You're not paranoid—KCD2's devs gave Henry photo mode voicelines just to stop you abusing it for stealth runs

A grinning Dry Devil from Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. — (Image credit: Warhorse Studios)

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is filled with details—little character flourishes that lend the game and its world so much memorability and charm. For instance, the fact that Henry will give you a positive affirmation whenever you pop out of the game's photo mode: "Nice!" he'll exclaim, as you snap your umpteenth shot of Mutt. Thanks, Henry. It is nice.

But we were all deceived, because in my recent chat with KCD2 lead designer (and now one of Warhorse's two creative directors) Prokop Jirsa, he revealed that Henry doesn't just gab to nurture your inner Ansell Adams. He does it to stop you cheating.

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And, yes, Jirsa and co were absolutely aware of just the kind of trouble this would land you in when they implemented it. "I still think it's quite a clever way to solve the cheating issue, but we also knew that it would create these weird, 'what the fuck' moments that are funny and shareable, and that work in our community." In fact, notes Jirsa, Henry's famous battlecry was another example of that: "The 'I'm quite hungry' battlecry was exactly this. We knew it's just insane, but yeah, we're playful like this."

These kinds of systems and their sometimes-absurd outcomes are very much part of Warhorse's philosophy, the way Jirsa tells it, and even the funnier bugs are somewhat beloved—"We always try to fix everything and polish everything, 'cause we always knew that those weird little bugs and interactions would stay in the game… [and] we intentionally made some systems that we knew would create weird situations." That's just the old KCD charm, after all.

One of Josh's first memories is of playing Quake 2 on the family computer when he was much too young to be doing that, and he's been irreparably game-brained ever since. His writing has been featured in Vice, Fanbyte, and the Financial Times. He'll play pretty much anything, and has written far too much on everything from visual novels to Assassin's Creed. His most profound loves are for CRPGs, immersive sims, and any game whose ambition outstrips its budget. He thinks you're all far too mean about Deus Ex: Invisible War.