Henry of Skalitz is neither a hero or coward, and definitely not the center of his universe. His journey through embattled 15th Century Bohemia in Warhorse Studios’ Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 continues, subject to the whims of magnanimous lords, backstabbing louts, catchpoles, and conmen, with the game’s grounded medieval fiction steadily bubbling around him. Published once again by Deep Silver, the game’s balance of veracity and viability is refined in this sequel, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 offers a near-incomparable adventure and atmosphere, even if it sometimes fumbles immersion and player independence to get there.

A controversial hit back in 2018, the original Kingdom Come: Deliverance was end-to-end ambitious, squaring up a peasant’s journey from blacksmith’s son to knighthood, absent any pesky magic or fantasy frills. Its world was maniacally detailed, consequential, cruel, and even beautiful, though its simulation featured some wonky performance issues that made an already challenging game even harder to stabilize, especially with its intentional lack of save-scumming.

Warhorse Studios listened closely to its players, because Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2’s performance is most often reliable out of the gate. Sure, some frustrating jank persists, like ally NPCs who forget how to fight, clipping avatars, and other predictable gaffs. And yet, most of its moving parts have been upgraded where needed or otherwise dismissed, making for a game that feels streamlined within its context and busy with creative distractions; it's an open-world lover's dream, full stop.

A Knight's Work is Never Done

Henry's Adventures Through Bohemia Continue, Still Packed With Combat & Content

Alongside a retinue of hired hands, bodyguards, and trusty horse and dog, Pebbles and Mutt, Henry accompanies noxious nobleman Hans Capon as envoy to Trosky castle. They encounter representatives en route before setting up camp for the night, with the game cycling tutorials on dialogue, dueling, digestion, gambling, and other systems.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2’s tutorials are a notable weak spot. New interactions in the game are interrupted with diagrams and paragraphs of text, reviewable later in menus but so much esoteric blather at first blush. Some arrive in the form of prompts at the top left of the screen to whisk away with a long press and, yes, these will certainly interrupt and fumble some vital action the first time around.

Soon, though, the instructive noise gives way to the gorgeous natural landscapes of Bohemia, all shuddering trees and grassy hills, pockets of industry near blank wheatfields and farmers. Both outdoor and indoor environments are stunningly drawn, elevated by the constant churn of work chatter, farm animals, buzzing insects, and chitchatting peasants. Considered purely in of its effective immersion, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2’s ambiance is exquisite and distinct.

After several hours of danger and introductory intrigue, the game unveils the first of its two massive explorable maps for play. Main story markers and side quests accumulate, as well as numerous non-essential diversions like dice matches, combat, fight clubs, common thievery, townsfolk tasks, and much more. The game’s new trumpeted projectile weapons are interesting but feel somewhat underutilized by the halfway point of the story, and melee still musters the primary method of engagement. Still, gearhounds and cosplayers will rejoice at the mountains of garments and armor pieces to collect and configure.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2's Questing, Culture, & Combat Reign Supreme

Characters & Story Remain One-Of-A Kind Within the Genre

Despite Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2’s historical adherence, it wields familiar gameplay routines found in franchises like The Elder Scrolls. You can shirk most main quest duties to spend hours upgrading individual skills, amass wealth and resources, harass NPCs and get imprisoned, or simply explore the vibrant cultures of the land. Standout scenes include a secluded nomadic Romany camp, a secretive prison break, and a disastrous wedding party.

Combat is still compelling, despite a few glitches and stumbles. And, while you can try and stealthily backstab your way through certain situations and forks in the narrative’s road, it’s important to note how the game’s general questing guidelines are stricter than its immersive sim insinuations might suggest.

Any battles larger than a simple duel grew unwieldy over time. Engaging multiple NPCs and five or more enemies inevitably led to teammates vanishing or temporarily falling in battle, leaving me to reload repeatedly to fend off every enemy on my own to succeed. These encounters will hopefully be smoothed out in future patches, but prepare for some frustration and bitter restarts.

All The Freedom... But Rarely Any Sequence-Breaking Allowed

That Time I Rescued A Noble, Then Had To Rescue Him Again

Regarding quest restrictions, take one scenario where I traveled to an outpost with diplomatic intentions but quickly noticed something darkly amiss. Going with my gut and a few collected clues, I turned on the fort's soldiers, stealth-killing several in secret before alarms summoned its full forces to my location. Comfortable with combat by then, I danced around and slaughtered them all down to a man, then went off to free the fort’s notable prisoner.

Except… I simply wasn’t allowed to do it. I could speak to him in the cell, though, and hear his pleas to fetch more help to free him, even while I held the prison key in hand. With a heavy sigh, I ventured off to satisfy the rest of the quest objectives, eventually returning to the fort where a number of previously murdered NPCs (though not all) had miraculously revived. The story then continued on, unhindered.

You can return to the game's first area to clean up most any loose ends and tasks left behind, so don't be afraid to forge ahead in the main quest. Returning to Trosky merely requires a small fee for travel.

This isn’t to say that Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 doesn’t contain meaningful choices to weigh, but the game’s claims of wily freedom sully the bespoke sequencing it typically requires. Furthermore, countless speech checks fall into that common trap where selected replies don’t always match Henry’s resultant decision or tone of voice.

Final Thoughts & Review Score

ScreenRant Give Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 A 9/10

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is not about rolling a freshly cultivated character from scratch and playing exactly how you want to play, but an epic historical adventure about a very specific individual, his trials and tribulations, his weaknesses, and strengths. Its narrative intentions occasionally interfere with its open-world sensibilities, but not enough to distract from what is an otherwise beautiful, carefully constructed medieval sandbox.

The specificity of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2's world-building and historical adherence will be either a lure or an obstacle. For me, the game's intriguing political matrix and depiction of peasantry proved compelling, and should interest anyone otherwise unwilling to crack a dusty tome on these subjects.

Still, the inconsistencies are there. Smithing requires considerable attention via a taxing minigame but broken armor can be magically fixed from a menu. Potions grant night vision and mend wounds in seconds, even while bread spoils to dust in your pocket, fantasy be damned. The realism here can feel arbitrary, compromising the final effect, ambitious as it may be.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 will inspire anyone willing to afford it patience in this regard, and they'll be rewarded by an open-world game with so much more to offer than cut-and-paste fetch quests and dungeons. It's a real-deal action RPG, an elegant European history lesson, and a solid simulation whose boundaries are worth testing and teasing until they break.

A digital Steam PC code was provided to ScreenRant for the purpose of this review.