Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 isn't being strict with history - "This is not an educational product"

The game takes place in the early 1400s, but the developers have gone to great lengths — with support from the local government, clergy and numerous other interested parties — to recreate the town in a faithful way, trying to represent what it really could have been like centuries ago.

With all this in mind, it was interesting to hear the developers say that historical accuracy is not the be all and end all, nor is it the ultimate goal of the project.

As you can see in the video interview atop this page, Radio Times Gaming had the chance to ask developer Tobias Stolz-Zwilling about the philosophy behind this approach.

Stolz-Zwilling, who serves as the global PR manager for Warhorse Studios, answered the question like so: "Well, the philosophy is that we are working making a video game, and that must be entertainment. This is not an educational product that we are selling to universities or whatever.

"This is a game about knights in the Middle Ages. Period. That's it. And everything that's built upon that is a bonus for the ones who are interested.

"It's a bonus that we try to make it realistic and authentic. It's a bonus that it's very immersive. It's a bonus that you have, instead of button mashing, the combat that you have [is] the real historical martial arts, or the best explanation we could provide in a video game."

Stolz-Zwilling continued: "So that is the main philosophy there. So, we never sacrificed the entertainment part for the authenticity. But it's not like we made something up to make it fun.

"It's more that, if we had the choice, we tried to go the way that is the entertaining alternative, without going crazy, without inventing anything, without breaking [anything] or making stuff up that would have never happened in the Middle Ages."

Providing an example of how this works, he added: "There's many examples, but a tiny example is, for instance, armour.

"If we feel like this armour looks particularly cool, but it was invented 50 years later, then it's like, 'Yeah, whatever. Maybe someone was the first.'

"Or the other way around; this armour is 100 years old, so whatever, maybe it's the armour of his grandpa or whatever.

"So, right, it's the little things. But I'm still strongly convinced that the overall game is still the closest you can get to medieval Bohemia or even medieval Europe."

The result of this thinking, as the attendees of the event learned, is a game with lots of freedom and fun, which still ties to real places that you can visit in real life — something that the Kuttenberg tourism board will surely be happy about!

Midway through the town tour, Stolz-Zwilling pointed to a nondescript wall nearby. He said words to the effect of: 'Remember in the game, when you hung a sword on a wall? It was that wall!'

Suddenly, there was mumble of approval from the crowd of journalists. Everything clicked into the place.

The hanging of the sword was a memorable moment in a mission about rival fencing experts.

The street with the wall was striking location, one of the unmissable centrepieces of a quest that you could approach in a number of different ways.

People looked around, remembering the layout of the street in the video game version of Kuttenberg.

You could see it in their eyes that it all matched up — the history and the reality and the fun of the game itself — and it felt very cool indeed.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 launches 11th February 2025 for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

Why not wishlist the game on Steam, visit the official website, or order your copy from Amazon?

Read more about upcoming games:

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• FC 25 new features: 25 major changes you need to know about

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