Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 is the coziest game I’ve ever played

NOTE: Don’t worry, there are NO spoilers ahead.

When you think of the word ‘cozy’, what is the first thing that comes to mind? Wrapping yourself up in a blanket with a hot chocolate? Maybe it’s the soft, nostalgic glow of childhood where you had no responsibilities and a world full of possibility. It can perhaps be doing something simple that keeps your mind busy. Every person has a different definition of what cozy means, and as of late, my coziest place has been in the forge, hitting a piece of hot metal until it becomes an instrument for killing. Or horseshoes, because they sell well.

When you think cozy games, there are a couple that come immediately to mind. Stardew Valley is probably first on that list for many people, including myself. A game where you can become financially stable by planting things in the ground AND you can talk and befriend everyone because apparently social anxiety doesn’t exist in Pelican Town? Sign me up. Many idle games can also be considered ‘cozy’ because there aren’t many ways that you can mess up. But I can guarantee you that nobody in their right minds would think ‘Kingdom Come Deliverance’. Thankfully, I’m not in my right mind.

Kingdom Come Deliverance puts you in the shoes of a fella named Henry who lived in 15th century Bohemia. There are no dragons, dwarfs or magic, simply the crushing reality of living in the middle-ages. The world is faithfully and painstakingly recreated to fit the period and many of the figures and locations actually existed. Henry isn’t some chosen knight or Destined Hero, he’s the son of a blacksmith from a small village. He’s not particularly skilled in anything and doesn’t even know how to read and write in the beginning.

I played the first game for about 10 hours and got a taste of what this franchise is about. It’s a slow, methodical game that almost feels like a life simulator at times. Henry is a completely blank canvas and he has the capability to be a kind and honourable man or a remorseless monster sowing chaos. The second game follows shortly after the first and after a series of extremely unfortunate events, he is once again reduced to a filthy peasant with nothing to his name, and this is where my journey with Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 began.

At the start of KCD2, you need to make some money to get yourself out of your stinking clothes and the game offers you a simple choice. Go to the blacksmith and work for your coin or head to the suspicious Miller and start a life in thievery. I am not the sneaky nor takey sort of person, so I headed to the local smithy as soon as I could.

Smithing itself is a deceptively simple mini-game where you have to heat up the steel just enough so that it doesn’t burn, then you have to strike it with your hammer in rhythm while moving the piece around so that you don’t hit the same areas more than once. Swords were simple enough since they’re long and pointy, but I still struggled to get the rhythm just right. Then I met my first true foe on the anvil. The horseshoe.

Horseshoes aren’t worth much and they’re considered dumb labour by other smiths, but these little bastards are surprisingly tough to hit. My first attempts were rife with misses, frequent obscenities from Henry himself and a doubt that this smithing thing may not be for me. But I had to make coin, I literally have nothing to my name, so I’ll just have to get used to it.

After a lot of decent swords and mangled horseshoes, I finally scraped enough coin together to get myself out of abject poverty. It felt good. I worked to get myself out of my crappy situation with sweat, steel and a lot of “oh for fuck sakes I’m burning it!” from Henry. I didn’t have to stoop to stealing from other peasants and constantly getting caught by the catchpole. With my coin in my pocket, I ventured into the rest of KCD2 and I did NOT expect it to be one of the best games I’ve ever played.

I was immediately sucked into the story because the writing and voice work was so top notch. The world is vast and filled with potential discoveries or adventures you can stumble upon. The mechanics are incredibly deep and complicated, but with the express goal of allowing you to become exactly who you want to be. I had one problem though. I didn’t have a homebase and usually lived out of the nearest closet.

Now imagine my joy when I saw that one of the DLC expansions I got is called Legacy of the Forge, where you build up your father’s long-forgotten forge in the heart of the city of Kuttenburg.

I progressed as fast as I could until I hit the big city and immediately went to the old forge. It was a mess. Basically a bunch of ruins and rubble with an anvil in the middle. An old woman called Magdalena welcomed me, her late husband once owned the forge and my father was his apprentice. I then offered to buy the place and restore it. At this point I was still pretty broke and my spoils of war usually just funded my survival. Now I have a home to rebuild, so I heated up that forge as hot as it could go.

My flimsy smithing skills started getting refined by the sheer volume of things I was making. The once-dreaded horseshoes were now a routine and I made them in bulk to put in my store chest. I took the swords and axes I made to the market and sold them for as much as I could until the merchants ran out of money. Piece by piece, the forge started coming together. Once ruined structures were restored, my bedroom didn’t look like the definition of “dank” and I finally had a place to wash my dog.

I started going into a routine where I went on a few story quests and then returned home to work on my forge and I always looked forward to both. There is also a pretty lengthy quest tied to the DLC which continues the game’s trend of excellent storytelling and memorable characters. My forge had a rich history and a particular significance to Henry, since he was the son of a blacksmith after all.

One day I found myself waking up from my recently decorated bed, sitting at my table eating breakfast. I went downstairs to greet Magdalene who has a new commission for me. I realised I don’t have enough material, so I take my stock from the previous night’s work into town and visit my usual German shopkeepers. I clean out their groschen reserves with my perfectly crafted blades that I then use to construct an alchemy bench in the backyard. I pop over to the guild to do some target shooting to increase my Blacksmith Prestige, deliver a sword to someone in a small village outside of town and then head back to my forge where I fiddle around with potion recipes in my new alchemy lab. Afterwards I hammer swords and axes until the day comes to a satisfying close.

Then I thought, hold on, am I playing a cozy game right now?

I sure felt cozy. Hammering away on the forge has become a sort of meditation. Once you lean into the rhythm and really give yourself over, all other worries seem to disappear. After a long day in the real world, I would look forward to relaxing in the forge. It was as important to me as it was to Henry.

My hard work in the forge also directly benefited me in the game. I made equipment that was far superior than any merchant’s wares and the amount of money I made gave me a lot of power I wouldn’t otherwise have. I suspect if the forge never existed, I’d be looting every bandit and enemy soldier until they’re naked. I spared myself that messy existence through sheer, honest work.

In the end, my forge made me fabulously wealthy and I was decked out in the best gear the game had to offer. I bought the most expensive horse available and my once ruined estate now looked like a palace. I spent the rest of the game living in luxury and giving out my coin like it’s a burden for me.

The forge was integral in getting me invested in the world of KCD2. The first game was a tough sell considering it’s so hardcore and doesn’t follow conventional “fantasy RPG” formulas. It can be intimidating and overwhelming, but once you give yourself over and let it do its thing, it’s one of the best gaming experiences you can have.

What I didn’t expect was that it was going to be the coziest game I’ve ever played. I was expecting epic yet senseless battles and dysentery, not quiet contemplation by doing a craft you love doing. In real life I would be the worst blacksmith ever, I can barely hold a hammer the right way around, but in this digital world of 15th century Bohemia, I am a master of steel and fire. And when I want to retreat from this noisy world, I know that the forge is always there for me to drown it out.