Kingdom Come: Deliverance remains a unique offering in modern AAA game development.
While medieval RPGs are nothing new, the sensibility with which the game was developed sets it apart from modern Western RPGs. Now, three hours into the sequel, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, the game is a little more up to modern standards, but the unique quirks and combat system you either love or hate are back.
This results in a sequel that will delight fans who have waited half a decade for the sequel, and will most likely also attract new fans who were put off by the… eccentricities of the original game.
The game is a direct sequel to Kingdom Come: Deliverance. In fact, it literally begins the way the first game ended. It is set during the Bohemian Civil War and Henry and Hans are tasked with delivering a message.
We played the game from the beginning, when Henry, Hans and their crew stopped at a river bank to assess their mission. This gives you a good idea of what Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is all about. There are characters to talk to, small side quests like finding some food for your faithful dog (a companion from the beginning in the sequel), and relearning duelling.
Like the first game, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 uses a five-way dueling system to determine where your blows will land and where your opponent will attack from next. Once you see a green shield appear in front of your opponent, it's your chance for an easy counter.
Combat is fairly simple, and in both sections we played, it was very easy to counter enemies. The challenge, however, is keeping enemies under control. Combat in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is easy when it's 1v1, but if you get into a situation where you're outnumbered, you won't last long.
We're assured that you don't need any knowledge of Kingdom Come: Deliverance to play Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, and that seems to hold true in these opening areas. We won't give away the details, but there's a sequence early in the game that does a great job of explaining what the world is about, your connection to the character, and why your quest is important. It gets a little cliched, but as an effective way to experience the highlights of a 40-hour game for players who just want to immerse themselves in this adventure, it works well.
“We were assured that no knowledge of Kingdom Come: Deliverance is required to play Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, and that certainly seems to be true in these opening areas.”
Soon after, we are catapulted forward in the story to a mission in one of the game's major cities. We approach a man on the street and are quickly drawn into a conspiracy to form a new swordsman's guild in the city. We are told we must obtain a ceremonial sword and hang it in the town square, thus triggering a tradition where we fight for our right to form a swordsman's guild.
This is where the deeper RPG elements come to the fore. Developer Warhorse claims that each NPC has a day and night cycle, and that if a quest giver isn't where you think they are, you can find them by using the logic associated with that time of day. For example, we're supposed to challenge a character to a duel to prove our worth to our mentor, but they're nowhere to be found. We wander aimlessly until we decide to go to the farmstead to advance the game time. There we find the opponent sitting in his pants, sleeping.
In this and other ways, it reminds us of a Bethesda RPG. Later, we are asked to sneak into a building to steal the aforementioned ceremonial sword. There are several ways to do this. We can wait until night and break in without being discovered because everyone is asleep, or we can go in during the day and do our best to avoid anyone who leads us on the way up the ornate stairs of the medieval building.
We tried the latter and were quickly and awkwardly noticed. However, they didn't see us doing anything truly illegal, so they weren't put on alert. We quickly make a run for it. When we later retrieve the sword, we imagine the search will continue as if I had done it right. To our surprise, however, that's not the case. As we head out to face our opposing group, they point out that they are sure (but can't prove) that we stole it, and that they will therefore make the subsequent fight harder.
This kind of forethought and cause-and-effect is so often ignored in RPGs, so it was nice to see Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 openly admit that the method of completing tasks is just as important as how they are completed. The objective that concluded this questline wasn't quite as exciting. We're tasked with defeating our enemies in a series of duels.
However, this also involves watching the AI duel. There was little to be deduced from this, and since it took so long for our AI partner to win, it felt like we were watching the game being played for us.
“While the original had countless fans and they will probably enjoy the second installment as well, some of the rough edges have been smoothed out and the best systems from the first game have been improved.”
The tension of the earlier stages of the quest was lost as we watched two AI characters awkwardly take each other over in their knockout fun. It was a mood killer. The upside is that such things can be so easily fixed by making them skippable and getting us back into the action. Still, it was moments like these, the archaic inventory menu, and some of the movement that reminded us of exactly the kind of Central European gaming experience that Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 has its roots in.
The jump between Kingdom Come: Deliverance and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 feels like the jump between The Witcher and The Witcher 2. While the original had legions of fans and they'll likely enjoy the second installment, some rough edges have been smoothed out and the best systems from the first game have been improved.
It seems like this could be a major breakthrough for Warhorse, a studio that has grown from 90 people working on the original to over 250 people on the sequel. While it may not be entering the top tier of the genre with this release, all the momentum is with Warhorse, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 feels like the coming out party it's been waiting for.