I am the Knight.
If games like Skyrim and The Witcher III: Wild Hunt are represented as the typical posable action figure, then Kingdom Come Deliverance II would be a 1,000+ piece model kit. The commitment to learning its systems, handling its combat, and even tinkering with brewing potions or forging your own weapons, is considerable. This massive and dense world is desperate to gut you when you least expect it, both in its layered combat and its breathtaking and period-authentic story.
Quite literally following the events of the first game, Henry and Hans Capon travel to Trosky to deliver a letter to Otto Von Bergow in hopes he will defy the ruling King Sigismund. However, after a rest at a local pond to continue that objective in the morning, their camp is attacked, and Henry and Hans barely escape with their lives, leaving the corpses of their traveling companions behind. However, to make matters worse, their letter to Von Bergow is stolen, as are their clothes, weapons, and every last groschen to their name. Any chance of delivering their message has seemingly come to an end.
Wounded and in dire need of help, the pair find an elderly woman living in the woods. She not only aids in helping Henry and Hans recover, but she also teaches Henry how to brew potions. However, like most scenarios in this game, there is often a darker side or events that then lead to bloodshed and conflict. As you get to know her and her daughter more intently, you start to discover the complexity of the lives around you and how everyone is just looking to survive, and often wanting something in return.
The world that is crafted here is deeply complex, with systems built so that those around you will receive you with either open arms or refuse to do business with you altogether. Your appearance, reputation, and even your cleanliness will dictate how you are accepted and received. If you steal from a house and its occupant discovers their valuables are missing, they may suspect you since you are new to town, and thus reporting you. Attempt to sway the conversation while covered in blood or worse, and the conversation may not go the way you intend. Become a known criminal and fail to pony up your fines and you'll be publicly branded. Nearly every possible way you can interact with its world will have an effect on how you engage with it and how its occupants will engage with you. Most games brag about dynamic engagements, but Warhorse has actually pulled it off.
What deepens this world even more is the attention to detail when it comes to smithing your own weapons or brewing your own potions. When it comes to blacksmithing, you are handling the tools personally as you heat and bang away at the iron in your grasp. Those who simply want to exist as a blacksmith and sell their offerings can do so, even if there is a ceiling in being able to live that lifestyle as its simulation depth is unfortunately a bit shallow at first, given the few materials and blueprints you'll have. The same is true for brewing potions. You'll first need to have the recipe, fresh ingredients, and the instructions on how long to brew it and the heat involved. Crafting is a major component of these types of games, but Kingdom Come Deliverance II makes this effort more of a simulation than something commonly menu-drived in nearly every other similar experience.
Kingdom Come Deliverance II is a story built upon the bloody business of politics and loyalty. Its key players are present and often unpredictable. You won’t always know your allies from your enemies, and you will often be played from one scene to the next. It keeps you guessing on these allegiances in ways most games never have the depth to handle. And despite the personal stake that Henry has in this story, especially when it comes to certain characters involved in the death of his parents and the destruction of his village, the story goes to great lengths to weave this into the main narrative in ways that make its conclusion incredibly satisfying, especially given your available choices.
What is also seen here is the continued development of the relationship between Henry and Hans. While their divide is still the same Noble and Commoner dynamic, Hans truly sees Henry as his brother, a man he can rely on and know he will have his back, even if the game allows you to have some words with Hans when his Noble’ness gets the lot in trouble at a local tavern. Their relationship is one of the core pillars of this game and is executed brilliantly due to some fantastic writing and performances.
In fact, there are a great many relationships, conversations, allies, and enemies that provide equally impressive performances and dynamics. The voice cast is absolutely stellar, and given the script is over two million words, there is a lot to take in, especially with alternative dialogue that is based on your proficiency with conversation and where your choices have had you end up. While you can save due to a concoction you'll need to brew or purchase, conversations may not go the way you want, allowing the story, its cast, and the scenario to go from good to bad in a second. While it is possible to save scum, it becomes expensive and finite since you are relying on an item.
The historically recreated Bohemia is a wonderment to explore with many people, places, and events that took place in actual history. Trotsky and Kuttenberg are two massive maps with a lot to explore. Despite Kuttenberg being the larger map, you could easily spend upwards to 60 or 70 hours in the first area alone cleansing it of its side quests and activities. That said, Kuttenberg has one of the densest cities ever seen in a game based purely on there being a great number of places to thoroughly explore, people to meet, and numerous shopkeepers and smithy’s to get what you need, that and a bed to sleep or a bath to share some company with. And given the city is a whole other beast at night, with lucrative thieving possibilities, and it becomes an engaging location to take in. Kuttenberg also benefits from some of the best moments in the story being present and accounted for, including an attack on the Jewish Quarter that is handled in ways that allow the story to be far more brutal and adult than most games ever attempt to be.
Apart from travelling from one map to the next, there are no loading screens to enter buildings, caves, settlements, or any sort of new location you'll be fit to enter. It's all effortlessly seamless, making the world itself feel massive in scale. In fact, the only loading is moving from Trotsky to Kuttenberg via carriage. This scale means the staggering size of a fort from the outside can be felt as you walk among its inhabitants and choke points. Whether you attempt to travel on your horse, fast travel, or just leg it on your own, you will constantly encounter new locations, enemy camps, and a wealth of side activities that will keep you busy for dozens upon dozens of hours.
If there is one particular aspect of this adventure that I want to point out, it is that the world feels more natural and organic than anything I have seen before. Forests feel naturally placed, towns feel alive, and there is such a personality to the locations here. We’ve seen immersion at its best in games like Red Dead Redemption II or The Witcher III: Wild Hunt, but Kingdom Come Deliverance is far and away the winner here due to a lot of smart design choices. Eech region feels unique, every town feels distinct, and taking the road less travelled can find you with enough distraction that you’ll spend the next five to ten hours wrapped up in several connected quests that will see Henry either covered in blood or outwitting his opponent with words.
While I could sing this game’s praises all day long, there is one aspect of the adventure here that I simply didn’t care for, a major component of the game’s building blocks that I found extremely lacking; its combat. While it’s seen some changes since the first game, swapping to four directions from five, I simply didn’t get on with its combat here and many encounters frustrated me to no end. While skill issue is certainly to blame here, it’s a realistic series of systems that I found absolutely no fun taking part in. I would often get creative or sick my dog on them to attack while distracted, but any time I fought more than a single foe, I frankly hated my time here.
Combat has you positioning your stance to counter or block incoming strikes or attack where the enemy is vulnerable. While one on one is where I feel this combat is fine enough, I never found it to cater to more. While I would be lying to say I made my peace with it, I did eventually get to a place where if I managed my environment in certain ways, I could usually end up the victor. Let’s just say I used a lot of save potions to scum save as often as I could.
Combat works in a variety of ways, allowing its approach to be heavily layered. You can attack in four directions: high, low, left, and right. You have combo attacks and various strike skills that you’ll continue to add to as you find teachers who can make Henry a more capable killing machine. My issue is that the stamina gets chewed up so fast, as you swing and block, leaving you wildly vulnerable, and that the close-range camera can often create too many blind spots when being surrounded on all sides. Your stamina is also based on your remaining health, making it dwindle as you are at a disadvantage. The lock-on camera is extremely janky, and it’s never fun trying to fight it and your enemy at the same time. I know plenty of people who enjoy this system, love it even, but frankly, it was the only blemish on an otherwise perfect game.
Improving combat can be done through simply using your tools or learning new techniques. The same can be said about every system in the game. Similar to Elder Scrolls, you’ll improve Henry by simply using what is given to you. From your capabilities with your sword, your horse, stealth, or thievery, every use or action aids in making those aspects of Henry better. As you earn perk points and level up those stats, you’ll be able to choose from a wide range of perks that can help Henry sell stolen merchandise, how fast his horse can sprint, or how effective his dog can be during combat. There are dozens of perks to play around with that while can provide minor relief, some fundamentally change the game in significant ways.
When it comes to equipping your kit, using your perks, and navigating this massive world, the menus are another element that doesn't quite hit the mark. Each tab feels designed for an ultra wide monitor as you need to scroll to the side of most tabs to see information that is pretty critical to understanding some basic things. Even things such as seeing what your nourishment level is to make sure you're fed needs to be tabbed over from the menu that lists your food. I get what they are going for, but each tab should fill the screen in its entirety, not requiring us to scroll the menu over to get what we need.
While many studios are relying on Unreal Engine 5 to fuel their projects, Warhorse has put the work in on CryEngine to make this a stellar experience. From lush green fields, and hyper realistic forests, to the maze of buildings and shops of Kuttenberg, Kingdom Come Deliverance II is stunning from top to bottom. While there is a lighting bug present on Xbox at the time of this writing, it only cropped up a few times across my nearly 115 hours. Otherwise, I've had very few technical issues apart from the occasional glitch that hasn't been nearly the nuisance we see in Unreal Engine 5 titles.
With the first title also being built on CryEngine, the advancements made from the original game are staggering. Nearly every facet of design and approach is improved here, allowing for more believable emotion of its cast, the lighting and ambience during night, to the grit and texture of large-scale battles all running nearly flawlessly, especially as my entire time with the game has been on Xbox.
Now that said, I do have one issue that was a constant companion through my 100+ hours. While the lighting is often remarkable, that isn't the case when it comes to the transition from gameplay to cutscene in dark areas. Even if you are holding a torch, Henry will remove it when the cutscene starts, often having the whole event in the pitch black of night. Unless there is interior or exterior lighting, you won't be able to see anything. The amount of cutscenes I've had where I couldn't see anything was pretty common, sadly.
Why its combat has kept me at arm's length from labeling this as a masterpiece, I still found Kingdom Come Deliverance II to excel and innovate in ways the genre has desperately needed in years. In a lot of ways, this is the definitive Bethesda experience that we are unlikely to see from the publisher. Warhorse has delivered a wealth of smart design and function here to craft an absolutely impressive saga that is as brutal as the era requires.
Developer - Warhorse Games.
Publisher - Deep Silver. Released - February 4th, 2025. Available On - Xbox Series X/S, PS5, PC. Rated - (M) - Blood/Gore, Intense Violence, Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Use of Alcohol Platform Reviewed - Xbox Series X/S. Review Access - A review code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.
Jeff is the original founder of Analog Stick Gaming. His favorite games include The Witcher III, the Mass Effect Trilogy, Hi-Fi Rush, Stellar Blade, Hellbade: Senua’s Sacrifice, and the Legend of Heroes series, especially Trails of Cold Steel III & IV.