Kingdom Come: Deliverance 1's Downloadable Content

We’re going over the add-ons for Kingdom Come: Deliverance 1 today!  I’m curious to see what this game’s downloadable content scene has to offer.  On the one hand, I am, with full justification, highly skeptical of add-ons and always prepared for the worst when it comes to them.  On the other hand, KCD1, although a rather massive and ambitious open-world undertaking, is ultimately an Indie RPG, and a crowdfunded one (that I myself contributed to), at that, and as a general rule, Indies are far more reliable than main industry developers are.  And yet still again, the last DLC I reviewed was for an Indie RPG, as well, and though it didn’t lack for quality, I was not impressed by the ethics of that add-on.  So I guess we’re once again just totally up in the air as far as what to expect, here.



From the Ashes: In this DLC, Sir Divish tasks Henry with the revival of the town of Pribyslavitz, which basically involves Henry finding workers and residents for the town, dropping a buttload of cash into the construction and reconstruction of vital buildings and services for a medieval village, and waiting while the assistant, Marius, checks to make sure there are adequate resources, and then re-checks that Henry hasn’t snuck his cash back out of the funds chest in the time it took him to jog over to the building site because Warhorse Studios knows all your sneaky tricks, gamers.

Anyway, this isn’t worth the $6 it costs.  While there’s nothing wrong with it as a whole, it’s an extremely barebones story--you rescue a dude, you drop some cash, you gallop to a few towns to recruit some other dudes, bam, you’re basically done.  Who you recruit adds a little flavor to the task, as some of the people being brought in were notable NPCs in the main game’s events like Kunesh and Henry’s shitty Slavitz buddies, but little really comes of that fact; it’s mostly just a minor blip of interest, and then you’re just back to building up a town.  As base/headquarters/town-building sidequests go, From the Ashes ain’t exactly Pathfinder: Kingmaker.  It’s barely an evolution past the task of finding residents for and expanding Township in Breath of Fire 2; hell, considering the diverse functions of Township’s residents and its connection to the ending of the game, I’d say an argument could be made that KCD1’s town-building simulator is actually still less than the one Capcom threw into the 16-bit game they published almost a quarter of a century prior to Kingdom Come Deliverance 1’s release.

That’s not to say that From the Ashes is bad, mind you.  It does give you something to do with all the groschen you’ve been hoarding in the later stages of the game.  Additionally, 1 of KCD1’s major goals is to depict, examine, teach, and to some degree celebrate the times and reality of the medieval ages, and From the Ashes is accomplishing that by showing the player what went into the creation and maintenance of a village of the time, elaborating on what we’ve gleaned from the locales we’ve visited and made use of during the main game.  So that’s good.

Also, the highlight of From the Ashes, the judgment sequences, are certainly enjoyable.  As he’s been made bailiff of Pribyslavitz, Henry has to preside as judge over some conflicts between the new residents he’s imported, and I almost always like this sort of little side-story content in games like Pathfinder: Kingmaker, Pillars of Eternity 1, and so on  The best ones make good use of that light, understatedly tongue-in-cheek style that frequently lends a signature personality to Kingdom Come: Deliverance 1.

But there’s a pretty limited number of these matters to judge; even the RPG generally credited with inventing this sidequest concept of being a dispute-handling ruler in your stronghold, Baldur’s Gate 2, feels like it explored this idea more thoroughly than From the Ashes does.  Beyond that, as I said, the plot of this DLC is barebones, and I doubt you’re gonna get a full 6 hours out of it, so I don’t think it’s worth $6.  If it goes on sale for $1, or better yet gets grandfathered in as a free part of the game someday, then sure, From the Ashes is fine enough, but that’s about as far as I’d recommend it.

...Hey wait a minute, Sir Divish says Henry’s pay will be the revenue generated by the village for the first 5 years...but then the announcement he has proclaimed in Rattay to get people to come rebuild and live in the village says that the citizens won’t have to pay taxes for the first 5 years of living there.  Now I’m not an economist by any means, but if I understand how a town generates revenue right, I think that sly son of a bitch just pulled one over on Henry!  Guy must’ve found out what Stephanie’s been up to...


The Amorous Adventures of Bold Sir Hans Capon: Hanging out with and getting caught up in the antics of Hans Capon was a highlight of that appealing comedy that I mentioned as giving Kingdom Come: Deliverance 1 a lot of its personality, and Warhorse Studios wisely decided to dedicate the majority of their second DLC to a reprise of Henry being the agreeable sidekick to his new best friend and future love interest’s irresponsible misadventures.  There’s not much to say here, honestly--if you liked Hans Capon and Henry’s buddy dynamic as Capon goes about his life as an arrogant but well-meaning fop, you’re in for more as Warhorse Studios put their best writing efforts towards showing how inherently silly the classic medieval romantic fad of secret wooing was, complete with an acne potion, bumbling misquotation of poetry, and both beguiling and bewildering a butcher with brainless banter (and belting out some bars) as your buddy boinks a babe.  The climax of this DLC feels distinctly like a comic interlude in a Shakespeare play (by design, I should think, given some of the poetic lines), and I quite enjoyed it.

Bonus points for the light humor of Henry affecting what he thinks is a nobleman’s air during his infiltration of the bandit camp, and for the more genuine moments of gravity with Anselm’s audible pain at the death of his friend.  I’ll admit that it’s a bit annoying that this DLC costs another $6 for what’s almost surely going to be roughly 2 - 3 hours of content, but that content at least is genuinely engaging story matter, so it at least feels more worth the cost than From the Ashes did.  Still, I’m a stickler for getting appropriate value for what you pay, so I guess I’d still recommend waiting until The Amorous Adventures of Bold Sir Hans Capon is on sale before acquiring it.  But yeah, simply on terms of quality, I give it a thumbs-up.


Band of Bastards: In this DLC, Henry is tasked with assisting and chaperoning a band of mercenaries that Sir Radzig has hired to quell a problematic group of bandits in the area that’s being led by a man with a grudge against him.

It’s...pretty fine.  The story’s simple but serviceable, and the sellswords have a good bit of personality to them.  The adventure gives a bit more backstory to Radzig, which is nice, and Kuno, the leader of the mercenaries, has some decently interesting views to share.  There’s a good handful of decent moments to this add-on.  I particularly enjoyed the scene in which the band is drinking with Henry and ask him to tell him some stories about himself, to which you can have Henry relate several of the adventures you’ve had him go upon, like doing Father Godwin’s Mass for him, or (of course) Henry’s misadventures with Hans Capon.  Great little instance of camaraderie, and I enjoy moments that acknowledge the exploits of the adventure as worth sharing, particularly when the retelling allows you to see them from the retrospective of the involved characters themselves.

At the same time, though, the ending to this adventure feels really abrupt; I thought Henry would be doing more with this team for longer, given the strength of their characterization.  Similarly, it doesn’t feel like there was adequate exploration of the antagonist, Hagen Zoul.  And the major moment of conflict resolution, the test of Kuno’s loyalty and Henry’s ability to maintain it, has weight that makes it feel like it’s meant to be the culmination of character buildup that I don’t think was really provided.  It’s a story with a beginning and an end, yet it doesn’t feel complete.  It’s not bad, it just ends before it had the chance to feel like it had gone places.  Which makes the fact that its scant 3-ish hours of content is all the more glaringly inadequate for its $6 price tag.  It’s unobjectionable overall, worthy enough of spending the time and perhaps half the asking price on, but Band of Bastards, like the rest of the game’s add-ons thus far, is fodder for a sale, not the asking price.


A Woman’s Lot: The final DLC for Kingdom Come Deliverance 1 has 3 notable components to it.  The first is the addition of a skill you can invest in to get a dog companion, which will help you fight enemies, find stuff, and so on.  Which is a purely positive addition, in my opinion: what first-person RPG isn’t made better by the addition of Dogmeat?

The second major part of the DLC is focused on Theresa.  There’s more romance content with her now, and it’s pretty decent stuff; she and Henry have a pleasing rapport, and more time spent on showing that fact is only beneficial.  I mean, it doesn’t do much for me, personally, because once I found out that Hans is romanceable in KCD2, I pumped the brakes on Theresa hard.  Sorry, babe, you and Henry make a cute couple, but Hans is my boy, and if I’ve got the chance to add “toy” to the end of that title, you better believe I’m gonna take it.  But, y’know, Theresa’s romance in KCD1 is still quite nice, and what this DLC adds to it is solid.

More than that, though, Theresa’s side of this DLC also involves her telling Henry the story of how the Skalitz invasion went down from her perspective, a full-on sidequest which involves playing as Theresa in the days leading up to and after the tragedy.  It’s pretty good--it develops Theresa’s character, which is something she kind of needed as most of what we see of her is specifically in relation to Henry, and it better displays the character and goings-on of Skalitz and its residents, which retroactively adds to the weight of the tragedy of the town’s destruction.  Seeing the couple days leading up to the Skalitz blitz from Theresa’s perspective also displays a little more of the daily life and culture of medieval times, which is 1 of KCD’s larger goals.  Being able to see it from a woman’s perspective only further expands the scope of that understanding, too.  Going through the attack and its aftermath with Theresa further develops her character, has its share of emotional and affecting moments, and fills in some of the gaps about the incident for us.  Overall, it’s an engaging and useful side story.

The last major component of A Women’s Lot focuses on Johanka, and it’s this part that I like best about the add-on.  As she strives to care for the sick and wounded, including the man she loves, Johanka is visited in her dreams by a vision of the Virgin Mary, and takes it on herself to become Mary’s chosen advocate in the town, giving speeches and sermons urging all who will listen to turn away from sin and become better Christians.  After he assists Johanka in improving the character and faith of her community, Henry finds himself having to advocate for her as the Church begins to investigate her for heresy, because of course the medieval Church ain’t gonna go letting some random peasant spread the word of God, what you think Jesus was just a blue-collar dude who went around giving people advice from the heart on how to live better?  Anyway, it’s a good and compelling story that displays belief and the Church’s influence in medieval culture, serves as a pretty decent little fable on faith and Christianity on its own, develops Johanka and resolves her personal story in KCD1’s narrative, delves into the way the Church operated at this time in its history, and has an ending that’s realistically as satisfying as it could be given the situation and the time period.  My favorite part of this questline is the walk of penance that Johanka convinces Henry to undertake; it entails a really good bit of self-reflection that benefits Henry’s character overall, and gives some sobering retrospection to some of the things he’s had to do over the game’s course that were otherwise glossed over by their necessity.

Overall, it’s quite a good DLC.  It tells some good stories, expands the characters of those it features, ties up some loose ends, adds a Dogmeat wannabe, develops Henry himself a bit, and makes the romance subplot of the game better.  It costs $8, but in spite of the significant size of both Johanka and Theresa’s sidequests, you probably won’t get much more than 4 hours out of it...still, what time you spend with A Woman’s Lot is solidly good, so it might just be worth the high price.  At the very least, just about any sale would make it a good deal.



And that’s it for Kingdom Come: Deliverance 1’s downloadable content!  Some good, some subpar, little that’s really  worth the asked for price, but overall, a content suite that’s above average for add-on packages, I’d say.  And they at least are less ethically questionable than the last add-on I ranted about.