Kingdom Come: Deliverance, a medieval-themed role playing game, was once praised by some online bigots as an ‘anti-woke’ game. Now that same crowd is accusing its acclaimed sequel of ‘going woke’ over increased representation of people of color and the inclusion of a gay romance. The developers have since responded with exhaustion over the culture wars.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance released in 2018 to mixed reviews. The game aspired to be an open world medieval simulator with customizable characters, survival mechanics and an independent routine for every single NPC. While some criticism was focused on bugs and cumbersome simulation mechanics (which include hunger and sleep meters), others spotted notable absences in the game’s commitment to realism.
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Kingdom Come: Deliverance takes place in 15th century Bohemia (modern day Czech Republic) and the game was promoted as aiming for historical accuracy. It mostly received acclaim for this aspect, but before it came out, many prospective players questioned the lack of diversity, according to PC Games. Others, meanwhile, took this aspect (along with game director’s previous support for the anti-feminist, anti-SJW gamergate harassment campaign) as proof enough to label the game as defiantly anti-woke.
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Now the game’s sequel, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, has launched as of Tuesday to much higher critical praise than its predecessor. One notable improvement has been the heightened diversity—more people of color, more people of different faiths, and even an optional gay romance.
Somewhat predictably, the game is once again in the culture war crosshairs—this time from the same people who once defended the game when it was mostly white. “It seems like someone is always trying to brand us somehow, and we are just trying to make a cool videogame,” the studio’s PR manager Tobias Stolz-Zwilling told PC Games.
Stolz-Zwilling explained how nothing about the game’s approach to historical accuracy has changed. Instead, inclusivity was part of that process of historical realism and not the result of pressure, whether inside or outside the studio. Given the prior game’s success, the studio had an easier time contracting with historical academics and professionals this time around. “Everything makes sense,” Stolz-Zwilling said. “Everything we put there was double and triple checked.”
Stolz-Zwilling pointed out that the first game was focused on establishing the basic mechanics. That meant the supporting characters received less attention than the devs would have liked. “I think generally in KCD2, with the research we did, we delved way deeper into the different characteristics,” Stolz-Zwilling said.
“In an ideal world,” Stolz-Zwilling concluded, “we would like not to be connected to these fights at all.”
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