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This Henry guy just can't seem to catch a break. When we last left the blacksmith's son-turned-knight at the end of the original Kingdom Come: Deliverance, things were finally starting to look up for him. But the sequel, in true video game sequel fashion, starts by knocking him down a peg or two and dumping him into a new, larger open world to regain his dignity, one side quest at a time. And to be honest, that's refreshing.

The story of Kingdom Come: Deliverance II picks up almost immediately where the first one left off, but it's certainly not essential to have played it to follow what's going on, thanks to an extended intro that brings you up to speed on the broader strokes. The year is 1403. Henry is a village boy from Bohemia (modern day Czech Republic) who saw his home burned to the ground due to a civil war for the crown taking place between two half-brothers. He ended up in the service of the frustratingly good-looking nepo baby Sir Hans Capon to try and help out the supporters of the royal brother who isn't going around burning down villages, and that plan got… a little sidetracked.

It's not exactly a start back from square one, though. Henry began the first game as that kind of old-school RPG protagonist who is really just some random guy with no skills to speak of. He could barely hold a sword, and the unforgiving combat really made you feel that until you put in the time to master it. But Henry's a seasoned adventurer now. He knows how to read, which is practically a superpower in medieval Europe. And while you were out partying, he studied the blade.

Taste My Blade

This is reflected in the changes to combat in KCD2, which the developers described as lowering both the skill floor required to play competently and raising the skill ceiling for the most devoted warriors. There are only four attack directions now instead of five. Thrust attacks are no longer a separate attack button, and have instead been folded into the combo system for weapons that make sense with them only. Parries are a bit easier to pull off, and much to my delight, blocking can now defend you from multiple attackers – as long as they're all in front of you.

Basically, whether you mastered KCD1's combat or not, the lower skill requirement at the very beginning models the fact that Henry is simply a better fighter by now. But careful stamina management is still the core of every scrap, and button-mashing is one of the quickest ways to die. I came across plenty of challenging encounters even as someone with more than 100 hours across two playthroughs in KCD1, and it's not as easy to spam your way through them by getting a couple of powerful combo moves down to muscle memory.

Hill and Dale

The world of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is quite a bit larger as well, with two distinct maps about the size of the first game's that you can travel back and forth between once both are unlocked. The terrain feels fairly familiar, for the most part. We're still in the Central Bohemian woodlands, basically just over the hill from where KCD1 left off. But the level of detail on the terrain and vegetation is a noticeable step up. And better yet, it's way more optimized. My RTX 4070 Super still can't run KCD1 – a six-year-old game – on max settings. But what I played of KCD2 rarely had any performance problems.

The centerpiece of this new world is the city of Kuttenberg, which is quite a bit larger, denser, and more vibrant than anything we saw in KCD1. It's certainly no Paris or Prague, but navigating its crowded streets and markets, taking shortcuts through back gardens, and admiring its grand Gothic architecture is a complete change of pace from wandering around muddy woodland trails. It's big enough to get lost in, built on a realistic scale that makes towns in a lot of other RPGs feel like tiny dioramas.

Tricks of the Trade

The side quests I got to play were also very open-ended and complex. The most notable example of this was an arc involving two rival sword schools in Kuttenberg, with the older and more established one (who just happened to support the wrong king) trying to force out the newcomers (who were loyal to our boy, the rightful heir). It fell on my shoulders to steal a ceremonial sword from the established school and display it on the walls of the town hall, which would be seen as an open call for challengers.

The quest doesn't much care how you get the sword. I took a sneaky approach, picking a lock to the guild's side entrance. But often you'll be able to choose violence, or even diplomacy to solve your problems. What it does care about is whether or not you get caught carrying out this little false flag operation, as it can affect how the tournament between the two schools plays out. I, of course, maintained plausible deniability and won the competition for my school. But there are a variety of other ways it could have progressed, some of which having long-term consequences. Another quest gave me the option of killing or talking my way past some "bandits," and I was told that if I didn't kill them, they might show up later and present me with new opportunities.

Almost everything in Kingdom Come: Deliverance II has to offer feels like a careful refinement of its predecessor. Skills and perks have also been expanded upon, and the perks themselves are generally more powerful. Some of the ones in the first game offered a boon and a penalty, which made them feel more like side-grades. Perks in KCD2 are more straightforward upgrades – which they should be, if I'm going to spend my scarce, hard-won progression points on them.

Sharp and Shiny

Almost everything else Kingdom Come: Deliverance II has to offer feels like a careful refinement of its predecessor. Warhorse isn't reinventing the wagon wheel here. Diplomacy still takes into account factors like what clothing you have on and how clean you are – with a new system of saved favorite outfits so you can quickly switch between combat gear and something more suited to a soiree. But this time, there's more emphasis on picking the right thing to say for the situation, instead of just the option you have the best stats for.

Alchemy is back, allowing you to craft various potions and concoctions, and it's been made less fiddly. There's a new blacksmithing minigame for forging your own gear and making a bit of coin, following in Henry's father's footsteps. The reading skill has been replaced by Scholarship, which is gained by reading books and can provide boons like opening up new dialogue options. Henry's still crap at reading Latin, though, and I'm not sure if that can be fixed.

And in addition to new, more diverse move sets for all kinds of melee fighting, Henry can finally get his hands on some guns. This is the early 1400s, so we're talking about extremely primitive firearms. The kind that had the tendency to blow up in your hands. So don't expect to be medieval John Wick. But if you point them the right direction from close enough range, there's really no amount of armor that will save your foes from the blast. Then you probably want to grab a sword, because the remaining foes will not stand there and wait for the subjective eternity it takes you to reload.

On the Road Again

In just about every sense, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is shaping up as simply a smoother, prettier, more refined continuation of the things I liked about the original. The core mechanics are mostly the same, but sharper and with deeper progression. The world looks familiar, but broader and more grandiose. I had two whole days to play it and it felt like far too little. When I was first turned loose from the stocks to pick my own path to glory, I felt that tingly feeling you get the first time you play Skyrim or The Witcher 3, of a massive world full of diverse adventures that aren't just clearing icons off of a map. I look forward to spending dozens of hours exploring, gearing up with authentic medieval weapons and armor, and progressing through the improved perk system. Maybe Hans will stop being a huge bag of dicks, too! You know, anything is theoretically possible. I'm just glad I won't have to wait much longer.