Kingdom Come: Deliverance was a game I massively anticipated when it was first announced. I eventually got my first hands-on with it and then finally played it. Playing it did reveal the more modest nature of the development, but it also made it clear that Warhorse Studios cared about what they put out. With what was nothing short of a monumental success, the sequel—Kingdom Come: Deliverance II—was inevitable.
Now, I can't deny that I also held a lot of hype for this game. This was strengthened when I could play the game in Kuttenberg, which is part of its setting. I certainly went into it thinking Warhorse could learn from and build upon the strengths of the first and work on the weaknesses that resulted in some issues for people. The question is, have they managed to do this?
A line I often hear is, "Bigger is not always better". In my case, it's frequently followed by "but in this case, bigger would have been better", as yet another person looks disappointed at the two minutes we've just spent together. Judging by the comments from the girls in the bathhouses, this isn't an issue Henry suffers from, though he may have a few unusual requests based on the dialogue. In the case of Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, bigger is most certainly better, but that's because the bigger is justified, explained, and done right.
Going on a slight tangent, but it will come back around, is something I want to say about world design. Ideally, the open or linear world must be believable when playing a game. I don't mean believable in the sense that it can't have magic, dragons, or that middle-aged blokes from Yorkshire are suddenly the main attraction for all women; we all know only one of those is the case, and David Copperfield has given us that answer.
No, what needs to happen is that the events and locations need to be believable in the world presented in front of you, and the corresponding information, dialogue, and characters all need to reflect that reality. Most open-world games will tell you how massive they are, but few feel real - even those based on actual areas. In Kingdom Come: Deliverance, the villages felt like villages and had the things needed in places like that. Rattay felt big, but that was the scale for Henry, and Sassau felt huge, with the monastery astounding for a person like Henry.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is a whole new level, and I believe every second of it. When you realise that the events of the second game take place 100km and 30km away from the events of the first game, based on the locations of the first and second maps of this outing, respectively, the scale makes a supposed galaxy-spanning trip like those in Starfield feel like walking to the corner shop. The characters' behaviour, their reaction to new areas, and how these areas react to them all make it feel like uncharted territory. It makes it believable.
Let's start with size. Kingdom Come: Deliverance II takes place across two maps. According to Warhorse, combined, this makes the sequel a little under double that of the original, and based on my time across both maps, I would have said at least double. However, and with game maps, this is true; size doesn't count. What counts here is the girth density. This feels packed, like the meatiest sausage you steal from the warehouse of Sigismund and give to beggars. Get your mind out of the gutter.
Indeed, with the sheer quantity of quests, side quests, activities, and even just random easter-eggs you come across, this feels like Warhorse wanted to strike a nearly impossible balance of making what are genuinely small areas - we're talking kilometres across - feel huge. Part of this links to what I said before because these things will feel huge to Henry, and the scale represents this. The first time you see Kuttenberg, it looks enormous. Once you're inside, it feels it, too.
Let's talk length. If you like to explore, and you want to do the side quests, you want to go off the beaten track in the hopes of finding some easter eggs; essentially, if you play like me, be ready for a hundred-plus-hour experience, one where I don't think for a second you'll be bored. There is also replay value, as many of the game and quests will have changes based on your actions. Sometimes, these are slight changes; other times, they are big.
What is important to note is that Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is on a grander scale than the first. Being a direct sequel, you are no longer Henry, the random scrub from Skalitz; you are Henry, the squire of Sir Hans Capon. You are the bastard of nobility, and you have your experiences and demons from the first game. The start of the game makes Henry a near-blank slate again to get the progression back in.
I've covered how this happens in my preview - here's a link to it again - so long story short, you are ambushed, and Henry gets seriously injured and weakened as a result. You don't forget how to read; everything else must be built back up. Even your now almost-fresh relationship with Mutt, Henry's doggo companion, is explained adequately. It is not quite sequel amnesia, but it is close to it and, again, explained.
Like in the first game, levelling skills are achieved through your actions. You fight with a sword; you'll improve your swordsmanship. Read books and ask questions in conversations; your scholarship will be boosted. You also have people who can teach you, strengthen your skills - and give you new combat techniques - through the game, some only available depending on the outcome of certain quests. Granted, you can cheat this system by getting all quest outcomes in some (side quest) situations.
The second area provides an example. A pregnant lady asks you to find a Thunderstone, believed to bring good luck. Only the people who had it had it stolen. Long story short, you can eventually get a hold of it, give it back to the people from whom it was stolen, and get a reward. Then you can pickpocket the person or obtain it some other way, and steal it, go to the pregnant lady and get a reward from her. Then you can steal it from her and keep it for yourself. I'm not aware if it brings good luck, though.
I digress, skills. So yes, your skill levels will develop over time, and you can target your development; I particularly pushed scholarship as I wanted the perk from it, which unlocked all the key icons on the maps, giving me a good idea of things I may be missing, and more for me to explore. One such thing was a Disney easter egg, where there was indeed a poisoned apple, which gave me permanent tiredness. Fortunately, I saved before eating it.
Digressing again. Most of all, the progression feels natural, and the quests are reactive; if your alchemy skill is high enough, you can lecture people who could accidentally harm others. With a high enough Scholarship, you're going to be able to surprise a few nobles here and there. With Survival and others, you'll become a good battlefield medic.
Of course, all that is gameplay, but how about the other aspects of gameplay within Kingdom Come: Deliverance II? One of the more complicated parts of the first game was the combat. It was certainly unique in its style, with the only games with a more detailed melee combat system being titles like Chivalry. Warhorse Studio knows this was a bit of a barrier for people, and they have eased off a little.
This doesn't mean it's simplified in a "casual" way because it isn't. They have reduced the number of points on the target system to four: up, down, left and right, and this has undoubtedly made combat "easier" in the sense that you can get to grips with it better. The way enemies are attacking is more transparent, which makes parrying and countering easier, but at the same time, the enemies will be more than happy to do the same to you.
No, combat is just as engaging, if not more engaging, than in the original. I've found myself on the edge of my seat with some duels, with parries and counters coming close to double digits, a keen eye on my stamina, and wishing to hell that the enemy would tire out a little or try to get in a counter and then a combination to give myself that edge. Combat feels incredibly fluid for the most part. My only real complaint is the locking system, which can be a hindrance when you are dealing with multiple enemies, as it doesn't always do what you want.
What I find impressive about Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is that it adds scale to the combat. The first had its set-piece battles, but they feel bigger here because they are. For spoilers, I'm not going to go into much detail, but there are battles and sieges, and of course, you're not facing every single enemy; there are more on the battlefield. The battlefield also features new ways of combat, which has a key impact on the game and its story.
One of these is gunpowder. It had only started being used in Europe around 80 years before the game's setting, and it was still limited in its use. The first was never on a big enough scale to feature a cannon, and as you're in bigger territory now, you'll also find the use of guns. I don't like them - they take an absolute age to reload - but they do damage and can significantly impact enemy morale.
The other systems featured in Kingdom Come: Deliverance II add to this. Energy and hunger are present but aren't pushed too far to impact the game's enjoyability. The two crafting systems, Alchemy and Blacksmithing, have two reasonably interesting minigames. The reputation system, with the added impact of much more intelligent AI, which can remember your actions and make simple deductions based on your presence in an area, massively impacts the game and adds to the world extensively.
A great example can be a random person reporting you for theft to the guards. Not because they saw you stealing but because they saw you snooping around an area when something was stolen. They made the logical deduction, and the guards will search you. You're free to go if you don't have the stolen goods but rest assured, people will remember you. You're even more memorable to people if you're a terrible drunk who gets into lots of fist-fights.
You'll notice I've avoided speaking about the story, and that's also because of spoilers. This directly continues from the first game, and much of what happened in the first game is directly referenced and linked to the story here. Some characters will return, and some things will be wrapped up, even if only slightly. While a little spoiler, and I won't say how, Henry gets back the sword crafted by his murdered father, stolen in the first game.
As a history fan, I find it interesting that characters like Jan Žižka play a significant part in the game. The game even teases Henry as the person who cost Jan one of his eyes. To give context, Jan Žižka lost one eye in battle before becoming blind and still leading troops afterwards. However, history is somewhat altered for the story's sake, as certain characters die before the game's setting. Anybody who has read up on some of these characters will know some spoilers, though.
I'm just looping this back to the systems; this focus on history in game form makes me love Kingdom Come: Deliverance II. It's not a power fantasy as with other RPGs; even when you have almost maxed out every skill and have outstanding equipment, you are one silly move or one three-vs-one battle from death. Early in the game, you're not even a foolish move from it. This is still the same challenge as the original, but in a more approachable form, where janky combat and other aspects aren't making things harder through lack of polish.
If I were honest with myself, I don't think I've ever enjoyed an open-world game in the same way I have Kingdom Come: Deliverance II. Or, more accurately, the last time a game ever felt this transformational as to what I would expect from an open-world RPG of this nature was The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion almost twenty years ago. The Witcher III is up there, but even that doesn't feel as responsive as this. In the case of Oblivion, the fact that Bethesda hasn't moved the dial even a millimetre since then is telling: the same janky AI, the same bugs, the same genuinely average worlds.
Where the world reacts to everything, from the clothes you wear to how dirty they are and even if you happen to have walked through some excrement, to your behaviour and the way people remember your actions and can even make some logical assumptions in the case of thievery, this is the closest I've ever felt to being part of a living, breathing world, where the inhabitants feel like part of that world.
This isn't to say it is flawless. I've encountered a few bugs, though they have been scarce. There are a few floating objects here and there, including a magical bird nest hovering a metre above a rooftop. I've had the rare line of dialogue swapped and others where a line is repeating itself, over itself. I've also had a few enemy NPCs stuck on fences, which made my victory much more straightforward. A few random graphical glitches have popped in, too. Still, the flaws have been so few and far between I can't fault the polish.
I would genuinely argue that this could be judged as a benchmark on how to do an open world, and even though I'm over fifty hours in, there's more I want to do and see. There are side quests to complete, easter eggs to hunt, wenches to fornicate with, and bandits to kill. I didn't want to write this review now, not in the slightest; I wanted just one more day to give even more context, and I know I would have wanted just one more day after that.
PC version reviewed. Copy provided by the publisher.
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