Kingdom Come: Deliverance II – Proving Confidence Leads to Competence

Disclaimer: This review was written before finishing the main story of Kingdom Come: Deliverance II. Due to unforeseen issues, Graves did not get access to the game until 2 weeks before launch, and managed to play approximately 55 hours, getting most of the way through the main story and getting a taste of both regions. We believe that Graves was able to play more than enough to get a full picture of the game and, thus, write a satisfactory review.

The first Kingdom Come: Deliverance was, to put it in no uncertain terms, an unfinished gem. It’s grandiosity and commitment to historical authenticity (and to letting you know when that authenticity wasn’t accuracy) made it a stand-out title of the year, even as it’s overall “clunkiness” and odd difficulty curve brought it down. Still, it was a fun, slightly simulationist romp through 15th-century Bohemia, and that scratched my Medieval-History-Major itch in just the right way.

But, even though it was one of my favorite games of 2018, that title comes with a lot of caveats. The combat took a lot of getting used to, and once you had gotten used to it, it was too easy. Many of the systems were buggy, and there were too many “fiddly bits” that didn’t quite work. The voice-acting and quests fluctuated wildly in quality, going from half-baked fetch quests with wooden delivery all the way up to some of the best quests I’d played in an RPG in years. And the story – while compelling and well-written – was obviously half-finished, cutting off on essentially a cliffhanger right as it started getting good.

But, essentially, all of those issues were the kind that could be polished up with enough time and budget, and everything about Kingdom Come: Deliverance II indicated that it would have those resources. Ever since KCD2 was announced, I’ve been excited to get my hands on it so that I could see how Warhorse Studios would sharpen the blade into a fine edge. How they would strip away the “clunkiness” and replace it with the mirror sheen of a perfect – or at least vastly improved – game.

And I was a fool for wanting that. 

Because what makes Kingdom Come: Deliverance II so good – and it is so good – has nothing to do with the changes they made to streamline and polish the game (it, in fact, feels and plays very similarly to the first game), but everything to do with the fact that it is all larger, better, and even more committed to its ideas. “No,” Kingdom Come: Deliverance II says, “I don’t think there was anything wrong with the first game, and in fact all I need to do to prove it is to do all the same things again, but bigger!”

But that doesn’t make a lot of sense, right? After all, if this sequel didn’t polish those many legitimate issues I had with the first game, how can it truly be so much better? The combat is still messy, the bugs are still there (oh boy, are they still there), the voice-acting and quest quality is still a mixed bag, and the story (while I haven’t quite finished it at time of review) seems almost guaranteed to end on an only-slightly-less-confounding cliffhanger.

Well, dear reader, it’s simple: Kingdom Come: Deliverance II knows what it is – something that the first game never really did – and that self-awareness makes every clunky, messy, off-kilter aspect of it seem deliberate, adds to the joy and artistry, and makes for some fantastic moments that more “polished” titles could never hope to achieve.

A Thousand Tales from All Walks of Life – Narrative

The story of Kingdom Come: Deliverance has always been one of its most endearing elements. To recap a bit about the first game: you play as Henry of Skalitz – a name that you might get tired of repeating after a few hours. The son of a blacksmith, Henry was one of the only survivors of a raid at the beginning of the first game against Skalitz, ordered by the hostile King Sigismund. From here, he embarked on a quest of revenge and rebuilding, one that revealed him to be the biological bastard son of a noble and which ingratiated him with all manner of memorable characters across several stratum of life (one of the best parts of both games is engaging with this hierarchy). Starting as an incompetent, sheltered son, he went from an unknown peasant nobody into one of the foremost warriors and questers in his region of Bohemia.

And then, right as the story was getting good and Henry seemed ready to set off on an adventure to avenge his village and parents and rescue the “good” King Wenceslas from his brother King Sigismund, the story stopped.

That, then, is where we find Henry at the start of KCD2. Riding alongside the lovable brat Han Capon to Trotsky Castle to deliver a message requesting aid. This simple quest of message delivery does not go so well, however, and in a series of events that makes for a harrowing start to the game, Henry and Hans end up dumped into the village of Troskowitz without any of their knightly possessions, rendering it impossible to prove who they are, much less deliver the stolen message to the lord.

But that is all summary, and all just in the first couple hours of the game. It is filled with compelling sequences and great characterization, as well as a much more competent tutorial than in the first game, but it is just the introduction. And, as an introduction, it left me with as much desire to break away from the story and explore as it did to learn more.

This is not a flaw, however, because the best storytelling in the game (like in the first game) is found scattered through the beautiful wilds and villages of Bohemia, and that intro suitably prepared me for them.

As soon as I was let loose, with a clear goal in mind – I was told of a wedding that I would need to earn entry to, where I might have a chance to speak to the Lord of the castle in order to explain the situation – I could tell I was going to enjoy the ride this game would take me on.

That is because this game, even more so than its predecessor, knows that the most interesting thing about Medeival Bohemia is not its lush forests or quaint countryside, but rather its people and their individual places in the world. The Medieval world is one of social heirarchies, rigid norms, and exact ideas about how the world “should” function. The “who owes what to who and why.” The huntsman owes allegiance to the community, because he is the only one allowed to hunt animals without it being considered poaching. The peasant owes deference to the noble, because she is below him. The castellan owes food and (copious) drink to the rude visiting knight, because the tradition of hospitality demands it. 

And – here is the brilliance of Kingdom Come: Deliverance II – Henry owes whatever he feels like to everyone he meets. He was born of noble lineage, raised as a peasant, trained as a warrior, and learned as a whole host of things. Henry of Skalitz, therefore, can transgress these strict, rigid boundaries that society places all around him essentially at a whim. You are given much leeway to play Henry how you want, but there are certain things he always is: hard-working, down-to-earth, and keenly aware of social factors. He is a chameleon – capable of acting and functional becoming a noble one second, then a knight, a pickpocket, and a peasant all in short order. 

That is, in fact, the best way to play him.

This allows you to engage in all levels of society in the game, which is where the actual writing comes in to play. I can’t pretend every one of the 2.2 million words in the script is well-written – that would be an impossible task – but I can say that pretty much every quest is filled with characters and dialog that feels interesting, authentic, and informative. 

And yes, I do mean informative, because most quests have you engage in some facet of Medieval life that is alien to us as a modern audience, and – through fun characterization and (mostly) good gameplay – sees you use Henry’s ability to transgress stratum in order to see it from all angles. You may learn about Romani culture in one quest, the life of a peasant miller/thief in the next, and then the ways of lords and ladies in the next, all while going through long quest chains that introduce you to many characters with many different perspectives on each. And, while the quest design itself does have some issues, the story of almost every single quest was engaging and worthwhile.

There are three reasons, then, why quests – and most of the story is told via quest, hence my fixation – are so good in Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, and all of them make improvements from the first game:

First, Historical Authenticity

Because the quests are historically authentic, based on an obvious attempt by the writers and designers to do their research and get their information correct. 

For instance, when you have to play as a gravedigger (or “knacker”), you can tell that the team at Warhorse Studios looked into what that entailed at the time, and how it engaged with society at large. Not only do they include other tasks than simply gravedigging, but Henry, when drafted to this task as part of a larger quest, has the historical belief that gravedigging is a low and shameful profession, even amongst commoners. This, then, uses historical authenticity to add conflict, gameplay, and knowledge to the experience, rather than just making you dig 6 holes and call it a day.

And this same bit of simulacrum is carried through in every interaction you have throughout the game. The characters manage to feel like real characters, while still part of — or beholden to — the complex society and cultures they live within.

Second, Complex Characters

Because the quests are filled will characters that you want to know more about, who all have their own unique perspectives and personalities. Not only this, but almost every character you meet is complex in some way, with few “right answers” popping up.

When, shortly after entering the massive city of Kuttenberg, you are approached by a foreign German “schwertmeister” (which means “swordmaster”), he is in the midst of a conflict with the local guild of swordsman, who would rather he be removed from the city and be barred from starting his own guild. 

Immediately, you have at least three perspectives – the schwertmeister who wants to bring his mastery to the city, the established guildmaster who doesn’t want the competition, and the city guard who just simply don’t want trouble in their streets. All three roles are then filled by fantastically realized personalities – the schwertmeister is bragadocious and confident, the guildmaster is arrogant and silently frightened, and the city officials are resigned and annoyed. 

You are told an entire story through these characters, through a fairly long quest that leaves you, ultimately, wanting to win the day in favor of the schwertmeister, who will have ingratiated himself with you by the end of it.

Third, Tonal Mastery

Saving the most impressive accomplishment for last, the quests are also tonal perfection. The game allows for a wide swath of tones without buckling, ranging from silly and ridiculous to serious and somber, and it does this by individually wrapping those tones in their own quest. 

For example, in one quest, you might help a duo of struggling (and mediocre) poets and musicians to acquire an instrument and escape their debts, and it will culminate in one of the most hilarious “music video” cutscenes I’ve ever seen in a game. And in a different quest, you might find yourself enraptured in the tense family drama of a group of Romani nomads; a quest that involves a somber funeral (one with an authentic ceremony of last rites), forbidden love, and tragic misunderstandings that you must rectify. 

Both of these can exist in the same game and have their intended impacts only because of how masterfully the designers are able to tell a coherent narrative with each quest. Thus is the advantage of the long quest chains in KCD2: each would be enough to be its own story, and the writers and designers respect that enough to, essentially, let them be. There is no tonal whiplash precisely because you get to spend hours with each, allowing for disparate tones to exist alongside each other, heightening the entire game’s sense of chivalric adventure, whimsical fantasy, and serious history

Swords, Stealth, and Stacking Sacks – Gameplay

But, all of that talk means nothing if the game it is attached to isn’t fun to play. And is Kingdom Come: Deliverance II fun to play?

Well… That depends on your tastes.

And here is where we get into some division. Because Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, like its predecessor, is not for everyone. Its combat is slow and heavy, and requires investment to truly learn. Many of its systems can feel like chores, and those elements are practically required to engage with in order to truly master the game. And the ludic design of its exploration and quests (while engaging) can feel repetitive and slow once you’ve been going at them for a few hours.

None of these notes are criticisms, but they are warnings. You need to be “the right kind of gamer” to enjoy what KCD2 has to offer. You need to be patient, and willing to learn. You can’t play the game with your brain shut off, and you can’t go in expecting high-octane, well-polished action. You will be spending minutes at a time hauling sacks, grinding gears, or trying to batter down your shielded opponent’s health bar. You will start the game at the bottom of the power curve, requiring lots of investment to get “up to speed.” It is not bad if you are not the type of gamer that enjoys these kinds of games, but it does mean that you should avoid KCD2 despite the high marks I am giving it.

Now, assuming you are the kind of patient player that the earlier description appeals to, let’s talk about what works and what doesn’t within that purview.

To start off, let’s talk about combat. Outside of the narrative stuff, it is probably the most central and important element of the game. You will spend most of your time either doing it, order progressing a quest so that you can do it, and so it simply has to be good.

And, luckily, it is good. Combat has seen the biggest improvement of any system from the first game, while still retaining that game’s overall heft and clunkiness. Henry is not a master warrior (at first), and his moderate skills are shown up frequently when you first begin playing. Both you and Henry need to improve. However, unlike in the first game (in which it often felt confusing as to why you might be losing fights), KCD2 simply feels more responsive and clear when it comes to combat. It is easier to tell where you went wrong, and to think of ways that you might be able to improve. 

And, when you do get better, the combat feels smoother and more deliberate, with both sound design and animations being improved in such a way as to make your weapon strikes feel much more devastating and impactful than they ever did before. This is bolstered by the fact that each weapon type – from maces to axes to swords to bows – has been given a unique set of animations and uses that make it feel special and gives you a reason to use it over another type, creating more tactical choices that you should be thinking about before a battle to fiddle with in order to turn the tide that much more in your favor.

In general, this feels great. But it is not without issue. Combatting multiple enemies – something that the game might make you do surprisingly early on – is still very difficult, with most of the difficulty coming from a lock-on system that vastly prefers one-on-one conflict.

On the other side of things, the speed of strikes is still glacially slow, meaning that it can be far too easy to predict your opponent and (especially once you learn the “Master Strike” technique) always best single targets. Ranged options feel too cumbersome to use effectively even in their intended environments. And fighting wolves (something that happens way too often) still feels dreadful, thanks to their input-reading “I ignore your attack and attack instead” mechanic.

Still, combat feels nice and meaty, and both you and Henry’s slow improvement over time really aids in the power fantasy of the game as a whole (and there is a power fantasy, even if you don’t start powerful). While it is not perfect, and comes bundled with many issues, it is always fun and engaging, and easily has enough depth and thought put into it to keep you looking forward to it throughout the entire game.

When it comes to the other systems of the game, they are a mixed bag. Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, from a gameplay perspective, is a game of systems, with dozens of individual pieces stacked on top of one another in unique ways. Not only do what clothes you’re wearing matter, but also whether or not they are clean and what they represent. Not only do you need to keep your weapons sharp and your armor maintained, but if you don’t, it will impact far more than just combat as NPCs take note of your gear’s quality.

Of particular note is the game’s fantastic stealth system, which combines some of the game’s most interesting mechanics (pickpocketing, lockpicking, and stealth kills) in with a suspicion system that makes it possible to get caught even if you feel like you got away with it.

In short, if you want to be the best Henry you can be, and to solve the fantastic quests in the most interesting and fairest ways, you need to be constantly brewing potions, making and maintaining equipment, haggling with merchants, cleaning yourself, rolling dice (oh, how I love the dice game), and feeding your dog. 

This is great from a simulationist angle – it really helps you immerse yourself into Henry’s life and the world around him – but from a gameplay angle, this is not always what I’d call “fun.” Brewing potions is tedious even for the patient gamer. Every movement in every crafting mini-game is slow and cumbersome, forcing you to both appreciate the process while also wishing it went just a bit quicker.

Quests are often the same way. While they are narratively satisfying, the actual tasks themselves that you must do along the way tend to be monotonous and uninspired. There are lots of tasks that are essentially either “fetch this,” “kill this,” or “craft this,” and even when they are book-ended by quality narratives and more interesting dialog and problem-solving tasks, the presence of those less interesting tasks is notable and can take you out of the game somewhat.

Of a similar mixed quality is the game’s general “bugginess.” Listen, we had this conversation a couple of months ago with STALKER 2, and now we are having it here: “Eurojank” (the phrase referring to the propensity of certain European developers to have entertaining bugs sprinkled throughout their games) is a double-edged sword, and KCD2 is definitely Eurojank.

That is to say, while the bugs in Kingdom Come: Deliverance II do detract from the immersion of the game, sometimes substantially, they also add a lot of charm and make for some of the most entertaining moments in the entire experience. I don’t know if I’d want a KCD2 without them, but I also don’t know if I can really approve of the game having just so many of them.

 Thankfully, every bug I encountered was just a silly, non-game-breaking bug that just added to the levity of the world. But even as I laughed at them and was able to move on harmlessly, does their presence not detract from the veracity of the world? Do they not upend the carefully researched and meticulously realized world of authentic Medieval Bohemia? And should we not expect, with a bigger budget and more experienced team, that these kinds of bugs should be addressed?

I genuinely do not have the answer to those questions, but I do think they are worth asking.

And, like most of this section, they leave me with a mixed feeling. A feeling that, while I enjoyed the direction Warhorse took KCD2, I don’t think every player will. I can only grade a game based on my personal tastes, and for me, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II makes the right decision at almost every turn, with only a few design hiccups that slow the experience down.

I love the almost simulationist aspects of the game, and find it immersive and enjoyable to take my time performing a task to the best of my ability. But I also know that other gamers will only find the repetitive and tedious nature of some tasks to be too bothersome to deal with. I love the way the slow and deliberate combat feels challenging and unfair until you learn it. But I also know that others will turn away in frustration after they’ve been beaten down by two bandits for half an hour. I even love the game’s bugginess, with every bug being a little charming bit of fun all to myself. But I also know that others will find their immersion ruined by a floating noble or sliding peasant.

And so, I say this: Kingdom Come: Deliverance II knows exactly what it is, and what it is is not a game for everyone. If you are on my side of things, you will love every minute of the gameplay, and find it almost addictive how it loops through its many different systems. If you, however, find any one of those things I mentioned above unappealing than, despite KCD2 being perfect for a different kind of gamer, I think you are likely only to see it for its flaws.

Thus, I must give KCD2 high marks for succeeding in most of the things it sets out to do – and for being even more bold and unapologetic about doing things that way than the first game – while also acknowledging that your mileage may vary. If you like what KCD2 commits to, you’ll love it. If you don’t, you probably won’t even want to play after the starting town.

Living a Bohemian Life – Presentation

Finally, this brings us to what is probably the biggest success of Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, and that is its presentation. This section will be shorter, simply because most of what I have to say is positive, and also because it isn’t really the focus of the game. But I’d be remiss to not mention it.

First and foremost, it needs to be made clear that Kingdom Come: Deliverance II has one of the most gorgeous, explorable, and stunning settings I have ever seen in a game. Period. I have gone on record calling many games beautiful, and I have been known to be the type of person who can stare out at a digital vista and find beauty, but even I don’t think I’ve ever been so captivated by the world of a video game.

Some of that is my appreciation for a subject. I am not only an avid student of history – or so the Bachelor’s degree on my wall says – but I was also specifically a Medievalist in that pursuit. So, naturally, I am inclined to want to love Kingdom Come: Deliverance II’s late-Medieval world, as researched and well-crafted as it is.

But it isn’t the historian in me that is most drawn to the setting. On the contrary, the most beautiful parts of KCD2 have little to do with history, and everything to do with geography. That is to say: I have never seen more beautifully crafted forests and wooded vistas in a game, ever. Under a blue sky, with a castle on the horizon, I would often find myself staring out from atop a hill for minutes at a time. Or, as I wandered through a cliff-lined thicket of woods, I could turn to see a stream bubbling, and be drawn to it, just for itself. 

From the widest swath to the tiniest riverbend, from the grandest towns to the littlest detail in a farmer’s field, I found beauty. I was born and raised in Colorado, a state covered in gorgeous mountain and meadow trails, and the feeling I have exploring Bohemia in this game is reminiscent of the joys I feel when actually traversing forested Colorado trails in real life. I almost never used the game’s (very robust) fast travel system, simply because I almost never wanted to miss the chance to ride the roads that line the land. 

The fact that I might run into a dynamic event, or come across a specific herb I need, or have a funny interaction in a town I pass through, only makes it better.

This level of fidelity and beauty is not quite universal, though it is close. For one, the character models, while definitely well-done, are not quite as stunningly realistic as the environments they are found in, and the voice-acting – in both English and the developer’s native Czech – can range in quality from “not even passable” to “some of the best line deliveries you’ve ever heard.” 

To focus on voice-acting for a minute, Henry himself is one of the best voice-acted protagonists around, thanks to brilliant work from Tom McKay, and the main characters in his story (most especially Luke Dale’s Han Capon) all rise up to meet Henry in quality. Maybe it has something to do with voicing characters who look so much like them.

However, the less important a character is, the weaker the vocal performance (even for characters voiced by actors who have better performances in the same game). And, because of the sheer number of characters and the depth of the plots they are involved in, this means that the majority of people you interact with will respond to Henry’s deep, impactful speeches with somewhat wooden, stilted lines. 

Given the absurd length of the main script, being one of the largest ever produced, this is to be expected, but it still can be a bit jarring to go from some of the finest voice-acting work in the industry to “Skyrim NPC” levels within a few minutes. It is one of the few areas in the game where bigger might not have meant better, and where perhaps fewer words with a greater focus on quality could’ve improved the end product. While the high points are just as high with this long of a script, the increased frequency of the low-points does drag down the average. 

Still, it is hard to deny just how impressive the massivity of the script is, and it does help flesh out those fascinating quests I mentioned earlier. Not only that, just having so much in the game also enhances its scope, making the story feel truly epic (even if individual components aren’t quite at their peak level). It creates an overall experience that gives the tone of Arthurian legend; not all stories in the canon of the Round Table are perfect, brilliant tales comprising only the most spectacular prose, but they all add to the overall feeling of hugeness and grandiosity that keeps them alive in our culture even today.

And, now that I’ve compared the writing of Kingdom Come: Deliverance II to Le Morte d’Arthur, I think it is time to conclude…

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is exactly what it means to be. A crunchy, sprawling, open-ended mess of a game and narrative that brings its player, together with its fantastic protagonist, through narrative and gameplay hurdles that grow both parties in both ways. It is not for everyone – like Medieval life, it is slow, plodding, and deliberate, not to mention rife with conflict and obstacles. But, if the fantasy and reality of 15th-century Bohemia appeals to you (and it does not appeal to everyone), you will enjoy Kingdom Come: Deliverance II.

Even with that, there are a few objective flaws. From repetitive tasks, to immersion-breaking bugs, to some shoddy quality that was sacrificed for massive quantity, KCD2 is still not a literally perfect distillation of what the series promises. Still, it is about as close as it can get, and for that, it is an early contender for my personally favorite game this year, despite its flaws. It likely won’t be the best game I’ll play in 2025, but it is a game I will be playing throughout 2025, of that I’m sure.