Synth Potato🥔@SynthPotato
REVIEW: Kingdom Come Deliverance 2
One of the greatest RPGs of all time.
KCD2 is quite possibly the greatest sequel ever made.
I've loved KCD1 since I first played it on launch back in 2018. It was a great albeit quite clunky and flawed RPG that really put Warhorse on the map for me with it's fantastic writing and hardcore gameplay. you could tell it had a ton of heart and passion despite a tiny budget and a small team behind it.
I always thought a sequel would end up a fantastic game, but KCD2 managed to completely shatter all my expectations.
Short Version:
What Warhorse Studios managed to deliver here after 7 years of development is nothing short of pure magic, this is a hardcore RPG, a movie-scale epic mediaeval drama, and it boasts one of the most realistic open worlds I've ever played.
Everything about KCD2 feels big and epic in scale, the story, the conflicts, the battles, the world with it's gorgeous draw distance, it's really all here and better than I could've ever imagined.
The gameplay is a blast, It's rare that a game can hold strong and introduce new mechanics 90+ hours in but KCD2 is that game, I simply was never bored, the combat has been improved in basically every way imaginable from the first game with a soundtrack that elevates everything and some of the most gorgeous graphics I've ever laid my eyes on, all while running insanely well on my PS5 on Performance Mode, despite some visual/audio bugs that will probably be fixed in a patch or two.
Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 was worth the 7 year long wait and is now one of my favorite games of all time. I am so happy to rate this a perfect 10/10 and I can't wait to see what Warhorse does next.
Long Version:
Story:
KCD1's story was the best part about it, I was hooked on Henry's conflict basically from day one, and that game ended on a cliffhanger that had me so upset and mad that you can still look up my posts from 7 years ago being pissed at it on this profile funnily enough.
If KCD1 was a budget medieval TV show you'd catch on the history channel, KCD2 is an epic-scale blockbuster movie that literally cannot be missed.
KCD2's story is basically the perfect sequel, it starts what feels like 5 minutes after the ending of KCD1 and only gets bigger and bigger in scale from there. A Game of Thrones-level mediaeval drama with so many conflicts to keep track of, actual history in the codex, and countless characters, returning and new, that really bolster an amazing cast of villains and sidekicks.
Henry himself and how all the conflicts from the first game that I've been waiting what feels like a lifetime to see resolved, all get resolved perfectly and in ways that subverted my expectations in the best method possible. I won't get into spoilers, but as someone who loved KCD1, I couldn't have asked for a more perfect continuation and ending of that story.
It also helps that every character speaks like a real person, and I don't mean just with the fantastic acting but they act like human beings, they have flaws, they have issues in their lives, they mumble over their own words and struggle with the overarching conflict, and the sense of humor is downright pitch perfect.
I haven't laughed this hard at a game in a long time and that's mainly because of how naturally it is all written. KCD2 feels like it was written by people who love life, who love their friends, and I wouldn't be surprised if many of the dynamics here were based on real-world experiences the writers had with their friends and family. There isn't a single character here that feels robotic in any way, which is quite rare for an RPG nowadays, and that is the highest praise you can give to character writing possible.
From Hans and Henry's brotherhood to Godwin's downright hilarious alcohol dependence, there is so much real humour drawn from people's flaws, like people in reality would do.
Overall, the story left me with an insane amount of emotions, I cried at several moments in this game, both of happiness and sadness. and that rarely happens for me with any game, that's how fantastic the writing in KCD2 is.
Gameplay:
KCD2 is the most improved sequel I think I've ever played in terms of gameplay, the systems from KCD1 are pretty much all here, just massively improved.
You still start off pretty weak like in KCD1 but the learning curve is far less steep, you should be good to go to take on enemies and explore freely after the first ~5 hours, however be real careful during those 5 hours as it is super punishing, be smart, rob a guard!
Combat no longer feels like a janky mess when fighting multiple enemies, instead it feels like a strategic dance where one slice to the face can end you or your enemy, proper movement and ensuring you don't get cornered while using masterstrikes and combos can really have you beat basically any amount of enemies without relying on cheap tactics.
There's a lot of missions centered around stealth and I've always actually enjoyed the KCD stealth system, in here it's quite improved, you still have to make sure you wear some light dark clothing when you do it, and now you can distract enemies with rocks.
I really love how Henry can actually blend into the shadows properly now at night and in dark encampments; it felt like a Splinter Cell game at times. I only wish we actually could have some kind of water arrow to turn off torches from a distance to add another level of depth.
There are countless other systems here to keep track of, so to cut a long story short, KCD2 is a ridiculously deep hardcore RPG that has you checking your hunger/tiredness/cleanliness among other things like the weight of the armor you're wearing, weapons, how much noise and how conspicious you look, and you have the freedom to do basically anything you want, rob anyone and any house then sell it at a fence if you'd like.
Saving is also much more forgiving than KCD1, there are a lot of checkpoints quite often and I appreciated how cheap Saviour Schnapps are, it actually made me really enjoy this save system that I used to despise in KCD1, it really prevents you from save-scumming while still preventing the loss of hours of progress, just be careful not to ride off a hill.
To conclude the gameplay aspect, It's been said before but KCD2 has really taken that Bethesda's first-person RPG with a heavy reliance on world reactivity torch and just ran with it, this is in a way what I always dreamed a TES6 would deliver but this has exceeded that and I was having a blast the entire way through.
Soundtrack:
KCD2 has an AMAZING soundtrack, it elevates every single story moment with its bombastic Hans Zimmer-esque themes that genuinely gave me goosebumps countless times. The composer seriously cooked here, as I remember KCD1's OST being quite reserved but not here. This OST belongs at an IMAX theatre.
Side Content & Exploration:
KCD2 has a ton of side quests, I believe I finished around %80 of them in my playthrough. The variety here is insane, almost every single side quest has something unique about it, it is a far cry from the usual fetch questing that KCD1 had a ton of.
In terms of exploration, The Trosky region is medium sized and reminded me a lot of the first game's map with it's forests and hills, I really loved the cozy feeling of it all and exploring it is a blast, there's a ton of hidden and interesting stuff here.
Kuttenberg Region region is kind of ridiclous, I'm pretty sure this is bigger than the entirity of the first game and Trosky put together, that is just a guess though don't quote me on it, and it is FILLED with content, secrets, places to rob/explore, I tried my best to explore the entire map but I really don't think I came close to finding everything, it's insane and makes me think no wonder it took 7 years to make this game.
Graphics:
KCD2 is gorgeous and runs insanely well on basically anything. I played it on a PS5 on Performance Mode but also tested it on a 3060Ti/4060 and I can confirm it runs beautifully on all these platforms.
It's also worth mentioning that this game might have the best draw distance I've ever seen, it's crazy how far you can see and it's huge credit to the world designers as the world is designed in a way to reinforce huge views from high-up places and hills that oversee huge vistas and cities.
Speaking of cities, Kuttenberg is hands down my favorite city in a medieval title since Novigrad from Witcher 3.
Also, I can't finish this without mentioning how good the cut scenes look, there's a huge amount of fully mo-capped cut scenes here that look INCREDIBLE.
It is shocking that an RPG like KCD2 has actually managed this while many other RPGs struggle and stick to the normal back-and-forth generic animation dialogue for their entire runtime, Obviously those are here but the amount of cut scenes in both main and side quests is mindblowing.
Bugs/Glitches:
KCD2 is shockingly well polished for this type of RPG, especially when compared to how KCD1 launched, it's not perfect however.
I had 2 crashes in my +90 hours of playtime. Visual glitches that honestly really took me out of the experience that seem to only happen on PS5, especially with lights randomly flickering. there is also some weird audio popping that also only happens on PS5 but that disappears for me after playing for a few minutes. I kinda wish I played the whole game on PC due to these issues really annoying me on PS5 whenever they cropped up which wasn't always but often enough to mention.
I won't deduct a point for these, as I know it's quite minor in the grand scheme of things especially when compared to how other games of this genre launch and far from game-breaking. I'm sure it'll be fixed in a patch or two so if you're reading this a couple of weeks from now, it's most likely fixed.
Conclusion:
Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 will sit as one of my favorite games of all time. It earns a 10/10 rating from me and it has instantly shot up Warhorse Studios as one of my favorite RPG studios right alongside Larian, From Software and CD Projekt Red.
I really can't recommend this game more to everyone and if you're curious and haven't played the first one, I do recommend that game too or minimum watching all the cut scenes or a detailed recap to understand all the story moments as you'd miss out on those deeper moments otherwise.
Here's hoping the upcoming DLCs are great as well so look forward to a review of those one day too!
