Kingdom Come Deliverance 2

Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 is often janky, slow and unbalanced, but what it lacks in polish and urgency it gets back in spades with an effortlessly charismatic performance by Tom McKay as the protagonist Henry, a fantastic commitment to integrating the realism of the period into gameplay and a surprising amount of whimsy and humour.

The opening chapter puts you right back to basics and ends with you at a power level not dissimilar from the first game. The grounded and limited scope is where the game shines most. Doing all the little banal tasks for each of the people in the village seems like RPG busy work but pays off greatly when it all coalesces into a wedding which sets the stage for the narrowing of the plot leading in to the end of this first chapter. The strength of Henry's likability and incredulity at the frequently juvenile and foolish antics of others makes Henry seems more like a real person than a character in the story. In some ways he represents the flipside of the coin to Geralt of Rivia; both have enough distance from the antics of others that they look at it with confusion and exasperation but where as Geralt is Sarcastic and cynical, Henry is sincere and hopeful.

Once the opening chapter is over things slow down again and I must admit the game lost me and became a bit of a slog for awhile. The strength of the story rests in the banality of much of it, but when trying to sustain a hundred hour playtime the lack of urgency and tension do make it less engrossing. Thankfully though whenever I contemplated giving up something would come out of nowhere and draw me back in. Some unexpected humour or a moment of Alien Isolation like terror turned into a case of religious misunderstanding and knightly vows gone wrong.

In the end It culminates well, delivering on the premise and focussing down on a small cast of characters which plays to the strength of the story.

The game flows well and stands as a testament to the developers desire to get into the minutia of each given task, be it sharpening a weapon, brewing a potion or cleaning yourself after wading through shit to find a bow. The progression system is forgiving making you quite powerful pretty easily and not eking out the rewards. Players who want more of a challenge can easily opt in to higher difficulty modifiers.

Overall it stands as a unique piece of art created by people and unlike something you would find elsewhere. Sometimes broken, often over long, surprisingly funny and aiming beyond where it can shoot it stands proud having achieved so much and being true to it's own nature.