Deliverance 2 Devs Address “Woke” Complaints

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 became the latest target of the online culture war last month, when it came to light that the game featured a lot more diversity in culture and sexuality than the first game. Many were quick to start a hate campaign against the game and its developers, particularly when it was found that the sequel has a same-sex romance option.

Now, devs say they are “fed up” with all of this, and just want to “make a cool video game”. They also once again argue that this increased diversity is historically accurate for when and where the game is set, although that hasn’t stopped some from complaining about its inclusion anyway.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 Devs Explain Why The Sequel Is More Diverse

This comes from interviews with PC Gamer, who spoke with several developers behind Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 ahead of its launch later today.

“It seems like someone is always trying to brand us somehow, and we are just trying to make a cool video game,” says Tobias Stolz-Zwilling, global PR manager at Warhorse, adding that the team is “fed up” with all of this. “In an ideal world, we would like not to be connected to these fights at all.”

Senior game designer Ondřej Bittner agrees: “We’re definitely not the problem […] “We think the extreme voices are just never happy.”

Both are referring to how Kingdom Come: Deliverance found itself in the exact opposite position back in 2018. Then, some critics complained about the lack of diversity in the game, suggesting that in itself wasn’t historically accurate.

However, the devs are priding themselves on trying to make this series as true to life as possible. Speaking with PC Gamer, they say this is why we see more cultures in the sequel.

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“There’s more ethnicities in Kuttenberg because Kuttenberg is the royal mint […] It’s almost one of the most important cities in the Holy Roman Empire,” explains Bittner “There are people from Italy. There are a lot of German people in the game, and they use German words. And then there’s the Jewish Quarter, because we wanted to portray how Jewish people were in the Middle Ages.

“I think that it’s important to not just include these people, but their vision of the world, which can sometimes feel lacking in games or media that call themselves diverse. You don’t really actually know these characters. They’re just there.”

While some have placed the studio on this side of the culture war now, the game’s director has frequently engaged with the other side. Daniel Vávra was vocally in support of GamerGate when the first game launched, and joined in on making fun of Dragon Age: The Veilguard last month, back when that was the go-to target. Even now, as Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 launches to overwhelmingly positive reviews, he is on social media focusing on the few lower scores that the game received, with some in the replies making derogatory comments about the reviewers themselves.

RPG

Action-Adventure

Open-World

Systems

Released

February 4, 2025

ESRB

Mature 17+ // Use of Alcohol, Blood and Gore, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Intense Violence, Partial Nudity

Developer(s)

Warhorse Studios

Genres