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With the release of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 just around the corner, anticipation is building for the next chapter in Warhorse Studios’ ambitious medieval RPG series. Following the first game’s success, this sequel promises to expand on the immersive, historically-driven world that captivated players in 2018. Whether you’re a returning fan or new to the series, our final hands-on preview takes a closer look at what to expect from the game in terms of its narrative, gameplay, and improvements—just days before you can finally dive into the next chapter of this epic journey.
Welcome to Thy Kingdom
Like in my upcoming review, I won’t spoil much of the story for Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, outside of saying that it’s a direct continuation of where the original game ended. Despite that, even if you didn’t play the first game (which I highly recommend), the sequel does a fine job of setting things up and recapping the events of the first game. It’s not required to be played, and I’d argue that the opening hours of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 establishes itself as a more welcoming experience, as while the original game threw you right into the thick of it, the sequel takes it sweet time to build up its story, but it does so with a cinematic fashion.
It’s quite a slow start, akin to, say, Red Dead Redemption 2 opening, where a good chunk of it is spent learning about the characters as they’re put in a tense dilemma with them making some pretty tough decisions. The opening hours of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 are, in fact, rather “linear.” Not that this is a bad thing, quite the opposite actually as whereas in the first game you sort of have to learn things as you go, Warhorse Studios uses the into of the game to not only tell a story in an engaging way but also to teach players the mechanics in a more structured manner. The pacing is deliberate, allowing you to absorb the nuances of combat, crafting, and exploration without feeling overwhelmed and rushed. Each interaction feels purposeful, setting up the larger world and its complex web of politics and intrigue. It’s a thoughtful approach, ensuring that players are well-equipped before they’re set loose into the more open-ended parts of the game, where the choices are more significant and the stakes even higher.
You’ll hear more about it in my full review, but based on the opening, the sequel feels like the original Kingdom Come: Deliverance, but in a much more refined way. The gameplay has been touched up immensely, and most of the jank (don’t worry—it still has physics-based combat) now feels more in the player’s control. This is a better scene in the game’s combat, which has gone from five directional swing inputs to four. It’s more “accessible” but by no means easier, at least to master, as the combat still takes things such as stamina, distance, and numerous mechanics with several physics tied to them. Of course, like in the original, a lot of things can be countered by leveling up certain skills, such as swordsmanship, but even then, going in equipped into combat, you can find this game to be very challenging and fun.
To newcomers, I may say the gameplay is rough around the edges at first, but if you stick with it for long enough, you’ll appreciate what Warhorse Studios has built. As I said, the opening hours are slow but surprisingly cinematic, and much of the mechanics you’ll learn from those hours only serve to prepare you for what the game truly has to offer. What exactly is that? Well, it’s what I’d best describe as an open-world medieval playground driven by several sandbox mechanics that make for perhaps one of the most interactive RPGs I’ve ever played.
It’s not quite a “true sandbox,” mind you. You have a story quest that follows, for the most part, a set path. But what do you do in between the story feels pretty sandbox. After you’ve gotten through the intro, the game opens up drastically. It gives you a goal that you eventually need to accomplish, but how you get there is really up to you in many ways. You could power through it and get through the early parts that I’m allowed to talk to in this preview in a few short hours. But that’d be doing the game a disservice, and you’d miss out on how much you can experiment with in the open world.
Take the crime system, which has vastly improved from the first game. Towns are littered with folks, and many have valuables you can trade for. But starting early, you basically have nothing to your name to spend. So you can decide to get to work and earn a good reputation amongst the town folk, which comes with stat perks to help you haggle for better prices. Or, you could take a less noble approach, sneak around behind people’s backs, and rob them of their well-earned money and goods. Those goods can be sold off to traders, but if you aren’t careful, traders will pick up on the fact that you’ve stolen the items.
There’s a lot of mechanics that are intertwined when it comes to crime. Those stolen goods might be tracked back to you because you started to earn a reputation for being a thief. People in towns will become wearier of your presence, making stealth harder and haggling and doing business with traders much harder to do.
Eventually, you’ll get caught by the town’s guards due to all the reports, and if you aren’t versed well enough in your speech, they’ll try and make you pay it all back with money. If you don’t have money, you’ll get put in the pillory, where the townsfolk can spend days and nights heckling you while throwing all kinds of perishables. Commit more crimes; you might get branded, which makes all the townfolks aware of who you are as they yell snarky remarks as you pass them on the street. More heinous crimes could even result in an execution.
However, it’s more than just the crime system that the NPC will react to. Walk into a town that isn’t fond of Cumans wearing Cuman armor, and they might not talk to you. Don’t maintain your hygiene; they’ll call out your location due to the unbearable stench. Keep being good, though, and you’ll find some benefits, such as traders offering you more work and additional dialogue options becoming available that may even lead to some bountiful rewards.
Many mechanics are in place that are superbly reactive to the things you do, giving the world this sense of living, more so than most of your traditional open-world games do.
Though the game revolves around the player, I love how Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 feels like a world that doesn’t care about you. Everyone has their own lives to live, and I could see this as I followed NPCs around to see where and what they were doing. A shopkeeper, for example,e wakes up, puts on their gear, has breakfast, makes chatter with other townfolks, then goes about their day trading, interacting with other NPCs, and then eventually closing shop and repeating the process. Every NPC in the game feels like they have a purpose in this world, and it’s crazy to watch it unfold.
Because of that, the game offers some pretty unique side quests that are scattered throughout the world. And if what we played through indicated what the complete game offers, then you can expect not only quantity but also quality behind every, if not most, of the quests. The cool part is how much of those sandbox-like mechanics transfer into some side quests. Decision-making is a massive part of the game, and several mechanics determine the way outcomes end. I mentioned before that you can increase your stats to have better dialogue options, or more so, more successful ones, such as being able to lie and other things.
Failing a sidequest doesn’t result in a game over, and unless you save scum, some of the decisions you make in the game will be ones you have to live with.
A Promising Start
There’s a lot to talk about when it comes to Kingdom Come: Deliverance, some of which you can read in my review next week. But, what I will say, based on my playtime from the preview section, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is shaping up to be quite the worthy successor. With a bigger focus on creating a richly immersive world filled with history and choices that actually matter, it’s clear Warhorse Studios aimed big with this one. Just how that will translate into the final game? Well, you’ll have to see next week when our full review is up, but so far, Warhorse Studios has already crafted what feels like is going to be an unforgettable journey.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 code was provided by the publisher for preview and review purposes. You can read MP1st’s review and scoring policy right here.
