Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 Dev on Elder Scrolls: Morrowind Influence, Instant Gratification in Modern Videogames and more

In a recent interview with GamesRadar, Ondřej Bittner, the Senior Designer of the recently released Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 has opened up on the huge influences of some of the most iconic Role Playing titles in history such as The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind and The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion in their latest Action RPG.

Though clearly stating that he prefers Morrowind over Oblivion, he admits that both titles have made significant design influences on Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 and have shaped many aspects of the game.

“Most of our designers are in their mid 30s–like, 30s to 40s–so these games had a huge impact on us,” noted Bittner. He also said that the game adheres to the design philosophy found in the older RPG’s of yesteryear which preferred a more slow-burn and discovery-based flavor of adventure rather than the fast-paced approach present in most modern batch of games today.

“Instant gratification in games has become a problem where, to sustain dopamine for people, you have to constantly bombard [players] with stuff,” stated Bittner. “One day they wake up and go, ‘Oh, this is all really obnoxious,’ and they shut it all down. So we kind of go back to the roots of RPGs where it’s sort of like: ‘Well, you can do whatever you want, and maybe go and do the main story.”

He describes the approach they’ve taken in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 as “going back to the [genre’s] roots with less hand-holding,” while also confirming that this doesn’t make the game any less accessible to today’s younger generation of gamers.

“They can be like ‘I don’t know where to go’ – well, have you thought about where to go? If I tell you where to go, it’s not really as fun, is it?”

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is a medieval Europe action RPG sequel which was released on February 4 for the PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. The game was highly praised for it’s exceptional melee combat system and engrossing narrative along with some of the deeper gameplay elements that players just won’t find in most other titles in it’s genre.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 also has Cryengine powering the game which has resulted in some of the most stunning and realistic looking vegetation and natural landmark renderings in the entire current-gen of gaming. What’s even more impressive is the fact that the game manages to look spectacular even without using any Ray-Tracing feature, making it far more optimized and scalable across a wide range of GPUs.