There are many games out there that fall under the massive umbrella of Role Playing Games. From Diablo 4’s button mashing bonanza to The Witcher 3’s story-driven epic, gamers have plenty of flavours to pick from in this widely-saturated genre.
When developer Warhorse Studios released Kingdom Come Deliverance released in 2018, it pioneered a particularly hardcore brand of RPG, popularising more slow-paced survival mechanics with the masses. Eight million copies sold later and we have Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, an out-and-out sequel that takes everything fans loved about the first game and turns it up to eleven - for better and for worse.
Set in 15th Century Bohemia, you take on the role of Henry - a once lowly peasant who’s earned himself a small amount of authority as a nobleman’s squire. Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 picks up right where the last game left off with Henry and his companion Ser Hans on their way to deliver an important message to the ruler of the realm.
Although developed as a direct sequel, Warhorse has made efforts to ensure newcomers will feel welcome. An extended tutorial section gets you up to grips with the game’s main mechanics while ensuring that you’re introduced to the world and its characters at an accommodating pace.
Once the training wheels are off, the world of Bohemia is your oyster, and what a world it is. Built in CRYENGINE, rural Czechia is one of the most stunning and lovingly recreated environment’s I’ve had the pleasure of exploring in a game in years.
Sprawling fields and forests are a joy to ride through on horseback, dotted with populated villages that feel authentic and lived in. Residents have their own routines, with each of the NPCs giving valuable information about the world and its inhabitants when interacted with.
While the world that Warhorse has created is incredibly compelling to explore, you’ll need to be cut from a certain cloth to have the patience to put the leg work in to do so. Much like the first game, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 is an incredibly tactile experience with meaning behind almost everything you do.
Take Henry’s basic necessities, for example - on top of managing his health bar, you’ll need to make sure he remains fed, watered and well rested before embarking upon most journeys. Failing to do so will cause Henry’s stomach to rumble, his eyes to blink slowly, and his vision to go blurry, resulting in lowered character stats across the board and generally making the game much harder.
That level of diegetic gameplay extends to the world around you as almost everything you do in the world has consequences. Get caught committing crimes and the guards won’t take kindly to you, throwing you in the pillory at almost every opportunity with a reputation system ensuring the villagers remain suspicious of you until you rebuild their trust.
The difficulty curve is especially tricky at the beginning of the game when you start out with almost nothing. With nary a groschen to your name, no horse and a basic sword, fending for yourself in the early quests feels a bit of a slog to series newcomers.
While this is perhaps an extremely realistic recreation of what it was like to live in 15th Century Bohemia, the amount of fun you derive from it is entirely dependent on what you want to get out of your leisure time. I personally enjoy a more casual experience where I can blaze through the story without fearing constant consequences, but without any form of difficulty sliders Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 is dead-set on catering to one audience and one audience only.
Even the quests progress at a slower pace than other RPGs, with most quests seemingly spiralling into a never-ending list of favours for friends of friends. One simple goal like needing to gain access to a wedding party will quickly result in needing to perform tasks for several other NPCs until you’re five hours down the road tasting a saltpetre pit and wondering how on earth you got here in the first place.
The weird and wonderful things you get up to when interacting with Bohemia’s NPCs is a huge part of the appeal, with most of the quests taking you to unique locations and introducing you to quirky characters. You’ve just got to be prepared to slow down and soak it all in rather than focusing on the end result.
With such a slow pace, I can easily see players spending upwards of 100 hours seeing everything Kingdom Come Deliverance has to offer. The skill system is extremely malleable too, letting players build out Henry into a playstyle that suits them.
I really enjoyed getting to grips with the game’s combat system, which uses a unique directional attack and blocking system to breathe life into its melee swordplay. Getting the perfect parry and beating an opponent down by aiming for their blind spot never ceased to spark joy, especially with most scenarios cutting a pretty fine line between victory and death.
It’s also worth mentioning that Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 feels far more competently put together than its predecessor. The rapid expansion of the Warhorse Studio team and additional development time following the delay can clearly be felt in the fluidity of the character movement and the stability of the game’s performance.
The Verdict
I’m looking forward to spending more time with Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. Despite its more hardcore nature of its gameplay mechanics, I’m finding immense joy in taking things more slowly than normal, absorbing the world I’m presented with and thinking deeply about how I approach each new quest.
It certainly isn’t a game for everyone - actions that are normally achieved with a single button press can often take five minutes of legwork in Warhorse’s latest epic. However, if you’re willing to put in the time and give in to how the game wants you to play it, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 can deliver one of the best RPG experiences of this generation.
4.5/5
Reviewed on PC. Code provided by the publisher.
