I’m going to hold my hands up. Before The Game Awards of 2025, I never heard of the Kingdom Come franchise. It’s disgusting, considering I’m a huge RPG fan. I never even heard of the first one, which makes matters even worse. I only heard about the game after the backlash some of the awards got, believing it should’ve won over Expedition 33.
I sat on the fence for a few weeks before pulling the trigger to purchase. My mind was split. At the time, it felt like a risk, a game praised for its ambition, but criticised for how it actually played. Here’s why my mind was split:
- It was 2025’s Game of the Year runner-up, so naturally, I was intrigued
- I was concerned about people’s complaints about the combat system
I actually ended up purchasing The Outer Worlds 2 over this. That was a mistake. In the end, I pulled the trigger.
What caught me off guard was after the tutorial/prologue section. The game threw me into it. With literally nothing. I had to fend for myself. I had heard of the master strike, so I went for that, got my ass handed to me. It didn’t go well. It’s the game’s first real skill check. It’s not a shortcut, but a lesson in timing and patience.
For the first 2 hours after the prologue, I hated it. I got so angry. Then one thing clicked for me…
Back in Christmas 2008. My younger brother, who was almost 12 at the time, got Fallout 3 as a gift. He played it for an hour, then gave up on it. He didn’t play it again until several months later when he saw me make it out of the vault, realising the potential of the game. He’s now a huge Fallout fan. I still found it odd, a 12-year-old playing Fallout, but hey, he ended up okay.
So I took that advice. I played through the hell. The feeling of fighting 2 people and getting smashed. The feeling of going to a trader, seeing all of the sexy stuff, only to realise you’re nowhere near affording it. The feeling of failing speech check after speech check, or the feeling of being unable to pick a medium lock.
This is Kingdom Come. The power fantasy you see in RPGs like Skyrim or The Witcher doesn’t exist here. The game leans more towards realism. The fighting, despite feeling janky at first, is designed to make you feel overwhelmed, and boy, does it do that. The thing, the only thing that feels overpowered, is the master strike. You go from struggling with a 1v1 to mastering that and gradually getting better at feeling surrounded.
The thing is, though, it wasn’t just about the upgrades. There was a skill gap that needed to be closed.
At no point during the game do you become a God or ridiculously overpowered. Even the Siege of Suchdol can feel off at times, and by this point, you have so many upgrades and amazing armour. Well, you should be by that point. By this point, you feel confident in battle. Whether you’ve mastered wielding a sword or a longer-range weapon, once you use something enough, the game does reward that mastery. Not in the form of upgrades, but rather you, the player, getting better.
The world doesn’t bend for you. It can be unforgiving. I can’t tell you the number of times I fast-travelled somewhere, only to be ambushed by 2 random bandits for them to destroy me utterly. It really doesn’t care if you’re late, tired, or unprepared; it’s designed to be difficult. Here’s where that adds to your benefit. Eventually, I realised, I didn’t need to buy anything, not really.
I could steal it. The thievery and stealth skill trees were incredibly fun. Once I figured out I could essentially rob Kuttenberg and become rich as hell with all of the best gear, it was a blast. It took several hours for the robbing grind, even selling it without being caught was a grind. I adored it.
The game truly felt like Henry was your oyster. You could make the game how you wanted it to be. Want to be good at fighting? Get good. Want to be a good thief? Get good. Want to be good at speech checks? Well, go and wear a spangly outfit to make that work. Either way, you can play this game probably a thousand different ways. It’s what makes it so fun.
The game tested me to my limits. Oh boy, did I want to sling a controller at times. In the end, though, I realised what I just pumped over 70 hours into for a first playthrough was special. It was memorable, and I couldn’t be happier that I bought it. I just wish I had done it before playing through The Outer Worlds 2. I didn’t have a lot of fun with that game. It highlighted just how different an experience Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 actually is.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 did deserve to be in that conversation alongside Expedition 33 for Game of the Year without a doubt. I can’t wait to play it again, as I feel like even 70 hours was too quick, not because I want to feel stronger, but because I finally understand how it wants to be played.
