Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is finally here, or it should be by the time you’re watching this, and like protagonist Henry of Skalitz, the franchise has come a long way. The first title initially began development in 2012 with crowd-funding going live in 2014 to push its production further. The result was 2018’s Kingdom Come: Deliverance, an ambitious title with an emphasis on medieval realism in 15th-century Bohemia.
Like the setting, its launch was anything but fantastical, with numerous bugs, loading issues, etc. Performance issues bogged down the PS4 and Xbox One at the time. While it wasn’t as disastrous as, say, Cyberpunk 2077, it would take multiple updates to get it to an acceptable state for players.
Perish those dark memories, though, because Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is a different beast entirely. It performs exceptionally well on PC, and while the PS5 version (the only console we tested) has a few noticeable hang-ups, the results prove more than satisfactory. Without further ado, let’s dive into the technical aspects, graphical fidelity and performance of both versions and what makes them shine.
Engine Overview and Improvements Over Kingdom Come: Deliverance
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 runs on Crytek’s CryEngine, and while it’s very much the same engine as the first game in name, there have been heavy modifications. This is also the case for the sequel – Stolz-Zwilling even went as far as to say that it’s “very different from what one would call a ‘CryEngine.’”
Kingdom Come: Deliverance wasn’t a bad-looking game by any stretch, yet its follow-up boasts some very impressive improvements. Lighting and shadows look more natural and realistic, with the tones more accurately reflecting the latter. The lighting improvements are all the more noticeable on characters, with Henry’s facial features coming across as more defined and realistic.
It also doesn’t hurt that physically based materials are used, which looks impressive all around, whether you’re admiring chainlink mail or gawking at shiny pauldrons. Environmental textures have seen a noticeable bump in quality especially on the ground and in foliage, while reflections are more natural.
Graphics Overview
In terms of graphical settings, there is a fair amount to tweak but nothing too crazy, including object quality, particles, lighting, and global illumination. You can also adjust the shader quality, shadows, textures, post-process quality, and details on volumetric effects, characters, and vegetation. A horizontal FOV slider is available alongside motion blur and near depth of field settings, while upscaler options include Nvidia DLSS and AMD FSR 3.1. All the usual options are available, including Quality, Performance, Balanced, and Native AA.
Test Rig Hardware and Graphics Settings on PC
Our test rig for the PC version consisted of an AMD Ryzen 9 5950X, a Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, 64 GB of DDR4 RAM, and an NVMe PCI-e 4.0 SSD. The resolution was set to 3840×2160 and the frame rate limit to 120 FPS (with V-Sync enabled) with a horizontal FOV of 95, Object Motion Blur and Near DOF enabled. For the graphics settings, we set everything to Ultra and the anti-aliasing to SMAA 2TX. Nvidia DLSS was also enabled and set to Performance.
PC Performance
Even with everything set to Ultra and 4K resolution, we achieved some very smooth frame rates on PC, hovering at 60 and 65 frames per second throughout (occasionally even going up to 80-82 FPS). During cutscenes, it would drop to 30 frames per second while conversations jumped back up to 60-65.
It is worth noting, however, that during NPC-heavy scenes, the frame rate would drop to 49 to 54 frames per second. The same could be observed later during a sequence where multiple NPCs are fighting, and fires are raging dropping as low as 47 frames before going back up again after things calmed down.
It’s worth noting that the PC version also suffers from slight pop-in – emphasis on the “slight.” Granted, it’s much less common than on PS5’s Quality Mode, but you’ll still notice it from time to time, especially when riding on horseback.
PS5 Performance vs Quality Mode
PS5 and Xbox Series X benefit from two graphics modes – Performance and Fidelity. The former delivers a 2560×1440 resolution at 30 frames per second, upscaled to 4K courtesy of FSR. The latter offers 60 FPS but at 1080p resolution upscaled to 1440p. There is a noticeable drop in sharpness, and though slight drops are visible at certain points, like in the opening siege, the performance is otherwise very consistent. However, both modes suffer from pop-in – it’s most egregious on Performance and much less so on Quality, but still visible. We also noticed lower frame rates on NPC shadows ahead of the player during the initial horse ride.
PC vs PS5 Quality Mode
It should come as no surprise, but the PC version is the clear winner here. In terms of image quality, resolution, and performance, it’s clearly superior to the PS5 version’s Quality mode in every way. The latter shouldn’t be discounted, especially with how much fidelity it offers alongside a solid frame rate and sharp image quality, but we’d imagine that most would prefer playing Performance Mode for the 60 FPS bump. Here’s hoping that the latter has its pop-in reduced to make it more palatable.
Conclusion
There’s no two ways about it – Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is a massive step up over the original in terms of optimization and performance. The fact that it achieves this while significantly improving the graphical quality, is also worthy of praise. You’ll want to experience it on PC, which can look stunning and deliver solid performance throughout, though some scenes could still use more optimization and polish.
However, it’s great to see that the PS5 version hasn’t fallen behind drastically, offering some reliable performance that stays consistent in both Quality and Performance modes. The pop-in is understandably distracting and can occasionally take away from the latter’s experience, which is all the more annoying because of how good 60 FPS feels. Nevertheless, it’s leagues ahead of the first game’s debut on PS4, and truly brings the medieval world to life in stunning detail.
Overall, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is a strong success for the series in both the graphical department and overall polish. We didn’t run into bugs or glitches during our time testing, making for an ideal experience. If you’re still on the fence regarding its performance, there’s little to fear, though once again, the best possible option, especially in fidelity, is on PC.
