Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 [Review]

It is difficult to go away from Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. Its quaint setting, gorgeous vistas and impressive world scale, from little villages to small towns and then big cities; by the end of it, part of me wanted to be teleported to 1200s Bohemia and get lost in there.

Beyond the fantastic atmosphere of the game, there are many strong foundations here: the questlines are branched and with multiple endings, mostly on the sidequests but sometimes in the main scenario as well; the quest discovery is very natural, with different named townsfolk and situations that are almost always very unexpected and fun to partake. It has a nice crafting system full of mysteries and manual work, and it is always a joy to forge or get new pieces of armor.

KCD2 is unbalanced on its mechanics, though. Some are better implemented than others, and the game doesn't follow much of its own rules most of the time. Some NPCs will treat you differently at the same exchange if you have more than one activity related to them, there's almost no “connections” between side activities and the reputation system does not really matter in the gameplay, as different cities doesn't really interact with each other nor reflect much on your reputation.

Still focusing on the gameplay, the combat system is not that challenging. It starts a bit harder, sure, but after some initial hours I didn't really need to fear combat encounters even if outnumbered, and the stealth is really overpowered due to the somewhat dumb reactions of the NPCs – it is better than most stealth on other games, requiring it to hide bodies and do stuff at night, but once I've managed to use equipment stats with less visibility, everything started to become easy and feel a bit outdated.

The overall story is amazing, and the cast of main characters is really memorable. Zizka, Hans, Katherine, and Henry are very fun and cool to be around. I cannot say the same to the expanded cast, though: some of them simply didn't have any kind of character arc or progression whatsoever and were annoyingly repetitive. Still, the crew is solid, the story is good and everything feels epic yet local. I wasn't too keen on the dialogue, though: sometimes it had a weirdly modern delivery, with some current slang thrown around here and there. Most of the story choices are with no real consequences on the big outcome of the game, although they indeed can be performed in different ways.

Still, it is a game filled with mysteries, in a long sprawling scenario through immense maps that have many fun stories to find with some silly and some serious situations to be part of. I adored the most important characters, and while the game wasn't really challenging, I never felt bored. Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 for me is the pinnacle of the somewhat old 'Open World RPG' formula. Still a great game, with impressive set pieces and heartwarming moments.

8.5/10