Exploring Kingdom Reach: Deliverance 2 – A Deep Dive into the Next Chapter of Adventure

Sequels in video games can be quite amusing, don’t you think? As narrative contrivances strive to honor all the decisions you made and characters you developed in the initial part of the story, there are usually two schools of thought on how to effectively build upon that foundation. One approach is the Star Wars Jedi: Survivor strategy, where creators delve even deeper into their bag of tricks and somehow emerge with even more outrageous abilities and talents that make the original game’s power curve feel like training wheels.

On the other hand, there are games like Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, which strip their protagonists down to their underwear and have them flee for their lives into the wilderness. I mean that quite literally here. Picking up right after the events of the first game, blacksmith-turned-squire Henry and his foolhardy lord Hans Capon are headed to Trosky to negotiate peace with the enemies of King Wenceslaus. Unfortunately, your heralded arrival is cut short when Capon’s lustful cravings get the better of him, leading him to dive into a nearby pond to chase some passing women. Regrettably for the rest of their traveling party, this is precisely when a gang of local bandits chooses to attack and kill everyone, leaving Henry and Capon to flee with nothing but their soggy bottoms.

An absurd and cringeworthy setup in equal parts, yet it still manages to successfully raise the stakes for this sequel. Not only are you in hostile and unfamiliar territory here, but you also have to reclaim all the reputation and standing you lost, to ensure that everything you worked for in the original game isn’t in vain. Surprisingly, though, the game doesn’t seem overly concerned about what those prior events actually were most of the time. After selecting one of three classes to determine your initial set of strengths and perks, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 effectively acts as a fresh start to what has come before. A few of Henry’s previous adventures are occasionally mentioned during casual chats with NPCs, but there isn’t any lengthy character sheet development or choice porting like in Mass Effect or The Witcher, and your choices have limited impact on anything else.

For newcomers, it’s refreshing not to have a whole game’s worth of baggage weighing down on you in these moments. However, with zero accompanying context about what any of these names and places signify, it can’t help but feel alienating at the same time, leaving you adrift in a sea of missing backstory. Similarly, for returning players hoping for more of a continuity with their version of Henry, the fleeting nature of these moments may come across as a bit disappointing.

Nonetheless, despite the various hiccups in its pacing, the core of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 still remains very much unchanged. This is an RPG that thrusts you into the lush, green fields and forests of 15th-century Bohemia, allowing you to shape your journey as you see fit. Your skills improve gradually by repeated practice over time, and careful attention must be paid to your appearance, cleanliness, and demeanor if you wish to endear yourself to the locals. It is the act of play that truly shines, and leveraging Henry’s chameleon-like ability to adapt to (almost) everyone forms the backbone of this rich and expansive RPG experience.

The primary quest will take you on a narrative filled with deceit and intrigue that only grows grander and more audacious as it progresses, but the game’s extensive array of side quests should not be overlooked. These are often just as substantial as those on the main path, weaving intricate tales across its two large playable regions where their lettered target markers consistently come down to the finer details. They feature convoluted and lengthy narratives that genuinely feel pleasingly flexible in the manner you can approach them. Perhaps not to quite the same extent as Baldur’s Gate 3, but the way its responsive and accommodating script manages the cumulative effects of your actions comes remarkably close.

Early
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So, let me explain; I embarked on a series of thorough tasks with the local miller to assist me in gaining access to a high-profile wedding celebration. When I eventually managed to get to the wedding using a different path, leaving the miller’s task incomplete, the game did not close that chapter of the story or automatically fail it. Instead, upon my return to the miller after the wedding, the narrative smoothly adjusted to accurately reflect my position in the story at that moment, without missing a beat. This also applies if you unexpectedly discover key quest items ahead of time or approach situations slightly differently than how the quest might have intended.

Sometimes this cleverness can fall flat, such as when I decided to take a so-called magical amulet as a shortcut rather than earning it fairly from its Romani owner. The recipient – the owner’s daughter – hinted that theft was the most difficult route, but upon my return with the stolen amulet in hand, only then did she lament that its magic relies on being given willingly, thus stealing it stripped it of all its power. In that moment, I felt frustrated and deceived, mumbling to myself that I should have just taken on the somewhat challenging, multi-step wager task proposed by her mother instead. My mistake for trying to cut corners, perhaps, but it felt as though the game was guiding me toward that option nonetheless.

Fortunately, the consequences of such quests are relatively minor; however, others hold much greater significance, almost to the point of being essential if you ever hope to master Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2’s various, often intricate systems. The path to that wedding, for instance, is presented as an either/or optional choice between two multi-step side quests: the miller’s route introduces you to the fundamentals of stealth and theft, while an alternative route takes you through the training of another blacksmith, who teaches you crafting and various vital survival skills, including hunting and tracking with a touch of combat. It is disheartening that you could feasibly miss either of these quest paths in the ten or so hours it takes to even arrive at the wedding, although its tutorializing methods often leave much to be desired in other respects.

Rather than guiding you through its systems visually, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 opts to inform you via a barrage of dense text menus—many of which provide little additional insight by the time you finish reading them than you had at the start. At least you can refer back to them at any point if you need a refresher, but this doesn’t excuse its poor explanation of how dice game mechanics work, for example, or the hours it took me to simply figure out how to equip my darn torch properly when night fell.

Even when you feel like you’ve grasped a particular system, there remains a lot that is left to chance through various skill tests. In the end, rolling metaphorical dice on whether to be knowledgeable, intimidating, commanding, or simply charming people with your wit and charisma encapsulates the essence of an RPG like this, and there’s a genuine thrill in wondering if you will succeed. Even if the responses don’t always favor you, there is clever wit and humor to be found in its writing, which often helps cushion the disappointment of failure.

However, when multiple skill checks are in play during any single conversation event, I wish there was just a tad more information available to clarify what the different numbers actually mean. Is 8 Speech better than 4 Fear or 2 Charisma, for instance? Not necessarily, it seems, as your total persuasion statistic is influenced by several interlinked stats and abilities, which can be quite challenging to decipher in any specific moment. Some factors are even subtler—like recognizing your opponent’s social status and weighing it against your own in your mind. Cynically, it all feels a bit like vague guesswork, though perhaps this is more a reflection of trying to game the system than truly engaging with it on its own terms. I have no doubt that these abstract, unknowable mechanics can be deeply appealing to some, but they can also result in considerable frustration for others.

It doesn’t help that during the early stages of the game, your stats often don’t seem high enough to succeed at anything significant. You frequently fail at many attempts, and only over time, through repeated encounters against the barriers of progress, do you gradually manage to make even the smallest of advances. Saying it feels like a grind wouldn’t be entirely accurate, yet it does require significant effort and determination to muster the will to keep going at times. This friction may not be for everyone, and the decision of whether you can tolerate that pressure will ultimately make or break the game for you, I believe. Personally, I’m teetering on the edge of this particular decision—at a slower, less hurried pace than the few weeks we’ve been given for this review, I think there’s a version of me that truly enjoys this more challenging style of RPG. Few games challenge the player quite like Kingdom Come does, and I find that aspect quite appealing.

Attention to what characters are communicating is essential to fully enjoy a quest, as much of this information may not be documented in your journal for later reference. | Image credit: Eurogamer/2K

There is much to appreciate about how hands-off the experience is. While your final objectives are always clearly indicated on your map and compass, I really value the necessity to observe and heed what the characters are saying to grasp the subtleties of a quest or locate specific items. This is a game devoid of detective vision or bright yellow markers at every turn, making it refreshing to focus so closely on its beautiful and intricate world. It proves that both outdoor and indoor environments can maintain distinct visual identities without the need for constant explicit signposting, resulting in a level of immersion that few other action RPGs can replicate. There’s so much to explore and accomplish here, and it’s the kind of game that should be enjoyed over many months.

That being said, no amount of time will ever make the endlessly tedious presence of Hans Capon more enjoyable for me. This obnoxious fool nearly rivals Goldeneye’s Natalya as the companion I would most like to see burned in the fires of eternal damnation; he represents the game’s low points. He is a pathetic public-school snob whose childish tantrums over any challenge made me long to deal him a painful blow as quickly as I could (or abandon him when given the chance), much like other members of this game’s unfortunately killable cast. Regrettably, you’re stuck with this detestable character for the long haul, which greatly tests my patience in addition to the game’s convoluted stat systems.

This isn’t helped by cutscenes that venture into Kojima-esque levels of self-indulgence, with many scenes coming off as bloated and overwrought. I often found myself reaching for my phone to distract myself from the monotony during these segments, particularly during the long stretches of horseback riding where control is completely taken away, forcing you to passively watch for minutes while enduring an avalanche of exposition. Even quick travel feels drawn out as you wait patiently for your limited version of Henry to trot along the chaotic routes of its stylized map before finally reaching your destination—though you’re just as likely to be interrupted mid-journey by some event (usually wolves or bandits lying in wait ready to attack instead of something more interesting), making it feel more cumbersome than it truly is.