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Jesus Christ be praised, nearly seven years since the release of Kingdom Come: Deliverance, the bigger, bolder sequel is finally here!
My first experience with this hardcore medieval RPG was during the COVID-19 pandemic when I was on the lookout for an RPG that didn’t insult my intelligence, and Kingdom Come ticked all the right boxes, including the immersive world, historical accuracy, and unapologetically authentic approach to storytelling that actually respected its audience. So, as a fan of the first game and someone who’ll happily rant about its brilliance, this sequel has been at the top of my wishlist for a long, long time.
The big question leading up to the sequel was whether Warhorse could retain the charm of the first game while refining its mechanics, and the answer is a resounding yes. Right off the bat, if you didn't like the first game at all, I doubt the sequel will change your mind. But if you liked the idea of the original and just found some things still rough around the edges, then this sequel might be what you’ve been waiting for.
STORY
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is set in medieval Bohemia, a region in Europe that is today known as the Czech Republic. Once again, you’re playing as Henry, son of a Skalitz blacksmith, who is still on a mission to avenge his parents' death, retrieve Sir Radzig Kobyla’s sword, and resist Sigismund’s invasion.
In the sequel, your initial task seems simple enough: escort Sir Hans Capon as he delivers an important letter to Lord Otto von Bergow in an effort to ease tensions in the Wenceslas vs. Sigismund conflict. But if you’re familiar with Hans Capon, a spoiled yet surprisingly likeable Bohemian nobleman and the future lord of Rattay, you know things are bound to go spectacularly wrong.
Acting as his bodyguard and friend, you soon find yourself ambushed and severely wounded — which is how the game explains Henry’s skill reset – and then rescued by a lovely lady called Bozhena who looks after you for a couple of days before Henry and Hans are ready to continue their journey. From there, your quest to deliver the letter to Otto von Bergow, and everything else that follows, truly begins.
This time, the game’s historical backdrop is presented on double the scale, complete with two rich and detailed maps to explore. But the increased size isn’t just about covering more ground, it also adds new layers of history and culture to explore, while ditching hand-holding in favour of intuition and exploration of the world that challenges you to engage with it on its own terms.
To bring newcomers up to speed and reward returning fans with added depth, the game incorporates key story bits from Kingdom Come: Deliverance through Henry’s dreams, flashbacks, and interactions with other characters. The writing is nothing short of spectacular, and often feels like Game of Thrones at its peak - gritty, layered, and human.
Actions have weight, alliances are fragile, and even the seemingly smallest decisions can cascade into dramatic consequences. I spent around 155 hours exploring this world over two weeks, and yet, I feel like I’ve only seen 60 per cent of the game’s content.
Almost every quest is a web of branching outcomes, and every line of dialogue and morally grey decision feels carefully crafted — no wonder if you’ve seen the script length, and it really shows in the quest design.
I found myself replaying quests multiple times, experimenting with different dialogue choices to uncover their outcomes and in some cases see how they shape the broader narrative, but one early-game quest, in particular, stands out.
I replayed it three times, only to discover that what seemed like an insignificant choice hours earlier almost completely altered a major plotline. The gravity of my decision had me reloading saves, because I genuinely felt guilty about the consequences.
As expected, the story introduces a roster of new characters while also reintroducing familiar faces and revisiting unfinished business with Markvart von Aulitz and Istvan Toth. Playing as Father Godwin, arguably Kingdom Come: Deliverance community's favourite character from the first game, was a personal highlight, though I can see how new players might feel it’s an odd detour.
Unfortunately, Theresa is absent, only mentioned briefly in a handful of quests. While this makes sense narratively, her absence feels like a missed opportunity to round up the story or revisit Rattay and provide a more definitive conclusion to Henry’s story in the base game. As a result, the ending left me with that "Alright, I finished it, but now what?" feeling, partly due to Theresa’s absence. Hopefully, Warhorse is saving that resolution for future content.
The pacing is still slow and deliberate, and the overall narrative holds up remarkably well. There were, albeit rare, moments where it stumbled slightly. Trying to keep this spoiler-free, but Henry’s discovery of new details about his family feels forced and oddly placed. It slightly disrupts the flow of the main action and would’ve worked better as a side quest.
Speaking of side quests, that's where Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 truly delivers. The game makes side quests feel like they belong in the world. Side quests are not just random tasks slapped on, there’s no dreaded "fetch quest syndrome" here. The beauty of it? I never had to search for quests. Everything just flowed naturally, one event smoothly feeding into the next without feeling disjointed. Exploration is its own reward, and it makes the world feel alive and consistent. And in KCD fashion, there’s also a lot of random interactions and humour scattered throughout.
Take Huntsman Vostatek — I bumped into him early on and he quickly became a favourite. At one point, I thought about stealing his horse (because why not?) but couldn’t bring myself to ruin my reputation with him. Later, I accidentally slept in his bed, felt absurdly guilty, and willingly accepted punishment.
From there, I went off looking for Mutt, stumbled upon a nomadic tribe, was tempted to steal horses to trade with them, and eventually found my way back to my own horse, Pebbles. Along the way, I naturally fell back into the main quest. That’s just a really, really tiny example of worldbuilding done right.
Jan Valta and Adam Sporka, the masterminds behind the Kingdom Come: Deliverance and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 soundtracks, have absolutely knocked it out of the park. Whether you’re wandering through Kuttenberg or galloping off to your next quest, the soundtrack fits perfectly and it stands tall as a masterpiece on its own.
You’ll catch familiar motifs from the original, but they’ve also added fresh touches that make it feel completely new. Personally, my favourite is the background music in Sigismund’s camp on the Kuttenberg map. The sounds of nature are equally amazing, and I often found myself simply riding through dense forests, listening to birds chirping or frogs croaking.
The voice acting is another standout. Sure, there are a few voice performances that aren’t quite as spectacular, but even those add a certain charm to the game. With over five hours of cutscenes, the experience feels downright cinematic, and it’s clear the team poured their hearts into making sure the story comes alive.
GAMEPLAY
First and foremost, understand that this game is not your power-fantasy RPG. You’re just a regular guy, the main playable character, but by no means the main character of the world you’re in. It's designed to be immersive, realistic, and believable above all else, and the gameplay reflects just that.
While the core system remains largely unchanged, there are some notable quality-of-life upgrades, including an overhaul of perks (and everything else, really). To level up Henry's skills, you can either train with NPCs or practice on your own to then choose from a range of perks to improve your Henry, such as performing special weapon combos or making it easier to sell stolen goods.
But the level cap is now increased to 30, so you’ll feel more capable much earlier on. Plus, unlike the first game, most perks are now straight-up positive, with no trade-offs. A quick example: in the first game, you could choose between running faster but tiring quicker or running slower but lasting longer, but in the sequel, you can have both with no negatives attached.
The combat system is also familiar but simplified. You’re no longer starting from scratch as a lowly peasant flailing with stick swords, but the story progression equips you with basic swordsmanship, which you can refine as the game advances. Combos are easier to pull off, combat feels smoother overall, and fighting multiple enemies is much easier. A big plus for me is that enemies are no longer constantly in your face—they are now more strategic in the way they approach you, which removed one of the more frustrating aspects of the first game.
There’s a variety of weapons to choose from—crossbows are new, guns are new, and you can finally store polearms in your inventory, but I stuck to my stealthy, thieving ways for the most part, only diving into combat when absolutely necessary, and even then using swords 99% of the time. But even if combat isn't your focus, every bit of progress you make in refining your skills feels genuinely rewarding as you witness Henry getting better at combat, dialogue, blacksmithing and many other skills.
Weapons and clothing/armour now have quality rankings, but if you’ve levelled up the right perk and put some time into blacksmithing, you can also craft Henry quality weapons.
And of course, you’ll need to build your reputation across regions, cities, and groups. Whether it’s with nobles, guards, peasants, or merchants, your actions will shape how people see Henry. Get caught misbehaving, and you might just get yourself branded. Sneak into a restricted area, and NPCs will check to see if anything's gone missing. Leave a door open, and they’ll grow suspicious because they remember closing it, and may even investigate.
Even if you’re sure no one caught you red-handed, if someone saw you near the area before 8k worth of items disappeared, you could still face a hefty fine. The world responds not only to your actions but also to your appearance and smell, and that’s what brings a lot of weight to every decision you make. Unfortunately, there will be no beard and hair options for Henry at launch, but they will be added later on.
GRAPHICS AND PERFORMANCE
In an industry where releasing a half-finished game and then fixing bugs post-launch has become all too common, frustrating players in the process, Warhorse has clearly made an effort to avoid the rocky launch state of Kingdom Come: Deliverance with the release of the sequel.
Sure, you’ll occasionally come across a quirky visual glitch, like a horseman casually riding along the handrail at Zhelejov Wagoners’ Inn or a deer suddenly moonwalking at light speed when it sees me charging full throttle at it, but thankfully, these are more amusing than disruptive, and I haven’t experienced any game-breaking bugs or anything significant enough to completely yank me out of the experience.
The one frustrating bug I did encounter came during the Demons of Trosky side quest I picked up after picking up the Necessary Evil main quest. The game warns that this side quest will fail if you progress the main story by speaking to Capon. So after hours of clearing other quests, I returned to deal with the demons, only to find the final room in the castle locked, as it’s tied to the main quest after speaking to Capon.
Smaller bugs popped up as well, like Innkeeper Betty speaking with another woman’s voice during a dice quest at a wedding, and I noticed some incorrect captions in dialogue. The game did crash once while I was buying clothes, but that’s about it. Keep in mind that I played a pre-release version of the game, a month ahead of launch, so I expect these issues to be ironed out in the Day 1 Patch or shortly after.
That said, I did experience some late-game performance hiccups. After completing a main story quest in Kuttenberg, the city started stuttering every five seconds upon my return, with frame drops ranging from 15 to 25fps within the city limits. Later on, in another location near the endgame, my frames dropped to around 30fps for about 30 seconds.
On the bright side, it’s clear that a lot of effort went into optimising the game for PC. Even if you don’t have the latest gaming machine, you’ll still be able to enjoy the game with mid-to-high-ultra custom visual settings. For context, I ran it on a Ryzen 5 7600X and RTX 3070 Ti, which falls within medium specs (we’ve covered performance and Warhorse’s system specs in detail here) and I had zero issues cranking it up to Ultra at times. But even if you’re not rocking Ultra, mid-level visuals still give you a seriously solid visual experience.
CONCLUSION
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is hands down a must-play for anyone who’s into Medieval open-world gameplay. All of it combines into a package that justifies the 59.99€ price tag, or 79.99€ if you’re going for the Gold Edition. Honestly, this is a serious Game of the Year contender.
As a disclaimer: If you’re after a quick, casual RPG that can be wrapped up in under a month with casual gaming sessions, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 might not be your best match. But if you’re like me and tend to become somewhat obsessive once you find a game you love, and you’re looking for a rewarding RPG that doesn’t shy away from challenge or nuance, prepare for an experience that will consume your time and attention.
If you haven’t played the first game but are considering diving into this one, I’d strongly recommend starting with Kingdom Come: Deliverance. Not only will it make the sequel’s story feel more cohesive and satisfying as a direct continuation, but you’ll also get to appreciate Henry’s growth, both as a character and in terms of gameplay improvements.
So far, it looks like Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 will be the end of the KCD story, and I am really glad they decided not to milk it for profit. I am super excited to see what Warhorse is working on next, and I hope they keep the same passion as they have done so far.
The Good
Engaging story and intricate quest design- Immersive world and rewarding exploration
- Attention to detail and historical accuracy
- Improved gameplay mechanics
- Memorable characters and VA
- Strong, well-optimised performance
The Bad
Deliberate pace might still be too slow for some players- Some visual glitches and bugs, though not game-breaking
