Personal Review after 94 hours of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2

Pros:

KCD 2 is technically far superior to KCD 1—better combat, improved graphics, and fewer bugs.
The game is much bigger, with two huge areas—probably more than double the size of KCD 1. Kuttenberg is a much larger city compared to Rattay, and there are way more quests (though, honestly, I don’t think most of them hold up to the writing in the first game).
The landscape and architecture are beautifully done and, as far as I can judge, feel authentically medieval. The attention to detail in world-building is noticeable, with vast open spaces, castles, and villages that are deeply rooted in the time period.
The crime system and NPC AI are considerably improved, adding depth to interactions and consequences for your actions.
The sound design is better, especially with weapon impacts, armor sounds, and soft tissue noises—it feels much more realistic than in the first game.
The music is just as good as the first game’s, though personally, I still prefer the first game’s soundtrack a bit more for its emotional depth.

Cons (Spoiler Alert):

The Writing:
One thing is undeniable—especially if you played KCD 1—there’s a clear effort to make KCD 2 more “progressive.” And I’m not just talking about diversity (the inclusion of Roma, Jews and a Black character). I mean how these characters are written.
In KCD 1, women behaved believably for the time period, and men treated them accordingly. There were no moral judgments or preachiness—just a depiction of life as it was, letting players form their own opinions. In KCD 2, this neutrality is gone, replaced by a subtle preachiness.
For example, the Roma are portrayed only as innocent, freedom-loving victims of prejudice, with townsfolk acting as their oppressive antagonists. The game even implies that the only reason their group has a male leader is due to tradition, suggesting the women would be better suited for the role.
There’s also an early-game gay character who’s written so poorly it’s immersion-breaking. He’s a herbalist (a job that’s traditionally held by women), and he gets immediately offended if you show the slightest surprise at a man doing this job. Then, he goes on to tell a victimhood story about being gay in 1403. The way Henry reacts to this feels jarringly modern—his dialogue options sound more like something a 2025 Renaissance fair roleplayer would say, not a medieval man. This is a huge contrast to KCD 1, which also had gay characters, but they were portrayed in a more neutral, believable way, without pushing modern sensibilities into the setting.
But the biggest issue? The retconning of Henry and Hans to be bisexual or gay. If you didn’t play KCD 1, you might not care, but for those of us who invested hundreds of hours in the first game, this is a huge mistake. These were characters clearly portrayed as straight, developing a strong friendship with no underlying sexual tension. Suddenly making them gay feels totally out of character. Even if you don’t pick the romance option, this dynamic is subtly present, which was never the case in KCD 1.
To give you some perspective: imagine if, after rescuing Dandelion in The Witcher 3, Geralt suddenly had the option to romance him. Would that enhance your view of Geralt, or would it ruin the immersion because it contradicts everything we know about him? That’s how this feels.

Overall Thoughts:

The writing in KCD 2 has a clear progressive agenda, and it’s painfully obvious if you played KCD 1. The first game felt like an authentic window into 1403, letting you experience history as it might have been, without judgment, allowing you to form your own opinions. But KCD 2 feels more like a medieval LARP, with modern moral guidelines layered on top to avoid offending 2025 sensibilities. It’s a huge shift, and for me, it ruins the immersion. The game also leans way too much into silliness at times. KCD 1 had moments of humor, but they were subtle or unintentional. In KCD 2, the humor is overdone, breaking the immersion in a game that’s supposed to feel grounded in history.

More than Halfway Through:

I’m now more than halfway through the Kuttenberg area, and I’ve hit a point where I’m done. The game’s subtle (and not-so-subtle) DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) checkbox implementations have made it so frustrating that it’s no longer enjoyable. It’s become more of an ideological piece than an immersive historical RPG. The worst part is, as a veteran of the first game who completed it multiple times, I remember how KCD 1 never pushed any kind of agenda. I can’t think of a single moment in the first game where I felt guided toward any particular perspective or opinion.

Here are some more examples of what I’ve encountered (and I’m sure there’s much more I’ve missed, since I stopped doing side quests and just started slaughtering everyone and pushing through the main quest in frustration):

In Trosky Castle, there’s a swordmaster named Bartush who openly admits he fancies Henry. Out of nowhere, Henry can casually have sex with him. What?!
Pictures of the interaction can be found in the public screenshots of my profile.

There’s a character named Rosa, a tough, independent woman who’s portrayed as stronger and braver than her father. She gives Henry a quest to retrieve a book that essentially serves basically as her medieval feminist manifesto.
Pictures of her and her writing can be found via the public screenshots of my profile.

Musa, a foreign character, feels very forced into the narrative. So far, he doesn’t seem to serve any real purpose other than preaching about how Islam is superior and how women are treated better in his country. While I can buy that his behavior might be believable as a devout Muslim, it feels forced into the game as a way to check the diversity box. If they wanted a foreign character, they could have chosen one that made more sense in the historical context.

In Kuttenberg, a key part of the main quest has you infiltrating a meeting of “antisemites,” but it turns out to be an ambush set up by the Jewish NPC. Of course, you can’t kill any of the ambushers.
All of this feels forced and alien compared to how KCD 1 handled similar topics. The first game never felt like it was pushing an ideological agenda. But in KCD 2, that feeling is constant. It’s not as in-your-face as something like Veilguard, but compared to KCD 1, the sense of being in a believable 1403 setting is completely lost for me.

Final Verdict:

Despite the massive technical improvements, KCD 2 is a huge letdown. So many unnecessary mistakes were made in the writing that it genuinely saddens me to think about the wasted potential of what this sequel could have been. The most painful lesson I’ve learned from this game is that I feel betrayed by Warhorse Studios, who I had trusted the most to continue their creative vision from KCD 1—untainted by outside social or political pressures. I’ll never preorder a game again, and I’m probably done buying games from Warhorse.

If you don’t like covert propaganda and preachiness in your games, I wouldn’t recommend buying this one.