Before the reign has definitely come
In 2025, Warhorse Studios offered us Kingdom Come Deliverance IIa very high quality RPG having exceeded 5 million sales in the space of a year. Immersion and breathtaking gameplay possibilities, colorful characters, or even a slew of quests with multiple branches, here is a recipe guaranteeing dozens of hours of pleasure, which fans of the genre have certainly not missed.
But before confirming its status as a reference for role-playing games, the license first entered through a smaller door before achieving success over several years, totaling more than 10 million for the first opus. So, when it comes time to dive back into it, let’s take the situation where a person discovers Kingdom Come Deliverance with the still relatively fresh experience of its sequel in mind.
Well, you can quickly be struck by the fact that almost everything is already there. Nothing but the writing and this taste for offering well-felt, often flowery dialogues, carried by multiple response choices whose success often depends on our persuasion statistics or the way in which we are dressed. The feeling of freedom is found from the first steps in Skalice, by resolving situations in different ways or by being able to search almost every building, even before the adventure really starts and its possibilities are already further exploited upon arriving in Rattay.
These two cities are very significant for Henry, and for good reason, it is with the events that he experiences here that his epic begins, before fully embarking on the adventure in a Bohemian Kingdom of the 15th century in the middle of the conflict between King Wenceslas IV and his self-proclaimed successor Sigismund, which will make him meet characters of all kinds, some of whom he can become friends with.
This implies development starting from zero for someone who is still only the son of a blacksmith who has never left the limits of his native village. Strength, agility, combat skills, eloquence, it’s up to us to decide what our hero will specialize in, unless we want to make him a jack of all trades, which is already possible here. On the other hand, unlike the second opus where he already knows how to read, Henry is first confronted with illiteracy which it is also possible to erase through practice with instructors.
Another gameplay component that is quite difficult to understand: the combat. Still based on this rosette system of which you must select the branch to strike a blow in the associated direction, the confrontations are even more complicated to experience, with this less flexibility that the sequel has intelligently provided. So if there were to be a few grimaces to make at the end of Kingdom Come Deliverance IIor quite simply on the occasion of a discovery, it would be about this.
Kingdom Come Deliverance on PS5 and Xbox Series, is it worth it?
For this very important first episode for our hero and, more pragmatically, for Warhorse Studios, the interest in bringing such an adventure to current generation consoles seems obvious, as the Switch saw its version two years ago. Faced with community demand, the Czech team fulfilled their wish. But she wants to say it, it is neither a remake nor a remaster, but a native version that can best take advantage of the characteristics of the PS5 and the Xbox Series.
So don’t expect to be particularly amazed by the visual rendering. Please note, this does not mean that it is outdated. On the contrary, the CryEngine continues to amaze with the quality of its overall renderingenhanced by this way of depicting landscapes, villages and fortresses with a very pleasant concern for authenticity. In addition, the HD texture pack (activatable or not) beautifies it all.
No doubt the age is felt more on the side of the faces and character animations (especially during the cutscenes for these), just as stubborn bugs like flashing lights or collision issues stain the whole thing a little. Same about the framerate, if we can enjoy 60 fps, note that it is not necessarily constant, but the gain in fluidity remains appreciable.
Other additions as part of this update Kingdom Come Deliverance also concerns the PC, like FSR upscaling or the possibility of switching to Ultra configuration. Let’s also highlight the arrival of Czech and Japanese dubbing, while Portuguese (Brazil), Ukrainian and Turkish are arriving as interface and subtitle languages.
Finally note that those with Kingdom Come Deliverance on PS4 and Xbox One will be able to upgrade for free. Otherwise, you will have the choice between the basic edition at €29.99, or the Royal Edition at €39.99. The only thing missing would be a Switch 2 version, which doesn’t seem unachievable in the long term, and we’d be good to go.
In short, if you liked the friction of the first hours of Kingdom Come Deliverance II and its Trosky area, you will be delighted to rediscover these sensations by launching this first opus, taking advantage of a native PS5 and Xbox Series version providing the essentials. And if you are someone who has been looking for a long time for an RPG that requires investment and an experience aimed at authenticity, on console, while not really daring to start with the second episode of the Czech series, you now no longer have an excuse.