Kingdom Come: Deliverance II Review

Getting straight to the point - Kingdom Come: Deliverance is supremely impressive. I played the first game at launch seven years ago and was shocked by how immersive and complex the RPG systems were. If it weren’t for the litany of bugs, I would have stuck with it for longer.

With most of the bugs left behind, Warhorse Studios’ sequel is allowed to shine. With unbelievable depth, personality, and variety, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is one of the best RPGs of the last decade.

A Magical Mix Of Systems

A large portion of what’s great about the sequel is in the world building and how Warhorse has layered countless deep mechanics on top of each other to create an unmatched level of immersion.

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The sheer volume and depth of each skill mechanic is beyond impressive.

Everything you do has be intensely thought about. Are you wearing clothes that are right for the way you’re acting? Have you developed relationships with the right people? Is the food you’re carrying going to last the journey between Trotsky and Kuttenberg, the game’s two main regions? And are your weapons sharp enough for the inevitable skirmish that’s approaching? I could go on and on with these questions.

NPCs have lives that mean you will find them in certain places at certain times: shops will only be open between 9am and 6pm, and guards will stop you at night if you’re not carrying a torch. Speak to someone when they’re busy or when they would rather be sleeping and they’ll get annoyed. You can follow people home at night - in an entirely innocent way - and they’ll get changed and into bed, putting their clothes in their chest at the end of the bed before tucking themselves in. They’ll then get up and get on with their day eight hours later. If you leave an NPC waiting for you to start a quest, they’ll get angry and ask what held you up.

Medieval Simulator 2025

Playing as Henry in Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is like taking on a new life. You need to play as a person, not a character. How you approach every situation changes how Henry’s life plays out.

There’s an attention to detail in how the game’s systems mesh and how the world moves around you that I don’t think I’ve seen before to the same quality. The intricacy extends to individual mechanics too. Just like in the first game, you need to collect herbs by picking flowers and take them to an alchemy table to make potions, should you not have the Groschen to buy them.

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NPCs live their lives as you would expect and have their own routines.

Unlike in most RPGs, you don’t just press a button and wait for the potion to pop out or suddenly appear in your inventory. Instead, you need to choose the ingredients, pour a base liquid, boil the mixture, crush herbs, time the concoction correctly, stoke the fires, and pour the potion into vials. There’s a similar level of depth and realism to almost everything you do. It likely won’t be something everyone enjoys but if you allow yourself to be patient and take the time to understand the depths of the mechanics, you’ll find something special.

A lot of the mechanics are almost identical to what you’ll have played in the first game but they simply work better here. They feel more complete and more in synergy with everything else in the game. In most RPGs, spending what could be 15-30 minutes crafting some health potions would be unbelievably tedious. Instead, it just feels right in Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, and that’s true for every mechanic there is.

How well everything works 99% of the time makes the occasional hiccup all the more jarring. I’ve encountered a few instances where the logic gets itself muddled. NPCs will be cordially talking to you one minute, and then suddenly accuse you of trespassing the next. You can switch entire outfits during fights, but you can’t equip a helmet you’re carrying if you forgot to put one on before a duel. Thankfully, these moments serve more as a reminder of how well the game works overall, rather than any kind of lasting frustration.

Combat - Not For Everyone

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II also continues its commitment to realism in its combat, somewhat to its detriment. Combat isn’t bad by any means, but its clunky nature takes away from its unique design.

Much like any sword fight in 15th century medieval times would be - or at least what the history books tell me - combat in Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is about patience and waiting for openings to a complete degree.

Rather than jumping in sword first and swinging wildly, you need to wait for openings by blocking and parrying. There are combos to learn to do more damage and a Master Strike that takes advantage of openings when you’d normally perform a Perfect Dodge. In the tougher duels later in the game, I began resisting the urge to initiate attacks myself at all. Instead, I’d sit and wait for the little green shield icon to appear, and then counter when I had the chance. That reduced the frustration that can interrupt combat.

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(1 of 2) Mutt can be used to help in combat

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Mutt can be used to help in combat (left), Fights rely on directional parries and counter hits. (right)

You’re expected to learn the cadence of sword fighting as you progress - how and when to attack, and how to manage your stamina. Working almost like a second health bar, you take more damage when you’re low on stamina and can’t attack with the same ferocity. Fighting is as much about protecting yourself as it is about beating up your opponent. In theory, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II’s combat is very clever - a balancing act of careful inputs and realistic simulation. It’s just a shame that the realism leads to frustration more often than it should. Not much has changed there since the first game.

Caused by general slow movement, clunkiness, and the limitations a stamina bar puts on Henry, fighting multiple enemies at once is a chore. Due to an overly aggressive lock-on mechanic, it’s hard to switch back and forth between targeted enemies. Fighting guards and bandits one at a time is fluid and fun, but all of that is lost when you’re swarmed. I started to back away in large battles, letting my trusted comrades thin the horde out a little first.

Ranged weapons are also best kept for hunting or fortress protection. Due to how long they take to equip and load, the likes of guns and bows are best left in your inventory unless you’re trying your hand at stealth or a surprise attack. Beware though as switching to a melee weapon isn’t as smooth as you’d like either.

The other combat frustration is tied to Kingdom Come: Deliverance II’s structure. While the open-world regions of Trosky and Kuttenberg are massive and full of things to do, the game does funnel you into linear story sections on a regular basis. For the most part, you’re warned of upcoming danger, but financial concerns and carry weight limits mean you can only be so prepared.

Therefore, being thrown into a story quest duel against a heavily armored enemy can become an unnatural difficulty spike. Before the concluding story quests, I prepared for trouble by repairing all my gear, grabbing some potions, and making sure I had the best armor I could buy. However, three challenging quests later and I had to take on what was essentially a boss fight. My gear was no longer at full strength, I didn’t have exactly the right weapon that would help me to pierce his armor, and my remaining potions would only go so far.

I had to rely on my patience and chipping away at his health to beat him. The only way to repair my gear or become stronger was to lose hours of progress and reload a save at the last point I was still in the open-world. The moments make sense in the story and are impressively cinematic, but there’s very little you can do to progress if you’re not quite as prepared as you’d like.

Side Quests You Actually Want to Play

Elsewhere, though, the structure of Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is perfect. The game is long, yes - it took me 60 hours just to beat the story with a lot of side content left to complete - but every quest is interesting. Some quests even reach part Z (starting with A) and individual side quests can take hours to complete. The game’s side content is some of the best and most interesting in an RPG since The Witcher 3, improving on the first game’s offering massively. You’ll be infiltrating strange guilds, rescuing your dog, and of course, beating everyone you can at Dice at every tavern you stumble across.

Farkle, or Dice as it’s more simply called now, is a game of luck that’s so hard to stop playing. With the new addition of badges that change the rules slightly, giving you bonuses like initial score headstarts or reroll opportunities, it’s a fun and far more complex game than you will initially think when you’re playing for a sausage for Mutt.

It’s so easy to get lost for hours on end running errands for NPCs, searching for skills books to study, or smithing an endless supply of horseshoes. There are secrets, memorable characters, and beautiful settings dotted throughout the game’s two regions. Many of them you’ll simply stumble across.

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The world is gorgeous and it’s easy to get lost in. The excellent sound design adds to immersion.

It helps that both Trosky and Kuttenberg look phenomenal too. From the moment you get access to the open-world after a few hours, the rolling hills of Bohemia are stunning. The level of detail and the quality of the lighting are beyond that of any real world video game setting I’ve experienced. I’ve lost count of the number of times I paused the game to take a picture of Pebbles and Henry in front of a lush, green field and a beautiful sunset. Warhorse Studios have recreated real locations wonderfully and many places you visit in the game can be visited in real life.

There’s also a more cinematic quality to the key cutscenes that the first game didn’t have. Paired with a score that’s both powerful and emotional when it needs to be, and you get some intense and exciting moments.

Technical Woes? Begone!

I alluded to it before, but Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is a technical marvel. Being so expansive and coming after a sequel that was plagued by bugs at launch, it’s unbelievable that it works so well. This shouldn’t be surprising given the amount of continual improvements that were made to the first game but Warhorse have gone above and beyond here.

Of course, it’s not flawless - what 100 hour RPGs are? I frequently experienced three flickering boxes at the bottom of my screen when pausing, the world map chugs with frame dips once you reach Kuttenberg due to its complexity, conversations taking place when it’s raining lead to broken lighting, and one time a goat ran through a forest at super speed as if it was Roadrunner. Otherwise, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II runs phenomenally well and no issues are more than a passing inconvenience.

Caught in a Bad (Good) Bromance

Away from side content and the quality of its world, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II’s main story is emotional, funny, and epic, too. In large part, that is due to the excellent dialogue and fleshed out characters, both new and returning. The quality performance capture from the actors and team is evident.

The writing avoids the common period-piece pitfall of being robotic and unnatural. Whether it’s Henry and Hans, your central heroes, or a group of inexplicably Geordie miners in Kuttenberg, everyone talks in a way that feels realistic and is relatable in today’s modern world. Characters take the piss out of each other, joke about childish things, and are emotional when the situation calls for it. I genuinely enjoyed listening to Henry speak to people, whether that be people who last the duration of the story or merchants I met for a matter of seconds.

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Cutscenes are more cinematic with a variety of camera angles.

While Henry himself is an excellent hero to jump into the shoes of, he’s far from the MVP of Kingdom Come: Deliverance II’s story. Hans Capon once again stands out as the cheeky but lovable rogue who acts a little above his station but truly cares about his friends. Then there’s Jan Zizka, who’s the confident leader of Henry’s new crew. He’s powerful and demands attention - the voice performance of his character being the best of the lot.

Even away from the main cast - a mad and suspicious frenchman, the passionate leader of Kutttenberg’s Jewish contingent, and others all get their moment to shine.

The story does get a little muddled in the middle section as too many political figures with indecipherable motives are introduced, but it gets back in the saddle for a satisfying conclusion, no matter the choices you make along the way. The fact that you care about Henry, Hans, and everyone else long before the credits roll is a testament to the quality of Warhorse Studios’ writing and world building.

As a complete package, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is mind blowing. The first game was an interesting foundation, but the long-awaited sequel stands easily alongside the best RPGs of the last decade. It tells an exciting yet emotional story, and the world is a joy to explore, but it’s the level of immersion that’s created by all of its interconnected systems that’s unlike anything I’ve experienced before. If you allow yourself to truly become lost in this world, you won’t be disappointed. Jump into Henry’s shoes and take on a new life. A lot of fun awaits.

This review is based on a pre-release build of the game with a code provided by the publisher.