I finished the main story at around 60 hours in, and I also did a good number of side quests along the way. Even though I spent that much time in the game, the main story still felt short to me, not because it lacked content, but because I wasn’t ready for it to end. I’m still going to continue playing since there are lots of activities and side quests left.
I really wish the developers release a DLC focused on the Devil’s Pack, including Hans Capon because I really miss them. It would be amazing to have more missions with them , not just serious story moments, but fun adventures that let you spend more time with them.

A few points of concern i’ve noticed: Sword combat can be difficult, and sometimes it’s impossible to block incoming attacks. It’s also hard to dodge when an attack comes, and not being able to block attacks from the sides or behind and it's a bit weird. You can only block attacks coming from the direction you’re facing. Additionally, the character animations and voice (NPC) acting from the first game are present in this one as well. But these aren't that important, though.

Other than that, I had an incredibly great time playing this game, and enjoyed every single hour and minute of it. Graphics, mechanics, and storytelling, it’s truly an outstanding. I did everything i could to finish this game, and i still want to keep playing, but there’s nothing left to do anymore and that makes me sad. It’s a true RPG experience, every choice you make affects the future. Hats off to the developers for creating such a phenomenal experience. By the way i played the first game and really enjoyed too, but in this one they’ve addressed and improved things. Can’t wait for the third game, i'm sure it will definitely be another amazing one.

9/10

Reviewing (mostly) every game (or DLC) in my library, part 599:

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (10/10)

Yep, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II ("KCD2") is my 2025 GOTY. It is an ambitious, sprawling, incredible RPG that truly defines and innovates the genre. It is not for everyone, by any means. It is dense, demanding, occasionally exhausting, but one of the most rewarding games if you meet it on its own terms. There are some performance issues on the Steam Deck (though it's a miracle it works); some parts of the game are sluggish grinds; the quests can be infuriatingly obtuse; the DLCs aren't that great tbh ... However, it has terrific writing, a beautiful, unique setting, and so many systems that interact with each other. There are quite a few eyebrow-raising cons, but I don't care. I've put ~180 hours into this baby.

Pros:

✅ Combat. The combat in KCD2 is quite similar to the first game. I feel like I've read articles saying the devs tried to make the game more beginner-friendly, but it remains the same difficulty level to me: tough in the beginning, easy as pie later. The combat mirrors Henry's growth so well: I had such a damn hard time fighting with shoddy gear, low stamina, and a blunt sword I picked up from some corpse. But KCD2 employs a learn-by-doing system. So the more quests I completed, the more I fought, the more my stats went up. Henry's actual stats and skills get better: you can aim longer or overpower weaker enemies. But I could feel myself getting better, too! I implemented new combos and leaned heavily on the Masterstrike (LEARN THE MASTERSTRIKE). Timing, positioning, stamina management, and weapon choice all matter. By the end of the game, I'm laughing as my Henry can 1v6 a band of knights.

✅ Writing. The writing is excellent across main quests, side quests, and incidental dialogue. Characters speak like people grounded in a specific historical and social context, not like RPG archetypes delivering exposition. I love how natural the dialogue felt. Henry and the townsfolk will frequently discuss politics and religion, expecting the reader to understand as if they're living in medieval times. There's a lot of medieval-ish diction and curses, and even languages from different cultures. There are a lot of moral decisions that are rarely clean or comfortable. You are looking at life through the lens of a soldier boy. He's a noble's bastard but not noble or well-connected like Hans. And you're fighting a war, for Christ's sake. Sure, swinging a fancy sword is cool, but if your lord commands you to kill innocents to intimidate your opponent, should you obey him? Should you torture a prisoner if he has valuable information? You're fighting for a king that's imprisoned and disliked, a loser lowkey. Should you side with him or the powerful, ambitious Sigismund, who respects you? Listen, when it comes to politics and waging war, the lines get real blurry REAL fast.

✅ Freedom. Man, KCD2 just lets you handle things your way. If I didn’t feel like fighting, I’d sneak in at night and take what I needed. If someone annoyed me, I could lean on high speech and twist the conversation until it went my way. If I was impatient, I’d draw my sword and accept whatever fallout came after. There's quite a lot of openness with quests. I’ve talked my way out of fights I had no business winning, stolen key items without anyone noticing, and completely ignored the “intended” approach because something else made more sense in the moment.

✅ Cast. The cast is full of strange, complicated men who feel exactly like they belong in a brutal medieval war. Jan Žižka is probably the most “heroic” person in the room most of the time—calm, strategic, respected—and then he’ll casually suggest something that absolutely qualifies as a war crime. Dry Devil is the opposite. He’s hilarious. Constantly drunk. Stealing when he doesn’t need to. Starting fights he can’t finish. But he’s also fully willing to kill innocents. No one is clean. No one is purely noble. These are soldiers and opportunists and men trying to survive a war that keeps grinding forward. You’re surrounded by guys who will pray with you in the morning and burn a village in the afternoon.

✅ Systems. KCD2 is so great because it has systems built on systems. There's an alchemy system where you pick herbs, grind them, and boil them. Take clothing. Every piece affects charisma, intimidation, stealth noise, visibility, and even how different social classes react to you. Walk into a noble hall in dirty gambeson, and you’ll get treated like a peasant who got lost. Show up polished, perfumed, and wearing the right colors, and suddenly conversations shift. Speech checks become easier. People assume competence. THE CRIME SYSTEM. Get caught once? You might be able to talk your way out of it. Get caught twice? Get tossed into the pillory. NPCs will notice if items are missing, if you’re standing menacingly in the dark, or if doors are left open. They’ll notice if you’re wearing stolen clothing—which happened to me quite a bit! Even survival elements feed into the game. Hunger, sleep, injuries—ignore them, and you’ll feel it. Overextend yourself, and your stamina drains faster. Fight exhausted, and you’ll lose exchanges you would’ve won fresh.

Cons:

🟥 Balance/pacing. The Trosky region is incredible. Each part of the large map feels handcrafted with so much life. Every village felt familiar. I knew the roads, the inns, the forests. I was broke, underleveled, constantly stressed about repairs, and every fight felt risky. Getting a slightly better sword felt huge. Saving up for decent armor felt like a milestone. The struggle made everything feel meaningful. I must have spent 100 of my hours there. However, after you leave the region and head to Kuttenberg, the game balance becomes broken. You accumulate so much money just from legit looting that you are beyond rich. Henry’s stats are almost ¾ maxed out, and it trivializes the combat. Kuttenberg is incredible, but the second region lacks the care of the first. After a while, it starts to feel copy-paste. Similar layouts. Same handful of interactions. I genuinely missed being poor and scared. That’s when the game was at its best.

🟥 Jank/missing QoL. I wish there were a way to hide helmets in cutscenes. Henry looks goofy as hell wearing a full helmet, sitting at an inn table. There's a noticeable uptick in repeated faces and voices in Kuttenberg. Water and phials during alchemy have wonky hitboxes. Sometimes, you don't get a chance to change into armor before storyline combat. Every combat, I need to press my attack trigger once before it actually works when MS-ing. Like most games, horse riding is sensitive and clunky. Mutt barks a LOT. And what the hell is the deal with blue and grayed-out trainer icons, even after you exhausted all training?

🟥 Some quest design. For the most part, the quests are unique, fun, and engaging. But when they're bad, they're bad. Like, literally go across the map, talk to that person, get a useless item, go back, and repeat. A lot of bland fetch quests, basically. "Miri Fajta" was horrific, as was "Find Mutt." Brushes With Death had this issue, as well. The ideas are good, but the padding is not. KCD2 shines when it trusts its writing and systems. It drags when it inflates simple tasks into endurance trials. There's also an issue with arbitrarily timed quests. Some make sense, but some (like "Dragon's Lair") don't.

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