Conclusion

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is bigger, better, and vastly better optimized than its predecessor. It's so refreshing to see a AAA title that just works on launch, and that plays great on the current crop of PC gaming handhelds. Sure, some kinks need to be ironed out, but we are certain Warhorse will fix them with future patches.

This medieval RPG with immersive sim elements is rooted in realism and presents an antithesis to the current "constant and instant gratification" trend in the AAA gaming space. You'll need to spend dozens of hours in-game before you master its tricky combat, learn its intertwined systems, and collect quality weapons and armor pieces.

If you want to play the hero from the get-go, we recommend skipping this game. But if you've got the patience and perseverance needed to reach the point where the game and the story open up and start rewarding the player for their pertinacity, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II will most likely end up on your GOTY shortlist.

Regarding the game's visuals, despite the lack of ray tracing and less-than-great reflections, KC:D II looks gorgeous most of the time. The game's global illumination system bathes everything in warm, detailed lighting, and if you've got a powerful enough machine, you can virtually eliminate LOD pop-in. That said, even with the "High" preset, the game looks excellent, with a low amount of pop-in.

On the other hand, character models are a bit stiff and have dated animations. Also, while they look pretty solid, settlements won't make your jaw drop. On the other hand, open valleys and forests are where the game truly shines, thanks to lush foliage, excellent lighting, and a huge amount of detailed-looking trees.

The only thing we don't like is the needlessly limited save system. Luckily, you can get a mod that enables infinite saving that works on ROG Ally. Just make sure to map the F5 key, needed to create saves with said mod, to the inbuilt controller. Combat is also less than great; it feels janky, especially on a mouse and keyboard, but once you get the hang of it, you might even start to like it.

In terms of handheld PC performance, this is one of the best-performing AAA games we've seen lately. On Steam Deck, you can have a stable 30 FPS experience with the "Low" preset, but you don't have to be annoyed with obvious pop-on because you can set most LOD-related settings to "Medium."

The ROG Ally can run the game with the "Medium" preset applied, with some LOD settings set to "High," making the game look amazing on the popular Windows handheld. Best of all, the frame rate never falls below 30 FPS, and 900p with FSR set to "Quality" looks much better than expected.

That said, you should expect intermittent stuttering both on Steam Deck and ASUS ROG Ally.

KC:D II plays great on a controller, and we can say that the melee combat works better on a controller than a mouse and keyboard combo. Since ranged weapons include slow-firing bows, crossbows, and gunpowder-based weapons, aiming with a controller is far from frustrating.

At the end of the day, we can wholeheartedly recommend Kingdom Come: Deliverance II to every Steam Deck and ASUS ROG Ally owner. You'll have a blast as long as you accept that the combat can feel strange and that the game is far from an instant gratification machine. I know I will.