Deliverance 2 Is an Example of Sequel Exposition Done Right

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home February 7, 2025 3 Views 7 Min Read
Deliverance 2 Is an Example of Sequel Exposition Done Right
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As far as first-time sequels go, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is right up there with the best of them. It doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel or make controversial, short-sighted changes like implementing live-service features; rather, it takes what works in the first Kingdom Come: Deliverance and elevates it, fleshing it out in ways that are beneficial, unexpected, or both.

A particular aspect of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2‘s sequel status that deserves praise is how it ushers in new players. Sequels to story-focused games have a difficult line to walk: they often aim to be both satisfying for returning players and welcoming for first-timers who don’t want to jump into the previous game beforehand. As one might expect, this balance can be hard to strike, and attempts to do so can often come at the cost of compromising the experience for one or both demographics. The best sequels, therefore, manage to make their stories accessible to new players, but elevated for returning ones, who may better understand the emotional or narrative context of certain plot elements. KCD2 does this, but it goes a step further, offering a strong blueprint for other story-driven RPGs moving forward.

Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 Unique Duels

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How Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 Makes Every Duel Feel Unique

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 makes leaps and strides to ensure every one of its duels feels unique, especially after the first game’s static combat.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 Strikes a Perfect Middle-Ground with Its Exposition

The Player Steers Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2’s Exposition

In the early hours of KCD2, the player will spend quite a bit of time talking with NPCs, who will often ask Henry personal questions about his past. For instance, after the introductory setpiece, Henry and Hans will spend time with Pavlena and Bozhena, a daughter and mother who have taken them in. To make conversation, Hans will prompt Henry to tell stories about the two times he saved his life. Players can then either choose to tell an abridged version of these events, which occurred in the first game, or go into more detail, with the game offering several opportunities to abandon the longer version at key points.

Another example of this can be seen even earlier, when Henry is asked about Teresa, the primary love interest of the first Kingdom Come. This interaction goes a bit deeper though, as players can effectively define the current relationship status of Henry and Teresa, albeit somewhat loosely. Now, other games, like Mass Effect 2 and The Witcher 3, have offered dialog-integrated exposition dumps like these, allowing players to shape the game world through NPC interactions, but Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 goes a bit further thanks to its frivolity: it gives players insight into smaller, less plot-relevant details of the first game, which goes a long way toward making the story more emotionally impactful and believable.

It should be noted that these example exchanges rely on KCD2‘s strong writing. They wouldn’t work nearly as well if the dialog didn’t come across as naturally as it does.

How Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2’s Exposition Synergizes with Its Player-Driven Narrative

Aside from the obvious benefits of immersion and respecting returning players’ time, being able to decide how much of Henry’s backstory to learn helps Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 better balance its main story and open-ended role-playing experience. Of course, the game will never be as “choose your own adventure” as something like Skyrim, since Henry is a predefined character, but if players want to forge their own path in this sequel, they have some level of control over how much narrative baggage they want to carry from the first game.

Story-driven games, especially RPGs, have a tendency to hold players’ hands a bit too much, repeating information ad nauseam or erasing ambiguity altogether. On the other side of the spectrum, the narratives of games like The Witcher 3 can sometimes be intimidating for newcomers, as there aren’t enough opportunities to dig into smaller aspects of previous entries. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is in the middle of these two extremes, perfectly positioned at the intersection of informative and flexible.

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