Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 Is Gaming's Latest Unlikely Hit
Raise a pint to one million.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 might be the first game of the year contender of 2025. Debuting on Metacritic with a respectable 88 average so far, the sequel to the 2018 role-playing game seems to double down on the divisive design decisions of the original to great success. And just a day after release, it seems that it's not just critics who are on board with the game.
Developer Warhorse Studios announced Wednesday that the game has already sold over a million copies. The studio, which was founded in 2011 specifically to make this unorthodox style of role-playing game, told fans it was “beyond grateful” for their support and enthusiasm.
“Thank you for making Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 a triumph,” it tweeted.
Several other developers, including The Witcher’s CD Projekt Red, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2’s GSC Game World, and the Arma series’ Bohemia Interactive congratulated Warhorse on its sophomore effort.
Deliverance 2’s success should come as no surprise to those paying attention to the studio’s work. The first game took huge risks in recreating 15th-century Bohemia (modern-day Czech Republic) in painstaking detail and made it the backdrop of a role-playing game that prioritized realism over universal game mechanics typical of the genre. Things players often take for granted in other RPGs, like the need to eat and sleep, forging your own items and weapons, and even the ability to read at a time when only the privileged learned to, were all major considerations players needed to concern themselves with.
Despite being impenetrable for some, the first Deliverance was a big hit with players. As of November 2024, the studio sold over 8 million copies, according to Warhorse. So a sequel that looked to refine some of the rougher edges of the original was bound to find an even larger audience.
For those looking to experience everything the original did well and more, Warhorse didn’t disappoint. The sequel has been lauded for its open-ended mission structure that allows players to do all sorts of wacky shenanigans, which can spill over into further hijinks and good fortune thanks to the game’s deep, emergent systems and rules.
You’ll need to keep Henry clean if you want to avoid attracting the wrong kind of attention.
While stealth is an option (one that players will want to take under the cover of nightfall), they should absolutely make sure they’ve bathed beforehand. As noted to GamesRadar by game senior designer Ondřej Bittner, NPCs are clever enough to notice the B.O. of protagonist Henry of Skalitz, even if he’s hidden. A pretty embarrassing way to blow your cover if you ask me.
The game includes a dedicated drinking stat which players can improve by, well drinking. In the short term, consuming alcohol has a few positives, like boosting strength, quenching thirst and hunger, and delaying fatigue, and some negatives, including a debuff of speech and charisma, stealth abilities, and the ability to sleep. In the long run, however, responsible consumption will also build Henry’s tolerance. This can mean the ability to outdrink his friends and foes during quests. Responsibility is the name of the game, however, as hangovers and even alcoholism can have heavy impacts on how Henry is able to function day to day.
The game’s combat is grounded in realism as much as the rest of the game. While sword fights involve a delicate balance of managing Henry’s stamina as he blocks, swings, and parries enemy attacks, the sequel also includes new projectile weapons. They include deadly crossbows, which are much more efficient and easy to use than the bow and arrows of the original, as well as actual guns.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 features the earliest iteration of guns, but they’re about as practical as guns actually were during the 15th century.
The latter, however, comes with a catch: they’re as clumsy and arduous to use as actual guns of the 15th century. Using the earliest guns requires precious seconds of loading a long metal tube, lighting a wick instead of pulling a trigger, aiming it just so, and hopefully, hitting a target. Bittner has gone as far as calling its inclusion a bit of a joke.
“The idea that someone goes through the forest, he's attacked by bandits, and he takes out a boomstick — that's ridiculous,” Bittner told PC Gamer. “So we knew it was going to be a meme weapon, but we were cool with it.”
One of the most divisive things about the first game is its stingy save system. Warhorse has doubled down here, as it returns in the sequel. While autosave will kick in after finding a bed to sleep in and sporadically during quests, it's better not to rely on it. Losing 30 minutes to an hour or more of progress is a common occurrence in Deliverance 2 and is part of the game’s unforgiving nature. If you do want to save at a given moment, it requires brewing a tonic called “savior schnapps” at an alchemy bench. Each of these consumables allows Henry to save on the spot. But he’s limited to however many he has in his inventory.
You’ll have to get familiar with alchemy to save reliably in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is another reminder that modern players are more open than ever to dense, systems-heavy games. In recent years, complex and challenging games like Elden Ring, Dragon’s Dogma, and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 have proved the appetite for games once considered too niche for the mass market can thrive, so long as the game is rewarding and fun to play. Deliverance 2 may not be for everyone. But for those who can stomach its unique approach to an RPG, there’s a lot to enjoy here.
