kirillkutz Kingdom Come: Deliverance II Review

I played the first part, and finally the long-awaited sequel Kingdom Come: Deliverance II. This is the fruit of love between the last three Scrolls and the Witcher 3. This is what RPG fans have been missing for the past year (and maybe more). This is the best RPG in recent times. After the epic finale and two cool cutscenes in the credits, I'm sitting here and can't collect all my thoughts. You know that feeling when you finish reading a great book or watch a fascinating series? That pleasant sadness from the fact that an unforgettable adventure has come to an end?.. KCD2 greets us with a flashforward, which even I, a player unfamiliar with the material, understood: what's next is brutal. And that makes it doubly interesting, what led to these events? And it was Mr. Ptacek who led us, forcing us to make that fateful stop by the lake. I really liked the scriptwriters' technique, when the loss in characteristics and skills is due to the protagonist's injuries; and also questions in the initial dialogues that refer to key moments from the previous part. - The training in the game is quite organic; I often had to read the "Help", fortunately everything is described in detail there, friendly for beginners; - The combat system fascinated me with its realism - clumsy, slow, sweaty, with the clicking of armor and weapons. Enemy AI - my respects! I had to literally hack my way through adventures and spend my last pennies on saving schnapps; - The plot captured me from the very beginning. As a fan of the series, I was immediately captivated by the characters, the general historical accuracy and the brewing intrigue. The game makes you understand that now you will not be able to make a stir in the villages if you go further along the plot with the key character. I was in a hurry to complete the main quest (because it is interesting!), but still often got distracted by side quests. Here's a great example: we're fast-traveling around the map to the next main quest, and then, bam: "There are dead cows in front of you, and a priest and a peasant are arguing heatedly nearby. Stop?" - Of course stop! And here begins one of the most interesting, in my opinion, side quests. I won't spoil it, but I'll just say that there are three ways out of the situation, one of which I failed twice due to Indri's lack of charisma. It's very easy to deviate from the main story and gallop to the aid of another damsel in distress. - The morality and role-playing are excellent here - I always play the paragon, though (except for BG3 - there Baal himself ordered to commit atrocities), and here the characters and the game world as a whole react correctly to what Indri and I are doing, be it an attempt to sleep on the floor of someone else's stable or helping the bailiff in yet another village. In 9 out of 10 cases I failed checks for special dialogue lines, and it was annoying) But I advise you not to use saves in these cases, otherwise the entire immersion is lost. - The characters and romances here are simply incredible. No, seriously. I was ready to chop Zizka into cabbage at the first meeting, and Katerina harshly dismoralized me for the entire first half of the game). Komar made me cry, and Kubenka always made me laugh. By the way, I advise you to visit the baths more often ;) Jan Ptacek was a pleasant discovery for me - here you can really follow the development of the character, and how well he was written. A deep bow to the scriptwriters of Warhorse. And special thanks to the Russian localizers for the amazing translation with a bunch of archaisms and Old Slavonic words! - Agenda?.. What kind of agenda? The only black guy in the entire game turned out to be an interesting character, and also historically sound. The only unconventional relationships here are unconventional. This is a real RPG, where the player is restrained only by his own moral compass and a few corresponding options for action. I omitted a lot, simply because I am writing this while the trail is still hot - I completed the main story literally a couple of hours ago. There is also alchemy, forging, reading and studying books, a pet Barbos, picking locks, sharpening weapons, repairing equipment, satiety and sleep, horse racing, hunting, siege and defense, shooting from primitive firearms, gambling with dice, fistfighting... I have nothing to say about the shortcomings, because they are insignificant against the background of the whole story, graphics and optimization.