Post
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, PC Gamer's Game of the Year 2025 and its Significance
PC Gamer has named 'Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2' as the Game of the Year for 2025, praising it highly. The game has captivated gamers with its outstanding immersion, meticulous detail, and a mature approach that reduces 'hand-holding' elements. However, some opinions suggest that its hardcore systems and high entry barrier may make it difficult for gamers with limited time.
1. 🏆 PC Gamer Names Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 as 2025 Game of the Year
- ✅ Webzine PC Gamer has named Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 as the Game of the Year for 2025.
- ✅ Journalist Joshua Wolens called the game a 'game for weirdos by weirdos,' highly praising its obsessive attention to detail.
- ✅ It's characterized by its hardcore nature, where you have to put on a gambeson before wearing armor, you're likely to be beaten to death by bandit scrubs for the first 10 hours of the game, and you have to brew your own save potions.
- ✅ Kingdom Come 2 vividly recreates 15th-century Bohemia, providing an immersive world that keeps players happily trapped for dozens, even hundreds, of hours.
00:00 - 01:25
1. 🏆 PC Gamer Names Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 as 2025 Game of the Year
- ✅ Webzine PC Gamer has named Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 as the Game of the Year for 2025.
- ✅ Journalist Joshua Wolens called the game a 'game for weirdos by weirdos,' highly praising its obsessive attention to detail.
- ✅ It's characterized by its hardcore nature, where you have to put on a gambeson before wearing armor, you're likely to be beaten to death by bandit scrubs for the first 10 hours of the game, and you have to brew your own save potions.
- ✅ Kingdom Come 2 vividly recreates 15th-century Bohemia, providing an immersive world that keeps players happily trapped for dozens, even hundreds, of hours.
01:26 - 02:27
2. 🌟 Critics' Acclaim: Best Game of 2025, Side Quests That Rival The Witcher 3
- ✅ Journalist Morgan Park raved that Kingdom Come 2 was not only the best game of 2025, but was 2025 itself.
- ✅ He said he played for over 100 hours over 8 months and never ran out of exciting stories.
- ✅ Kingdom Come 2 is basically a 'dialogue' game, characterized by the occasional comical and minor sword fights.
- ✅ It's full of side quests that are as good as the main story, which he says is praise he hasn't given to any RPG since 'The Witcher 3'.
02:28 - 03:30
3. ⚔️ A Tricky Game for Medieval Nerds, Differentiated Gameplay
- ✅ Journalist Fraser Brown called the game a Czech version of 'Morrowind,' saying it's impossible not to love.
- ✅ Journalist Molly Taylor commented that Kingdom Come 2 is difficult and frustrating in just the right way, and has many elements that medieval nerds will love.
- ✅ Everything from fighting bandits with swords to making potions is careful and systematic, requiring you to completely overhaul the way you normally handle RPGs.
- ✅ Tricks like riding horses vertically up cliffs or opening the menu to chug all sorts of potions during combat won't work.
03:31 - 04:16
4. 🛡️ The True Successor to Morrowind and Oblivion, Uncompromising Design
- ✅ Journalist Phil Savage called Kingdom Come 2 the true successor to 'Morrowind' and 'Oblivion'.
- ✅ It's an immersive, system-based sandbox RPG where you can enjoy adventures just as much by traveling along dirt roads and picking flowers as you can by pushing the main quest.
- ✅ In a world where the few single-player games made by large publishers are anxious that users will leave due to difficult systems or rough finishes, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2's full swing in the opposite direction deserves to be celebrated.
- ✅ It's a difficult game, but those uncompromising design choices are devices to complete Kingdom Come 2 as a satisfying RPG with a distinct subjectivity in the depicted era and game design itself.
04:17 - 05:23
5. 🗣️ Developer's Philosophy: A Game That Takes Players Seriously
- ✅ Warhorse co-founder Martin Klima says that this game becoming PC Gamer's 2025 Game of the Year is a sign of the times.
- ✅ He says that the game is sincere in taking players seriously, and that there is a general trend in the gaming industry to prefer games that reduce 'hand-holding' elements.
- ✅ Klima says that the 'hardcore gamer base' has aged and gained experience, and is more inclined to venture beyond the familiar.
- ✅ He generally thinks that you can't just keep eating popcorn, and that once you know there's a more precious delicacy, you won't be so enthusiastic about popcorn anymore.
05:24 - 06:43
6. ⚠️ Publisher's Risk-Averse Tendencies and the Emergence of Popcorn-Like Games
- ✅ Klima says that not everyone is thirsty for the taste of enduring the difficult systems and inconveniences of games like Kingdom Come 2.
- ✅ He pointed out that the reason for the lack of games with such crazy system-oriented hearts is due to the risk-averse tendencies of publishers and developers.
- ✅ As the cost of making computer games skyrockets and the risks that publishers have to take increase, they have become more safety-conscious, and games that try to satisfy everyone in the middle of nowhere are emerging.
- ✅ Klima sees Kingdom Come 2 as a work that continues the lineage of bizarre and ambitious projects like 'Morrowind'.
06:44 - 07:34
7. 💡 Inspired by Elden Ring: Design That Trusts Players
- ✅ Kingdom Come 2 Design Director Viktor Bocan is a huge fan of Soulslike games, and says that the overall inspiration for the game came from there.
- ✅ Klima recalled a recent lecture Bocan gave in Prague, where he talked about 'Elden Ring' and mentioned that there are hidden dungeons, treasures, and bosses everywhere, but the game doesn't tell you 'go there and find this boss'.
- ✅ He thinks that Kingdom Come 2 and 'Elden Ring' share a philosophy in terms of the joy of exhilarating discovery when you do it yourself and the sense of accomplishment that comes from the process.
- ✅ The goal is to make players feel smart and capable on their own, and to experience the feeling of proactively navigating the world we've created.
07:35 - 09:09
8. 🤔 Reactions from Kingdom Come 2 Hardcore Fans: Acknowledgment of Hardcore Nature and Difficulty of Lack of Time
- ✅ Kingdom Come Reddit's best commenters expressed their joy at the news that Kingdom Come 2 was named PC Gamer's Game of the Year.
- ✅ User D2 said that in 2017, PC Gamer picked Divinity Original Sin 2 as GOTY, so he tried it and it became one of his life games, and expressed his anticipation for Kingdom Come 2 as well.
- ✅ User Vector pointed out that Kingdom Come hardcore fans are strangely reluctant to admit how 'heavy' this genre is.
- ✅ User Fire said that after 8 hours of work, commuting, going to the gym, cooking dinner, and showering, it's too hard to sit down, and that such a vast and deep RPG is not very good to play in short bursts.
- ✅ User Gray advised that if you're a nine-to-five worker, you'll feel like your blood is drying up if you turn off fast travel and spend your precious time riding around on horseback.