Kingdom Come: Deliverance II

Written by Jason Dailey on 2/3/2025 for PS5  

It takes what feels like an eternity nowadays to make a video game, often racking up years of development before one, and especially a big RPG, is ready for the limelight. These nearly decade-long production cycles can make the wait for sequels particularly excruciating, especially if the game doesn’t deliver in the end. Rest assured, that is not the case with Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, an immersive and massively entertaining follow-up to the 2018 original that should flirt with RPG of the year, if not Game of the Year.

I’ve got to be honest, though – my first few hours with Kingdom Come: Deliverance II did not have me convinced this could be one of the year’s best gaming experiences. It wasn’t until I realized that I had been playing the game wrong, or at least at the wrong pace, that everything began to click. You see, I’m a squirrel chaser in big open-world RPGs; I simply cannot help myself. If I see an NPC, I must speak to that NPC. If I see a structure tucked away off in the distance, I must investigate that structure. Squirrels, the lot of them. But to be fair, squirrel chasing is a perfectly fine way to play Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, just not in the first few hours.

Why? Because you need a horse to keep from pulling your hair out running back-and-forth across the huge world as you chase quest after quest. Because you need to complete the basic combat training quest that it gives you almost immediately to properly understand its easy-to-pick-up-but-difficult-to-master combat. And because you need some groschen (cash) to buy a few essential items to get you started on the right foot. All things you cannot accomplish if you don’t let the game properly take the training wheels off for you in the beginning. Instead of engaging with these properly, I went running off across the fields. Once I discovered the error of my ways, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II began to reveal itself as the special RPG that I had been hoping for the last seven years it would be.

The sequel opens essentially where the first game left off, with protagonist Henry, the son of a blacksmith, at the side of Sir Hans Capon. The pair are traveling with a small party to seek the aid of Lord Otto Von Burgow, and I won’t say much more than that as to avoid spoilers, even for the first game, should you decide to check that one out first. To be clear, it is not a prerequisite to have played the original game, as Kingdom Come: Deliverance II does an elegant job of bringing new players (and those who’ve forgotten everything) up to speed quickly. There is a very clever character-builder at the beginning which updates you on previous events in the world and defines your version of Henry a bit.

From there you are largely free to do whatever you please, though I’d advise you to heed my advice and let the game steer you for a bit. Whatever approach you take, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II becomes a sprawling, immersive RPG that becomes difficult to put down, largely due to its incredible quest design. There is a sense of craftsmanship and care in each quest that, dare I say, rivals The Witcher 3. Payoffs, both big and small, sometimes arrive hours later when you least expect them. Without getting too spoiler-y – at a wedding, I ran into two feuding farmers that had each asked for my help, requests I had yet to resolve, which they remembered. At that same event, I caught up with a lady who thought she had seen a ghost when last we met and was able to give her the good news that, in fact, it was not a ghost troubling her. To that end, the world of Kingdom Come: Deliverance II feels keenly alive and tied together. Perhaps the best example I can give relates to the game’s crime system. They say an elephant never forgets, and buddy, neither do the citizens of medieval Bohemia, let me tell you. At one point, I just so happened to acquire an expensive necklace that didn’t belong to me, perhaps unlawfully – doesn’t matter. I noticed that said necklace gave me a two-point charisma boost if I equipped it, so I threw that bad boy on. Later, I visited the local horse saddler, who recognized the stolen necklace, and took off running to report me to the guards. In this, and many other ways, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II constantly surprised me.

Some quests can take upwards of an hour to complete, both main and side quests, and I didn’t experience any that I felt were a waste of my time. I attribute that to great writing and acting, which kept me constantly engaged. Of course, it’s an RPG, so everyone needs something from you, and they have no problem sending you all over God’s green earth to do it, but they’re each worthwhile in their own way. That’s a big part of the reason I found it so difficult to stop squirrel chasing – for the first time in a long time, an RPG gave me FOMO (fear of missing out), and for me, that’s a strong indication of a great game.

Sticking with quest design for a moment longer, there are typically multiple ways to complete a quest, which I appreciated. For instance, I’m not good at stealth in this game, as it’s a bit like the old Thief games on PC, requiring you to wear dark clothing, avoid the light, and so on. But when I struck out with that approach, there was sometimes another way to complete the quest altogether, and even ways that the game doesn’t explicitly tell you. It’s times like those that I, Lord Squirrel Chaser, really get a dopamine hit in my brain. On one occasion, while trying to infiltrate an area, I stumbled across a water well that I could climb down. It wasn’t marked on a map or suggested by an NPC – nope, I found it all on my own, and it took me right where I needed to be with no resistance.

Quest design isn’t the only reason Kingdom Come: Deliverance II feels so immersive. Part of the immersion is also owed to excellent writing and voice acting, not only for main characters, but a lot of NPCs as well. The writing is not overdone or half-baked – it’s just right. I never felt like the characters, or their actors, were on-the-nose, unless of course, their character was supposed to be on-the-nose in a particular moment. No, this cast of characters is likeable, believable, and relatable. There’s also a lot of humorous moments that had me laughing out loud, usually because they reacted the way I felt like I would react in certain situations, but also because of their masterful use of a certain four-letter word.

There are little flourishes in game design where developer Warhorse Studios really stretched its legs for the sequel. For instance, if you pass out drunk around a group of reprobates, you might wake up and find that your valuables have been purloined. Or if you drop an item on the ground in the path of an NPC, they may pick it up and use it, which creates some interesting gameplay opportunities. Kingdom Come: Deliverance II also features some Red Dead Redemption 2-style contextual character interactions, allowing you to positively or negatively respond to NPCs in passing, which can affect your reputation in that area.

When I wasn’t busy questing or talking to folks, I found Kingdom Come: Deliverance II to be a somewhat cozy medieval life simulation. You can play dice, fish, blacksmith, craft potions, pick flowers, or just ride your horse across the countryside. No matter what you decide to do, Henry will level up across various stat categories accordingly. So, if you like making and using potions, your alchemy skill is going to level up, or if you like fighting barehanded, and so on. I am partial to fighting with a short sword and shield, so as I engaged in combat more frequently, combat perks became available for purchase that enhanced my playstyle. My version of Henry was a silver-tongued artist of persuasion who could often talk himself out of any situation, turning to combat as a last resort, but you can totally go swords-blazing if that’s what you prefer.

Speaking of combat, it is a bit more streamlined from the first game, making it easier to pick up and go. Still, there is quite a bit of depth to it, requiring practice against trainers scattered around the world to truly master it. Again, I strongly advise completing the initial combat training quest to get you off to a good start. I did not, and even though I played the first game, found it a bit frustrating when trying to take the “skip the tutorial” route. Success in combat is reliant on stamina and positioning of weapons – both you and your enemy’s. You want to attack on their exposed side, opposite of their weapon, attempting to get steel on meat in a flurry of attacks, counterattacks, and blocks. But if you throw tactics to the wind and resort to simply button-mashing, you’ll quickly lose stamina, followed by your life. Thankfully, the game shows on-screen indicators of when to initiate a perfect block, or when to attempt a riposte. As you progress, you can also unlock or purchase weapon techniques which are special moves that inflict massive damage. If you can master weapon techniques, they are game changers from a combat perspective. Each weapon type has its own abilities and techniques to unlock, with several types available, including short swords, shields, longswords, axes, hammers, polearms, bows, crossbows, and your fists.

Under the hood, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is a graphical treat on PlayStation 5 Pro, where it runs at 4K resolution and 60 frames per second. With that said, I found characters to look a little lifeless at times during in-engine dialogue scenes, along with some other graphical hiccups like people disappearing, some of which I think will get addressed in the day one patch. All the pre-rendered cutscenes look great, however, as do textures, lighting, and weather. The game also utilizes the haptic feedback and adaptive triggers on the DualSense controller quite well. As you tire in combat, the triggers will tighten up, reflecting low stamina, for instance. You can also feel the clang of steel as swords collide, or when you’re grinding your weapon too hard on the sharpening wheel. It’s well done.

Ultimately, the more I played Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, the more I fell in love with it. Systematically, the sequel is a more streamlined version of the first game that does not sacrifice its vision of being an immersive medieval RPG. Being back in Henry’s shoes has been an absolute treat as a fan of the original, but even newcomers can easily enjoy part two. It is a massive RPG that you can spend dozens of hours with, but at nearly every turn, there are payoffs both large and small, which make it a hard game to put down. Mix in great writing, great voice acting, and an incredible level of immersion, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance II makes an early case for RPG of the Year, if not more than that.