After playing four hours of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, I'm sold on this deeply ambitious return to medieval Bohemia

If Kingdom Come: Deliverance was a coming-of-age story for peasant-turned-knight protagonist Henry of Skalitz, then Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is his mid-life crisis. I recently visited the Czech town of Kutná Hora – formerly known as Kuttenberg, where most of the sequel is set – to play four hours of Henry's latest adventure, and in that time he loses nearly everything he worked so hard for in the first game. But hey – falling off a cliff, losing your pals, and being showered with the contents of a castle's communal toilet bucket tends to have that effect.

If there's a silver lining, it's that Henry – often reeking, always bruised – doesn't seem too bothered by his string of misfortune. He's as cheery as ever, and developer Warhorse Studios has clearly had a lot of fun picking his story back up. There's a lot for the Czech studio to feel good about – Kingdom: Come Deliverance 2 is shaping up to be a deeply ambitious sequel, which doubles down on everything that (for better or worse) made the first game memorable. 

Bohemian like you

Though Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 opens with a flash-forward of Henry's allies besieged in a castle, it picks up in earnest mere moments after the first game ends. Henry and his immature lord-in-waiting Sir Hans Capon, flanked by their entourage of knights and servants, are on a diplomatic mission to unite Bohemia's lords against the king's half-brother, Sigismund, who plans to invade and ransack the kingdom. 

For all of five minutes, it's a lovely trip. Bohemia's lush green forests are gorgeous, and I could've spent ages ambling through them on horseback. Birds are singing and the sun is shining, but not all is well – we're soon accosted by soldiers of the castle we're traveling to, who want to make sure we're not the bandits who have been terrorizing the area (ooh, foreshadowing!). This is my introduction to the game's remarkably in-depth persuasion systems. If you're clad in armor, covered in blood and carrying a gore-streaked sword, you'll find intimidating people easier. On the other hand, regularly bathing, wearing your finery and picking the right dialogue options will lend more gravitas to nobler dialogue choices. Not everyone is persuaded by the same things, which means you've got to think about how you'll be perceived before heading into important conversations. In this case, I lean on our official credentials, rather than trying to bully a bunch of hardened soldiers, and get through unscathed. 

I love intricacy in RPGs, and so adore having to put so much thought into each conversation. The depth also extends to how Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2's equipment works. For armor to be properly effective you need to wear plating and chainmail on top of softer clothes, like cotton and leather, to absorb the impact of being hit. I don't have to wait long for that to happen – after setting up camp and completing a questionable stealth tutorial that involves Hans trying to spy on bathing women, I'm set upon by bandits. Most of Henry's pals are either killed or scattered, while I fight my way out alongside Hans. 

It's been six years since I played Kingdom Come: Deliverance, which is the excuse I try to keep in mind during a series of very sloppy swordfights. Combat is largely the same – you flick in the direction you want to hit or block, parry and riposte, and occasionally make some distance to give your stamina a chance to regenerate. It's a system that was quite contentious in the first game, and while I loved it, lots of people found it unwieldy and too challenging in its opening hours. Addressing that, Warhorse spokesperson Tobias Stolz-Zwilling says that although swords will still take practice to use well, weapons like maces and primitive firearms will offer more straightforward approaches to combat – a workaround that I think is quite clever, although my pride would never let me trade in the sword.

Speaking of clever workarounds, Henry's escape culminates in him falling off a cliff, which hurts him seriously enough to neatly wipe away his stats from the first game. It also prompts key moments from the last game to flash before his eyes, which yes, is a little hammy, but I think that it explains Henry's backstory well enough for new players to feasibly play Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 without having played its predecessor. 

When Henry and Hans finally arrive at the castle they're battered, filthy, and missing any of the livery or documents that would have identified the pair. They've also been reported dead, which means they're turned away at the gate – but not before Hans is absolutely slathered in shit from above. While I didn't click with all of the first game's comedy – which often boiled down to "drinking funny, sex funny, lads lads lads" – the sequel does a better job at poking fun and being crude without feeling as much like it's endorsing the behavior as much. Hans is a petulant, misogynistic baby, but seeing him here – drenched in the contents of a chamber pot and throwing a tantrum – serves as brilliantly timed comic relief, and he's frequently painted as someone you're not really meant to like. 

By the time the first part of my preview ends, Hans and Henry are thrown into stocks, where they spend the entire night bickering. There are a good few options in the zinger department, but I let Henry give Hans the silent treatment, which (satisfyingly) infuriates the blue-blooded sex pest. By the time they're released, they've thoroughly fallen out and wander their separate ways. I'm told that Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 will tell more of a group story with Henry and his pals – but with Hans storming off and the rest of them dead or missing, it remains to be seen how that will turn out. However, these few hours do set up a story that's much bigger in scope than the first game. Though I've tried to skirt around spoilers, Henry and company's off-the-rails road trip feels like they're bumbling into Bohemia's big leagues, dealing with kingly conspiracies rather than petty lordship bickerings. The setup for this is alluring – I'm going out on a limb and saying that the "bandit" ambush wasn't a coincidence – and I'm very excited to see where that direction takes Henry. 

Down but not out

Things can't have gone too wrong for Henry though, because when I pick things up with him again in the second half of the preview – set closer to the game's' halfway point – he's made it to the picturesque city of Kuttenberg with a full set of shiny armor. For this segment, we're focused on helping out scorned swordsman Menhard von Frankfurt, who Bohemia's King Wenceslaz invited to lead the city's guild of swordsmen. The current guild is unwilling to let him take over, though, and has resorted to bureaucratic bullying to try and drive our new friend from Kuttenberg. 

I'm told this quest has been chosen for the preview as it's a good example of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2's side quests, which Warhorse has tried to make feel more open-ended. As Menhard bickers with his rivals on the street, Stolz-Zwilling points out that if we didn't choose to back him up, he would've been expelled from Kuttenberg – meaning we would have had to traipse in and out of the city to help the swordsman and his guildmate. Instead, they get to stay at their inn while I'm given the dirty work of sneaking into the current guild's headquarters and pinching their ceremonial sword, which must then be hung on the town hall to signify they're taking challenges, giving Menhard a chance to duel for the right to take over. The sneaking isn't too special, but I do love the way Kuttenberg is patrolled by guards through the night – if they spot you skulking around without a torch, they'll flag you down and politely ask you to light one, but continue to act shady and you'll be in real trouble with the law.

After hanging their sword on the town hall, I come back the following morning to watch as the guild awkwardly accept Menhard's challenge. Of course, Henry's work never ends – the tournament is three versus three, so he's roped into taking part on the side of Menhard and his pal. Here, I'm told that if I had been caught hanging out the sword this morning, we'd have been penalized and our opponents, though too embarrassed to outright decline the duel, would have been allowed to wear plate armor. Our fights go smoothly (at this point I've battered enough bandits to remember how Henry's arms work) and Menbhard, now reinstated, promises to teach Henry some new sword techniques if he comes back in a few days.

As my hands-on comes to an end, I realize just how badly I want to pick a direction and roam. I've been craving a first-person RPG with this much depth for years, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 looks set to scratch that itch. With that territory comes some clunkiness – there's a lot of information buried in menus, and combat is still a little awkward – but there's no denying the massively increased scope in play here. It will be interesting to see how Warhorse handles a story with greater stakes and more moving parts than its predecessor, but I've seen more than enough to pique my interest. After watching Henry get beaten, thrown in the stockades, and wearily roped into medieval guild wars, I'm looking forward to jumping back in the saddle – if only to get that poor boy a much-needed bath.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 launches on February 11, 2025 - but while you wait, here are the best RPGs you can play right now.