Ugh! Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 has a body-odour 'broadcasting' system where your stink can alert nearby NPCs

pcgamer.com:

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 withGamesRadar. 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