Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 preview – Medieval mayhem at its finest

If you haven’t played the first game but are interested in this second instalment, stop reading and get stuck in before Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 comes out, as they play essentially the same. It can be had for very cheap too!

I played the original for 153 hours and 46 minutes. It was my lockdown game and I was completely whisked away and immersed and taken by the systems-driven, mechanics-heavy gameplay, realism, historical accuracy as well as the great story, characters and the ever-affable Henry of Skallitz, our protagonist.

I loved it so much that when I was on holiday in the Czech Republic, I made a point of stopping by the preview event at GDS Prague to play a Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 demo, mint my own coin, get a cheeky little lanyard, and pick up a limited-run Henry beer, which I’m planning to open when I do my review.

Had I been reviewing the first game at the time, it would have been an easy five stars from me. Though this is a preview, where I can only talk about the game up to a certain point.

I can say from the 33 hours I have played so far, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 has all the magic that made that game great in spades and somehow, more.

It plays very much like the first game, but it is a far more polished affair with fewer bugs and overall 'jank', but with such a wide scope, you can still come across some goofy moments.

Some systems, such as combat, have been streamlined. In the first game, there were six directions to attack from when using weapons. Now, there are only four. This is not its detriment though, as it allows you to better explore the deep combo system without getting completely bogged down – and the chance of you accidentally holding your weapon on the wrong side is massively reduced.

Also new is the setting, with the first part of the game taking place in the idyllic Trosky region. It’s quite similar to the map in the first game, but it’s a bit sleepier in that it is considerably more rural. It’s a great introduction to the game for old-timers and newcomers alike.

Minor spoiler warning! The game starts with you taking control of Father Godwin during a siege at the Castle of Suchdol. It’s a brief hands-on demo of the fighting mechanics of the game, including the new crossbows, and sets the stage for what's to come.

We then flashback to a few weeks before, with Henry and Hans Capon on their way to Trosky castle to deliver a message before it all goes pear-shaped.

Henry is gravely injured, setting your level and skills back in a way that doesn’t feel cheap and then it’s off to the races in the greater Trosky countryside.

Despite being very rural, it’s still filled to the brim with great side-quests, which so far have been the highlight for me. I’ve helped solve murders, broken into buildings, spoken with a renegade sheep, licked disgusting minerals in a grave and scoured the land looking for my lost dog.

It might sound odd, but a highlight for me was helping the local knacker and gravedigger pick up dead animals across the land in his cart. It’s something I have never done in a game before.

Diving between the crevices of the stunning Appolonian sandstone outcrops to hunt bandits never gets old either, nor does galloping off them in the pitch-black of night as death is usually your own fault. While it can be punishingly difficult – especially for newcomers – it is always fair. Medieval life was pretty hard, after all.

Much like its predecessor, you have a variety of options for how to tackle problems, be it diplomacy, subterfuge, intimidation or by the sword. In this sense, Kingdom Come: Deliverance feels like if you crossed Deus Ex, Baldur’s Gate 3 and the Stalker games and set it in a painstakingly historical medieval world. It is an immersive sim. The game won’t always tell you what to do, but if you go exploring, you can find completely different ways to navigate quests.

This dynamism extends to the whole of the game, too. As it was with the first game, when you fast-travel, or even just make your way along the roads, you can come across any number of scenarios, such as being ambushed by bandits.

Quite often, I’ve gotten into scrapes, only for a passerby or travelling caravan to happen upon us and join in on the fray. Will you stick in the fight until the bandits are vanquished, or let those who come to your aid perish so you can loot them too? The choice is yours.

Your choices in how you tackle quests always come back to you as well, even this early on in the game. Someone might owe you a favour which then comes in handy when another needs something from them, or your actions may leave you with some explaining to do.

Crime and punishment feel far more fleshed-out too, as do NPC's awareness of your naughty shenanigans. If you step foot into someone's home and are told to clear off, only for their life savings to go missing later that evening, the finger is going to be pointed at you.

Even if you’re just minding your own business and an NPC hears something behind them, they will be startled and turn around. If you are in good standing with an area, they will breathe a sigh of relief. If everyone hates your guts, you can expect a less-than-warm reception.

Powering all this is a custom version of Crytek’s CryEngine. The first game was known for its hardware-crushing graphics in 2018 that were very forward-looking and this has largely paid off for developers Warhorse Studios as Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, as while the game does look better, it’s not a massive leap over the original yet still looks incredible.

With such a good base to work from, I’ve been delighted to see a liberal amount of asset-reuse which no doubt helped save on development costs that have gone into expanding more interesting gameplay scenarios. The biggest visual letdown is the animations outside of the main quest, but given the scope of the game, it's easy to forgive, as bespoke animation for every scene would cost a fortune.

All this has lent itself to an enormously captivating experience in the first opening act alone. If the game concluded where I’m allowed to talk up to, I’d still wholeheartedly recommend it. There’s truly nothing else out there that is quite like it.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 launches 4th February for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

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