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Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is an upcoming first-person open-world RPG set in 15th century medieval Europe. It's a sequel to the excellent Kingdom Come: Deliverance from 2018 which is known for its incredible attention to detail and realism, something that made it stand out from the rest of RPGs on the market.
Once again, players are put in the boots of Henry of Skalitz, the hero of the first game, but our Henry is no longer just a random peasant and blacksmith apprentice - he has much more on his shoulders.
In the preview build that the developer Warhorse Studios were kind enough to provide to AltChar, I got to experience a huge chunk of the game's world, various side quests, activities and of course, plenty of the main storyline.
Warhorse told me that I'd need 8-10 hours to get to a point in the story where the preview ends but I've managed to play for 30+ hours, as I explored every part of the map, searching for interesting characters and stories, events and little nooks and crannies that Warhorse cooked for this incredibly ambitious sequel.
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So, yeah, it's safe to say that I have more than enough playtime to offer you my thoughts on the game in this preview. And I can say, without a shadow of a doubt and with the utmost confidence, that Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is shaping up to be one of the greatest RPGs of the last decade. It's that good.
If the part of the game that I got to experience is representative of the entire journey, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 will easily stand neck and neck with legendary RPGs like Skyrim and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
Almost everything in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is exceptional. From its genius quest design and stunningly realistic world to memorable characters and complex gameplay systems that make the game feel immersive in every moment.
Whether you're having a round of beers at a cosy inn, carrying sacks of wheat to earn a lousy coin or disposing of rotten animal carcasses from farms and roads with the local knacker, you'll always feel like you're actually there, in the 15th century Bohemia.
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Again, I haven't played the entire game and my thoughts are based on the first 30 hours, which include many completed side quests, story missions and much more, but it's really hard to imagine a significant drop in quality moving forward.
Hell, I haven't even got to the game's biggest city yet, which I expect to be a world on its own with all sorts of quests, secrets and grumpy NPCs to meet.
In terms of gameplay, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is more of the same. This includes survival mechanics so you'll have to eat, sleep, use bandages to stop bleeding, make potions to help with various status effects and more.
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The save system works like in the first game, meaning you save by drinking a consumable known as Savior Schnapps, but I must say that the game is pretty generous with autosaving if you're doing quests so you'll get frequent saves as you complete the quest objectives.
Combat is mainly unchanged but I did find it a bit easier to pick up due to the extended parry window. Hardcore Kingdom Come: Deliverance fans will certainly find it simpler but the tweaks here are so minimal that most players won't notice it.
I'd say that Warhorse Studios didn't try to reinvent the wheel with gameplay, instead, they've added some neat stuff that makes life easier like three outfit slots, a pouch for drinks and food, more weapons slots making it easier to swap between weapons in combat and more.
I also have to mention just how great the quest design in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is. I haven't spotted a single boring fetch quest yet, which is simply mindblowing for a game of such a scale. Perhaps that changes later on but during my playthrough, every quest, be it a main story or side one, was exceptional with multiple endings, and various ways to start quests and complete tasks within the quest.
The amount of interesting dialogue and events that happen during each quest really stood out and every time I expected the quest to end, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 would surprise me with a new twist. It never gets dull, never feels like a chore and even after 30 hours I can't wait to finish writing this preview so I can go back on a new adventure with the people of Bohemia.
Visually, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is a stunning video game, which doesn't come as a surprise since the first one was and still is quite the looker. The lighting has seen major improvements in the sequel, the character models look good and the level of detail in villages, forests, camps and indoors really makes the environments pop.
It's a shame that Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 doesn't come with any ray-tracing features, which would certainly elevate the game to an entirely different level graphically but it still does a wonderful job with the tech it uses.
Performance is also solid. I played on a PC with Ryzen 7800X3D, Nvidia RTX 4080 and 32 GB of RAM using the Ultra preset, 4K resolution and DLSS set to Quality and got around 70 FPS with minimal frame-rate issues.
With a couple of more weeks until the release, I'd expect that Warhorse will make additional improvements to the performance so Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 runs even better across all platforms.
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To conclude this preview, I believe Warhorse have made something really special here and I can't wait to see what more this world has to offer. From what I've seen so far, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is shaping up to be my Game of the Year and one of my favourite RPGs of all time.
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