do my best to stay on the straight and narrow – in large part because I connect so deeply to the characters that I don’t want to see any harm come to them. But as a fantasy writer, I enjoy nothing more than lovingly chucking my characters into the middle of the most horrific situations I possibly can – for the drama. Playing Kingdom Come: Deliverance II in this way has felt like an enmeshment of both sides of my creative personality.
Read: How Kingdom Come: Deliverance II builds on the scale and legacy of the original
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II does not play around
There is nothing more satisfying than a consequence that feels real and tangible. I want to personally feel dread as my health decreases. I want to feel my real heart rate rise as I’m surrounded on all sides by my enemies. I want to feel completely responsible for my character’s actions, and if that leads them astray, then so be it.
And at least so far, that’s what playing Kingdom Come: Deliverance II has given me. Could I have perhaps better prepared Henry to deal with my loose approach to item ownership and diplomacy? Absolutely. Do I have any regrets about sticking him in so many questionable situations? Absolutely not.
In my mind, you have to respect a game that’s so willing to serve up such deliciously serious consequences for your actions. Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is a massive game, but the one element that sticks with me most is its willingness to stare right in the face of the player and say, “try it, see what happens.”
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is now available for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.
