Kingdom Come: Deliverance 1&2

[Antimatter]

I had the game pre-ordered, so I started playing it. Very impressed with the cutscenes and VO improvements. The prologue is interesting and full of action.

The game has the same vibe as KCD 1, but provides more options in almost every regard: from dialogue options to improved stealth.

The tone is very similar, full of humor and jokes, and at the same time, it gives the feeling of tension and worry. The story develops quickly. There is a very natural dynamic between the main character and his close friend from the first game.

There are problems with performance, though, cutscenes sometimes stutter, and sometimes that stuttering continues into the gameplay. All seems random atm and no actual clue on how to fix it. Googled, and found people with the same issues even on high-end PCs. Hopefully, the performance will get better with patches.

The picture quality is stunning.

I installed a mod allowing for Unlimited Saving.

Overall, so far so good. It's KCD 1 + much more. I just wish technical issues would be fixed soon.

 

[Antimatter]

Enjoying the game. Probably, spending time the most by gathering herbs, brewing potions, selling, buying equipment, etc. I like the slow but steady feeling of getting more powerful via the activities I define myself.

KCD 2 is not just a good RPG, it's a really good one, one of the best. I feel the same joy I had when I played BG3.

Also, here is a good article: https://www.gamesradar.com/games/rp...layer-rpg-made-all-its-money-back-in-one-day/

It's great to see how WarHorse picked up the torch that Bethesda left, and Larian kinda continued what early BioWare had started.

 

[Antimatter]

Currently have more than 50 hours in. Still haven't completed the Chapter 1 main quest, tried to complete everything else first. The game is a joy. Pure joy. It has so many nicely thought-through details: almost every side quest is a chain of quests where you interact with NPCs in multiple stages, thus getting to know them more closely. The game is filled with humor and yet mixes it with serious topics all the time.

There are hidden perks that you can only unlock by doing things naturally, so even looking at the initial perk screen won't reveal that. The game doesn't keep your hand at all, offering alternate choices and paths to different outcomes.

You can forge weapons on your own. So amazing to see actual blacksmithing implemented in the game. When you get Henry to sing a blacksmithing tune, you know the weapon will be good. Alchemy was great already in KCD1, this is now the next level.

Initially, I thought that traveling with a dog companion would be wonky and the dog would get stuck etc. Turns out, no, it works flawlessly. And this little fella brings so much joy.

The music, the environmental sounds, the tone, the freedom, the landscapes, not many games come close to that. Maybe Red Dead Redemption 2? But that game was expensive to create and it had a much larger development team.

I agree with WolfheartFPS even more now:

 

[Antimatter]

More than 100 hours in. I can agree with Larian's head of PR:



Main quests are filled with urgency. Writing is amazing. Would be an unpopular (?) opinion, but I'd say writing in this game feels better and more natural than even in CP2077 and BG3.

In the second half of the game, the quality didn't drop at all, maybe some parts became even better.

The game is a real marvel. It continues to give.

 

[Antimatter]

If the game had been 9/10 before I reached Kuttenberg, it firmly went into the 9.8/10 territory afterwards (for me). Kuttenberg is a massive medieval city with tons of content in it. It beats Novigrad from The Witcher 3 and the Baldur's Gate 3 city easily. But it's not a surprise --progress exists, and new games can become even better than legends of the past.

I was sure KCD 2 would be a good game but I didn't expect just how grand it would be. I don't remember, and I mean it, I don't remember when one game could contain movie-like main quest sequences (that you can't stop to see out), detailed side quests (with different stages and twists), memorable characters (and multiply that by 100 as this game has hundreds of them), exploration, and vast gameplay systems with deep and varied RPG components at the same time.

It comes as no surprise to me that the game already sold 2 mln copies.



It is still smaller than the game deserves. Be it "I played the first game, didn't get hooked enough", or "dunno, it doesn't have fantasy/magic in it", or "it's a direct sequel, I haven't played the first game so can't get into the sequel", there might be a myriad of reasons for people to overlook KCD 2 still. But with time, more and more players will give it a go, based on word of mouth, Steam reviews, or just growing popularity and general acceptance (say, a couple of Game of the Year awards, or more than a couple).

Playing or completing the first game is not a requirement. Yes, the improvements over the first game are stunning. It's a huge leap in quality. Think BG1 -> BG2 transition, or DOS2 -> BG3.