When I played the first Kingdom Come Deliverance I desperately wanted to like it, but the gameplay just didn’t grab me quickly enough and as a result, I found it difficult to engage with and moved on to other games on my list with a thought to go back and give it another go at a later date when I had more time. That date never came.
So when I gained early access to Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, I was determined to show it the patience and time that this game needed to show me what so many other people had loved about the franchise. The result this time was that I didn’t fall in love with it straight away, but when I did, I fell hard.
For start, the sequel has a much more engaging storyline that captures your attention quickly. Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is what I would call “a compelling tale of revenge with all the juicy bits of betrayal and endless discovery. It’s that discovery that will keep my review of the game mostly spoiler-free apart from a few examples that won’t impact the plot, but that I feel really show the character of the title.
Once again we join Henry, who is now a knight and bodyguard to Sir Hans Capon. You would think that considering this picks up straight after the events of the first game you would already be at a fairly powerful level, however, Henry is brought back to earth with a crash in a well-orchestrated reset to make it fun for new players.
The pair are part of a group delivering a special message to… well… That’s enough story for now. You’ll see what happens when you play the game and it works better as a surprise and based on the decisions you make. Instead here are some things you need to know.
Combat is a big improvement on the first game which also helped me to embrace KCD2 more than its predecessor. I’d describe it as easier to get a hold of, and harder to master. Meaning for new players you’ll find success in combat almost immediately through a well-defined block and parry system. I enjoyed the tutorials along the way as well which ease you into battle as it’s not really the type of game where you rush in swinging a sword all over the place. If you decide to do that you’ll be killed every time. It is also very much worth your time to complete tasks to help you master your weapons for quicker, more powerful and impressive takedowns.
Discovery is what elevates this from being “just a game” to being a full immersion. Not just the size of the maps and vastness of the open world, but discovering the ways that you and the NPCs interact with it.
There are times when I get lost for hours completing meaningless tasks for mostly ungrateful employers, but it is just so satisfying. It places you in the mindset of medieval Bohemia with over 5 hours of cinematics and around 2 million words there is nothing the developers have missed with interactions. Every moment has been thought through and every encounter is unique. Like the messenger you meet on the side of the road who has lost an item and wants you to beat him up so it looks like he’s been robbed. It’s a violent but almost comedic encounter that is unique to this world.
The class system is well explained at an early stage in the game. In the mission, you’ll be asked to move bags of flour to pay for a meal you can’t afford and when you ask Sir Hans for help, he quotes privilege and class and refuses to assist no matter how long you spend trying to persuade him. It’s an attitude that makes you “the player” hate this other guy in the game, while you “the character” are frustrated but you understand and appreciate the level of detail built into the system in which this society is built. There are moments like this all over the game that consistently bring the world to life.
Choosing your path can be a balancing act for the game, get in a brawl in town and you might end up getting a public beating while trapped in stocks by the guards. You can pay your way out if you have the coin, but especially early on you don’t have so you’ll take the punishment and then you’ll need to heal, and that takes time.
Stealing and looting if you choose that path is dangerous also, you can steal a horse and take it to a black market dealer where you can sell it or keep it as your own. From habit, I would always try to stay on a righteous path, but these were not always “righteous times” and more than once you are led down a road that leads to trouble.
There were a few little bugs in my playthrough, after my first lashing I met a young maiden almost immediately who wanted to give me another mission to do with sword progression. While in dialogue it seemed that I was punching someone when responding to questions causing the guards to attack me once the dialogue had ended. This was as it turned out, also a save point. So each time I was killed I was brought back to a moment where the guard was beating on me and thus the medieval Groundhog Day was born. After a few reloads I managed to finally crouch and jump my way into avoiding the death blows before escaping into the forest, but it did set back my gameplay by quite a bit. I eventually came back into town, took some more punishment and then all was good again.
While I didn’t experience anything else that was as game-breaking as this, it was after this incident that my love affair with potion creation became a thing.
You see, early on resources for health are scarce so you must do your best to learn what ultimately became one of my favourite parts of the gameplay experience.
Crafting potions is brilliantly done in KCD2 and as soon as I was given access to an Alchemy Bench, I started to wander off and collect various ingredients to build into amazing concoctions. The process is much more involved than other titles that let you brew potions and there was something about the realism of getting the heat right and adding ingredients at the right moment to get a better quality potion that appealed to me, I do enjoy being in the kitchen so maybe it’s that. It made me think that if this form of potion creation was a VR mini-game on Meta Quest, it would actually be brilliant.
Because potion crafting was so great, I managed to carry that love through to other aspects of the game like blacksmithing, but also on to other “mini-games” like pickpocketing and lockpicking. I need to point out that I do not like that you need Saviour Schnapps potion to save the game, but it does make you play more carefully so I understand the mechanic choice.
KCD2 is at its core the most pure role-playing game you’ll likely ever play. The rawness of the title is its strength and that is something that I’d completely missed on my attempt with the first game and even with the first couple of hours of frustration I’d had with this one. You need to go in with the right mindset and that is that this is not “Skyrim” or some other action-adventure dragon-infested title so much as it is a medieval LARP on steroids. The historical recreation is second to none and the subtleties in the story and combat are actually something to be praised
Score: 7.5 out of 10
