Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 was provided by Deep Silver for review. Thank you!

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is one of the few games I have been obsessing over this year for a good reason. I have been stunned by the game ever since I saw the first trailer, and it was only solidified when I got a chance to try it at Gamescom. The scale of the world that developer Warhorse Studios was trying to create astounded me, and I was curious if they would be able to pull off creating such an ambitious title. Apart from some minor inconveniences here and there, I would say they have largely succeeded.

If there's one aspect of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 that stood out to me from the moment I began, it was freedom. I have played through many different games that label themselves as non-linear, where choices matter, but I always felt like I knew where the story could go and figured out which parts were set in stone. That's not really a feeling I experienced much while going through the story of this game.

The game picks up right after the prequel ends, with Henry of Skalitz accompanying Sir Hans Capon to deliver a letter to lord Otto von Bergow of Trosky. However, on their way, they get ambushed by bandits and need to find a way to get in contact without any clothes, belongings, or credibility to their names in this new region of the land. This sets up a chain of events that follows the two across new locations, meeting new people and doing what they can to restore King Wenceslaus IV to the throne.

And just a quick aside, you don't have to play the first game to understand this one. It is nice to see familiar characters and know about prior events that led to this, but it isn't necessary to enjoy.

I love games based on reality, like Assassin's Creed, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 follows suit. The team clearly put in a lot of work to build out a believable world that made me so curious that I started to dig into the actual history of The Czech Republic. Many characters and locations introduced in the game are based on real historical figures, like Hans Capon, Otto von Bergow, Kuttenberg, Trosky, and more, with an excellent job at integrating the fictional characters to keep the story flowing nicely.

With every quest you can take, it all feels quite open-ended. There are some missions that you can tackle in different ways. For example, there's a part of a quest where you need to get better clothing to go to a wedding. You could go out and buy the clothing, or make it, or steal it. The choice is completely up to you, as long as you get the clothing that's good enough in specific stats. I opted for murdering the tailor and taking over his entire store. This was possibly the worst decision I could make, considering it destroyed my reputation in the town and constantly had guards trying to kill me, but hey, I got some nice clothes out of it.

There are also many decisions you can make during a quest that seem like they can completely change the way the story plays out. There's a quest where you will need to help pillage a small town that is housing a traitor. There are so many forks in the path that it feels like it can change the outcome with ripples that affect later parts of the story. You could choose to help the traitor, which results in you needing to kill off the people you came to the town with, which means they can't show up later on. While there are story beats that seem like they will happen regardless, they aren't blatantly obvious, and the way you get there feels so unique.

One thing I felt Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 did particularly well was to make every action you take feel morally grey. It may seem like you make the right choice at the moment, like turning in a criminal or finding a kidnapped woman, but it can all go downhill quickly when the entire town is lit on fire or you are then asked to murder a man who is mourning his dead son. No choice you make in the game is inherently good or bad, making the weight of your decisions even harder.

Most of the story is engaging, and all the content, including the side quests, is interesting with some incredible performances by each actor. However, it isn't perfect. Most of the in-game cutscenes have the same quality as the pre-rendered ones, but some cutscenes changed my clothing in the next scene, which took me out of the immersion. There was one scene where I was sneaking out of a cave with no clothing on, and I didn't put on anything afterward since I had to sneak through a forest of enemies. When I got to the waypoint I needed to, I was now walking over in full clothing. It isn't the end of the world, but I did find it a little sad that it didn't find some better way to transition.

Speaking of cutscenes, I am glad that most were of the same quality. The world of Bohemia is beautiful, with gorgeous castles and forests. Even if it was far away, I loved running through the world from town to town just so I could see how the region of Bohemia looked. There is some fast travel, though bandits or random merchants can stop you, but traveling by foot or horse is so nice. There are so many spots that just completely stunned me, and there's no shortage of beautiful places to check out in Bohemia.

Even though Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2's gameplay tends to air on the more realistic and monotonous side, Warhorse Studios found a way to still keep it engaging and fun, for the most part. Every aspect of the gameplay mechanics feels thought out and detailed, with some great improvements that make it more accessible, especially in combat.

Combat itself is a ton of fun, and I enjoy it for the most part. The combat system is similar to Chivalry's system, where you will mainly utilize melee combat and can choose the direction of your swing. Choosing the direction of your swing is generally very important since you can see where your enemy is blocking, and it gives you a better chance of landing a hit. Combat feels snappy and responsive, and getting those kills just gives a nice sense of satisfaction.

There are some deeper mechanics here, like perfect blocks, riposte, and combos, that you can utilize to maximize your strikes against the enemy. Finding a balance of these is great, and I went out of my way to find more fights to experience it as much as possible.

However, I wish combat against multiple enemies was a little more accurate though. One-on-one fights are near perfect, but if it was me versus 3-4 people, it would feel a little unbalanced. Locking on to other enemies didn't work as well as I wanted, being able to perfect block enemies you weren't locked onto was floaty, with some attacks just not registering as one I could block, and sometimes a random enemy would hit me from behind without any warning or knowledge of them being there and kill me instantly. Sometimes, it felt justified, but more times than not, I felt like it shouldn't have happened.

I have a love-hate relationship with the save system, though it was mostly my fault. There aren't any auto-saves outside of some key moments like finishing objectives or side quests, and while you can create potions you can use to create save points, you can also exit and save the game completely. These help, but when you die or get a game over, you will return to your last save. This was a bit annoying if I died in the middle of a main quest since it would go further back than I would like if I died. I could have fixed this by brewing some potions, but I kept forgetting to.

While Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2's side quests are varied and range from joining fight clubs to finding your dog, there are also some realistic mini-games that take time but still find ways to be fun. You can sharpen your weapons on the wheel, use the smithy to create new weapons and such, and creating potions at the Alchemy table, and it's all a blast. It's a nice way to slow down and relax instead of completing quest after quest or being deep into constant action.

Almost every action you take contributes to the progression system, which levels up different stats, weapon types, and skills you have. As they level up, you will get perk points that can give you special bonuses like extra stealth in forests, debuffing enemies if you perform a combo and land it, and being able to sell herbs and potions for more money. The way progression is structured allows a lot of freedom in how you want to build Henry out.

There were some minor problems I encountered as I was playing, though. There were some moments when the terrain caught me and wouldn't let me move or when I was surrounded by enemies and couldn't move. This ended up disrupting my stealth or killing me. I also found a couple of bugs littered throughout that were more uncommon. I got my horse stuck in the stables and in the air, so I couldn't mount it, which prompted me to reload my last save. However, I didn't experience anything game-breaking, so it wasn't a big deal.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 - Steam Deck Performance

To make sure I report on the most accurate details about how Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 performs on the Steam Deck, I do need a little more time. My evaluation and settings recommendations will be posted tomorrow, but for now, I will say that Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is playable on the Steam Deck. I didn't experience any major problems and only one crash, which was avoidable. You will be able to play at 30 FPS at least with the game looking decent on the smaller screen.

Accessibility

Settings-wise, you can change text and voice language and toggle tutorials, crosshairs, and subtitles. You can change the size of the subtitles, as well as if the speaker's name shows up, too. You can change how much your horse can stick to the roads, whether automatic or manual, and change the sound settings, controller invert, and keybindings. There is also a photo mode for those who want to take awesome screenshots.

The game does support 16:10 resolutions, so no black bars, and it has good controller and cloud save support. There are no HDR settings.

Conclusion

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is quite possibly one of the best non-linear RPGs I have ever played. No game has ever made me feel like anything could actually happen based on my choices to the degree this game has. The story and side content are both varied and enticing, making me want to stop and just go experience all the side quests I could. The combat and progression mechanics are also solid, and I even loved the more realistic mini-games like smithing or alchemy, which give a nice break from the fighting and running around.

There are some minor issues here and there, like getting stuck on terrain and the pre-rendered cutscenes taking out a little of the immersion, but these are small in the grand scheme. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is a fantastic game through and through, and it would be a shame not to have this one in your library.

Our review is based on the PC version of this game.

If you enjoyed this review, be sure to check out the rest of the content on SteamDeckHQ! We have a wide variety of game reviews and news that are sure to help your gaming experience. Whether you're looking for news, tips and tutorials, game settings and reviews, or just want to stay up-to-date on the latest trends, we've got your back.