Kingdom Come: Deliverance II - Review
Honour, Lords, Battle and War. Bloodshed and violence, love, ale and gorging on stolen sausages. There’s a world of possibilities at hand; how will you experience Kingdom Come Deliverance II?
Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 is finally here, and I’ve had a long, enjoyable, painful and drama-filled experience with it. A game that truly opened up beyond anything I could have expected after going hands on it with earlier this year, I’ve finally had my fill and now its time to really examine what Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 is bringing to the table. Buckle up, because this horse is truly an unpredictable ride.
It cannot be understated what a wonderful journey you take in Kingdom Come 2. The story is full of twists and turns, and it constantly keeps you guessing and on your toes. Without spoiling anything (but please note there is going to be some very mild spoilers) you’re going to experience fake outs galore, deaths and kidnappings, and even love in all the right, wrong and every other conceivable place. The story is intricately crafted and keeps you guessing at all times. There is never a dull moment, and the world interlinks the mundane and the exciting into the story in a way that makes everything feel relevant. Side quests whilst their own beast, feel like they have an impact on the way Henry perceives the world, and you’ll be constantly led down paths that make progress through the main story easier and more logical.
Side quests are what will make up the bulk of the game, for players who are wanting to get involved in the world. Simple things like clearing out a bandit camp, collecting bounties or stealing some sausages are abounding. You’ll find more and more to do as you grow your reputation and engage in the quests, and there is never a moment that truly feels like you’ve got nothing left to do. The biggest upside is how seamless and easy it is to jump between engaging in the over-arching world and then jumping back into the main story. A lot of the time, you’ll come across random world events that lead you down rabbit holes of expanding world content and lore, that are self-contained enough that you can complete them on your way between major plot points and main quests.
Perhaps the one activity that I changed my stance on the more I engaged in it for side content, and even my own empowerment and success, was the blacksmithing. This is something that will come up in the main story, side stories, and in your general gameplay as an effective tool for new gear, special items and enhancing your own armour and weapons. I had, and for the most still do, have a very love hate relationship with the blacksmithing. At times it feels like I’m succeeding, getting the perfect heating of the items, the right hammer rings and doing everything right. At others, without any actual discernible difference in action, Henry will keep complaining about how I’m going and making me feel like I’m screwing it up. While I’m not sure how much I was ‘cocking’ it up as Henry would say, it did feel like more often than not he would complain about it rather than be any level of positive. In fact, the lack of positive response in general was kind of daunting with the blacksmithing. It’s an integral part of the game, and while I feel I eventually found that nice middle ground, some more active feedback and response would have been great in helping this feel even more fleshed out.
Where the game does flesh itself out sufficiently is in the world itself. The game acknowledges the need to explore adequately, whilst also not wasting your time. Its quick to navigate the beautifully crafted world on horseback, with quick travel allowing you to travel to and from major locations you’ve already visited. Coupling in world events and situations where you will have to react to that event when quick travelling, makes it feel like you’re still seeing the world the developers wanted you to see, whilst also not demanding you run back and forth between every location for the sake of ‘realism’. You’ll still deplete the hours of the day, and I’m unsure if it was quicker in terms of in-game time to quick travel to locations, but adding just the right number of events into the world meant that you were always finding things to do and to see, even when you were moving quickly to locations for quests.
A small gripe here however is the rain effect in the game. While it never seemed to rain that often, when it did, it was one of the worst visuals in the game. The rain itself looked more like scratchy white noise than rain, and would often just pop in and out, without any real warning or reason. The game seemingly being locked at 1080p on PlayStation (at least it was in the build I played), alongside this horrible rain effect was really disorienting. On top of it being visually unappealing, it would fill the screen so aggressively that trying to move through it was almost headache inducing with the vision reduction that accompanied it. Its not a major thing, but it is something I really hope is fixed before the game is fully released.
Back on the positive however is the combat. Kingdom Come Deliverance has a well-earned reputation for being brutally tough in its desire for ‘realism’, and the first game was pretty unapproachable for a lot of people as a result. Whilst KCD2 doesn’t completely remove the difficulty factor, it does a good job of making it fairer. Enemies for the most part will attack one at a time, rather than all at once in unblockable scenarios. The enemies will still swarm you pretty aggressively, and large skirmishes can be quite daunting still as a result. The enemy’s ability to constantly block too, even when playing the combat as it is intended, can be frustrating too. It is more approachable, but it is important to remember. The game is hard, and you are going to die. Over and over, and some encounters are going to be damn near impossible to complete without really good armour and weapons, but it never feels like the game doesn’t want you to succeed. For better or worse, the realism factor has been reduced for the sake of playability, and it makes the game for more approachable and easier to engage with.
The game isn’t without flaw however, and the number of visual bugs and game break moments were regular enough that it needs to be noted. There were a few patches through the review cycle which is a good sign the developers are working to get it fleshed out, but players need to be aware that there are some issues. A key moment was when a unique weapon was taking off me in a cutscene, this was given back in a following scene. However for some reason, the sword wasn’t actually given back to me, and every time I reloaded the save that came immediately after the conversation to get it back, the sword was just never given back.
Some situations where an auto-save would occur just before an enemy would turn hostile in a quest, if I died and reloaded the save, the enemy would still turn aggressive, but the game seemed to forget that this was a quest related aggression and would fail side quests if the enemy was killed in these scenarios. There was a lot of visual bugs in conversations as well, where the camera would lock onto a wall, or because it was happening at night, the characters would be pretty much impossible to see because they’d just extinguish their torches to have the conversation. For the most part things weren’t game breaking, but there was an uncomfortable number of issues and things that could have really ruined the overall experience. I’m certain most of these things will be fixed in some way, but going into the game it would be wrong not to make mention of these issues.
To end on a positive note, the cast of characters is fantastic. Each and every character has a unique personality, and way they interact with you and the world. Every interaction feels special, and there is enough nuance that nobody feels like a robot or a caricature. You can often tell how you should be responding in situations based on how the characters come across, and you’ll grow to love and adore all the people you interact with. Those you are meant to resent, or dislike will be dislikable, and the tormented characters feel tormented. It feels super important for these characters to be as rich as they are, with how many different interactions you have, and I’m glad to say the game succeeds in doing every character justice. For as much or as little as they have impact on your gameplay.
Kingdom Come Deliverance II is not a perfect game, but it’s a great game with so much to keep you engaged. Endless content, world to explore and a rich cast of characters, the small flaws were never enough for me want to walk away from the game, and there was always something that dragged me in more wanting to see where the story was going next, and whether or not Henry was going to succeed. Kingdom Come is a far more accessible and approachable game than the first one and got me so engaged and interested that I actively want to go back and experience the first game in full, to completely understand the journey that has occurred here. Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 may be on track as one of the best games of this year, and we’re only just getting started.
The Score
9.0
Review code provided by Deep Silver
The Pros
Incredibly rich and powerful cast of characters
More approachable combat makes the game feel accessible
Fantastic world to explore, that feels full of life
The Cons
A fair few visual and game breaking bugs that can really hamper gameplay
Combat sometimes feels like a slapping match where you never deal any actual damage
Blacksmithing lacks enough positive feedback to truly gauge your success
