The highly anticipated follow up to the medieval RPG, Kingdom Come: Deliverance is just around the corner. It’s been almost 7 years since the release of the last game, and it’s immediately clear that the team at Warhorse Studios have spent this time making every component of the sequel bigger and better. After spending about 8 hours with the game, it’s clear that the team have crafted something pretty special and very large scale, taking on feedback from the first game to create something that I think fans of the series are really going to love.
The story of Kingdom Come: Deliverance II picks up almost directly after the events of the last game. As you did in the first game, you still play as Henry of Skalitz, acting as bodyguard to your noble companion Hans Capon as you continue your quest to track down the Sigismund forces responsible for the decimation of Skalitz and to retrieve the stolen sword of your Father. That is the premise at least, but as you’ll quickly discover when you play, the story begins to expand far and wide from that initial premise and even just in the small portion of the overall experience that I’ve played, there have already been so many additional characters that have become interwoven in Henry’s journey.
If you haven’t played the first game, you should still be able to jump in and understand the gist of what has happened. There isn’t a dedicated story recap of the first game that occurs prior, instead, key events that you should know about are spoken about naturally or are detailed via dreams, delusions and flashbacks that Henry has over the opening hours which was a cool and natural way to bring players up to speed on what fuels Henry’s motivations for this sequel.
Being a sequel, Henry himself begins the game already feeling more capable than he was in the first game, which makes logical sense as it would feel strange to have to relearn skills such as reading all over. But there is an incident that occurs towards the start of the game that causes some of his stats to suffer a bit of a reset and give you the opportunity to once again grow and improve.
Even though I’m only roughly 8 hours in, I already absolutely love the relationship Henry and Hans have, and so many of the scenes in what I’ve played so far really highlight their bond together, even in scenes when they’re at each other’s throats arguing. I was also very impressed by the writing, performances of their characters and the near constant banter between the two brings a lot of humour to what is otherwise a fairly serious story and setting.
When it comes to RPGs, I normally gravitate towards the ones with loads of fantastical elements, creatures and magic. I was worried if a game like Kingdom Come: Deliverance II would be able to keep my interest, given it takes place in a much more grounded historical setting. Thankfully, the game’s story premise, character writing and its vast living and breathing world has me fully invested in continuing, even though there isn’t a single fireball or dragon in sight.
The game’s opening few hours is built around setting up the premise of the story, as well as introducing you to some key characters and the game’s most crucial systems. This is a fairly linear experience and acts as a lengthy, yet engaging tutorial. But following that, the game really begins to open up and you’re given the freedom to explore the world as you see fit.
I really love how the game just lets you do things your way and leaves you experience the rewards and consequences of doing so. It’s not as hand-holdy as other games in the genre can be and I liked how the game spent a few hours introducing you to this world, the characters and the systems you’ll need to get by, such as combat and alchemy and then has no issues just setting you free with a vague-ish objective and letting you figure out how you’d like to achieve it.
In the time I’ve played so far, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II’s biggest highlight is its world. You really do feel just like you’re a small part in an already established and large scale civilisation. The characters you come across in the towns seem as though they have a life of their own and will continue to do that whether you’d crossed paths with them or not.
And it pays to speak to people and be engaged with what they’re telling you. NPCs often provide points of interest in natural conversation, they aren’t always popped onto your map or added into your quest log to be able to just tick off later. These are things you need to remember and then go and investigate yourself.
There is an example in the town of Troskowitz, a merchant mentions that on his last trip in, his cart overturned and he lost a bunch of valuable cargo in the lake. This discussion begun because of an optional dialogue prompt that appeared as I was trying to see what the man was selling. But after learning of the vague location of where the cart fell, I was able to head south of the city and follow the riverbed and eventually found it, along with rewards that made the trip worth it. This small quest wasn’t added into the journal at all, it plays out purely in conversation and makes the world of Kingdom Come: Deliverance II feel organic and shows that these people exist and have lives of their own and aren’t just a mechanism to point you to the next main mission. For a game of this size, I love that the world itself feels alive, and there are plenty of interactions like this I’ve come across in just the opening hours.
Characters also speak of rumours and give vague hints of legends that occurred, prompting you to spend some time out in the open world to discover if the rumour has any merit. This not only acts as a great carrot on a stick, but it gets you naturally invested in exploring the open world and seeing what’s on offer outside of just sticking to the paths the main quest lines direct you down.
NPCs are also smart and reactive, which further helps sell this game world as a real, living and breathing thing. The NPCs will often provide in-context comments commenting on things like your smell or identifying items that you’ve stolen from them if you happen to walk back past the person you stole from, or one of my favourites which occurs fairly early on, having just about every NPC in the town asking “Why aren’t you wearing clothes?”
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II’s combat has been streamlined and improved compared to the first game. It’s slower and more methodical than what you may expect from a typical RPG game, but it’s also built upon an intuitive system that ensures you watch the combat, block methodically, assess risk and actively choose when to engage because the consequences of messing it up are high. Messing up snowballs downwards pretty quick once you take a few hits in a row. Much the same way I assume an actual fight with swords would play out if you copped a blow to the head area.
I was also impressed with how different the weapons are. Each type feels unique to use and are more, or less effective depending on the type of enemy you’re using them against and how armoured up they are for example. Maces feel different to clubs, which also feel very different to swords and axes, providing further agency for you to use whatever you may prefer, and then approach the combat accordingly.
The game also has some really fun mini games that are actually really enjoyable to engage in. Such as the alchemy system that lets you follow recipes you’ve collected to be able combine foraged items and boil them into a base ingredient to craft things such as potions. There’s also a blacksmith mini game with allows to to forge weapons using rhythmic strikes which was a really creative way to obtain new tools and also the lock picking game that is the most satisfying lock picking I’ve experienced since Skyrim. I’m excited to see how these systems expand over the full length of the game, and what other additional mini games the game may include.
From a technical standpoint, the game so far is holding up really well, which I know has been something fans of the series would be glad to know. There have been times where there is noticeable texture pop in, something I witnessed mostly when traversing the open world. But much of the other technical hiccups I’ve encountered so far are things that i was pre-warned I’d be likely to come across, such as missing lines of dialogue, or things that are already intended for a pre-release patch. I haven’t had any game breaking bugs or crashes so far either.
If the opening act is anything to go by, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is shaping up to be an incredibly large and deep RPG that people are going to spend many, many hours enjoying. It’s highlights so far are it’s character driven story and it’s living open world. I’m only a small way through the game, but it’s gripped me and I’m so keen to jump back in and experience so much more.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II launches on February 5th for the PS5, Xbox Series Consoles and PC.
If you want to see more content like this and never miss one of our frequent gaming and anime giveaways come and Follow Ani-Game on Twitter.
