As I watched the credits roll over an impeccable soundtrack, I found myself reflecting on my journey through Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. This beautiful, unforgettable game captured my full attention (no easy feat) for more than 70 hours, and I felt a strange concoction of emotions running through me.
It was a sense of relief at how the story had wrapped up, and a comedown from the adrenaline-fuelled high that accompanied the final sequences of this wonderful game. I revelled in victory and mourned those I’d lost along the way, and of course, I looked to whatever would come next, as for all the hours I’d invested, my path through KCD2 wasn’t yet finished.
This is everything I ever wanted in a sequel – and so much more. In this comprehensive Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 review, I hope you’ll come with me as I look back at one of the best games I’ve ever played.
Pure Cinema
From the very opening sequences of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, you’re made aware that Warhorse Studios wants to transcend delivering ‘a game’ and instead has chosen to offer players worldwide the ultimate cinematic experience. The soundtrack is bold and lifting, the visuals stunning, and the acting right off the bat is nothing short of sumptuous.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 doesn’t mess around with a light-hearted introduction. Within the first hour of the game, you’ve seen slaughter and decimation at the hands of bandits, you’ve been left for dead, and your situation is looking dire. It’s quite a callback to the first game, which was released in 2018 and opened much in the same way.
As the game unfolds, you’ll be treated to a twisting, winding story packed with choices and consequences, which is exactly what I was hoping for. The paths you pick will shape the world around you, and from the relationships you embrace to the decisions you make midway through a conversation, everything means something.
This isn’t just a medieval RPG – it goes far beyond that.
In Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, you’ll be forced to meander through an intense story with intrepid abandon, ready and willing to change the course of history and the lives of those close to you. How you dress, fight, act, kill, and succeed (or fail) will mould your story and your version of Henry of Skalitz, the game’s bold protagonist.
Small Becomes Mighty
It’s not just about the gorgeous landscapes, the towering castles, or the ambitious mission sequences in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. One of the things I love most about this game is the attention to even the smallest details. This is a world that lives and breathes around you, and at no point in my 70-hour campaign run did I feel as though I wasn’t immersed in something.
The best way I can explain this concept is to highlight how crime works in this Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 review.
If you steal a set of keys from a character, you might return to their home later to find they’ve changed the locks. When you commit a crime against nobility, you’ll be more harshly pursued and punished than if you’d robbed a peasant. When you drop something on the floor, an NPC might steal it – but only if it suits their character or their desires.
On the topic of NPCs, the game’s ‘named characters’ aren’t just existing, they’re living their lives and working through a schedule. They might wake up in their designated home, go to work, revel in the tavern in the evening, and then head home for some food before going to sleep again.
In one sequence, I saw a gaggle of women huddled outside the local pub having a chat, and when it started to rain, they moved under a shelter to get out of the bad weather and continue their conversation. In another, I walked into a town covered in dirt and was berated by an innkeeper – until I washed in a nearby trough, prompting him to praise me for a job well done.
These interactions feel almost unscripted, and they’re more common than you’d think.
Time also plays a detailed role in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. If you accept a side quest but take too long to do something, you might miss some kind of deadline and you’ll fail that task. People aren’t waiting on you forever – life doesn’t last that long in 15th-century Bohemia.
And Scale It Up
From the grandeur of the story and the depth of the smaller details to the scope and scale of the wider world.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is split between two large maps – Trosky and Kuttenberg. The first is more of a starter realm, while the second is a gargantuan, open-ended environment with more than a dozen towns and villages to explore. Both are rich, varied, and stunning, and you’ll never want for something to do while you’re out digging through the forests and fields.
As your story unravels, you’ll go from small-scale skirmishes to immensely brutal fortress sieges, such is the natural progression of the incredible story of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. It’s not done quickly, though – the events that lead from the opening hours to the grandest battles in the game are plentiful and relatively heavy.
The meat on the bone is, in a word, staggering. One of the things that kept slowing down my playthrough was the plethora of content up for grabs, the spontaneity of random events and side quests, and the ability to just look.
I’m being literal when I say that.
On more than one occasion, I found myself sitting down in a glade or the middle of a village somewhere, soaking up the sunlight and the atmosphere around me, listening to the wind in the trees and the birds tweeting above me. In the distance, a cart rolled by, prompting a guard dog to bark loudly, and down the road, I could see two farmers sharing a joke as they passed each other by.
The small details might be remarkable in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, but it’s the enormity of the game and the consistency of the world-building and environment around you that blows your mind.
The Honest Experience
For 70 hours, I played a pre-release version of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, but I’m pleased to report that I had no performance issues (on PC), nor did I have any game-breaking bugs. I experienced some minor issues with shaders, misbehaving AI, and some glitching ragdoll physics, but that was about it.
My biggest concerns were eliminated by the game’s day one patch, which I received ahead of launch.
As I explored the game to piece together my Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 review, I thought after a while that the title’s forced stealth sequences would ruin my impression of the game altogether. There are plenty of them and they’re a little cumbersome at times, but once you learn your routes and understand the core mechanics of how to be stealthy, they’re not terrible.
I’ll also stress quite openly that this game is challenging. The combat and some mechanics like lockpicking are notorious, and since the first game, they’ve evolved but remain quite tough in general. Even at a higher level with a stack of advantageous perks and killer equipment, I found myself getting my head stoved in during the many fights you get involved in.
Practice makes perfect, and you can often run away to fight another day, of course.
Also, I’ll address the ‘KCD2 controversies‘ here. Before launch, it slipped out that Henry of Skalitz, the game’s protagonist, could engage in a homosexual sequence with another male character. That prompted people to launch into a tirade against the game, but I’m here to set the story straight.
It’s entirely optional, it’s the result of a few choices you’re offered throughout the game, and it’s beautifully portrayed by Warhorse Studios. It’s not graphic, and it’s not gratuitous – it makes sense, given the circumstances and story. In a similar vein, I was able to romance a female love interest and frequented the city baths for favours – so ignore the chatter of anyone deluded enough to judge without first experiencing what’s on offer.
The Beautiful Palette
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is beautiful in every aspect. It’s deeply authentic and riddled with emotion and catharsis, and the way the story comes together is just perfection. It features my favourite trope, with all the game’s heroes (and villains) coming together for a grand, full-scale, spectacular battle at the end of the adventure.
It’s not a bridge too far to suggest that Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 taught me something, too. From the codex packed full of historical information to the real people, places, and events, there’s a lot to break down from this title that’ll have you feeling like a genuine historian, rubbing shoulders with old kings, lords, and ladies.
I implore you to buy and finish Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 – the final cinematic cutscene made me yearn for this game to generate a sequel and perhaps a few spin-off television shows and movies. I can’t stress enough how much of a fantastic time I had playing Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, and I am forever grateful to everyone at Warhorse, and to Tom McKay (Henry of Skalitz) and Luke Dale (Hans Capon) for their stellar work and performances.
This monumental medieval adventure will have you living a double life – but in this one, you’re a brave adventurer exploring the most faithful recreation of a real place I’ve ever seen. From ethereal sequences packed with tearjerker scenes to a phenomenal weather engine, and from genuinely interesting side activities to a neat little photo mode, I cannot find one major fault with this game.
It has been hard to find the words to accurately represent how phenomenal this game is. If I could sum up Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 in just one, it would be this: masterpiece.
Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going back to Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. I’ve got a lot left to do, and this year, three expansions are set to be released, which means I’ve got many hours of gameplay left to unpack.
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