Reeky bastards should think twice about stealth attacks.
Stealth games typically prioritise avoiding causing a stink, but usually in a figurative sense. Keeping a low profile as you skulk around some elaborate mansion or military base is often essential to survival, as you evade or quietly eliminate guards to prevent the alarm being raised. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, however, makes being sniffed out a more literal concern, adding a fully simulated pong propagation system that enables NPCs to detect your encroaching stench.
This was detailed by KCD2’s senior game designer Ondřej Bittner during a conversation with GamesRadar. Bittner explained that Warhorse’s medieval RPG simulates the player’s accumulation of dirt and grime, and if you become sufficiently filthy, you acquire a debuff that causes you to smell. “If you get the debuff that, you know, your body odour, you smell. There’s like a circle around you,” Bittner said. “Basically, you’re broadcasting, like, I’m here.”
I’ve encountered BO problems during my own playthrough of KCD2, but so far, they’ve been limited to offending NPCs during conversations. Characters will take a dislike to if you rock up for a chat while reeking, and wearing dirty clothes can impact your charisma even if you’re clad in the finest silks and satins.
The fact the game broadcasts your fragrance in real-time was news to me, however. Or at least, I thought it was. Then I remembered I’d seen it mentioned somewhere in KCD2’s menus, so I booted it up for a sniff around, and it appears you can actually turn being a filthy boy to your advantage while sneaking. Within the stealth skill menu is a perk called “Natural Camouflage”, which makes you harder to spot the dirtier you are. You need to be careful when deliberately grubbing up, however, as “[enemies] can still smell you if the dirt is accompanied by a corresponding odor.”
It’s a clever way to encourage players to engage with all the simulated senses while sneaking. Yet Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 isn’t the first game to experiment with stealth and smell. Last year’s detective simulator Shadows of Doubt also required sleuths to periodically shower, else your stench would draw unwanted attention from NPCs while sneaking around. In more ambitious (and less successful) smell-based gaming experiments, Andy tried out the GameScent ‘Haptic stench’ device last year. Supposedly designed to emit scene-appropriate odours as you play games, GameScent didn’t come up smelling of roses, with Andy describing it as a “dumb idea, poorly executed.”
Smell simulation is just one of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2’s wealth of systems that led Joshua to afford it a score of 90 in his review, explaining that “There are times when Warhorse’s simulation of a medieval world approaches Stalker-levels of zeal.” My favourite detail is how player character Henry’s head has a physical presence in the game, which means if you try to ride under a ceiling that’s too low, you’ll get knocked clean off your horse. For a game so seriously minded about its setting, KCD 2 can generate some cracking physical comedy.
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