HANDS-ON: Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 feels bigger, bolder, and slightly less janky

Kingdom Come: Deliverance remains a unique proposition in modern AAA game development.

While medieval RPGs aren’t new, the sensibility behind the development of the game set it apart from modern Western RPGs. Now, after three hours with the sequel, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, while the game is slightly more in line with modern standards, the unique quirks and love-it-or-hate-it combat system are back.

This makes for a sequel that will likely thrill fans who have waited half a decade for the follow-up, and more than likely draw in new fans put off my the original game’s… eccentricities.

The game is a direct sequel to Kingdom Come: Deliverance. In fact, it begins literally as the first game concluded. Set during the Bohemian Civil War, Henry and Hans are tasked with delivering a message.

We played the game from the start, which saw Henry, Hans, and their crew stopping on a riverside in order to assess their mission. You get a great sense here of what makes Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 tick. There are characters to banter with, small sidequests like finding your trusty dog (a companion from the start in the sequel) something to eat, and re-learning how to duel.

Like the first game, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 uses a five-way duelling system in order to determine where your hits land and where your opponent is going to attack from next. Once you see a green shield appear in front of your opponent, that’s your window for an easy counter.

The combat is pretty simple, and countering foes was very easy in both the sections we played. However, the challenge comes from enemy management. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2’s combat is easy when it’s 1vs1, but if you get into a situation where you’re outnumbered, you won’t last long.

We’re assured that no knowledge of Kingdom Come: Deliverance is needed to play Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, and that certainly seems to hold true in these opening areas. We won’t spoil the details, but there’s a sequence near the beginning of the game that does a great job of explaining the stakes of the world, your connection to the character, and why your quest is important. It veers off into somewhat of a cliche, but as an effective way of playing the highlights of a 40-hour game for players who just want to jump into this adventure, it works well.

“We’re assured that no knowledge of Kingdom Come: Deliverance is needed to play Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, and that certainly seems to hold true in these opening areas.”

Soon after, we’re shot forward in the story to a mission in one of the game’s large cities. We approach a man on the street, and we’re quickly dragged into a plot to establish a new sword-fighting guild in the city. We’re told we need to retrieve a ceremonial sword and hang it in the town’s square, thus triggering a tradition that will see us battle for our right to form a sword-fighting guild.

It’s here where the deeper RPG elements are on display. Developer Warhorse claims that every NPC has a day and night cycle, and that if a quest giver isn’t where you think they should be, by using the logic associated with that time of day, you’ll be able to find them. For example, we’re supposed to challenge a character to a duel to prove my worth to my mentor, but he’s nowhere to be found. We wander aimlessly until we decide to head into the homestead in order to progress the in-game time. There the opponent is found, sitting in his pants, sleeping.

It reminds us of a Bethesda RPG in this way, and in a few others. Later, we’re asked to sneak into a building to steal the aforementioned ceremonial sword. There are a few ways to do this. We can wait till nighttime and break in, avoiding detection due to everyone sleeping, or we can walk in during the day and try our best to avoid anyone on our way up the ornate staircases of the medieval building.

We attempted the latter, and were quickly, clumsily noticed. However, they didn’t see us doing anything massively illegal, so they didn’t go into a high-alert mode. We quickly make ourselves scarce. When we later retrieve the sword, we imagine that the quest will continue as if I had done it properly. However, to our surprise, it doesn’t. When we head down to face our opposing group, they reference the fact that they’re sure (but can’t prove) that we stole it, and thus, they’re going to make the subsequent battle tougher.

That kind of forethought and cause-and-effect in RPGs is so often ignored, so it was nice to see Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 deliver an open admission that the method of completing tasks is just as important as finishing them. The objective that concluded this questline wasn’t quite as thrilling. We’re tasked with beating our enemies in a series of duels.

However, this also includes watching the AI duel. There was very little to be gleaned from this, and due to how long it was taking for our AI partner to win, it felt like we were watching the game being played for us.

“While the original had legions of fans, and the second one will likely please them, some of the rougher edges have been sanded, and the best systems of the first game have been improved.”

The momentum from the earlier stages of the quest was lost as we watched two AI characters awkwardly bobble off each other in its a-knockout style fun. It was a mood killer. Now, the upside is that things like this can be so easily rectified by making that skippable and getting us back into the action. Still, it was moments like that, the archaic inventory menu, and some of the movement that made us remember exactly the type of central European gaming experience Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 has its roots in.

The jump between Kingdom Come: Deliverance and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 feels like the jump between The Witcher and The Witcher 2. While the original had legions of fans, and the second one will likely please them, some of the rougher edges have been sanded, and the best systems of the first game have been improved.

It feels like this could be a breakout hit for Warhorse, a studio that has gone from 90 people working on the original to over 250 on the sequel. While it may not elevate itself into the top echelon of the genre with this release, all of the momentum is with Warhorse, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 feels like the coming-out party it has been waiting for.