Kingdom Come: Deliverance II Review (PS5) – Bohemian Rhapsody
At last, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II has arrived. When Kingdom Come: Deliverance the first released in 2018, it paved the road for a wave of discourse around video game “handholding”, immersion and authenticity. Lauded for its attention to detail and its immaculate recreation of 15th century Bohemia, it excelled in its sense of presence. That didn’t stop its detractors from lambasting the slow pace and methodical gameplay systems, however. It was an impressive first sketch of a medieval epic waiting to be realised, but it made no bones about not being a game for everyone.
I personally managed a few hours of it, but despite my love of knights, castles and old-school diplomacy (read: backstabbing and executions), I never found my footing. I always felt somewhat helpless against the wave of its ambition. I wanted to be thoroughly absorbed, but sadly the quicksand effect never materialised. I suspect that many felt the same way I did about the first, even with the fervent support of its most loyal subjects. So, with the second chapter of Henry of Skalitz’s adventure beginning with Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, the question becomes whether it can win over fans old and new.
Having spent 77 hours battling, sweet talking, exploring, questing and appreciating this thoroughly massive 15th century slice of life action-RPG, has the sequel to such a polarising game managed to win me over? Sharpen your swords and sharpen your wits even more, saddle up and join me on a voyage of historical discovery to find out.
Off You Trotsky
Right from the jump, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II opens with a bang. Or rather, a sundering of arrows. Henry of Skalitz must journey with his recently acquainted noble friend Sir Hans Capon on an important mission. The kingdom of Prague is at war, owing to the persecution of the land by the recent usurping King Sigismund. What begins as a simple envoy mission for the two charismatic scoundrels soon goes south faster than a monarch besieged by rebellion.
Henry’s second campaign is filled with a plethora of twists, changing allegiances, epic battles, plenty of romance and a wealth of intriguing political manoeuvring. The band of characters you’ll meet are layered, morally grey and oftentimes bicker, banter and bruise with each other. Sir Hans and Godwin are especially compelling, owing to their… complicated personalities, yet their jesting and jibing, as well as loyalty, are endearing. There are plenty of villains and morally dubious figures too, all of them superbly written.
The overarching story is fantastic in its own right, but the weaving of Henry’s personal development and moral tribulations works just as effectively. Still seeking revenge on those who destroyed his family in the first game, he’ll grapple with the corrupting nature of vengeance. Your choices will shape Henry’s perspective as the story goes on, lending to the impressive scale of the RPG Warhorse Studios have crafted. There was never a dull moment, and perhaps more importantly, levity and light-hearted moments are littered throughout both the main and side quests, to prevent things ever becoming too dire.
Whether it’s Godwin cracking a joke at his alcoholic devotion to his faith, a Polish bandit remarking for his executioner to face his “sausage” or a Scottish-voiced brute mocking a noble, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II has the humour to match its serious depiction of political turmoil. The voice work is generally excellent, the motion capture superb, and the cutscenes are stunningly choreographed and beautifully cinematic. If a rich and deep story is something you yearn for in your video games, you’ll find a gold mine’s worth of it fit for a king here.
Slice of Strife
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is more than just a cunningly spun yarn with cutscenes and dialogue, however. Where the first game laid the groundwork for the impact of choices and an incredibly immersive land to venture into, the sequel expands upon this with righteous aplomb. From the very first interaction you’ll have with another character, you’ll quickly discover how intricately the element of choice is woven into Warhorse Studios’ fabric.
NPCs and characters will react realistically to Henry’s words and deeds. Tell them you’re a scribe when you’re slinging around steel and covered in shimmering armour, they’ll doubt you. Speech checks, for example, are not only about the number of that stat, but the clothes you’re wearing and your actions prior to interacting with them. You can talk your way into and out of quests or ideal outcomes with equal ease.
I loved the immersive sim quality of the game. More than once, I’d already solved a side quest before meeting the quest giver, so Henry smugly shrugged, explained the exploit, boom, quest completed. Almost every task can be handled through speech, combat, stealth and thievery or through clever observation. Asked to rescue a prisoner, I waited nearby until nightfall, equipped my darkest attire, heeded my dog stay put, snuck in, knocked out a guard and we left the camp with a garrison none-the-wiser.
I could alternatively have just paid for him, but who’s got 1500 Groshen to spare (me, coincidentally, but still)? Or, I could have whipped out my sword and taken down the lot of them. Much like the original, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II shines when you’re given a job and you can go about solving it however you wish. Thankfully, that’s the majority of the game. For fans of titles like Dishonoured or Prey, where options and choice are aplenty, this will be a similarly fulfilling playground to let loose within.
Agent Blacksmith
Henry is a man of action too, and as a result, he’s not just here for fun games, he’ll have to graft as well. Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is a bursting storehouse of activities for our makeshift wannabe knight to try his hand at. Acquiring schematics allows you to craft and sharpen an assortment of weapons. Gathering herbs and visiting an alchemist bench provides the opportunity for potions galore. Each comes with its own mini-game, complete with multiple steps to success (or failure). It was all too common for me to jump into brewing a helpful healing potion, only to spend an entire in-game afternoon cooking up a collection a witch would have blushed at.
Making mistakes will also cost you as well – poorer quality crafted weapons or less effective potions, for example. All of which lends a rewarding cycle to each and every activity you can partake in. Archery competitions, hunting down poachers, looting and trading items, visiting bathhouses (strictly for cleaning services… of course), playing the odd round of the addicting dice game, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II has it all. So much so in fact, I’d often boot it up with the intention of progressing the story, only to come out the other side of a four hour play session having finished one side quest, started four more and spent half my time selling looted armour to blacksmiths or smacking together another sword I didn’t need.
All of which is to emphasise, this is a wonderful world to simply get lost in. It even helped me overcome my usual self-inflicted problem of playing games “efficiently”. Whenever I found myself wanting to just plough on to the end, I’d take a break. Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is a game to be savoured. Slow the pace right down, make the most of organic opportunities that arise, and you’ll simply find little else that can deliver the same level of gratification. Oh, and loosen your moral code a little, thievery and thuggery can carry you a surprisingly long way, too.
In one scenario, I stopped by an abandoned cart on my way to a quest giver. As I checked out the violent remains of the scene, a mercenary came past, got off his horse, then ran for the nearest town to find the authorities. Now, at this stage, I didn’t have a horse. There one was, standing right there just waiting to be reigned in. Nick said horse I did, whereupon I galloped over to a dodgy horse trader and earned myself a tidy coin. None of this was planned or suggested to me, moments like this just happen all throughout the game, thanks to the fantastic living NPC AI and underlying programming.
Sword Off, Will You?
Now, let’s unsheathe our weapons and have a duel with one of the original game’s most polarising elements – the combat. Once again, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II pulls no punches, or swings, or slices, or lunges, when it comes to its more realistic approach to medieval armed fighting. Henry, even with his experience from the first outing, is still a relative novice at basically everything that isn’t being a wisecracking jackass (and even then he’s eclipsed by Sir Hans). Consequently, he’s still very much a vulnerable, yet stoic, avatar you take on.
Turn up on a band of seasoned soldiers with nothing but a busted shield and rusted sword and you’ll find yourself on the end of a pike sooner than a Game of Thrones main character. Instead, combat is all about clever decision making – knowing when to pick your battles, when to use more subversive methods, and when to run altogether. As the game progressed and I’d learnt various techniques or become more accomplished, I could hold off a group of armed troops relatively well. The lock-on system can be overly sticky when trying to disengage, or have the response time of a sloth when sometimes trying to engage, but it’s mostly manageable.
The aspect I enjoyed most was the deliberate nature of it. Using the 5-point crosshair mechanic allows you to target vulnerable areas, or prepare to swing a particular combo you’ve learnt. I can’t even adequately emphasise just how damn satisfying pulling off a master strike is – watching your opponent size you up only to counter with a gratifying stab. Your victories in Kingdom Come: Deliverance II will arrive courtesy of you taking the time to prepare Henry appropriately, seeking out teachers and picking your fights sensibly.
There are also some new additions, like the crossbow, which further develop the medieval sandbox of tools you have available. Everything is meticulously recreated, and no matter which item of war you’re embarking on a mission with, you’ll be able to dole out some serious hurt. Personally, the longsword was all I really wanted. I tried my hand at Polearms but they lacked a good punch, and I missed the reach of a blade when battering down an enemy with a mace. The crossbows were also too satisfying to shoot to ever bother with a bow. Once again, combat is challenging, brutal and realistic to a fault, but spend the time sitting alongside it, and you’ll find it makes excellent company.
Henry of Skillitz
As with all good sequels, our hero finds himself in a rather dire situation at the start of this game. Conveniently, this acts as a great excuse to nerf some of the progression from its predecessor. Though in fairness, Henry begins here slightly higher than a lowly heathen runt, which is nice. For RPG purists, Warhorse Studios has once again upped the ante when it comes to skill development and improving your abilities. Instead of binary numbers or XP, Henry improves through action. Want more dialogue options when dealing with nobles? Read some books. Want to be a better shot when pinging arrows around? Get that bow out and start shooting.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II feels overwhelmingly satisfying throughout the game, by nature of the fact that how competent you are has been achieved through your actions. Levelling up a trait provides skill points that are invested into perks, sure, but it feels more natural that Henry would start specialising in fields he’s done a ridiculous level of practice for. Those perks are also significant changes or upgrades to how Henry handles, wields weapons or effectively creates various items. They’re tangible and noticeably powerful, which makes assigning them a joy.
If there’s one critique I have, it’s that doing almost all of the side content meant that going into the final quarter of the main story, I was basically a king amongst peasants. No skill check was beyond my reach, no enemy gang too fearsome. This’ll be entirely different for people who don’t play the game as I have, but it did start to feel less important towards the end of my playtime, simply because I had far too many effective tools already. I’m not going to begrudge this too much, however, as after 77 hours carving through bandits, outwitting generals and chatting up everything that moved, I’d hope my Henry would be rather proficient.
I want to also highlight just how much of a task it must have been to balance such a massive game around this power scaling. It’s no small feat, and I’m impressed that the final salvo of quests can even have any challenge if completionists like myself have ravaged every ounce of content there is. Bear in mind too, that lapsing in concentration or getting overly cocky can more quickly fell you than being under-levelled. Even when you feel powerful, you still have the fleshy vulnerabilities of any other human prancing around in their armour, so the wariness never truly goes away, which is good. Furthermore, my concerns I had as to whether the difficulty curve would prove frustrating turned out to be false, which I’m grateful to have been wrong about.
Deliver Us From Evil, Or Into It
Before I move on to the performance and visuals, I want to touch on the masterclass of quest design that’s apparent throughout Kingdom Come: Deliverance II. Warhorse Studios have finely crafted all manner of spectacular missions. From frontal assaults on fortresses, to daring sneak attack raids, there’s an abundance of unbelievably high quality missions to embark on.
Not only that, but side quests provide the writers with plenty of scope for creative and oftentimes hilarious or poignant emotional beats. In one, I felt a raft of tension and unease as I had to skulk through a cave network, having been pleaded with by a local village to deal with a Hell pit. Shifting from psychological horror to comedic, another saw me clearing a chapel full of bones, neatly depositing them into meticulous piles to become veritable artworks, only for the quest giver (who spoke only in rhyme) to just vanish once the deed was done.
The quality of the writing is so good that almost every quest feels valuable and worth embarking on, even if it’s relatively minor. At particular plot points, your deeds in the surrounding areas and with various characters will be referenced, linking much of the side content directly into the main story. It’s also here that the level of choice shines, as again, completing side quests is usually a case of “here’s your job, figure it out”, leaving you free to experiment.
One of my favourite memories of the game was getting positively plastered by a devilish Cuman commander in a series of three duels. Every time I fought him with a Polearm the spawn of Satan would grind down my weapon until it was nothing but a stub. After repeated failures, I started to think creatively. After some consideration, I wondered whether I could just… win with a little help. It’s not cheating if it’s poison, after all. I slapped some Bane poison on the end of my polearm and watched in absolute smug satisfaction as the whelp became sicker. One strike was all it took, the duel was mine. By hook or by crook, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II delivers the thrills, you just have to be willing to expand your thinking.
A Kingdom To Behold, Mostly
If Kingdom Come: Deliverance II achieves nothing else (which from what we’ve said so far, is not the case), it will at the very least be one of the most impressive recreations of a historical period I’ve ever seen in a video game. Travelling through both of the game’s massive regions, you’ll find beggars lining the streets, your horse will splash through muddy roads, sparks will fly from your smithing hammer as you forge. NPCs will argue, laugh, fight, flirt and patrol as though living out real lives. The attention to detail is honed to a literal tee, with castles standing proudly on the horizon or smoke billowing in the distance from a mining town.
I adore the almost life like quality Warhorse Studios have achieved. I stopped on many a hilltop to admire a view, marvelled at the spectacle of a brutal battle, and lauded Henry as he struck an assailant in the neck with a perfectly timed strike of his blade. The motion capture for cutscenes is on par with a movie in places, even if the in-game dialogue still has a bit of the old Mass Effect stiltedness to it. Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is a beautiful game, one I loved exploring, uncovering and witnessing.
Unfortunately, all of this comes at an expected cost, like a deal with a dubious trader, the debt must always be repaid somehow. NPCs can often run afoul of the flexible AI systems, getting stuck in walls or absent-mindedly walking into trees. I had a plethora of minor visual bugs, from overly contrasting light blinding my vision while indoors, to flickering textures and glitching objects. For the most part, they’re insignificant and I frequently ignored them, simply because with a game this size, there will always be some understandable hitches in its saddle. It did, however, crash on me about four times, but the save system is thankfully pretty forgiving.
More problematic were the couple of bugged quests. Both I could solve thanks to repeated save reloads, but one especially was a pain. Interacting with a character was supposed to trigger a duel sequence to start, only the thieving scoundrel would take the money and then proceed to sit there looking at me like I’d spat in his soup. This wasn’t some quirky AI behaviour either, it was just glitched. Warhorse Studios have been rolling out patches to address known issues already, which is good to see, but do be warned that once again, it’s unlikely you’ll get through Henry’s journey unscathed by technical hiccups.
A War Only Just Begun…
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II isn’t perfect as a video game, but it’s damn close when it comes to being so as a medieval recreation, a proper RPG and an epic tale. As I’ve alluded to a couple of times already, I’ve spent a helluva lot of hours in this beast of a title, and I’m still ravenous for more. I’ve completed over 100 quests, battled through some incredible odds and even belly laughed a handful of times. Despite this, I just want to hop on my trusty horse (Kluger Hans never lets me down), pick a direction and set out to see whatever new wild adventure awaits me.
Where the first entry struggled to reel me in, the sequel has me caught hook, line and sinker. The world is bigger and richer, the cutscenes and presentation more polished and stunning, the combat more punchy and gratifying, the onboarding smoother yet still brutal in its expectations. If its predecessor was a solid yet unsightly blade, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is a sharp edge, gleaming with heart and craftsmanship. There are certainly dents in the armour here and there, but this time around, the plates hold firm and the pommels are prepared.
Do I recommend it? No doubt in my mind. This is a phenomenally crafted video game that will absorb a week’s worth of your life without issue. Give in to its demands, play it by its own rules and you’ll find next to nothing that can compare to its ability to immerse you. Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is a triumph for Bohemia, and it has the legs be played and replayed, probably right up until the third instalment arrives. Until then, I’ll be honing my swings and sharpening my wits, for I’m just getting started with Henry of Skalitz, and so should you.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II will be available on February 4th on PlayStation 5 (review platform), PC and Xbox Series X|S.
Developer: Warhorse Studios
Publisher: Deep Silver
Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.
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