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Kingdom Come: Deliverance II

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II

Warhorse accomplishes its vision and brings us our first GOTY contender with this RPG sequel.

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The first Kingdom Come: Deliverance is a lot of things, but underlying it all there's a strong sense this is a Kickstarter project come to life. From its visuals to some of its clashing ideas and the hefty amount of bugs there were at launch, Kingdom Come: Deliverance felt somewhat dated, despite the pure gold shining underneath the dirt, and understandably got some positive and negative reactions from press and players upon its release.

No one doubted, however, that developer Warhorse Studios had the potential to reach greater heights. Heights that they have even surpassed in Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, a sweeping RPG of epic ambition. Henry of Skalitz is back in the saddle once more, picking up his adventure a short time after it finished in the original game, though you'd be forgiven for thinking it has been much, much longer, not only because of the time between the original and sequel's release, but due to the improved face models and all-around visuals, too.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance IIKingdom Come: Deliverance II

Henry is a character that felt a bit plain in the original game, whereas from the beginning of Kingdom Come: Deliverance II's story, he feels much more established, and the baggage he carries with him from the first game helps define him further throughout the narrative this time around. He has been set on a path of vengeance, and as he grows closer to getting his revenge, Henry will have to question if it's worth it, and if he needs to leave his old life and village behind him to enjoy what he has now. The story is simple enough, and yet it remains enthralling thanks to hours of cinematics, brilliant performances in the main cast and a beautiful soundtrack.

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The highlight of the story is the chemistry that Hans Capon and Henry have. Luke Dale and Tom McKay take Capon and Henry from friends to feeling more like brothers, and their relationship is a great foundation for the story. Props to Dale especially for his performance, as unlike McKay, he's not with us constantly throughout our playthrough, and yet when he is around, he feels an essential part of the adventure.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance IIKingdom Come: Deliverance II

When we're not following Henry's quest for revenge as he's embroiled in a civil war sweeping Bohemia, we're free to explore two large, open-world regions. First, there's the Bohemian Paradise, which largely consists of rolling hills, thick forests, and the odd village dotted around with an incredible castle looming over it all. Players of the first game will be familiar with this map size and scope, and then after about 20-30 hours you'll be thrown into Kuttenberg, which truly boggles the mind as you not only get plenty more wilderness to explore, but a fully functioning city, too. It's a testament to Warhorse's ambition that the map doesn't simply just include the city, but a full region accompanying it as well. In both maps, you'll find plenty of side activities to really lose yourself in the immersive nature of the game, from blacksmithing to potion crafting. These are somewhat time consuming, as each activity is tied to a minigame, but they're also rather addicting, and for people who like to make their own weapons, potions, and more, they're quite fun to get involved in. I was happy to just make a few things and buy or loot whatever else I needed, but the game is brilliantly built around the idea of whatever you want to do, however deep you want to go, it accommodates that.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance IIKingdom Come: Deliverance IIKingdom Come: Deliverance II
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Another place you'll find a substantial amount of depth is in Kingdom Come: Deliverance II's side quests. Built on the stand-out RPGs of yore, especially The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II pays extra special attention to its side quests, many of which turn out to be sweeping mini-campaigns on a par with main quest missions. This is where the openness of the world really shows itself, as not only do you get a lot of direct choices within a side quest, but depending on the actions you take outside of dialogue, characters can adapt and a quest can change around you. The level of depth here reminds me heavily of my first encounter with The Witcher 3, being stunned at how the quests went beyond just fetching x item for a monetary reward. These quests are not just padding, which is essential in a map so large, that could easily have suffered from bloat. It perhaps would have been an idea to have some more diverse quest options earlier in the main story, as there are many moments where our heroes are captured, to the point where you start wondering why no one has decided to just kill us, as we're bound to escape again.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance IIKingdom Come: Deliverance II

Building the Henry you'll become is its own reward in Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, and the build variety here is much greater than in the first game. Starting off, you can select some skills you'd like additional points in, but in a similar vein to Skyrim, you'll define your character by how you play. It doesn't matter if you picked to be strong and use heavy weapons in the opening if you sneak around sniping foes with a bow, for example. There is a sense that Warhorse certainly has a canon Henry in mind, and you will need some sort of melee expertise to get by, but largely Henry is yours to create, outside of appearances, of course. In my run, I had Henry focus mainly on Speech, largely because Charisma is OP in most RPGs, but ended up becoming an agile duellist as well, making the most of shortswords and discarding my shield for extra buffs thanks to a couple of handy perks. You won't need twenty Wiki pages to see what works with the builds in Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, which again is impressive considering the detail here.

Combat as a whole has been largely improved, making each weapon you wield feel unique, with its own combos and attack patterns. A sword gives you the most options, but a hefty club can bash in an opponent's armour and shield more easily. Everything has a give and take type of system, and combat feels much more satisfying in general this time around, especially when you have a build going. The only nit-pick I have is that combat against more than one person is incredibly difficult, not only because it is meant to be, but because the camera rarely figures out who you actually want to fight. I understand Henry - or anyone - can be taken down by a few brigands with shivs in this world, but it won't make me feel like a god to let me at least look in the direction of one foe after another.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance IIKingdom Come: Deliverance IIKingdom Come: Deliverance II

This is the major problem I have with Kingdom Come: Deliverance II. One that snatches away that perfect score from an otherwise incredibly deep, authentic, and satisfying RPG. At times, the game simply insists upon itself too much. The Saviour Schnapps mechanic - forcing you to drink a finite resource in order to save without quitting - can feel nothing but frustrating when you've accidentally died while out on the road, losing what can be hours of progress thanks to the game only autosaving at key story and side quest points. Moreover, the need to push you back to square one in the early game can also make that experience rather frustrating, as you're largely defenceless unless you manage to luck out against some bandits or loot what you need.

These are small complaints in what is otherwise a masterclass in RPG design, though. If Warhorse has truly achieved its original vision with Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, then what an ambitious vision this was. A title that combines the best of RPGs we've loved, with its own unique niche of its historical setting, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II has set the bar high for the rest of 2025.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
Buddies!
09 Gamereactor UK
9 / 10
+
Beautiful game world, tremendous attention to detail, well-written characters, immense amount of choice, improved combat, some of the best side quests out there
-
Some frustrating and samey quests, sometimes indulges itself too much, janky combat when facing more than one foe, early game can prove frustrating
overall score
is our network score. What's yours? The network score is the average of every country's score

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