2025 has brought players several excellent new games so far, but without a doubt, one of its best is Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 — a long-awaited sequel to the original 2018 open-world RPG that puts players in the shoes of an orphaned young adult as he navigates his thirst for revenge and a flaring civil war in medieval Bohemia. It's a remarkably well-balanced experience with exciting adventure, harrowing loss, levity, and some of the most immersive RPG systems and mechanics I've ever engaged with — and earlier this week, many of its fans banded together to give others the chance to enjoy it without spending a penny.
It all started with a thread on the r/kingdomcome subreddit titled "Can't afford the game? I've got you." Its author u/verdantsf explained that they wanted to pay forward a kindness a friend had shown them during hard times.
"A while back, I was going through a rough patch. I was in a new town without a lot of support and finances were tight. I simply didn't have enough money for entertainment at all, let alone PC games," they wrote. "Thankfully, I had a gamer buddy pitch in. Being able to immerse myself in other worlds helped immensely with stress and my mental health. Things are much better these days and I'd like to pay it forward."
u/verdantsf then generously bought the first five commenters a $60 copy of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, followed by another five after the volume of replies turned out to be larger than what they expected.
"Whatever you're going through, I hope being able to immerse yourself in Henry's world helps you the way that games helped me many years ago," they said. In total, they had given away $600 worth of KCD2 copies.
[KCD2] Can't afford the game? I've got you. from r/kingdomcome
If your faith in humanity hasn't been restored yet, don't worry; things didn't stop there. In fact, u/verdantsf's generosity ended up inspiring several kind strangers to buy the game for others, too, with u/Flando1 — someone who followed up on u/verdantsf's batches with several gifts of their own —encouraging folks interested in contributing to "scroll down and pick a comment."
Soon after, a full-blown gifting furor broke out, with 30 others getting copies for folks who weren't able to get the game for one reason or another. Notably, u/verdantsf also updated their post after giving away another set of five copies, revealing that developer Warhorse Studios had taken notice of all the benevolence and had given them a KCD2 Collector's Edition as well as a fresh batch to give away.
Assuming each additional gift-giver purchased one copy for someone else — they may have given away more, for all I know — well over $2,000 of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 has been shared with others as a result of this generosity.
"As I've been reading through the thread, I've seen more and more of the community joining in to help our fellow gamers through tough times," wrote u/verdantsf in another update. "Thanks again to the now 30 of you who purchased KCD2 for others. Teamwork makes the dream work!"
This whole gift-giving frenzy was lovely to see, especially since it's not something you see happen often. I hope everyone who got a copy ends up loving KCD2 as much as I do; as I wrote in my review, it's "an undeniable triumph from Warhorse Studios" that features "a colossal open world packed with well over 100+ hours of engaging content, substantially improved combat compared to the original KCD, and more." It's arguably one of the best RPGs ever made, and there's no doubt in my mind that it'll be a top contender for GOTY 2025.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is out now on Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC (via Steam, the Epic Games Store, and GOG), and PS5. It's undoubtedly one of the best Xbox games and best PC games of the year, so if you enjoy RPGs, definitely consider picking it up (it's just $47.39 at CDKeys, which is an amazing deal).
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