Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 - Brushes With Death

An artist in distress and lots of quests all over the world await in this expansion of Kingdom Come: Deliverance II. It's without a doubt my favourite game of the year because of its great graphics, interesting characters, great mission design and great music. Bohemia felt like a living place and the historical detail work that went into this project was outstanding. It was a delight to follow Henry on new adventures in the second instalment. In this expansion, more quests, character encounters and story twists are expected. It may not be as grand as the story in the base game, but it is good and worth your time.

The new downloadable pack is called Brushes With Death. And just as it sounds, it has to do with colour. We meet Voyta, an artist who needs help, and being the good Samaritan that we are, my Henry decides to assist him with his problems. However, he seems a little strange as he talks to skulls and wants his stolen brushes back. If you choose to help him, you will be treated to about 7-13 hours of adventuring. I discovered pretty quickly that it's better to play on a newer save file. That's because this expansion is unlocked after the wedding already in Act 1. You also unlock some new features, armour and weapons.

The quests are almost always well written and interesting. They don't rank among the best of the base game, but they don't rank among the worst either. The quality of the storytelling is consistently good. It's just the right length for the price tag, although of course I would have liked even more content. Unfortunately, there is not much more than a well-written story. There is only one new gameplay feature and that is that you can now paint shields. I hope we get the same opportunity with armour and clothing in a future add-on.

When you unlock the ability to customise your shield, you can choose from a wide range of options. You have the opportunity to truly create your personal shield. Of course, as you might expect, you can use it in battle, which makes it more significant for you. While there are new weapons and armour, it is this feature that is the highlight of this downloadable content for me. I hope that Warhorse Studios implements more of these game-like systems with future content.

Speaking of game-like systems, the missions also highlight how strong the original systems in the base game are. You can use stealth, dialogue, alchemy or violence to tackle the missions. The dialogue choices also lead to several different solutions and can sometimes result in new problems. Unfortunately, the story has very little to do with the rest of the game. This is a standalone expansion and if you were hoping for new gameplay systems and a continuation of the story, this is something else.

In my initial run of Kingdom Come Deliverance II, I praised the ability to influence the stories in different ways and this is true here as well. That's why I recommend you play this content earlier in the story so you can alternate these missions with other things you want to do. It will also make more sense in terms of how the second story ends and how low the stakes are for our protagonist with this new content. More than four of the missions involve picking up items and delivering them to a person. This intersects a bit with the epic scenes towards the end of the base game. If you play this content with a new character, it fits in better with the overall story.

If I had to choose, I would have liked a little more content. I would have liked to see a similar system for the shields also for clothing, fabrics and armour. It should of course be built into the world so that if you buy the painting of patterns and the dyeing of fabrics, depending on the colour choice it would cost different amounts. Some colours would also be more rare and difficult to find. The colour purple is an example of a colour that was both expensive and difficult to produce in the Middle Ages. I would also have liked to see an element about rebuilding a village like in the first instalment. This could have been expanded on so that it feels interesting and more complex. We know there will be more stories in this format and I hope we are offered some more interesting gameplay elements, which also affect the adventuring in the base game.

I haven't discovered any new technical issues that weren't in the base game, except for one. On console, there has been a bug that creates flickering and things loading in and out of the picture. I have also noticed this on PC. Trees and other things tend to flash into the image at certain distances. It is rarely so extensive that it bothered me, but it is worth mentioning. That aside, this is a joy to play, as is the base game. It's one of the best looking games of the year and it's great to see that Cryengine is not only being used, but can be used to build impressive role-playing games. It's gratifying that it works as flawlessly as this does considering how broken the first one was at its launch. The soundscape is also good with new well-written voice acting and nice music. The new music is pleasant and fits the story well, even if there are not many new pieces.

In summary, this is more of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. The story will take you between 7-12 hours to complete depending on how quickly you do the missions. With multiple endings and an opportunity to build this into your playthrough relatively early, you get the most out of this package. The painting of shields is great and allows you to customise your character in more ways than before. Of course, I hope systems like this are added in for everything else you can dress up in. The missions aren't quite as sharp as in the base game, but they're good enough that I can recommend this to you without any major complaints. Graphical bugs aside, this is a great addition. It doesn't do much new but increases the amount of content. If you own the base game, this is a recommendation.