We return to medieval Bohemia for the further adventures of the blacksmith’s son, Henry of Skalitz, in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2.

Henry has come a long way from his humble beginnings and now serves as Sir Hans Capon’s bodyguard. The game continues from the first, with the band on the way to the castle of Otto von Bergow to deliver a message. Of course, there’s no need to have played the first game (although I thoroughly recommend it).

Within the first 15 minutes of the game, both Hans and Henry are attacked, and they end up as destitute vagrants. After a night in the stocks following a tavern brawl, Sir Hans abandons Henry, and the huge landscape opens up to the player.

Deliverance 2 goes for total immersion in its slavishly detailed world, to the point of it being overwhelming. Not since Red Dead Redemption 2 have I felt like I’m in such a meticulously realised world. And it is such a gorgeous world at that. From the muddy ruts of the cart tracks to the intricate detail in the building roof construction, it’s like stepping into a history book.

But for all its beauty, Deliverance 2 can become bogged down in realism. It’s not a game for the faint-hearted. If Call of Duty is more your thing, you may find your time living the life of a medieval knave a bit of a slog.

If you don’t sleep your eyes will get tired. If you are injured too much you can’t sleep. If you don’t eat you get weakened, if you eat rotten food, you get ill. Managing Henry’s health is a vital part of the game, and if I’m honest, I think it has too much focus.

The game is played first-person, which is fine, right up until you find yourself waving a sword. The melee combat feels a bit unwieldy. It is better than the first game, but it still takes a bit of getting used to. Persistence is key.

Whilst you’ll get slaughtered pretty regularly at first (I even ended up getting mauled by a pack of dogs), in time, it falls into place, allowing you to block and parry like a true knight. As I said, persistence is really key to enjoying the game, which in the early hours does its best to put you off with unforgiving combat, an almost slavish dedication to authenticity (eating, sleeping and washing) coupled with an unforgiving save system.

You also need to keep your blades sharp on a sharpening stone and can even make and repair weapons using blacksmith’s equipment. You need to heat the metal and pound it on an anvil before tempering it ready for use. This is the attention to detail that is the hallmark of the game.

The upside of all this is a game that allows you to play it as you wish.  You can live as an honourable knight, or you can do whatever is necessary to survive. If robbing and thievery is your thing, go for it. The somewhat overwhelming realism of the game’s mechanics creates a living, breathing medieval sandbox, one that’s just so engrossing and easy to get lost in.

The game uses Crytek’s CryEngine to create an almost photo-real environment. Whilst the towns might be alive, the woodlands and fields are amazing. The rolling fields and the dense forests often conceal those that would lay in wait for unsuspecting travellers. The lighting is superb bringing the breathtaking vistas to life. This is a game to be savoured and not rushed.

I could easily have spent all my time hunting, buying, selling, (*ahem*) robbing, and just wandering around looking for trouble.  This is a game world that invites emergent gameplay, that is, events or circumstances resulting from the player’s action and the game’s mechanics rather than those scripted or directly programmed by the developer.

At the beginning of the game, I needed cash, so I made a tidy profit selling stolen horses to a friendly group of Roma camped in a wood. Whilst robbing wasn’t my thing, I soon learnt that if things looked like they were going south, it was best to strike first and ask questions later.

Tasked by a rival village to steal back a maypole, I embarked on a quest that had me find a long-lost axe based on the tall tale of a drunkard. I got a bit side-tracked hunting the killer of my landlady’s daughter’s sweetheart. So, when I returned after dark to steal the maypole, I found it necessary to dispatch the otherwise innocent person guarding the floral post. It was only when the post refused to be chopped down that I remembered that I’d actually informed an elder of the rival village’s plot and was instead supposed to be drugging and painting a bull red. Oops.

Whilst the learning curve is tough, once I’d got Henry to a sufficient level and with better armour and equipment, I found that I could pretty easily make my own story in the world. Whilst the main quest line gives the game structure, it was the random encounters and side quests that made the experience so magical.

The early game can be off-putting, but after you’ve got to grips with it, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 reveals itself as possibly the most immersive game you’ll play all year, and one of the best looking. It’s a game I certainly recommend to gamers wanting a meaty gameplay experience and who have the patience to get to grips with the harsh life of a medieval serf.