Kingdom Come: Deliverance II - Brushes with Death Review (MindFlow)
Brushes with Death is more of the same. It literally feels like the devs had a checkbox to make sure every mechanic the base game has to offer is also involved here. Dice? Check. Archery? Check. Stealth segments? Check. Waiting for X hours to continue the quest? Check, check, check. Even carrying something heavy from A to B which the devs seem to think of as peak gameplay is included once again. Add to that a bunch of boring fetch quests and we're done. That's our DLC. The only noteworthy addition to the game at all is the ability to customize the shield painting - which only somewhat matters if you're using a shield at all.
That leaves us with the story of Brushes with Death and unfortunately it does not convince me either. The main character of this DLC is a shady, evasive and seemingly confused man, who for the most part refuses to answer any questions. This is supposed to build up intrigue, but fails entirely. At no point during the entire story did I care about that guy. He never gave me a reason to. And once the true story unfolds towards the end, it is disappointingly basic.
At some point the painter asks the player, why he is helping him at all. Unfortunately the only true answer was missing: "Because the game wants me to". The writing and characters never gave me any reason.
With the same old gameplay and a sloppy story, this DLC just doesn't cut it. The only saving grace is the price - but that doesn't influence Gold Edition owners at all. Overall a very disappointing first extension of the game.