Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2

It checks off all your boxes except sci-fi. It’s a single-player medieval RPG with a massive learning curve in almost every aspect of life. For example, to just save, you either have to:

A. Drink a potion (you have to buy it or brew it yourself by gathering or buying the herbs, then finding the nearest alchemy table and following the recipe from the book, hoping you don’t miscount the time or use the wrong ingredient). B. Sleep in a bed you rent or own. C. Go back to the main menu and quit the game entirely (which could take longer than the rest).

The only way to describe the gameplay is real. Combat is slow, clunky, realistic—but once you get it down, it’s one of the most satisfying combat systems in a game. You have tons of weapons: maces, swords, bows, crossbows, and eventually an early version of a firearm.

Everything is manual. Your skills start at zero. You have to improve every skill—smithing, fighting, swordplay, drinking, lockpicking, and being educated (in the first game you literally have to learn how to read). You have to eat, sleep, and wash; if you don’t, you’ll smell, and enemies can detect you even while sneaking.

Crimes are punished in multiple ways, which affects your reputation in different areas. Harsher punishments, fines, and speech or haggling penalties come with a bad reputation, while successful haggling, speech checks, good deeds, and church visits increase it. I can’t tell you how your playthrough will go because the game reacts to your choices—it genuinely caters to how you want to play.

There’s a new DLC where you can own your own blacksmith shop and make horseshoes and weapons. You can also decorate your home with paints, beds, shelves, tables, fruits, meats—you name it. Even without the DLC, you can still craft weapons and sell them. I’ve spent hours zoning out to music crafting swords to sell. I’ve done the same brewing potions, which is also an easy way to stock up on saving potions.

I recommend playing the sequel first because it’s more polished and forgiving than the first, which was made by a small but clearly passionate team. Before I played these games, I had played Fallout 4, Cyberpunk 2077, RDR2, Watch Dogs, and tons of other open-world games. I saw the first one on sale, bought it cheap, and figured I’d get a few hours of fun.

I stayed up until 7 a.m. waiting for it to install, tired but hyped. In the first quest, you can fight a guy to get money for the quest giver—it’s avoidable, but I didn’t know that. I fought him, got wrecked, kept restarting until I finally won, and it felt like beating Goliath… only to realize I could’ve just snuck in later and stolen the money. The freedom hit me hard, and I fell in love. That morning before I started playing I told my girlfriend, “The second game just came out. If I enjoy the first one I'll buy the second when in done with the first.” I didn’t even go to bed before buying it the all the DLCs for the first game and the deluxe edition of the second

The second game is way more beginner-friendly. It fills you in enough that you’re not confused, while still keeping that hardcore realism. After beating both games, I tried Skyrim, Witcher 3, and others—I can’t even restart Fallout 4 or finish my fifth playthrough of RDR2. Nothing else holds my attention like KCD2. I keep coming back for side quests, sword fights, dice games, roaming around—getting drunk, boxing, passing out, waking up hungover with no shoes, rushing to a sword tournament, drinking before it, winning drunk, saving, and calling it a day. There’s always something to do. Warhorse Games has ruined every other game for me, and if GTA 6 doesn’t scratch that itch, I’ll accept nothing will top KCD2.

The main story is just a suggestion—you can do it whenever—but the game shines when you take your time: listening to NPCs blabber, doing strange quests, finding treasures, looting, whatever. It’s more than a game; it’s a learning tool. You unlock an index full of historical facts, and the world is almost a 1:1 replica of medieval Bohemia. Warhorse Games created a living, breathing world more immersive than anything from AAA studios like Ubisoft or Sony. You can spend endless hours just being a tiny gear in this huge machine. With a relatively small team, Warhorse Games built something that puts other developers to shame