Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 review: For king and country

Warhorse Studios' ability to blend together historical Bohemia with rich and complex RPG systems makes for another masterful creation.

Warhorse Studios
5

I lost myself in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. I was enthralled. The historically accurate portrayal of 14th century Bohemia, the rich RPG elements, even the tough combat makes me want to soak up every inch of the experience. However, it’s not without its faults. It suffers from some silly animations and graphical popping and it still has that damnable save system that makes my blood boil. Despite the problems, I found myself going on some unhinged adventures. One moment everything was fine, the next, I killed a man after he tried to roofie me, got food poisoning, and almost died buying a recipe book. The whole game is totally and utterly mesmerizing.

The tapestry of life

Horses grazing beside a pond

Source: Warhose Studios

The story of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 follows on from the overarching narrative of Warhorse Studios’ critically acclaimed first game, with Henry aiding in the fraternal vie for power between King Sigismund and King Wenceslas.

While on the way to deliver a letter to a lord of a nearby castle, problems befall Henry’s group. Sir Capon and Henry end up running for their lives, darting through a ravine before being taken in by a herbalist on the outskirts of town.

From here, with nothing but peasant rags on their backs, the two try to gain access to the castle, only to be laughed at, have a bucket from the latrine dumped on them, and eventually locked up in the pillory.

Henry and Sir Capon in the pillory

Source: Warhorse Studios

What follows is a heartfelt journey across late medieval Bohemia as Henry tries to complete his mission, stitch together friendships, and exact some vengeance for his slain parents. Between the major story beats, side quests and tasks create a rich and vibrant world full of character and charm. I’d start off hating a character only to understand their plight, loving someone and then siding against them, and even just laughing at the conversations I’d hear at the local taverns.

All of this flows together to create something beautiful. But more than just looking at it, this tapestry rests upon a solid foundation of RPG systems and gameplay that make even the smallest adventure worthwhile.

A knight’s tale

A group of bandits staring at you threateningly

Source: Warhorse Studios

The best RPGs out there flaunt the interplaying of their mechanics at every turn, and it’s no different with Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. The game excels at letting you run loose in its world to engage with its various systems. At every point, there will be a few mechanics at play that will be drawing your attention.

For starters, Henry is very human, he’s susceptible to injury and illness, he can grow hungry and tired, and people care deeply about how he looks. After being released from the pillory, someone yelled at me to put my clothes back on – fair enough. But that wasn’t the end of it, as I needed to wash the filth off of Henry before anyone would talk to me and even when they did, they were rude to dear Henry because of his peasant clothing.

From here, I was asking for help, accepting quests, and trying my best to reclaim Henry’s lost dignity and improve his reputation within the town. Within the first few hours, I had heard about a wedding, a cart fallen into a pond, and enquired about my missing dog. After following just one of these leads, I had encountered lumberjacks engaging in a fistfight, rumors of a wolf pack, some Celtic ruins, and an old woman who needed help finding her daughter. All while this was happening, I was picking plants for my alchemy sessions and soaking up the stunning landscape.

A tavern brawl between patrons

Source: Warhorse Studios

On one particularly eventful outing, I met a man on the side of the road celebrating his newborn kid. He offered some of his brandy but I declined. He started to get really pushy, which made me recoil further at his offer. He threw up his fists and we had a good ol’ punch-up.

After I knocked him out, I looked in his pockets and discovered that this “brandy” was some sort of potion that would have rendered Henry vulnerable to being looted. I carried his unconscious body into the nearby forest and bludgeoned him to death with my warpick and then munched on some food I had in my pocket.

Little did I realize, the food was in poor condition, so Henry got food poisoning. It got to work immediately, slowly chipping away at Henry’s health which was already low due to the kerfuffle. I was a decent trek from the nearby town, so I inhaled a bunch of food to try and offset the depletion, only to over-eat and remove my ability to sprint. What followed was the most nail-biting, slow walk through a beautiful countryside I’d ever undertaken. I was probably clenching as tight as Henry was as he trudged up the stairs to the apothecary where I purchased a tonic mere moments away from death.

Map showing fast travel disabled while poisoned

Source: Shacknews

With the food poisoning cured, Henry was dangerously low on health, so I bought a recipe for a health potion (and one for food poisoning) and headed to the nearby apothecary station. Like the original game, you can craft all sorts of potions, providing you know the recipe. It’s a complex system of adding herbs to a cauldron full of one of four base liquids, boiling it for a specific duration, grinding up more herbs, and mixing them together. Each one requires careful attention to detail, with the quality and quantity of potions dependent upon your ability to perfect the process.

This devilish detail also applies to blacksmithing, be it repairing your gear or crafting new weapons. You’ll be heating up metals, bashing them into shape, tempering the creation, and sharpening blades on grindstones. All of this requires timing of mouse clicks to swing the hammer, moving the mouse to control the section of the blade coming into contact with the wheel, and flipping it around to ensure consistency.

All of these elements are just so well-thought out that I couldn’t help but be drawn into them. As enthralling as the main story was, I found myself constantly distracted by another thing to do, even if it was as simple as wandering over a lush field or exploring a dense forests. Even interacting with side quest NPCs was a treat, as every interaction is packed with personality to the point I’d actually have a good chuckle at the writing.

Fight to save a life

First-person perspective of a brutal sword fight

Source: Warhorse Studios

As engrossing as wandering, crafting, blacksmithing, and eavesdropping on NPCs is, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 offers up the same brutal combat system as the first game. It’s a deeply challenging and highly rewarding dance of swords that is as exciting as it can be frustrating.

Excluding archery, combat is handled using a lock-on with spokes around the reticle to indicate your weapon’s swing direction, which is changed by moving the mouse. While fights can be overwhelming at first, it becomes thrilling to accurately read the movement of your foe’s weapon, time your block correctly, and counter with a riposte. The system excels against human combatants, even if it does rely too heavily on perfect blocking, but it becomes annoying when dealing with packs of wolves.

Because the game uses this lock-on system, if your foe (like a wolf) decides to flee, you can perceive yourself as being close enough to land a hit, but the swing will completely miss. In addition to this, you can be locked onto one wolf, only to be attacked from the side by one you saw coming, but weren’t able to switch to quickly enough.

Loading screen in the style of a painting with a tooltip about how to save

Source: Shacknews

If you do die in combat, you better pray to the Patron Saint of Saves that you either remembered to save using a Saviour Schnapps or that the game handed out one of its autosaves. There’s no quick save functionality here (similar to the first game), which is meant to hammer home the importance of decision-making but ultimately leads to an aversion of emergent activities.

At its worst, the save system can feel downright antagonistic. In one instance, I manually saved at a hut in the middle of the woods before heading back to town. While in town, I spoke to half a dozen townsfolk, progressed a side quest, sold a horse-load of gear, purchased recipes, and crafted some potions. I was then ganked by a pack of wolves while wearing my Talking To People Clothes and died as I couldn’t change outfits to my Fighting People Clothes while in combat. I respawned at the hut and clicked Save and Quit.

I understand the design decision behind the save system, I really do. But I don’t think it works for this genre. A game can have an unforgiving save system and still be enjoyable, look at the save ribbon from Resident Evil or even the toilets from Dead Rising. But Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is an open-world game with emergent gameplay, so many complex and engrossing systems, and a world begging to be explored. Being hyper strict on saves crushes the desire to take risks within this incredible world, at least in the first dozen hours where resources are so rare and the need to explore is so great. But pushing through that initial resistance yields wonderful results.

Chivalry is alive

Henry and Sir Capon at a tavern table, drinking and having a good time

Source: Warhorse Studios

There’s so much more about Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 that I could praise in great depth, but this review is already long in the tooth. The developer has managed to ensure that not only do the gameplay and systems feel period-specific, but so do the UI, map, and even the loading screens. Then there’s the codex that updates with historical lessons and factoids about things you discover (like vocations, landscape, etc).

The game is not quite perfect, which is almost a hallmark of the open-world genre. It has some jank, like popping graphics, odd animations and camera angles, and stilted dialogue. But it’s also got some design decisions that need smoothing out, like lengthy flower-picking animations.

When it comes down to it, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is a brilliant and astounding experience by a developer that has shown itself to be a leader in the open-world genre. Henry makes for such a pleasant protagonist that you can’t help but love him, and the journey you go on across medieval Bohemia is equal parts complex and deeply absorbing. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 shines bright among its peers, even with its dints and dents.


This review is based on a Steam code provided by the publisher. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is available on PC, Xbox Series X/S, and PlayStation 5 on February 4, 2025.

Head of Guides

Hailing from the land down under, Sam Chandler brings a bit of the southern hemisphere flair to his work. After bouncing round a few universities, securing a bachelor degree, and entering the video game industry, he's found his new family here at Shacknews as Head of Guides. There's nothing he loves more than crafting a guide that will help someone. If you need help with a guide, or notice something not quite right, you can message him on X: @SamuelChandler 

Pros
  • Rich RPG systems
  • Combat is varied, brutal, and rewarding
  • Quests and exploration is enticing
  • Breathtaking landscapes
  • Great writing, heartfelt & humorous
Cons
  • Combat is overly reliant on parry & riposte
  • Save system is still a pain in the neck
  • Picking ingredients is too slow
  • Rough edges often found in open-world games
From The Chatty
  • reply
    February 3, 2025 8:00 AM

    Sam Chandler posted a new article, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 review: For king and country

    • reply
      February 3, 2025 4:38 PM

      To reiterate: KCD2 is phenomenal. Any time away from the game has me wanting to play more.

      • reply
        February 3, 2025 4:43 PM

        I got the first one for free somewhere, never played it

        • reply
          February 3, 2025 5:04 PM

          It's a tough nut to crack. While it's worth playing for the story, you can definitely get away with diving into KCD2 if you'd prefer.

          • reply
            February 3, 2025 6:28 PM

            I defintely want to play it but I have been on this retro kick for the last two years and don't have the motivation to play newer games. I will eventually

    • reply
      February 3, 2025 6:43 PM

      loved the first game.

    • reply
      February 4, 2025 6:33 AM

      I wish a had a rig that could play this. Loved the first one.

      My last one died in Helene and now I'm running a cheapo Sams Club rig that chunks and spits playing Civ 6.

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