- 9 hours ago
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 review | An utterly absorbing realization of medieval life.
Building upon and refining its predecessor's commitment to historical realism, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is an absorbing RPG that fully immerses you in medieval life. If you have the patience to endure a wilfully slow progression system, you'll be richly rewarded with much to explore and do in 15th century Bohemia.
Reviewed by Alan Wen
Video by Hal Dimond
Building upon and refining its predecessor's commitment to historical realism, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is an absorbing RPG that fully immerses you in medieval life. If you have the patience to endure a wilfully slow progression system, you'll be richly rewarded with much to explore and do in 15th century Bohemia.
Reviewed by Alan Wen
Video by Hal Dimond
Category
๐ฎ๏ธ
GamingTranscript
00:00Much like its predecessor, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2's defining ingredient that separates it
00:05from fantasy-fueled RPGs is its commitment to historical realism.
00:10Whereas The Witcher 3 may be based on Polish culture and folklore, War Horse's first-person
00:16action RPG is about immersing you in 15th century bohemia, where the characters you
00:21meet aren't just based on real figures, but your actions feel just as believable and consequential
00:26as in real life, rather than a typical power fantasy.
00:30While that often means progression can be a more pedestrian affair, having the patience
00:34to meet the game on its terms makes for a more genuine form of roleplaying, where drawing
00:38your sword is rarely the first choice for solving a problem.
00:41Which isn't to say Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 has a slow start, instead thrusting you in
00:46medias res into a full-scale castle siege.
00:50Our returning protagonist, the likeable and occasionally bumbling Henry of Scalets, has
00:54come some way from being an illiterate blacksmith's apprentice.
00:57But even in the context of warring allegiances in the Kingdom, some of your immediate concerns
01:02when you set out questing into the world involve simply trying to find your missing dog, or
01:06helping the reclusive herb woman who saved your life find the whereabouts of her daughter.
01:10It's a reminder that you aren't a powerful hero, but a small cog doing your best amid grand
01:15political machinations.
01:17Nonetheless, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 is a sequel on a much larger canvas, painted in a variety
01:23of brush strokes.
01:24The emphasis on realism may mean life is hard and brutal, especially if you don't have
01:28a grosh into your name, yet there is an equally bawdy tone.
01:31Backed by colourful characters using very colourful language, or where even a seemingly
01:35mundane quest can stretch into relatively epic proportions.
01:39Even if some friction can lead to frustration while occasional glitches break the immersion,
01:44its realisation of medieval life seems utterly absorbing.
01:56For an RPG with no spells, the real magic of Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 is just how believable
02:02and beautifully rendered with CryEngine its open world is.
02:06That's especially evident when simply walking or riding across open countryside in the early
02:10morning or sunset, without being spoiled by the usual clutter of collectibles or waypoints.
02:15Come across a village and it will be about the size that a real medieval village would be,
02:19with humble amenities.
02:20Larger towns are fortified with a few specific guarded entrance points, and waltzing into someone's
02:25private property will immediately be unwelcome, albeit still giving you reasonable time to
02:30clear off before escalating matters.
02:33Naturally, wielding a sword in a tavern or market, needlessly, will also draw ire from the locals.
02:38Instead, you're encouraged to use your powers of persuasion to effect a favourable outcome,
02:43which can depend as much on your appearance as much as your stats.
02:47High charisma points alone aren't enough to charm someone if you don't dress the parts
02:51and haven't had a wash for a week.
02:53This isn't to say there aren't video gamey conveniences available to you, such as fast
02:57travelling to towns you've previously visited, or being able to advance time so you don't have
03:01to potter around while waiting for a rendezvous.
03:04It's nonetheless intriguing how these systems have some consistency.
03:07While time advances while you fast travel, for instance, poor Henry's hunger and sleep
03:12stats will decrease, and he'll begin to grumble at you for leaving him unrested and unfed should
03:16the numbers get dangerously low.
03:18What there's no getting away from is that progression is purposely slow, even without
03:23including the times you may find yourself having to reload a save to try again, contributing to an
03:28already lengthy campaign well beyond 60 hours and split between two large regions of
03:33bohemia.
03:33Some of that comes naturally as you play, and early on, when circumstances leave Henry
03:38penniless in beggar's clothing, you're primed for a slow and steady climb to go from surviving to
03:43thriving.
03:44The first main quest, for instance, has you attempting to gain access to a wedding,
03:47which means taking on a handful of menial and tertiary tasks before you can even get close to
03:52receiving the coveted invite.
03:53But ultimately, you need to put in the work, because much like in real life,
03:57the only way to get better at something is to keep doing it.
03:59That's quite literally the case when it comes to crafting weapons or brewing potions,
04:04each with their own involved and methodical minigames.
04:06There's no short-cutting these processes, at least not without causing problems down the line.
04:11Despite usually preferring the stealthy approach, I found myself avoiding lockpicking or pickpocketing
04:16in the early hours, as successfully pulling them off is difficult at first.
04:20Your novice hand moves wobbly.
04:22Yeah, while the open-ended design for most quests means there's usually other ways to get what you want,
04:26including outright bribery. It also meant when it came to later quests that required me to sneak
04:31into a house to steal an item, opting out of lockpicking earlier on meant my thievery stats
04:35and perks hadn't made any meaningful progression, rendering medium-level locks impossible to crack.
04:41You're not completely... locked out, as potions can temporarily supercharge stats,
04:47but that also means acquiring the recipe for it and having the ingredients to brew it.
04:51In other words, it all takes time and planning, one way or another.
04:55Such is the breadth of options available to you that violence rarely needs to be the answer,
04:59though at times the dangerous world will require you to rise up and meet it with steel.
05:04It's tempting to avoid bandit skirmishes on the road while you see them coming,
05:07but ultimately these will be experience points you lose out on that may put you at a disadvantage
05:12in unavoidable scraps later.
05:14Of course, beyond combat mastery, other factors like having your weapon sharpened,
05:18or actually having armour equipped, are also vital.
05:20Even then, combat is one of the least appealing aspects of Kingdom Come Deliverance 2,
05:25more like something you have to do rather than something you go out of your way to engage in,
05:29arguably a realistic response to violence.
05:32It's directional system for attacking, blocking, and parrying can feel weighty one moment yet hard
05:37to pass the next. At times, inconsistent animations have hits on enemies you swore connected
05:42fail to register. It's especially messy during group fights, exacerbated by an annoying targeting system
05:48that I found could all too easily disengage at inoptune moments.
05:52Of course, you would expect being outnumbered by the enemy to be unwieldy and difficult in real life too,
05:57but it's also unsatisfying when some of these encounters are just about enduring long enough
06:02before a cutscene arbitrarily moves things along.
06:04The less said about firearms, the better.
06:07They're introduced as a new and devastating weapon, but are so horribly cumbersome to use to the point of being
06:12useless,
06:13unless you're prepared to waste lots of shots just so you can gradually improve your skill with them.
06:17You can understand why it would take longer to load a single shot than to loose an arrow,
06:21but there is something especially willful in the design that the game has an on-screen crosshair
06:25by default almost all the time, apart from when you're holding a ranged weapon.
06:31Oh, knock it down!
06:41For those who really want to be transported to medieval bohemia, however,
06:45there is much to enjoy by slowing down and taking everything in the minutia.
06:49The city of Kutenberg is especially impressive, with each of its districts distinct and faithfully realized,
06:55while you could go as far as follow any citizen's daily routine.
06:59Sometimes that's actually the best thing to do, since some of the quests have Henry play detective,
07:03asking the locals and trying to find leads in his investigation to puzzle out the location of clues,
07:08without a marker on the map, mind you.
07:10Quests are often lengthy and involved affairs, and will sometimes tangentially lead to other stories
07:16beginning to unwind, blossoming the narrative quite naturally.
07:19While it will of course help your stats, it's just as easy to break away from your main objectives,
07:24and spend your time gambling with dice, smithing and selling weapons,
07:27or hunting animals in the wild.
07:29Although, you'll also run into trouble, as you'll technically be guilty of poaching the king's game.
07:34But you can also find side quests to undertake from the unlikeliest of sources.
07:38Ironically, the best way to find new adventure is by fast traveling,
07:41where there's always a chance you'll be interrupted by a random encounter,
07:44whether that's bandits trying to rob an innocent passerby,
07:47or a stranger who may or may not have good intentions.
07:50One of my most surreal moments was encountering a man walking around with an arrow still lodged in his head.
07:55Even if you can't talk to everyone, the larger scale of Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 means a much larger script,
08:01reportedly more than 2.2 million words.
08:04Players may bristle at the quality of the writing, which can flip from earnest and serious to coarse and bawdy,
08:10with liberal droppings of C-bombs and curva.
08:13The constant references to woman as wench can also be cringe-inducing, despite being common usage in the middle ages.
08:19Catherine, a quick-witted spy Henry teams up with regularly in the story,
08:23subverts the mostly silent or servile housewives and bath maids you encounter,
08:27but that doesn't stop the game from pointing out her otherโฆ assets first.
08:32Yet these different facets of the tone also add to the authenticity,
08:36where life is diverse and riddled with contradictions.
08:38Talk of God is in earnest between drinking, cursing and whoring.
08:42Death can come suddenly, but the game doesn't revel in gratuitous violence.
08:45Even a mission that requires you to torture someone allows you to weigh up the moral and pleasantness of the
08:50task,
08:51and even avoid it altogether, not least because you'll find yourself on the receiving end.
08:55In contrast to the exclusively white population of the first game,
08:59this sequel makes an effort to include other ethnicities in Bohemia,
09:02which impact both the narrative and the gameplay.
09:05Overall then, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 is a vast accomplishment,
09:08an even more complete and immersive follow-up that paints a wide picture of medieval life,
09:13provided you have the patience with its pacing and are willing to put in the hours to get deeper into
09:17its systems,
09:18rather than just trying to min-match your way out of a problem at optimal speed.
09:22It's a thoroughly absorbing RPG that's quite unlike anything else.
09:26We give Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 4 stars out of 5.
09:30So, will you be playing KCD2?
09:33And what aspect of Henry's new story are you most excited about?
09:36Let us know in the comments and stick with GamesRadar for the latest news, reviews and more.
09:44When you are on the comments, visit us by Michael Morehead planter forัะพัะผ pgmail.com.
09:48Great As That
09:49Awake
09:49For former
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