Kingdom Come: Deliverance II – Brushes with Death DLC – PlayStation 5 Review

** This is a no spoilers review **

Delve into an immersive storyline in Brushes with Death, where Henry must help a mysterious artist uncover his enigmatic past. In a series of quests – spanning both maps of the Kingdom Come: Deliverance II world – Henry must find, persuade (and sometimes eliminate), a host of familiar and unfamiliar characters to help his new friend complete the most important painting of his life. Discover the answers to the many questions that surround this eclectic character. Who and what is he? How does he know so much? And why does he carry around a painted human skull?

In addition to new quests, Brushes with Death features a brand-new and unique feature to visually modify your shield, choosing from a variety of patterns and colours to reflect your personal style with Shield Painting.

Story

It all starts when Henry happens upon this compromised and desperate mysterious painter in the Trosky region. Immediately engulfing Henry in a nuanced, deeply macabre yet tantalising tangled web of intrigue and deeply suppressed, guilt, anguish and absolute doubt.

Henry is drip-fed obscure piecemeal objectives, full-well knowing that he is being manipulated, yet the reasons are so interesting that you and Henry will want to know why.

Throughout the first half of the storyline, it is unclear where you stand with the painter. Although you are always on friendly terms, the question of whether he is evil or something else altogether, is an unyielding element right to the very end.

There are several key choices presented to Henry throughout the story. Aside from opting out altogether, Henry can discharge his duties in any number of ways, so players who prefer to smack heads in and ask questions later, steal or simply talk their way through things, will be able to approach the objective using their preferred play style.

Henry has several moments where he can take an accusatory, considered, apathetic, judgemental or friendly position towards the painter. Each of these approaches will provide unique dialogue and possibly alter the outcomes.

By the end, the situation comes to a head with the painter finding a form of absolution, completion or finality. Henry is then left with a painter resource, ready to provide a slick new paint job for a custom shield.

Voice Acting and Performance

Brushes with Death features a stellar performance from Matthew Brenher as the Painter, as well as the other NPC voice actors. Cut scenes are heavily symbolic and completely unique in contrast to the main story.

Throughout the many objectives, Henry interacts with NPC’s who colourfully describe their past interactions with the Painter. These dialogue scenes are absolutely a step up to the next level of writing and performance from the cast.

New Features & Perks

Brushes with Death introduces a new sword towards the last few objectives of the story in Kuttenberg, which not only has an interesting pedigree, but when forged with significant smithing skill – will give Henry a sword that deals more damage than the Dueling Sword or Sir Radzig’s sword, at only slightly more weight.

There is one catch though, it seems to require significant skill to wield. Aside from that, it looks bad-ass and would otherwise serve Henry well.

In addition to the sword, as an early reward for helping out the painter, Henry can now have a shield painted to his specification. Several patterns, colours and artwork are available to mix and match and can be applied to any shield.

Now with a new Sword and Shield for every battle, a unique potion is also created which if brewed with the right skill, will yield a significant healing buff.

Final Thoughts

Brushes with Death is a seriously funny story, its very unique and memorable and so worthy of being a stand-alone DLC.

The new sword is powerful and a step up, giving value to the main game, the potion is also a wonderful addition, but experienced players – mid level and above, won’t find it absolutely groundbreaking compared to the other potions and perks they already have.

The shield painting seems cool, but the standard game’s colourful shields are already available to the player, and although the painted shields are now customisable, there is a sense that you can’t quite get one that fully satisfies. Nevertheless, players can only appreciate the shield from the inventory or when taking screenshots.

Macabre and somewhat unhinged at times, it touches on elements of sanity, occult, fear and redemption in a very authentic and entertaining way. The player will experience the natural reactions to how their Henry would interact when faced with the challenges of an afflicted person such as the painter.

This DLC was played at the end of the main story line at around 190 hours of gameplay, and perhaps the introduction felt a bit weird – after being at Trosky castle again without any fanfare or hint of hostility, it was nevertheless seamless. It would likely be a far more immersive experience being played along with the main story line and related events – which would bring about further anticipation and value.

Offering a good weekend of binge play, or several days of casual pace, there are a lot of hours of genuine thrilling game play.

The DLC is not intended to be the equivalent of the main story line, but it does offer a captivating story and purposeful gameplay, with genuine usable rewards.

The ending felt a little predictable, but by no means less satisfying than expected. More precisely, it was so good that you actually are disappointed it finishes.

At $8.95 AUD for this DLC and the hours of game play it provides it is a no brainer and offers exceptional value.