Kingdom Come: Deliverance II final preview — Food poisoning, a pact with the devil, and more medieval tales

Never have I ever carried a drunken huntsman on my back. Never have I ever fought a hermit that made a pact with the devil. Add to that, never having blacksmithed. While you await the opportunity to hear how the entire game shapes up, I’ve been tasked with taking a look at the beginning hours of this medieval sequel. So far, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II looks the part of a refined second game, along with polish that surprises and delights.

What astounds me the most about Kingdom Come: Deliverance II (now just KCD2 from here on in) is how normal everything is. By that, I mean how every interaction feels natural. Talking with characters, engaging in combat, all of these prompts make you feel like you’re smack dab in the middle of 1400s Bohemia. It’s almost casual in nature, at least till a bandit casually stabs you to death. This is because underneath his knightly garb, our dear Henry is still a peasant. Sure, the events of the last game set him up nicely for II, but a long fall immediately restarts your progress. That, and being in a new area brings with it additional language barriers. I do bemoan the “hero takes a tumble and loses levels”, but this trope is introduced well and doesn’t detract from the premise or narrative.

After making my way through the more linear start, things shape up in a way that really surprised me. Picking up grain sacks, getting into a fight, ending up in the stocks, and a verbal quarrel later, I’m out on my own trying to find my way into a wedding. Kingdom Come isn’t a game for the faint of heart, however, existing somewhat between Elden Ring and Skyrim. While you get a few hints and tutorials that will help you figure out mechanics and directions, there’s plenty on the player in unraveling how to proceed with the minor bits of information you have to go on.

I chose to go and help a blacksmith, who I had heard got an invite to the wedding I needed to attend. One long journey across dirt roads and pastures later, I arrived in front of Radovan, the blacksmith of Tachov. After mentioning my upbringing which gave my Henry a leg up, he agreed to let me give smithing a try, and if I succeeded, I could do more jobs for him. Choices I’d made up to this point in conversations helped shape the narrative of how I played the previous game, and luckily I’d chosen wisely, banging out a perfect sword as my job interview.

Of course, in Kingdom Come, these tasks aren’t just based on skill points. Going to the anvil, you’ll have to fire up a rod of metal to the right temperature and bang it out into a sword. This mini-game is fun, as you have to find the right cadence of strikes if you want to get them done quickly and without needing to reheat the metal. It’s intuitive; you’ll become accustomed to the rhythm (you’ll literally whistle while you work to help establish said rhythm) and be selling a ton of weapons and tools in no time.

Following my successful first attempt, I was immediately sent on a wild goose chase. Turns out the previous “interns” had disappeared with the cart of wedding supplies the blacksmith had put together. All we knew is that it should have made it to Semine, the town where the groom’s family resides. Another long dirt road later, I got into a losing fight with a tavern rat related to them, met the father of the groom (Lord Semine), and made friends with a dude named Gnarly.

If it seems like I’m abbreviating a lot of details, that’s because KCD2 is chock full of them. Between the in-depth conversations, outstanding visuals – seriously, the rolling, grassy hills and flush forests are near photo-realistic – and intricate skill trees, there’s too much to talk about in this small preview. Just know that as you play you’re immersed fully in the game, so these journeys I’m describing, including the multiple ways to complete them, feel like your own. Our Editor in Chief Ron Burke is playing on PC, has over 20 hours in the game, and has done almost nothing I have beyond the linear section – there’s plenty of variety on offer here.

Continuing on, Lord Semine, Gnarly, and my Henry trailed after the cart hoodlums. We finally found their camp, along with several bandits they were in cahoots with. Swordfighting ensues, multiple dead bandits are left lying on the ground, and one of the poor blacksmith’s interns decides he’d rather die than take the blame for the cart theft. I obliged his request.

Speaking of swordfighting, I’m completely horrible at it. The five point system of holding your sword for a swing returns, but this time as a four point system with the bottom points of the star combined. This doesn’t anger me in this game, but instead leaves me wanting to learn how to do it properly. There are some missions and trainers to do that will increase your capabilities, teach you new movies and weapons, and raise your overall point values, but be forewarned; getting good at anything is going to require a lot of effort, real-world practice, and might leave you with at least several flesh wounds. With things finally under wraps, it’s back to Tachov to inform Radovan the blacksmith on what had occurred.

Once he had all the details, he brought up the present for the wedding the shop needed to forge. Unfortunately, the right metal wasn’t available at the smithy, but fortunately, he knew where to get it. A hermit lived up in the hills, and had a broken sword that would work perfectly. From unfortunately to fortunately to unfortunately again, he apparently stopped seeing visitors after supposedly making a pact with the devil.

Shaking off that possibility and hoping that Kingdom Come’s affinity for less fantasy elements meant it’d all be a joke, I headed off to find him. After walking around the search space where he should be, I found a crevice between two rocks to walk through, revealing a small shack, a sheep, and the hermit. He screeched at me to stay away, and I decided to come back after dark.

Sneaking in, I tried to rob him in his sleep and immediately failed as it was my first time trying that mini-game. This woke him up, and as you could expect, he was not pleased. I’m not sure why it happened this way, but he tried to fist fight me… which didn’t go well as I pulled out my sword and stabbed him. Don’t bring a fist to a sword fight I guess. Looting him gave me the info I needed, with the interesting tidbit that this guy wasn’t the hermit in question but someone posing as him. The good news from all of this was the sword hilt being affixed to the original hermit’s grave, and once I found it, was on my way back to Tachov.

Before I left (and given I took a few punches), I decided to eat some of my food to help my health. In my rush to find the sword hilt, however, I ingested a carrot that was not so fresh. This gave me food poisoning, a status effect that’s more than just annoying negative percentages. Every once in a while I heard my stomach gurgle, with Henry groaning at the churning. I even heard a villager remark on the noise once, a hilarious reaction that shows off Warhorse’s attention to detail. It eventually goes away with time or a tonic, but it’s not something you regularly have to deal with in a video game. I don’t like food poisoning in real life, and I’m not a fan of it in virtual Bohemia either.

The other problem — and a new feature — I encountered was my overall stench. It turns out those dusty roads and more than a little blood was more than a little off-putting. While there was a full mini-game to dressing the part in the first game (which returns, with a few quality of life upgrades to switching them out quickly), washing your clothes, taking a bath, and generally not looking or smelling like a vagabond is the key to not being outright rejected from a tavern as you’ll lower a place with dirt floors serving near-rancid food. Be better than rancid, Henry – at least splash some water on your face and perhaps learn how to mix up soap?

Since I finally had the right sword material, I was at the end of this extended adventure. I had to whack the blade into shape and convince the blacksmith to bring me to the wedding as payment, but things are finally looking up for my version of Henry. If things keep looking up, there is the question that’ll likely take hundreds of hours to answer as this game is more than double that of its predecessor. I personally can’t wait to explore every grimy corner of it. All of these questions and more will be answered soon, as Kingdom Come: Deliverance II will arrive on PS5, Xbox Series consoles, and PC on February 4th. Check out the official website here for more information and to pre-order, and stay tuned to GamingTrend.com for our full review very soon!

See below for our list of partners and affiliates: