At the end of last month, we shared with you a preview of the upcoming game Kingdom Come: Deliverance II. In that preview, we stated that the game had a slow build and that it was difficult to make any real progress in the early stages. After getting a secure footing, the game started to pick up and we no longer felt like a blight upon society but felt like we were about to undertake A Knight’s Tale. Now, that the game is set to release tomorrow, February 4th, we can finally share our thoughts on the game at large rather than just a small section.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
Developer: Warhorse Studios
Publisher: Deep Silver
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S
Release Date: February 4th, 2025
Players: 1
Price: Base: $59.99 USD

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II teaches players the basic mechanics before throwing them to the wolves. After a deadly setback and a brush with death, Hans and Henry are left in a problematic state where they must still undertake their mission while looking like complete vagabonds (Common Beggars).

Upon arriving at the Trosky gate, being turned away, and getting into a bar fight, the two are ridiculed, mocked, defiled, and punished while trying to keep and restore their honor as envoys. Unable to accept the setbacks and consequences of his actions, Hans blames our hero, Henry, for his inconveniences and sets out on his own. Without having to defend the lord’s name, we can finally focus on the task at hand while trying to survive.

Survival within the game is no easy task early on. Just like if you had to restart your life with no money or assistance, you must work, fight, steal, and even kill to survive; outside of working to live, any of the other options will make you a wanted man and you will have to either pay the consequences of your actions or fight/run for your life. In the early stages, the player can steal food, money, or equipment to make ends meet, but it is not until they start getting money of their own that the game feels like it opens up. 

With rebuilding comes growth, learning, and understanding. The game features a ton of mechanics and skills that you have to learn in order to survive. These skills can make your life easier, but takes a bit of trial and error to fully understand.

When we pickpocketing and lock picking, we had to figure out how the mechanic worked through multiple failures before we succeeded. Even with a small success, achieving the harder variations, seemed like it was miles away. With any of the skills, the more we used it, the better we got at it and noticed that things were getting easier. 

In the Kingdom Come: Deliverance II character stats menu, the player can see their base-level stats, secondary attributes, and skill level. These skills play an important factor whether it is in combat, crafting potions, repairing weapons and armor, or even interacting with different characters.

As we improved both our base level and skills, we could unlock new perks to improve our stats, mechanics, and even our reputation; certain perks can be taught by skilled practitioners at a cost.

Improving your base stats and skills plays a pivotal role in the way you interact with others. Throughout the game, there will be key moments where you need to convince and even coerce other characters to gain information or fight by your side.

In order to achieve this, you will need to use one of seven dialog stats (Charisma, Persuasion, Coercion, Impression, Domination, Presence, and Intimidation), however, not all dialog stat options are available when talking with NPCs. Players can improve their dialog starts by successfully persuading people, improving their gear, or reading books. 

In fact, charisma-based dialog stats may be one of the most important aspects of the game because it not only affects who sides with you in war but also in love/lust.

Weeks ago, rumors emerged that you were forced to have a sexual interaction with a man, however, during our time with the game we did not encounter such a moment. Yes, you could romance men or women but you were not forced into it and your dialog skills played a pivotal role in encouraging the characters. In fact, as we played through the game, we jokingly nicknamed it Kingdom Cummies based on the sexual tension and interactions with different characters. 

Sexual interactions may be a fun aspect of the game, despite not being stream-safe (no warning or option in the game for filters), but they are not the primary focus. The game’s main story revolves around Henry and Hans getting revenge on Sir Istvan Toth, the main antagonist of the first game, and dethroning King Sigismund; how the player chooses to do so is their choice. 

Stamina is another important stat that some players may neglect however it has dire implications. The stat dictates how far you can run or how tired you get while completing tasks. In combat, stamina being depleted can have life-or-death consequences since it affects the player’s ability to swing their weapon or block oncoming attacks. Dying in the game can have devastating consequences depending on when the game was last saved.

The game does not have a modern auto-save system; instead, it only saves for you when sleeping or hitting a key point in a quest. The player can manually save by consuming Saviour Schnapps or saving and quitting. Savior Schnapps can be crafted at a brewing station but requires the player to forage for materials and learn the recipe in order to brew them. Additionally, they can be purchased or stolen from other characters in the game.

This saving aspect can be a bit discouraging for those who are used to the modern auto-save system especially when you lose hours of progress. During our playthrough, there were two occasions where we lost hours of progress due to not understanding the save system. The first occurred when we were exploring the wilderness and got into a fight that we could not manage (5 v 1). The second was due to eating perished goods and getting a bad case of food poisoning. 

Although Kingdom Come: Deliverance II may have beautiful artwork and special effects, the game does have issues with rendering and cinematics. During cinematics, the game drops down to 30 FPS when running it on Ultra visual settings and even then there can be objects that render in a weird or untimely manner.

The game does have multiple graphics settings ranging from low to experimental; however, unless you are using multiple graphics cards, the experimental graphics setting seems out of reach. Players can adjust motion blur, depth of field, particle effects, lighting, illumination, shadows, textures, vegetation, and character details. 

Outside of the graphics, players can adjust the keybindings for the mouse and keyboard but can not change the controller layout. The game features six dubbed voice options (English, Spanish, French, German (Deutsch), Czech (Cestina), and Japanese).

In addition to the six dubbings, the game features 14+ subtitled options (English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Polish, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Czech). Players can adjust when subtitles show and how they display on the screen.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II may be difficult to get into at first due to its long ramp-up time, but its progression, storytelling, and character interactions make you feel as if you embody the character. After a fall from grace, you steadily rise through society to rebuild your image and rise to prominence.

Although the game may be a fun RPG experience simulating medieval combat, there are a few aspects of the game that can be unappealing to some. The game’s save system can cause players to lose hours of gameplay which can be frustrating to most.

While it is nice that quests do not automatically show you what to do, the game does fail to help the player when lost or needed. In the journal under the quests marker, the game only gives you a brief premises of the the mission at hand with no way of recapping it or revealing the important information; for players who take a break from a quest, this can be a problematic issue unless they were recording their last play session.

The game’s combat and horse riding are fairly smooth but does take a good bit to get used to. As you become more accustomed to it, it becomes a bit easier. One of our biggest complaints with the horse system though is that it is unjust with the main character’s starting horse; other horses in the wild have better stats than it sometimes by a landslide and the only way to improve its stats is to buy equipment for it. If you were to put that same gear on the other horses they’d still be superior. 

At the end of the day, after a difficult and long start, we still had a lot of fun playing Kingdom Come: Deliverance II. Yes, the game does have a slow build to get to a point of enjoyment, but when you finally feel like you can stand on your own two feet that’s when the game truly opens up and is more enjoyable.

Quests can take a while to complete, so if you do not have time to dedicate to a specific quest, it might be better to hold off rather than doing it partially and getting lost when you come back. Most of the characters’ personalities are realistic, however, some of the events in the game feel like they are forced for the story’s sake rather than natural progression. 

If you are looking for an excellent, semi-realistic RPG, look no further than Kingdom Come: Deliverance II. The combat within the game can get your heart racing with adrenaline pumping through your veins. Kingdom Come: Deliverance II will provide you with hours of gameplay that will feel worthwhile whether you buy it for full price or during a future sale. 

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II was reviewed on a PC using a copy provided by Warhorse Studios. You can find additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy here. Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is available on February 4th on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.