Kingdom Come: Deliverance II Review

There has hardly been such an anxious wait, but February 2025 is finally here, and as most gamers would know, this February is the month of RPGs. From long-anticipated sequels to intriguing new titles from legendary studios, February is jam-packed with the release of RPGs after RPGs. Amongst all these, one stands out as bearing no magic and being very realistic.

Yet that does not make it mundane, and it definitely doesn't make it shallow. Of course, as you have read from the title, it is Kingdom Come: Deliverance II. The name, which now has enough weight in it to scare far larger studios and publishers, came from humble beginnings in Czechia. The first game, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, had an extremely tumultuous beginning, finding itself inundated with bugs and having many gameplay mechanics that players found too hard, confusing, and constraining.

Yet, all of that was done in the name of realism and historical accuracy. In time, the game found its audience and, as bugs were patched out, became a cult classic. The second game continues almost all of the first one's main themes, being a historically accurate RPG with realistic combat systems and a truly immersive world.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II follows in the footsteps of the first game, continuing the saga of Henry of Skalitz as he resumes his crusade of vengeance and adventure. Those who played the last game will remember how things ended, with Henry and Sir Hans Capon leaving for Kuttemberg to deliver a letter.

Naturally, at the beginning of Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, things go wrong almost instantly as Henry and Hans narrowly survive harrowing ordeals and endure a modicum of humiliation before; eventually, the open-world part begins.

Your path takes you through a larger map than what was in the first game, exploring many places and meeting many new characters, as well as a few old ones. An aspect of the game that is very well done is its rich storytelling, where most of the characters are very much real people, and it helps that even the most minor NPCs actually interact with you now, engaging in small talk or just commenting on your shenanigans. The world is very alive and very expanded, and it really serves as the foundation for everything else. 

Another thing that helps do this in Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is the mechanics. Now, RPGs rely on very intuitive and expanded mechanics to ensure gameplay doesn't become a slog. Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, for its part, does an excellent job of weaving those mechanics throughout quests and even some open-world segments.

You'll have a chance to be a mediator and negotiator, a brutal fighter, a conniving thief, and a stealthy assassin. However, unlike most other RPGs, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II does this without changing the overall core of Henry's character too much, and well, your choices don't really define Henry, more so just how you do something.

And almost always, this is very subtle. From the dialogue options you have and certain perks you pick, you'll be able to make Henry lean towards a certain personality, all the while, his core remains the same. And really, Henry is a very likable and relatable character to play. It also serves as hilarity when you're wearing dirty clothes, and someone tells you off because of it. Yes, in Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, you can and will have to go around fixing your equipment, washing yourself, washing your clothes, and so on.

You'll also have the KCD staple of going hungry and getting injured. Who doesn't remember "I could use something to eat" as you have just executed 20 people? Even the first town you end up in has so much life to it. You'll have to help someone find their daughter, hear rumors, and learn about the happenings of the place. You'll get many different small quests to do as you explore and regain your reputation and honor.

You'll meet many random wayfarers on the road, from vagabonds to highwaymen to random schmucks that try to scam you. You can naturally deal with them in whatever manner you wish; however, be careful. Everything affects you, and well, everything has an underlying mechanic behind it. For example, you can overeat and become stuffed, lowering your stamina or being unable to run entirely. Your weapons can break, and armor too. Your clothes will get torn, and you might even get food poisoning.

Luckily, all of the above have different measures of solutions to them. Now, of course, you can just find a vendor that sells a toolkit or go to an expert to get things repaired or washed, but you can also do it yourself. In Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, you can sharpen your weapons, commit to alchemy, craft potions and the like, and so on.

All of these systems are annoyingly complex and thoughtfully made. There's so much detail, and you'll probably be able to become an actual expert by the end of the game. For alchemy, you'll have to deal with liquids, boiling things for a specified time, grinding and adding herbs at certain moments, and with all that, you'll get your potion. 

For smithing, you needed to heat up the metal, temper the blade, and sharpen it on a grindstone with accurate movement while controlling both the wheel and the angle of the sword to ensure consistent sharpening.

All of these really help enrich the experience. However, some might find it exhausting. Seeing as how these systems are sometimes overtly complex and complicated, many might just skip over them. That thought made me think it'd have been nice if there was some sort of way to make certain mini-games like these easier while keeping the overall game challenging.

Speaking of challenging, combat in Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is the same brutal and hard system that made many in the first game question their existence. Now, here's the thing, it's hard, but it is deeply satisfying. To not dive into it too deeply. You lock onto a target and have five stances representing swing directions. 

You can hit from those directions, but if the enemy is holding their weapon or shield in that direction, you do squat. Instead, you'll have to feint, parry, and look for openings to get through their defenses. As for defending yourself, you can block and dodge. However, both consume stamina, so you can't keep it up ad infinitum.

This mechanic makes fighting large groups of enemies extremely hard, although in real life, there are many, many ways of dealing with that, and the game really explores one of those. This is, of course, armor. Armour in Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is tough, extremely so, to the point where, if you are wearing plates and chainmail, you'll barely feel a sword hit. Naturally, the same applies to enemies, so you'll often find yourself carrying around a bludgeoning weapon, something that can chew through armor easily.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II also has an expanded clothing system, with different layers being customizable. So you can wear undergarments, chainmail, padding, plates, and even surcoats and such. Clothing also has an effect on your interactions. Heavy Armor makes a lot of noise, while more regal clothing makes people respect you more and even defer to you while you are speaking to them.

Amidst all of these mechanics, one stands out as being truly bad. Just like in the first game, the only real way to save the game is through Savior Schnapps. But hold on now, I understand the importance of the mechanics and the reasoning behind it, but it still feels annoying to use. The lack of a way to Quick-save or just Save often is one of the worst things to come out of the series, and no amount of immersion makes it fine. On the bright side, after a certain time, you'll at least have ample Savior Schnapps.

The world looks phenomenal, and with so much to do, you'll always feel like you're a big part of it. All of the UI elements feel very specific to the era, and every shot seems extremely beautiful. The sound design is also similarly well-made and extremely polished.

Naturally, with open-world games, you'll find at least something janky with it. Odd animations, annoying camera angles, and dialogue make you ponder why you're here; all of that is present. Certain quests are nothing more than fetch-and-go things with little depth, and I get that for side quests, but for the main ones, it's just a bit disappointing.

However, even then, the game is such a brilliant near-masterpiece. It just does so much right that any of its failings are ignorable. Its absolute immersiveness is through the roof, and to top it off, it had none of that buggy launch that the first game had, meaning it escapes the plague that curses many RPGs, such as the likes of Starfield. Performance is also good, and overall, it just makes you realize. Kingdom Come: Deliverance II has managed to be extremely ambitious and hit almost every mark out there. It is similar to the first game, yet superior in every way

Overall, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is an exhilaratingly immersive experience that, despite silly animations and graphical popping, manages to harken to the old RPGs and make you truly feel for the world. If you want an expansive adventure with no small amounts of shenanigans, this game is for you.