On so many levels.
I’ve been playing Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 for some time now and have struggled all the while. Ties that developer Warhorse has to the GamerGate movement aside — and read a piece from Heavy here or Kotaku here for more on that if you’d like — I can’t say that I’ve enjoyed my time with it. Specifically, I don’t find the RPG’s setting or hyper-realism enjoyable.
As a deluge of previews have already stated, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2‘s prologue is incredibly heavy. It’s also laden with two heroic protagonists talking about all the sex they’re going have with women. Lots of women too — those they know, and those they’ve yet to meet. Honestly? Their conversations reminded me of those I heard back in high school, each dripping with puffed-up bravado.
Then, boom! Circumstances! They cause our powerful feudal lords to lose their possessions and work their way back up the chain as peasants. Henry of Skalitz, the son of a blacksmith who previously enjoyed privilege as the bodyguard of a nobleman, suddenly has to stop worrying about getting laid. Instead, he needs to focus on where to get enough coin for for or a bed, and can tap into his knowledge of blacksmithing to do so.
Blacksmithing is one of the more enjoyable tasks that Henry can perform. There, you need to heat an iron in the fire — stoking it so it’s hot enough to be effective — before you place it upon an anvil and hit it to shape your blade. As the tutorial mentions to you, you’re not likely to finish the blade with one heating session, and you’ll need to chain your hits and flip the blade to ensure consistent shaping and structure.
Alchemy is less fun. I’m a horrendous cook, never able to keep more than half a line of instruction from a cookbook in my mind as I try to prepare a dish. Swap out a meal for a potion, and you’ve got Kingdom Come Deliverance 2‘s alchemy system.
In between lowering a cauldron to a flame and ensuring my mixture barely reached boiling point, I forgot what I actually needed to add next. Back over to the potions book to read the next step I went, repeating it over and over so I could actually accomplish it. In worrying about all that, I realised I forgot to flip over an hourglass used to help me time proceedings. Oops.
I eventually opted to go back and use my real-world phone to take a photo of the potion recipe to avoid my back-and-forth trips, but therein lies my issue with the system: it feels far too much like work, and I’ve enough of that in my everyday life.
Warhorse has constantly stated that the title is “historically accurate”. I’m not looking to delve into that claim in every single way, but I will agree that combat fits; in fact, it’s brutal. If you fight one person at a time, you’ll win if you stick to parrying and returning blows. Squaring off against two or more people, though, and you’re most certainly about to die.
Unless you were smart enough to drink some historically inaccurate saviour schnapps to save your progress before you walk down a lonely path to the next village, you’re going to have to pick up your playthrough from sometimes twenty to thirty minutes before. I understand how some people will absolutely adore this style of realistic, high-stakes gameplay, but I found it tedious.
But hey — I’m not here to yuck your yum. This preview is being published far after an established embargo date and time, so there are plenty of other experiences and opinions to take in. Most assessments are extremely positive, suggesting that those looking for a realistic feudal sim need look no further than this.
I delayed publishing as I was debating what to actually do with Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. I’ve come to the decision that my time with the title ends here, based on what I’ve played coupled with what I know about Warhorse and Daniel Vávra. I don’t want to play any more, and I won’t be constructing a final review.
Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 heads to Windows PC, PS5, Xbox Series S, and Xbox Series X on 5 February 2025.
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Kingdom Come Deliverance 25 February 2025PC PS5 Xbox Series S & X
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