The largest sandbox in the catalog
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, a Middle Ages without dragons
- Critic score
- 89
- Player rating
- 4.6/5
- Main story
- 55.6 h
- Genre
- RPG, Adventure, Action
A medieval RPG that refuses magic, elves and enchanted swords. In their place: fifteenth-century Bohemia, documented, and a blacksmith who cannot fight.
Kingdom of Bohemia, early fifteenth century. The realm has fallen into chaos and invaders are pillaging the countryside. Henry of Skalitz, whose family was slaughtered, has become a trusted man of the rightful king. He is sent to escort Sir Hans Capon on a diplomatic mission; the ambush that follows sets the adventure in motion.
What sets the series apart is its refusal of the fantastic. Nothing is supernatural: your opponents are men, wounds become infected, and your character must eat and sleep. Food rots in your bag. Armour gets dirty and must be cleaned, failing which people treat you as a vagrant.
Combat follows the same logic and divides opinion just as much. It rests on attack directions, parries with a very short window, and chains that demand real practice. Above all, Henry starts out incompetent: he shakes, he misses, he loses to a peasant. The power curve comes not from stat points but from the fact that you, the player, eventually understand the system.
The world reacts with rare precision. Steal in front of a witness and you are pursued; be seen bloodied near a corpse and that is enough to accuse you; guards recognise you. The result produces situations the game never scripted, which makes it one of the most credible sandboxes in the catalog.
You have to accept the flip side: it is a heavy game, sometimes stiff, and its opening hours are deliberately frustrating. Expect around fifty hours for the main thread, considerably more if you take your time.