The conversations regarding the greatest modern open-world RPG can go on for hours on end, but in almost every situation, it seems like everyone lands on Elden Ring eventually. It is pretty hard to argue against it, what with the sheer scale of the world, the incredible combat and enemies, and the unbelievable world-building that has now been expanded with a spin-off and the production of a movie. However, with all that said, I would argue that there is actually a better role-playing game out there deserving of the top spot, one that hits every nail on the head and goes further than any other title in the entire genre. I am, of course, talking about Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, a newer kid on the block, but its age doesn’t make it any less exceptional.
Improving on the foundations laid out by the original, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is about as close as it gets to a perfect sequel. Rather than taking a few steps forward and a couple back, it builds upon everything that people loved about the first game and continues Henry’s story respectfully and interestingly, without leaning too far into cliche or forgetting about the realism that the franchise has become known for. In fairness, you don’t get those crazy epic moments with dragons flying all over the shop and intense boss battles that can take hours to conquer, but where Elden Ring excels in fantasy and action, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 aces the role-playing, narrative, and immersion.
1
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 Is the Best Modern Open-World RPG
-
Image via Warhorse Studios -
Image via Warhorse Studios -
Image via Warhorse Studios
Start with the actual role-playing, because that’s where the gap is widest. In Elden Ring, your build is a stat sheet and a weapon loadout that does feel great to expand and level up, but no matter how far you progress, the world reacts to none of it. NPCs don’t care if you’re a sorcerer or a strength user, quests resolve the same way regardless of your choices, and the roleplaying element mostly means picking which shiny piece of metal you want to slay bosses with. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 makes your character an actual variable in its systems. Henry’s reputation precedes him in towns and changes how merchants price their goods and how guards respond to him, and there are so many other opportunities for you to lean into your role as a rising knight, regardless of whether you are talking to a noble or a lowly beggar.
Guess the games from the emojis.
Guess the games from the emojis.
Easy (120s)Medium (90s)Hard (60s)
That control bleeds into the world itself, which is the second place KCD2 pulls ahead of the Land Between. FromSoftware are no stranger to creating gorgeous set-pieces, and Elden Ring shows the height of their world-building stock, with every new area representing the pinnacle of beauty and intrigue. Yet, if you actually look at things on a mechanical level, the world is pretty much a backdrop that exists independently of your actions and decisions within it. Sure, if you kill Godfrey or slay Maliketh, there are large-scale changes that occur, but as grand as they may be, they are still few and far between. Bohemia has a similar lack of care for you, as farmers and other village folk will still complete their tasks alongside your adventure, but there are far larger consequences that exist which ripple forward across an entire playthrough.
-
Image via Warhorse Studios -
-
Image via Warhorse Studios
Where Elden Ring excels in fantasy and action, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 aces the role-playing, narrative, and immersion.
You may encounter a guard who remembers your face, a merchant who’s heard what you did in the next town over, and even something as basic as the wounds on your skin need to be cared for rather than fading on their own, adding a much greater level of importance to each and every minor decision. It’s slower, occasionally frustrating, and utterly convincing in a way Elden Ring never tries to be, because its world exists to be traversed and fought in, not lived in as an actual member of society. That is what I think is the real difference maker between the two games. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is all about making you believe that this is a story and a world that could have existed, and despite being fiction at its core, I would argue it is about as close to the real thing as you can get within a game.
Where Elden Ring excels in fantasy and action, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 aces the role-playing, narrative, and immersion.
Speaking of story, as someone who is a diehard FromSoftware fan and someone who will defend the shortcomings of Elden Ring until I die, it is pretty hard not to concede the game’s lack of narrative cohesion. FromSoftware’s environmental storytelling is a genuine art form, but it’s built for scholars, not participants. By that I mean that you learn what happened to the world by reading between the lines of item flavor text, not by making choices that shape what happens next.
When looking at Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, we are treated to a grounded, personal, linearly comprehensible story about a blacksmith’s son caught in the machinery of a real historical civil war, and it is told with the kind of dialogue-driven, choice-reactive writing that Elden Ring has no interest in attempting. You’re not decoding lore, but making decisions with genuine narrative weight that impact characters and large segments of the country, without you ever having to open the wiki to understand what’s going on.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is all about making you believe that this is a story and a world that could have existed, and despite being fiction at its core, I would argue it is about as close to the real thing as you can get within a game.
None of this makes Elden Ring worse at what it’s trying to be. It remains one of the finest action games ever made, and its refusal to compromise its combat identity for the sake of more RPG systems is arguably a strength that has allowed it to become such an icon in the industry. But that’s exactly the point I am trying to make: it’s an action game with RPG scaffolding, while Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is an actual role-playing game, one where your choices, your reputation, and your competence in the world all matter. If the genre’s name means anything, the better modern open-world RPG isn’t the one with the bigger map or the higher Metacritic score. It’s the one that actually lets you play a role, and feel like you are a piece of the world with genuine importance.
-
-
Image via Warhorse Studios -
Image via Warhorse Studios
At the end of the day, comparing the two head-to-head actually feels a little unfair, as in order to praise one, you almost have to find flaws in the other. Isolating one specific trait like the combat, we have a very clear winner in Elden Ring, but the whole point of deciding on a single best game is to look at the bigger picture within the context of the genre it resides in. Elden Ring is a nigh-perfect game that has been praised from end to end and will be looked back upon as one of the defining releases of the 2020s. Yet, by considering all elements at once and by directly drawing lines to the standards of what an open-world RPG should be, I think it is fair to say that Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is the rightful king of the genre and the new standard that future games will aspire to achieve for decades to come.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
10/10
- Released
-
February 4, 2025
- ESRB
-
Mature 17+ / Use of Alcohol, Blood and Gore, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Intense Violence, Partial Nudity
- Developer(s)
-
Warhorse Studios
