I hated the first 10 hours with Kingdom Come: Delivance 2. Then I realized that I did not meet him on his terms; I tried to transform what is clearly realistic engaging digital LARP in SIM into Skyrim’s experience, I thought it would be another RPG in the open world. Only when I took a step back and got involved in all KCD2 systems, did I understand what Warhorse Studios tried. For the rest of my 66 hours I have experienced almost perfection, RPG, whose mechanics, characters and building the world are related to nature to create a up-to-date medieval epic. KCD2 is tough, demanding and often ruthless. But, like the keen blades that I brushed in the game, through fire, it sets an electrifying, surprising and unforgettable fairy tale.
After the first match, players start KCD2, controlling Hans Capon, master and best friend of the first game hero, Henry. They are embedded in a fortal fortressed by the army of the enemy and things go terribly. After a compact tutorial showing the fencing of the game, which uses the directional entry in real time to determine where the cut and stabs land, as well as novel crossbow, the situation worsens. This mixing Medias Res, because you soon sent a few weeks before this moment to find out how Hans, usually noble above the war, ended in a brutal siege.
From that moment, you mainly control Henry, a recurring hero who must balance the revenge, who is looking for those who killed his parents, and the daily duties he has as a knight of Hans. In these subsequent opening hours, you learn how one tiny bandit attack derails what should be a basic delivery for Hans and Henry, putting them on a weekly journey of relevators, rebellion and reflection.
In the early hours I was frustrated with how realistic everything in KCD2 tried to feel, from fighting and mixture to horse riding. It felt tardy, awkward and exhausting. I fought for wearing all the loot I wanted. I couldn’t defeat the enemy groups that surpassed me, even if only one. I was still caught by the guards for theft, which caused me to pay high fines (don’t worry – I also tried to get money), embarrassing the amount of time in Pręgka, and ultimately criminal branding, which permanently influenced my reputation. Each aspect of KCD2 seemed hostile. “I am a hero, I am the main hero, why this happens,” I found myself in anger.
I decided to find love for this series, continued to move forward, adapting how I approached the world. I stopped trying to fall everything, taking only what I needed. Instead, I stopped fighting many enemies, instead taking individual enemies to improve my statistics, achieve and build better armor over time. I stopped being a criminal, fighting with goals in longer, more tough and eventually more satisfying ways. It turns out that being a good citizen, an smart knight and a logical person in 1403 was the key to unlocking my personal success in KCD2. In other words, I found a pleasure in KCD2 only after restoring it as it is to be reproduced.
Equalization includes an approach focused on action, which encourages to try many aspects and skills of Henry, such as blacksmith, rider and many others. As it increased, what once seemed insurmountable to overcome the barrier to my fun, there were increases in progression that I was looking forward to. The fight remained tough, but also electrifying. There is something incredibly satisfying in conducting the blade to the place where you want to hit by blocking incoming attacks and counteracting a master strike or attack. This is the closest fencing in the game, she felt how I imagine that she was really attacking with a sword. And although I defended much less with a distance weapon, such as arches, crossbow and medieval firearms, they were all equally engaging.
The level of realism was approaching the simulation, just remaining a game enough to make my preference. I remember how I once told my wife how I had fun. When she asked what I was doing, I answered, explaining that I was moving the sacks of flour from one stroller to another and pristine human droppings from the latrine to the pile of removing a nearby with a shovel – uniorane electrifying things! There is something in Warhorse’s involvement in every system, regardless of whether it is a blade manure, riding a horse through a beautifully realized medieval landscape, or mixing novel mixtures that did not bring my attention to the RPG of an open world.
The rest of the experience – everything except mechanical gameplay – matched the ups that I experienced through my mouse and keyboard. There is so much dialogue, but everything is well written and perfectly performed by the vocal cast, and my choices seemed consistent in a surprising way. Although I was controlling a character I didn’t do, I felt like I was creating the personal version of Henry, who made sense of my journey so far, and KCD2 awarded my efforts at every corner.
This characteristics, my actions as a participant in this medieval world and the way I interacted with various others who call this house home, perfectly woven their way to the engaging nature of KCD2. While fighting the goal, I first thought about how my Henry would do, and KCD2 I never managed to provide the game that seemed adapted to the plans on which I landed. In combination with my favorite result of the year, the capricious and epic composition of Java Volta and Adam Sporka and wonderful painters, I rarely pulled out of Immersion KCD2.
Several times the illusion was broken, it was caused by problems with the camera, usually the result of the time of a picky point of view of the first person, a dishonest enemy and hiding, which is satisfactory, but easily the weakest element of the game. Usually, however, there was an electrifying moment of the story, the fight against fistoriff or environmental secrecy around the corner to restore me.
Although his gameplay is a real attraction of this adventure, the story in KCD2 is also praise. Like a great fantasy novel, covering hundreds of pages, Henry is involved in many arches filled with attacks, secrets, war, kidnapping, romance and not only – everything here. Although his climax, which definitely brings players back to the opening moments of the game, there was a too quick pace, the moment of the epilogue briefly binds the arch on Henry’s journey, which is both a moment of reflection and teasing adventure.
This moment has also doubled as a reminder of everything I achieved, good and evil, in Henry’s shoes from Skalitz. It was almost a commemorative expression of the fun I had. Regardless of whether a physical like a magnet or something less material like a memory, I don’t want souvenirs wherever I go, but I want me to never forget for experience. And KCD2, with all impressions, challenged, engaged and enraged, is RPG, whose adventure will probably be engraved in my head forever.
This 2025 review reflects our thoughts on the current state of the game in the publication. Therefore, updates after taking into account were included in the final result.
