Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, the anticipated sequel to the 2018 medieval RPG, is here, letting players control Henry of Skalitz again. With a lot of moving systems, ambitious immersion and striking graphics, it buckles a little under all those promises. Have you ever had a game that you so desperately want to love but is fighting you at every turn? After nearly 70 hours with the adventure, that’s exactly what we’ve got here.
Kicking off soon after the events of the first game, the Blacksmith’s son and loyal hand to Lord Hans Capon is a changed man. Having lost his family and home in a brutal massacre, Henry is seeking vengeance from those who took everything from him. A mission with Hans where they’re to deliver a message to a far kingdom to seek allies in the war is Henry’s first sign that he’ll get to fulfil his wants. From there, the game expands into the epic that it is, filled with political intrigue, warring lands and being a downright medieval menace.
What Kingdom Come: Deliverance II strives to do while you’re working through its story is truly immerse you more than any RPG ever has. In the preview where I got ten or so hours with the game, I praised these efforts. You can drink booze regularly and it’ll temporarily boost stats for our hero, adding to his strength, charisma and speech. This can quickly take a downfall though where he can get addicted to the stuff and suddenly suffer a lot of debuffs and will often stumble around in a stupor. Combat is authentic because, well, it’s kind of deliberately a bit shit. Whether receiving or trading blows from a sword, fist, axe or other weapons, everything takes a lot of effort, requiring players to direct the angle they’re attacking from with the right stick. Quickly, your stamina evaporates and everything is laboured.
Henry levels up the skills the more he performs said task. Say Henry regularly gets into barfights. Suddenly you’ll see his unarmed combat level expand tenfold, only bolstered by the passive and active skills you receive. If you lockpick a lot it starts to become easier not just because you’re more acquainted with how to look for the soft spot to manipulate, but it generously becomes easier to identify in the HUD, the soft spot icon larger than before. A lot of RPGs in more recent years have players grinding an overall player level to then doll out and attribute to random skills. With Kingdom Come, you’re choosing what you invest in actively by the shenanigans you get up to. It’s a refreshing resurgence of RPG play that we haven’t seen in quite a while.
These shenanigans are delightful and are some of the biggest gameplay highlights the fans will engage in. I invested in petty thievery early and was having a pleasant old time slowly looting houses and shops, gathering up greschel and junk to hock off to merchants. Now, while I was doing this tomfoolery I let myself not pay attention to all the systems at play here. You see, Henry got in a prior swordfight and got himself coated in blood. He then started to smell, and, to my hilarious horror, I was caught on one of my stealth looting jobs because of this smell. It’s these kinds of genius emergent gameplay mechanics that make Kingdom Come: Deliverance II feel like an immersive sim full of charm. It’s in these moments that it feels like Warhorse Studios have really thought of everything.
