Bohemian Parody: Kingdom Come II game's major historical bloopers
In Russia, the entire imported batch of Kingdom Come: Deliverance II for PlayStation 5 was cleared off the shelves in just three days. After millions of dollars in global sales, the scandalous role-playing action game became a hit in the Russian Federation, where the console game is available only on physical media. The editors received a copy for PS5 one of the first and compared it with the PC version. About what praise and scold Kingdom Come: Deliverance II and where in Bohemia XV century black people - in the material "Izvestia".
What the game about medieval Bohemia turned out to be
The first part of Kingdom Come: Deliverance was released in February 2018 and quickly became a cult among people who like realistic and historically authentic games - by the end of 2024 it had 8 million copies sold. The main focus of the project was on the story component and realistic game mechanics. Gamers appreciated the attention to detail and the unusual world of medieval Bohemia.
It was also associated with a loud scandal - the studio Warhorse and its head, Daniel Vavra, were accused of racism and sexism due to the lack of strong female characters in the story and heroes with dark skin color. According to the developer, who worked on such popular games as Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven, Mafia 2 and Hidden & Dangerous, the Warhorse team worked with historians and scientific research for four years. And made a decision: it would not distort the facts in any way. In other words, Daniel Vavra said that there are no ethnic minorities in his game, because they could not be found in Bohemia of that period (1403) in the area where the main events unfold.
The Internet tried to "cancel" the developer, but the game still became a hit. And just most often it was praised for the unwillingness of developers to distort history in favor of the so-called narrative.
The sequel had to wait seven years. Its development cost $41 million, making it the most expensive video game in the history of the Czech Republic. However, sales for the first day fully covered the costs of the project and reached 1 million copies in the first 24 hours. The world release took place on February 4, and soon the game was brought to Russia.
- Kingdom Come: Deliverance II sales exceeded our expectations - in three days the entire first shipment of not only the regular, but also the extended edition for PlayStation 5 was sold out. The interest in the project is not accidental - it is in Russia that the first "Mafia" (original title Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven) from the project's main scriptwriter Daniel Vavra is historically loved. The key factor was that the game received rave reviews not only from critics, but also from ordinary users: we think that gamers missed great story adventures filled with battles and humor. In the near future we will bring enough disks to fill our stores, - said Sergey Mezin, the head of "Game Development and Gaming Community" of M.Video-Eldorado Group.
Agenda above all
By genre, the sequel is a large-scale role-playing game in the open world. The action unfolds in medieval Bohemia, in the center of events - the son of a blacksmith Indřich, aka Indro, who for the international version of the game renamed Henry. On his way to avenge his parents, he becomes a respected landowner, and also finds himself drawn into a large-scale conspiracy against the backdrop of an emerging civil war.
The second part of Kingdom Come pleasantly surprises with the elaboration of all aspects: the daily routine of computer characters, the change of day and night in real time, the possibility to fall off the horse, having caught atree branch, or to be caught by the guards because the protagonist hasn't washed for a long time and exudes miasmas.
The game world of medieval Bohemia is painted in such a way that it's impossible to tear yourself away from the scenery. Forests were drawn by hand, there are no two identical trees, meadows or stumps.
Another thing is that this time the authors decided not to take risks and to add elements of DEI, that is diversity, equality and inclusiveness. Vavra even found a justification for this marketing move. He noted that the action of the game takes place in one of the richest cities in Europe, Kuttenberg, so life in such a place is different from the villages from the first part.
- Musa of Mali came to Bohemia with the invading army as a member of the royal court of King Sigismund, whom he met through his involvement in the court of Sultan Bayezid. He is an educated nobleman and Renaissance man from the kingdom of Mali. At the same time, Musa appears to be a very unusual figure to the local Bohemian people, and many of the situations around him in the game arise from this. His presence makes sense and creates many interesting situations," said Daniel Vavra.
Musa from Mali is a real historical figure. In the game, he glorifies women and defends their rights, comparing the treatment of women in Bohemia and the African country of Mali, noting that in his state the latter are respected and honored. As Ibn Batutta's mid-fourteenth-century study of Tangier shows, women were indeed honored in African countries.
- They possessed exceptional beauty and were held in higher esteem than men. Men also show no signs of jealousy. A man's heirs are his sister's sons, not his own sons," according to a study by traveler Ibn Batutta.
The game claims that Musa is part of the retinue of King Sigismund of Hungary and Croatia, while there are no historical chronicles that confirm any military campaigns, actions or even the stay of the historical Sigismund in Mali. Not surprisingly, one of the most popular modifications on the first day after release was White Musa, a mod that changes Musa's skin color to white.
Another "author's find" was a synagogue in Kuttenberg, a real town now named Kutna Gora. According to open sources, the first synagogue in the history of the town was built in 1902 by architect Bohuslav Moravec. In 1949 it was handed over to the Hussite Church, but the Jewish symbols remained.
The whole Jewish neighborhood around the synagogue was added to the game. One of the story quests involves defending this synagogue from militant Christian fanatics shouting anti-Semitic slogans. The pogrom is thwarted precisely by the protagonist - and Musa from Mali.
Another distortion was the identity of Jan Ptacek, he is a young Czech nobleman and heir to the Pans from the market town of Rataje. The real Ptacek was known for amorous exploits and adventures, though he was married. He was also present in the first installment of Kingdom Come, but in the sequel he was added new traits indicating amorous interests without restraint.
The game also features a temple in Sedlec, which was built by the Cistercians, monks of the Catholic order. The monastery itself was burned down by the Hussites in 1421. With the help of a side quest, in which a monk named Morticius is asked to carefully assemble bones into pyramidal structures, the game's authors decided to pay tribute to the ossuary in Sedlec, which is decorated with thousands of human skeletons. However, the task contradicts the traditional values of the Cistercians, who did not build pyramids out of human remains.
Despite the above, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II was the most important historical game since Russia's Smuta, released in 2024.
- We have a positive attitude to games that describe in detail the culture and life of past eras, especially the Middle Ages. This is a complex, maximally eventful period, the memory of which is now available only in museums and books. Therefore, specialized consultants are required to convey the spirit of the era, to maintain historical accuracy. For example, when developing Distemper, we worked very closely with experts from the Museum of Moscow, who helped us to elaborate on various elements of buildings, clothing, weapons, dishes and other details of everyday life of the residents of the Time of Troubles," summarized Alexey Koptsev, CEO of Sayberia Nova and creator of Distemper.
He noted that the historical aspect, which the authors prioritized, became the reason for the development and launch of separate educational applications. Therefore, it is impossible to talk about historical events without careful elaboration of everyday details.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II goes on sale on February 4, 2025 worldwide. The game features subtitles in Russian, as well as voiceovers in English and Czech. A copy was provided to Izvestia by Achivka, Russia's largest video game distributor. The editors compared the PC and PS5 versions and found that the console edition has significantly fewer software bugs than the PC game, the bugs of which have already become the object of jokes in social networks.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
