Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 review: Henry has come to visit us (again)!
Henry returns in glory. The identity of the first game is felt in the sequel and although the game is not free from flaws, it can be a great feast, especially if someone feels "quite hungry."
The review is based on the PC version. It's also relevant to PS5, XSX version(s).

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II primarily expands on its predecessor. Someone who spent dozens of hours on the first installment will feel like a fish in water here. It is again a quasi-simulator, which with rarely seen dedication approaches the representation of the realities of life in late medieval Bohemia. The game once again puts a strong emphasis is on a considerable freedom in performing quests depending on the player's preferences.
The story begins exactly where it ended in the first installment, although the developers made every effort to ensure that even players unfamiliar with the previous events could quickly catch up. What's more - most of the somewhat significant changes in the gameplay have been more or less significantly simplified. "Casualization" is definitely too big of a word, because the entry threshold and the rules governing the world of Henry from Skalitz are still very specific, that may discourage some players from playing. Thanks to this, however, the game has its identity and is much more memorable than competing productions.
Perfect sequel?
I get the impression that the developers set themselves a very clear goal - to create a game that is better in every respect than the first part, as if after a test drive and testing their capabilities, they could finally roll out their car onto the racetrack. Great ambitions can be seen at every step, which can be worrying, because if possibilities do not go hand in hand with aspirations, the final product may not... deliver. However, KCD2 is an incredibly well-written story full of ingeniously constructed characters. On the one hand, we won't find anything here that we haven't seen before, because all the characters and motifs are strongly based on archetypes that have long been ingrained in our cultural subconscious. On the other, what distinguished Henry's previous story was a certain mundaneness, without a talk about saving the world, the country, or even the city, but at most saving one's own and sometimes the neighbor's backside. Warhorse once again did a phenomenal job in delivering such a prosaic story, hidden in the background of great historical events, where kings, national heroes and ideas were clashing with each other.
This doesn’t mean that there is no room for pathos, exaltation, and profound maxims in the plot of Kingdom Come: Deliverance II. On the contrary - we have more than enough of it, but I had the impression that I had to work for it, and then such appropriately dosed moments of pathos were even more satisfactory. There are several impressive moments in the game that will stay with us for years - I have no doubt about that. Regardless of the climate, the accompanying sound effects and music are also once again a masterpiece.
The game is not afraid to be slow. I generally take this as a positive (the plot seems to constantly push forward), but there were a few moments where this mechanism somewhat creaked. For clarity - this is written by someone who adores the slow pace of Red Dead Redemption 2. However, there are several moments where KCD2 did not plan the correlation between plot and gameplay very well. Without revealing too much: if we first carefully sneak around the entire castle, and then we slowly move through an underground corridor to have desperate escape, we can expect (quite rightly, I think) that at the end of this sequence, as a literal and figurative light at the end of the tunnel, the mission will finally end. And that we won't come across, for example, another stealth sequence. My situation here was significantly worse, because my Henry was extremely overloaded, seriously injured, inexperienced in sneaking, and I didn't have a potion in my equipment that would improve vision in the dark. Something clearly went wrong here and on a few other occasions, which struck me all the more because for the vast majority of the time, the pace of the missions, their diversity and narrative justification are brilliantly balanced.
Abundance of everything
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is a game with such a specific structure that if it weren't for the colors of the markers on the map, it would be hard for me to distinguish side quests from the main ones. In the nearly 70 hours I needed to complete the game, I encountered a considerable number of these optional tasks and did not come across a single filler. Nobody asked me to gather five turnips or deliver three wolf livers. Don't get me wrong - there's no shortage of painfully mundane tasks (sending greetings to the gravedigger), but absolutely every one I had the pleasure of encountering was a brilliantly conducted mini-story. Every such story has some organic place in this world, and the consequences of our decisions can sometimes affect other quests. It's hard to seriously use such grandiose terms as "truly living world" today, but KCD 2 really has some great moments in this respect.
This is probably a good time to admit that the second Kingdom Come is really a big game. Fortunately for players - this is not just regarding the size of the game world. It's the diversity of things we encounter along the way. Numerous interesting characters and random encounters, as well as the aforementioned quests. I did not find any fillers where the developers could simply force the player to spend hours grinding at a small cost and declare that KCD2 is a thousand-hour game. Instead, we get carefully written mini-stories with their surprising twists and ambiguous decisions. I had a whole month to familiarize myself with the game and I still had to control myself strongly not to get sucked into the whirl of events distracting Henry from his destiny. In the end, I succumbed to temptation at least a few times and regained consciousness a few hours later, realizing in the early morning that the seemingly straightforward task of "forge a sword" had become somewhat complicated.
- great, mature and skillfully prepared story;
- ingenious and well-crafted side quests;
- freedom of action;
- attention to detail;
- beautifully recreated Bohemia along with the majestic Kuttenberg and smaller castles and settlements;
- wonderful music;
- the game is not afraid to take its time...
- ...although sometimes it can go overboard and drag on a bit;
- sometimes unclear rules of the reputation and crime system;
- it happens that a complex simulation can crash, and AI can react strangely to the player;
- surprisingly shallow blacksmithing;
- a minor glitch here and there.
Immersive sim
During the marketing campaign, Warhorse Studios placed a great emphasis on highlighting how much they had refined the level of immersion in virtual Bohemia. It's not enough anymore, for example, to simply not get caught stealing, because if some guy saw you hanging around his house earlier, and the next morning all his belongings are gone, he will be able to put two and two together. And on the one hand, you can indeed observe something like this in the game, although the rules and boundaries of these mechanics were quite unclear to me throughout the game. The leader of a Romany community asked me to find his daughter and even encouraged me to rummage through her tent and belongings in search of clues. So I got to work, start fiddling with the lock on the only chest in the tent, and suddenly there's a commotion in the camp - a guard asks who I am and what I'm doing here. My argument that "I am a locksmith" was useless, as was referring to the investigation commissioned by the leader himself. The game interpreted this as trespassing on private property and stealing in front of a guard.
These kinds of blunders hurt all the more because the consequences for breaking the law can be quite severe and long-lasting, and in this and similar situations, it was not fair. The reputation system, featured in the first game, works in a similar, sometimes very incomprehensible way for me. This time, the game seems to distinguish reputation not only for specific locations, but also for specific social layers, professions, etc. I have often seen a message on the screen about a decrease or increase in reputation, without fully understanding why this happened and WHO exactly is now seeing me differently. It is supposed to influence the prices of products in different places, or the attitude of specific characters towards the protagonist, but I did not feel that it significantly changed the gameplay beyond the plot events, which understandably often have much greater weight.
Henry, the blacksmith
I was somewhat disappointed with the new side activity, particularly important for Henry - blacksmithing. The first impressions were very positive, because it's one of the most relaxing things in the game, where you have to pay attention to the temperature of the material, shape the hot iron with the right force and precision, and it's worth doing it... in the right rhythm, and not only because Henry will start whistling. As we reach further levels, however, we notice that the whole mechanic quickly stops gaining further depth. We forge items from a fairly limited pool, and each type of sword, axe or horseshoe looks identical during the process, only later magically taking shape when the work is nearing completion, and the item goes into our inventory. There are three levels of item quality (the appropriate perk allows us to craft masterful items) and depending on our experience and quality of our work, we can forge excellent blades with good statistics and a great price, as well as abominations that can be given at most to poor, starving infantry.
However, we can clearly notice a significant difference in the refinement of blacksmithing compared to, for example, the returning alchemy. The recipes are more varied, but you need to know what to crush in the mortar, whether to add water, what to mix and what to boil for a moment. Blacksmithing boils down to collecting specific resources and a forging mini-game to create one of three types of items: a sword, an axe, or a horseshoe. It's still a relaxing mini-game and a good way to earn money, but it's a shame that Henry's and his father's profession wasn't treated with greater care.
Realistic fight
The key aspect of Henry's adventures, regardless of how we want to develop him in our version of the story, is of course the combat. I'm not the biggest fan of overhauling the melee combat system, although maybe it's just my Stockholm syndrome rationalizing why I've sunk so many hours into Bernard's arena. Having said that, the facts are such that the number of possible attack directions has been reduced (both "lower" ones have been removed and replaced with a thrust), and the perfect block now depends only on our reflexes, without the need to the properly position the weapon in relation to the opponent. I must admit that the combat has been somewhat simplified (but not too much!). However, it can still pose a challenge and becomes much more dynamic much sooner than in the first game. Fighting multiple opponents at once is now somewhat easier, and if we have a lot of space around, it's enough to simply run backwards and eliminate enemies one by one. However, the combat is still satisfactory, and besides swords, axes, and maces, Henry can also use pole arms. They were present in the first game, but this time they have their own list of perks and combinations.
For those who prefer to handle matters from a distance, there is also a crossbow, which makes up for its extremely long reloading time with the fact that we can move around with it without any problem. I absolutely can't stand that when I prepare a crossbow for a shot before a fight and then proceed with a dialog followed by a fight, Henry has to reload it again, only to stop halfway because he already has other problems, like an axe in his skull. There is also the herald of the end of the Middle Ages - black powder weapons. Its role in the plot is quite significant and I have no objections here, however, in direct use, hand cannons are pretty much useless. Getting used to this type of weapon plays a role, but when we get it in our hands, we probably already have a pretty good idea on how to use a crossbow or a bow, and the psychological factor of a big bang and smoke, which is the main advantage of using such inventions at that point in history, has no effect on NPCs.
Henry is looking good
I am extremely impressed with how KCD 2 works and looks on PC. I had huge concerns about optimization, especially since I remembered very well what the predecessor could do even on powerful hardware configurations. We will only be able to assess the overall level of optimization with so many different possible hardware configurations after the release, but I am pleased to report that several computers, ranging from "Medium" to "High," handled this challenge quite well. One particular skirmish significantly dropped the FPS count, but this seems to be a bigger problem of this specific encounter, as other, larger and perhaps even more demanding ones ran smoothly.
Generally, the performance is almost always nicer than in the first game, although quite inconsistent. At times, the game can look phenomenal - magnificent European forests, lakes, and fields, but also a truly impressive Kuttenberg, but then you get some awkward animations or poorly textured surfaces. The characters' mimicry can surprise with total nuances, like a slight tic on the face of a person holding back a fit of rage, only to then present us with facial animations straight out of Bethesda games.
However, the cut-scenes are done masterfully. The game perfectly balances somewhere between gutter humor, subtle references (it's clear that Warhorse are fans of Monty Python and "The Shining") with appropriately dosed pathos and seriousness. Dialogue scenes happening in the game are also mostly arranged brilliantly, but sometimes one of the interlocutors disappears or our possible dialogue options may resemble a broken game code. I mention this, however, out of pure formality, to present things as they are - of course, we will encounter typical open-world bugs and glitches making the veterans of the first KCD feel at home. A dysfunctional one, but still a home. Having said that, during dozens of hours of intense gameplay, I didn't experience a single crash, no quest got stuck at a dead end due to faulty scripts, and the fact that NPCs sometimes sit weirdly at a table, or tunics tuck up strangely, didn't significantly affect my perception of the game. I understand if for someone this might be too much regarding "safer" games, but if, for the price of minor glitches, we get a much more developed product that offers so many possibilities, to me that's a reasonable price.
VERDICT:
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 really improves almost every aspect of its already very good predecessor. Looking at the whole thing more calmly, we of course see the flaws, but it's hard to ignore the enormous amount of effort, passion, and heart put into this project.
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Does the game deliver(ance)?
Are we dealing with a perfect sequel? Well, nothing is without flaws, but Kingdom Come: Deliverance II really improves almost every aspect of its already very good predecessor. Looking at the whole thing more calmly, we of course see the flaws, but it's hard to ignore the enormous amount of effort, passion, and heart put into this project. I'm extremely pleased that such games are still being made. Even after marathoning through the game, that doesn't like to be rushed, after dozens of hours of gameplay underpinned by constant analysis and testing, I still can't get enough of it. Against common sense and experience, I feel like sitting down and playing this game again, this time checking under every stone, talking to every character. Solve every problem (or exacerbate it even more). People say that Kingdom Come is so great because it doesn't have any fantasy elements. Meanwhile, I don't know how to call this game anything other than "magical."
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 really improves almost every aspect of its already very good predecessor. Looking at the whole thing more calmly, we of course see the flaws, but it's hard to ignore the enormous amount of effort, passion, and heart put into this project.

