Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 Hands-On - My Personal Candidate for GOTY 2025
Kingdom Come: Deliverance release has been postponed to February 2025. This means that it will fight in the GOTY battle, even with GTA 6! After playing KCD2 for some time, I am delighted with the game, and so far, my vote is in favor of the Czech RPG.
Hey, Henry is visiting us! Although not yet, his visit has been postponed to February 2025. There seems to be a direct clash between GTA 6 and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 for the title of game of the year, at least in the gamepressure.com poll. The first part is an absolute masterpiece, which captivated me from the first moment in 2018. Having played the beginning of the second installment, I felt the atmosphere of the sequel and I already know that this game will provide me with similar emotions once again!
Last month, we visited the town of Kutna Hora, also known as Kuttenberg, at the invitation of WarHorse studio. This is exactly where a significant part of the game will be set, and we had the privilege of being the first journalists in the world to experience the vibrant atmosphere of medieval Czechia in Kingdom Come: Deliverance. We had around four hours to see what new things were waiting for us in the sequel. It was quite long, considering the standards of such presentations, but in the case of KCD2, we can say that we have only scratched the surface as the game is supposed to deliver about 80-100 hours of fun.
Environments and landscapes are as stunning as in first game.Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, Deep Silver, 2025
The first impression was quite positive and, most importantly, familiar - it's the old, good Kingdom Come; the second season of the show, which finally reveals what happened after the cliffhanger at the end of the previous one. If someone was captivated by it then, they will be captivated now, and if the first part put you off with its slow pace, historical settings, absence of dragons and magic, and the need to brew a potion to save the game, then it will probably be similar now - although there are, of course, changes and improvements.
Scratch on the diamond
We began our journey with Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 right from the start of the previous part, which immediately plunged us into the action without long intros or historical lectures. I won't reveal the plot details, but the second installment is a direct continuation of the dramatic events from the end of the first part. We bid farewell to Henry as he set off with Hans Capon on a quest to find Otto of Bergow at Trosky Castle.
There is no cutscene here with a summary of events from the previous part. All explanations were quite neatly incorporated into the first quests. Our heroes travel, make stops to rest and talk a lot. It's from the dialogues that we can naturally learn (or remind ourselves) what happened in the first part, including in the story DLCs. The game even allows us to choose certain skills in such conversations. It asks about the way we completed some quests, although it doesn't take into account all possibilities.
Daniel Vavra always had the whole story in mind. When he was thinking of Kingdom Come: Deliverance, he had an overarching story already. However, during the development of KCD, we found out that we can’t get to the end, to whatever Daniel was thinking about, so we had to do a cut somewhere and we ended up with a big cliffhanger at the end of Kingdom Come: Deliverance. So, during the development of the first game, we decided that there must be a bigger, better Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 at some point.
Sir Tobi - PR Manager, WarHorse Studio
However, I admit that after the prologue of Kingdome Come: Deliverance 2 I had some mixed feelings. On one hand, it's a clever nod to people who aren't familiar with the story so far. This will allow them to acquire the necessary background not by simply watching a video, but rather actively, by completing a quest. On the other hand, newcomers may find the prologue too wordy, and experienced players will likely sense a certain artificiality in the conversations, as Henry repeatedly discusses his past with some "randoms."
There's also a short cutscene, oozing with kitsch - it completely doesn't fit the atmosphere of KCD, it looks like taken straight from a Disney fairytale, not a realistic story from the Middle Ages. I'm probably nitpicking, and few people will pay attention to this because it's only a few seconds, but it could have definitely been directed better. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this will be changed, because it is a scratch on the diamond.
Fortunately, the negative impression fades quickly, as Henry is accompanied by a dog right from the start, just like in the DLC A Woman's Lot. The ability to pet the dog and optional tasks related to finding food for him bring the prologue back on track.
Clothes and equipment received more detail. Faces are also more refined, though mostly for the main characters.Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, Deep Silver, 2025
Dialogue options that reference previous events are a nice detail for veterans of the previuos part, but they don't mean anything in terms of gameplay. This is especially true since the plot includes events that can justify the lack of skills acquired in the first installment and the need to start collecting experience points again. At the start, we have the option to select from three initial skill sets: a soldier favoring forceful approaches, an advisor attempting to negotiate first, or a scout who handles everything discreetly. However, you shouldn't expect that Henry will suddenly turn into an assassin and thief - at least not during the first hours of the game.
We generally tried to take everything you know from KCD1 and make it better, more interesting, and fleshed out, so of course also the stealth gameplay. But KCD is not a Splinter Cell kind of game. We tried to make the experience generally way nicer and more streamlined and stealth is one of the element you can choose if you would like to play the game as a stealthy character. But you can't always stealth kill anyone. It all depends on what kind of weapon you choose. If you manage to kill someone in one shot then it will stealth but if you just injure him he will either run away or call the guards and you will have to fight. So it will only be stealthy if you manage to kill right away.
Sir Tobi - PR Manager, WarHorse Studio
Furthermore, this decision doesn't exclude anything, and later we can concentrate on using – in other words, developing – the skills we want.
Return home
What immediately struck me while playing Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 was how familiar everything was - in a good way. This isn't a sequel that completely overturns everything, searching at all costs for changes or novelties. It seems to be more of an evolution of existing ideas, with small improvements here and there - aside from the much greater scope of the game that was difficult to fully check after just 4 hours.
The similarities begin with almost identical UI in the menu, once again in a style inspired by medieval engravings, and extend to details such as the game state loading indicator animation, and beyond. Considering that both games will be separated by seven years on the day of their premiere, it may seem like some kind of stagnation or lack of progress, but in my opinion, it's quite the opposite. First, this allows us to continue the same adventure that was abruptly interrupted in the middle of the story, and second, Kingdom Come: Deliverance from 2018 still looks outstanding, particularly in outdoor settings, and few modern games can match it. So changes and improvements are definitely there!
Combat system renovation
One of the most significant changes is the combat system. Before I go into details, it's worth mentioning that mounted opponents are finally set to appear. The mechanic of delivering blows with a weapon may seem to have been simplified, but that doesn't mean it has become more primitive or easier. Instead, it has become more organized and stripped of unnecessary elements. Previously, the combat system was based on a crosshair in the form of a star with five directions for striking and a dot in the middle for performing a sword thrust. In the second installment, the two lower directions and the center were combined into one push movement, and the block was moved from the Q key to the right mouse button, which meant a change of habit.
Fighting has been made easier by reducing the number of attack directions for blunt weapons like hammers and maces compared to swords. The developers also suggest that those who don't want to learn fencing can opt for blunt weapons or a long pike, considering their varying effectiveness against different types of armor. The combat is now a bit more intuitive. However, it's still important to respect your opponent, avoid engaging with multiple enemies at once, monitor your stamina, and wait for the chance to strike after a perfect block rather than simply swinging your sword around.
New to the game are completely fresh animations of enemies, depending on the weapons they use. Different movements can be expected from them, as the developers employed specialists for the motion capture session. However, this didn't turn the fights into some choreographed, Hollywood-style ballet of blows. The first-person perspective and the specific, crude realism of fights in KCD still prevail.
Various elements of the game have been improved, but the style and familiar touches from the first part are instantly recognizable.Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, Deep Silver, 2025
I had the chance to test out a brand new weapon in KCD2 during combat: a crossbow - the weakest type because it was manually loaded. And the impressions were... average, but interestingly enough exactly the same as in reality, as after playing the game we had a chance to shoot a real crossbow provided by a local reenactment group. Everything comes down to aiming and pulling the trigger - you don't feel any jerking, and you don't have to strain as much when aiming as with a bow. In KCD2 this is a fairly effective weapon, but it's not very enjoyable to use - just like in real life. Maybe it would be more effective with more powerful crossbows, tensioned using a special tool or a crank, both of which will also be featured in the game. I didn't have the opportunity to test the first firearms that will also be featured in the game. Still, overall it will involve a simple aiming and shooting mechanic, but much louder - a type of the most powerful, but one-time "ultimate" ability, as the reload time prevents reusing the firearm during the battle.
"Remedium Savegamium"
Staying on the topic of changes and innovations, what stands out right away are the even more intricate faces and clothing details, along with realistic lighting. The devs also mentioned improved lip sync, but in this case, it seems there is still a bit lacking compared to the best in the industry. The graphics in the PC version of the first game have become even more beautiful and photorealistic, especially when observing details such as the eyelash on the water at the lake's shore, which has somehow left a lasting impression on me. We were playing on high-powered PCs with RTX 4090 cards, so it's difficult to predict how the game will appear on PS5 and XSX. Nonetheless, the CryEngine engine once again demonstrates its ability to create stunning environments.
There are still numerous minor surprises, like the function of following an NPC. By pressing one button, we can be sure that Henry will follow the character leading him according to the quest script, and we can freely explore the game world in the meantime. New elements that improve realism will likely appear - for instance, I found out that now you can't put on a metal helmet without first wearing something looking like a cap, and in addition to alchemy and potion brewing, blacksmithing will also become a side activity. The developers didn't shy away from the controversial game save mechanic that requires a special drink and took a rather whimsical approach to the matter, as the famous "schnapps" from the first part has been replaced here by a potion with the suggestive name "Remedium Savegamium"!
I think when you ask in WarHorse Studio everyone will give you something different. Jan Valta, the composer, is saying that the music is a lot better. The animation team is saying that we have now more animators and animations are way smoother. The character department will tell you that the biggest advantage of KCD2 is facial animation and he custom dialog animations. The artists will tell you that the biggest advantage and the biggest technological improvement is the way how the codex and all the art elements and the city work. But I think personally that one of the biggest technological advances is the amount of characters we can show on display. In KCD1 the biggest fight had like 20-30 characters. We couldn’t go further than that because simply the technology was not good enough for that or the way we did was not good enough. Now, in Kutna Hora we have hundreds of characters. They are not on screen at the same time but we have a way bigger world and a lot more NPCs running around, all of the having their daily cycles. So, in my opinion the biggest improvement from that perspective is the living world which is even livelier.
Sir Tobi - PR Manager, WarHorse Studio
Just a city, not a metropolis
The Czechs' specific sense of humor was visible everywhere. I still remember the scene in front of the castle gate or the talkative German who was talking simultaneously in two languages or fluently using a colleague who knew the local language better. These characters are encountered in the city of Kuttenberg or Kutna Hora, which was the second significant aspect of the showcase, as it is the largest urban setting designed for the Kingdom Come series. The city's architecture doesn't immediately impress, and we don't suddenly transition from the province to high society. It's also smaller than what was announced. It looks similar to Rattay from the first part, but it's actually a bit bigger - there are more streets and corners, more tenement houses than wooden cottages.
What really impressed me was how accurately they tried to recreate the topography of a real city in the game. Later, while visiting Kutna Hora, we could compare the locations from the game to the actual city, stand exactly where we had just been talking to someone while completing a quest, or in front of the house we had broken into. Even though things looked a bit different in 1403, with buildings under construction or being rebuilt multiple times later, you could truly sense the city's spirit and recognize several locations.
This Palace in the city of Kutna Hora is one example of how faithfully the real city was recreated in the game.Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, Deep Silver, 2025
The developers mentioned that there were some compromises. In many cases, they had to make educated guesses about how something might have appeared in the past, relying on other examples from that time period and the expertise of historians rather than coming up with ideas out of thin air. The game engine and optimization were also a challenge - some streets had to be slightly smaller, and other areas had to be built up to cover the view of particularly large locations, which would cause a drastic drop in FPS.
Importantly, Kuttenberg in the game seems to be appropriately teeming with medieval life, it isn't a ghost town. The city is populated with NPCs (there may even be too many of them walking around at night), and the residents now have their own routines - they go to work, eat, socialize in the inn, and then go to sleep. Henry is just one of the anonymous passers-by there - no one greets him with joyful shouts. I only disliked the fact that it wasn't possible to enter the two main churches in the city. I will be a little disappointed if I encounter the same thing in the full version.
RPG freedom and liberty
While completing quests in Kuttenberg and the second location around Trosky Castle, we could feel the RPG freedom, the various paths leading to the goal, and the Kingdome Come-specific variety of tasks. It's hard to say yet whether there will be such epic quests as pretending to be a monk or having a libation with a priest - the devs mention a few surprises waiting for players. There was a challenge to steal a sword from a building without attacking anyone, and it could be done in several ways, facing obstacles or not. We have learned that deciding whether to speak up or stay silent during a conversation can either prolong or shorten a quest; we will also need to perform regular physical work, not just fight, negotiate, and steal. I am sure that we will experience many moments that will be remembered for a long time during the over 100-hour gameplay.
Technically, it should be much better
The launch of the original Kingdom Come: Deliverance gave us a poorly optimized game full of bugs and glitches. How is it now? Traditionally, in such a complex game, if we do something differently than the script predicts, the game will not adjust to it but will jump to the next phase of the quest - which caught my eye during a quasi-stealth sequence that involved following an NPC. I encountered one annoying glitch blocking the quest when an important NPC got stuck on the barrier and couldn't reach the designated spot. Only after a few minutes of waiting and attempting to push him, he moved, and from then on, everything went smoothly - maybe by the February premiere, these small bugs will be fixed.
It's hard to say anything about optimization because we were playing on really powerful PCs with Ryzen 7800X, RTX 4090 card, and 64 GB of RAM. The game run extremely smoothly on this setup, except for very occasional, isolated stutters in the city, which were more likely caused by an unfinished build rather than overall poor optimization.
In my opinion, the camera work during conversations also needs improvement, because we still don't have cinematic, dynamic sequences with dialogues, but rather a more Bethesda-like system of single, talking heads.
I envy the Czechs!
I was concerned about the game's larger scope when writing the first preview of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, based only on the impressions from the trailer. So far, they have only been confirmed in some specific details in cutscenes, which didn't align with the overall atmosphere of the game, meticulously constructed on the foundation of realism and authenticity. But that's just me nitpicking on the little things in search of perfection, and the worse impressions quickly fade away when we take on an immersive, multi-threaded quest. When the plot started to unfold, I completely stopped thinking about such things.
Fortunately, the city isn't extinct, so you can always meet quite a few NPCs busy with their own affairs.Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, Deep Silver, 2025
I also noticed some important details, like the fact that even if we select the English dialogue, certain background sounds will still be in the original, such as the Czech song coming from the background - because this time the Czech dubbing will be in the game on the launch day! The music composed by Jan Valta promises to be sensational - a strong contender in the race for the best soundtrack of the year. The game will also receive a story DLC, so there will be something to look forward to and do even after spending a hundred hours with the game.
In any case, I'm waiting for Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 more impatiently than for GTA 6. I was aware of it when the game was announced, and getting to play a part of it only strengthened my belief and increased my excitement for what we will receive in February, almost on the seventh anniversary of the release of the first installment. I'm a bit envious of the Czechs for having an RPG about their history because I would love to see more games like that set in medieval Europe. I'm also rooting for the game to achieve the greatest success possible so that we don't have to wait so long for the third installment or a new game from WarHorse studio!
