“Audentes Fortuna Iuvat”
With the start of the new year brings the imminent and much hyped release of one of 2025’s most anticipated titles: Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, from the excellent: Warhorse Studios. Despite a bit of a rocky launch, Kingdom Come: Deliverance has gone on to be widely regarded as one of the best historical RPGs ever made; grounded in its time-period, Warhorse’s unapologetic commitment to historical accuracy and immersion within a medieval European setting is a breath of fresh air, in an industry that’s plagued with revisionism and cheap cash grabs. With KCD standing tall on its own, its sequel has generated quite the hype train since its announcement in April 2024, gearing up to be one of the biggest releases of 2025. Having received an early review code, I will be giving a first impressions preview of the opening hours of the game, giving my initial thought and opinions ahead of its launch on February 4th 2025 (this preview is from the Xbox Series X version of the game and will be completely spoiler-free).
With a new year comes a fresh reset, with new hopes and aspirations that many want to see from the gaming industry, after what could be argued as one its worst in recent memory. 2024 was a year of mass layoffs from once-beloved developers, dead-on-arrival projects such as Concord and unnecessary, political squabbling on the ongoing culture-war that left most people feeling mentally drained with the industry as a whole. 2025 hasn’t got to do much to be considered ‘better’ at face value, and whilst 2024 ended on somewhat of a high note, with a swath of big-profile announcements at the Game Awards (I couldn’t be more hyped for The Witcher 4), and stellar releases like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, 2025 has got it’s work cut out to be sure, however the imminent release of Warhorse Studios’ hotly anticipated sequel: Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is a game that has me excited for the future of the industry (see my review for the first game here). Having been announced at a point where the game’s development was close to completion (something that should arguably become the norm) the game was only delayed slightly from its projected 2024 release for additional time for bug-fixes & polish, and then seemingly (out of nowhere) un-delayed by a week (Feb 11th to Feb 4th) which I think marks a first for the industry in it’s entirety. With the release coming in less than a month, I’m happy to say that I’ve been playing a review build of the game since the beginning of Jan, and that my first impressions of the game is that it’s nothing short of a work of art.
For starters, the game is a direct sequel to the original in every sense of the word, meaning if you haven’t played Kingdom Come: Deliverance, it’s probably a good idea to do so before KCDII drops, or at the very least catch up on the story via YouTube to get the most out of the game from a narrative perspective. The game’s initial opening showcases a siege that takes place further along in the story of Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, acting as a sort of prelude for what’s to come, whilst also acting as a bit of a free-combat section, allowing you to get a feel for the game’s movement and refined combat. Showcased straight off the bat is the new missile weapon: the crossbow, which takes some time to get used to firing (specifically learning the trajectory the of its shots) but feels extremely satisfying when you manage to bag shots into soldiers down from the battlements. The starting crossbow is one of the easier to use crossbows, reloading by holding the left trigger, to pull back the draw and loading another bold into the chamber. As per the pre-release videos on Warhorse’s socials, this is one of three types of crossbows that come with their own realistic and unique reload systems, which in turn will ‘assumedly’ covert to a stronger draw weight, making more powerful shots (maybe even armour piercing?) possible. Anyone could use crossbows with very little skill in the Middle Ages, making them a very versatile weapon for the period, this has translated well to KCDII, acting as a direct contrast to the skill required to become a proficient archer in the original.
Henry, Our Hero Henry: Our dashing rogue returns for the sequel, headstrong in his resolve to avenge his parents’ murder, and retrieve the last blade that his father forged.
Following the battle and some initial cutscenes, the game soon picks up where Kingdom Come: Deliverance left off (minor story spoilers for the epilogue KCD ahead) with our humble-origin, peasant-turned-badass: Henry, riding into the sunset with the company of Sir Jan Ptáček of Pirkštejn (or Hans Capon as we know him narratively) to deliver a message offering alliance to Sir Otto Von Bergow of Trosky Castle, at the behest of the Margrave (and cousin of the besieged King Wenceslaus IV) Jobst of Moravia. The game begins on the other side of the sunset, and sees our party riding for Trosky Castle, taking in the countryside and fragrant air. From the get-go, the graphical presentation is a lot more cinematic in nature, cutscenes feel more fluid and refined with careful attention afforded to facial animations and improved textures. Whilst it’s got a fresh coat of refined paint, it still feels refreshingly like KCD1, which is a testament to Warhorse’s commitment to build on their winning formula. Following the ride towards Trosky, the new conversation elements get showcased (which have taken clear inspiration from Red Dead Redemption II) allowing you to lock in on a character during a conversation and reply with different options, allowing further personalisation and development of Henry as a character. This extends to the open world too, as a later instance had me cracking up when I told a farmer to piss off following his comments on my somewhat smelly appearance, as much like the first game, Henry’s cleanliness is more important than ever before now having to factor in your smell as well as general dirt and grime.
Further along the road you come across a company of Von Bergow’s men on the patrol for bandits in the area, this showcases the games conversation mechanics, which give you a number of different options to choose from based on your skills and stats; persuade, coerce and intimidate are all the standard-fare here, returning with some polish from the original; your general condition, cleanliness and moral standing will all influence your ability to persuade and talk down characters in the game world; grounding you in the immersion. We eventually set up camp down by the river, giving us the opportunity to interact with our party members, play a bit of Farkle (which returns once again) as well as engage in a sparring match with Capon, which showcases the game’s updated combat. Initial reactions to the combat changes were generally good, but one could be forgiven for thinking that the removal of directions from the combat wheel could be seen as ‘dumbing down’ the system, however this is not the case at all, as it has been refined to not only connect better but allow for better directional control and further mastery of combos and strikes, feeling all the more fluid in place of where KCD was a bit of a beast to get down, as well as being somewhat busted once you learned master strikes (which apparently do return, however they’re harder and more risky to pull off). Without divulging much of what happens next (this is a spoiler-free preview) Henry finds himself in somewhat of a bad way, which offers a nice narrative reason as to why he has to learn things again, with the first few hours of the game acting as a nice, non-intrusive tutorial that refreshes veterans on mechanics and new changes, but also offers newcomers a chance to pick them up too. Changes such as the stench of death, which clings to henry if he picks up a corpse, new animations for cleaning yourself at a water trough, interacting with a pot of hot soup etc. are all small immersion changes which pay off dividends in the grand scheme of making you feel grounded within the game world. Alchemy has had some solid additions too, with the addition of a sandglass, which you have to use to time how long potions and ingredients boil; some ingredients need to be boiled at a higher temperature, which requires you to read the recipe carefully, as how well you master your recipes will determine the strength and volume of your draughts, turning alchemy into a genuinely important gameplay mechanic.
Bohemian Paradise: The graphical presentation of KCDII’s environments are nothing short of breath-taking; you can easily get lost for hours exploring and taking in the game’s surroundings.
Eventually, you will find yourself in the heart of woods within the ‘Bohemian Paradise’ region known as Trosky, which acts as the starting area for Henry’s new journey (there are confirmed to be two large maps present in Kingdom Come: Deliverance II) allowing you to freely explore the beautiful, lush countryside, rough, rocky terrain and lakeside forests that all surround Trosky Castle, all of which are nothing short of breath-taking. This is highlighted by the game’s stellar graphical presentation, which is somewhat of a beast on PC (my GPU would have melted) but offers a very aesthetically pleasing, and solid experience (performance wise) on Xbox Series X (the game is also PlayStation Pro enhanced, if you happen to be one of the three people that bought the console). For myself, I was playing through a Lenovo Legion R27QE monitor, and performance was buttery smooth. Provided you have a monitor capable of VRR and have a HDMI 2.1 cable, then Kingdom Come: Deliverance II runs at a consistent 60fps at an upscaled 1440p resolution on Xbox Series X. In the time I have been playing, I haven’t experienced any issues with frame drops, screen tearing or muddy textures, which is usually the holy trinity of problems with modern game releases, showcasing that Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is extremely polished in its current state. All in all, I can’t wait to get stuck into the rest of the game, everything about the game and it’s world, down to the codex which teaches you about history all culminates in an experience that is truly magical, and one that you definitely need to keep on your radar when it launches on February 4th.
An Xbox Series X review code was provided by Premier Comms/Plaion, with a special thanks to Warhorse Studios.
