The Witcher 2
The Witcher 2 : Assassins of Kings
*possible minor spoilers warning for review*
The Witcher 2 : Assassins of Kings is the new RPG by CD Projekt Red. Beginning shortly after the events of The Witcher, Geralt of Rivia is locked up in prison for a crime he did not commit. The tutorial leads us through the prelude with a series of small events that take place in the past which lead up to Geralts’ imprisonment. Those without a save from the previous instalment (myself included), will through questions and actions, set forth Geralts path for this edition of The Witcher.
The story from beginning to end is engaging and enjoyable, however it can become confusing, especially in early parts if one does not pay close attention to much of the dialogue. There are many characters and events to keep track of. Remembering the names and places and keeping all those names and places straight can be difficult, as the story just begins to unfold. I found this to be a problem early in the game when I would be engaged in dialogue and be asked a crucial question but I could not quite remember who or what was being talked about. This could have been fixed if the player was allowed to reference his journal during conversations, but he is not so some early choices may have been different.
One enjoyable and unexpected part about conversations was that there were a few conversations that Geralt had a timer to answer. Those times were few but were also quite meaningful decisions that effected the story a great deal. The RPG elements of the game are very well done. While most RPGs today have a black and white good/mean answer, and no matter what you choose the outcome will be the same, The Witcher 2 has more moral type answers/choices. The answers one gives will often have a great effect on the direction of the story, rather than different answers leading to the same result. In fact later in the game, and depending on who Geralt sides with, Geralt will be led to entirely different areas for the entire second chapter.
As the story unfolds Geralt is forced to choose two distinct paths. I will not say more of that but depending on the choice one makes he will engage in an entirely different path then the other. This is a fantastic addition to the game and adds a great deal to the replayability. As Geralt travels through his adventure there will be many choices that are difficult as well. For example, does Geralt save the whoores from the burning building or does Geralt leave them to die so he can make his getaway? This is one small example of just one of the choices that need to be made.
Graphically The Witcher 2 is quite beautiful however quite demanding. My computer specs to run the game are as follows: i7-930, 2x5770 ati in crossfire, 6GB 1333mhz RAM. The game allows you to choose 4 preset settings (Ultra, High, Medium, Low) and the ability to adjust anything from there. I played on High with a few of the more demanding features turned off and averaged approximately 30-40FPS throughout the game. I get better frame rates on Crysis with everything on max settings. The game is demanding on the system. Most likely this is due to drivers not being optimized for the game as of yet.
As far as gameplay, it does take some getting used to. When I began I was very frustrated with the combat system; however, after a couple hours and a few levels of talents (they make such a difference), Geralt was soon ripping through enemies quite easily and combat became quite enjoyable. I was one of the few who did not mind the combat in The Witcher 1, I did not like the combat as much in The Witcher 2 but it was still quite good.
I played with mouse/keyboard but it is obvious the menus and interface was designed with a gamepad in mind. Inventory is poorly thought out with no ways to sort different items of the same family. For example Geralt will acquire many many crafting components and he should be able to sort them in some logical fashion. As the game progresses you will acquire a great many items and there should be some way to sort items by weight or alphabetically or something logical.
Looting is the worst aspect of the game. It is very difficult to find the loot of your fallen enemies without spamming your detect item/magic necklace. Many times Geralt will see the loot but just a slight move and it will flash away to be searched for again. This is incredibly frustrating and more thought should have been put into this aspect. The same issue comes up with doors and wall torches. Too often is Geralt meant to open a door but just a slight movement he is lighting a wall torch instead.
Potions are implemented quite different than any other game I have played. Potion buffs must be consumed before the battle. This is a slight annoyance because not knowing if around the next corner could be a difficult battle or not. This leads to Geralt entering a difficult battle, a battle he perhaps could have won with a potion, dies and then on reload drinking a potion before that battle. As Geralt becomes more powerful the only potions he ended up using were for boss fights so it was not that big of an issue. The random type encounters are very easy after a few levels.
That leads me to difficulty. There are 4 difficulty levels (easy, medium, hard, insane). The insane difficulty means that if Geralt dies he dies for good and must start over. I played on medium. Medium for me was fine, there were no areas that I became frustrated and yet I did die often enough to say it was a challenge. For better players they may want to play on hard but medium for myself was fine.
The voice acting is very well done. The characters are believable and quite engaging. The game also handles both sex and harsh language very well. While the language can become R rated at times it never feels forced. It never feels swearing for the sake of swearing, rather the language fits in very well with the atmosphere of the world. Sex is also graphic at times, but like the language it does not seem silly (like the cards in The Witcher 1 or the silly scenes in Bioware products), it fits in well with the characters and feel of the game. I played the GoG version which is non-censored so full nudity and harsh language we included.
Technically I only encountered a few very small problems. For example, one quest I could not finish because as soon as it completed my screen would go black for whatever reason. It was a minor quest and I just ended up not bothering with it. Also, twice for some reason I could not attack anything on the screen for some reason, after a reload though it didn’t happen again. I never crashed to desktop, or encountered any other technical problems from installation to completion of the game other than some occasional frame rate drop in very active areas.
I rarely play through games more than once, but because of the completely different courses of action Geralt can take, as well as different ways that Geralt can be built, this game should be good for more replays then the typical RPG. While not perfect, the UI and controls could have used more thought, it is one of the best RPGs on the market. Dragons Age 2 is probably the only major RPG I have not played since I owned an Apple IIe system (yes I am old) so I cannot compare it to that game; and I hesitate to compare it to the other AAA RPG titles that have been released in the last couple of years (Fallout:New Vegas, Mass Effect 2, Dragons Age:Orgins), but The Witcher 2 : Assassins of Kings is as good or better than any of those. This is high praise indeed, but The Witcher 2 is quite frankly one of the best RPG experiences in the last 10 years. If The Witcher 2 was longer, and that is the sign of a good game (wishing it were longer), it would probably be considered one of the best RPGs in the last 10 years.
To summarize:
Story: 9/10 excellent but occasionally confusing, most notably early.
Graphics: 9/10 very nice but quite demanding.
Sound: 10/10 excellent voice acting that rivals any huge developer and music/ambient effects fit in very well.
Gameplay: 8/10 probably the worst part of the game is the controls, occasionally it seems Geralt does not react as quickly as needed. Looting is bad, the UI is just ok. Definitely feels like the UI was built for a gamepad and not mouse/keyboard. Any PC gamer though should know that is just how games are built now.
Value: 9/10 from beginning to end probably took me 25-30 hours and it definitely deserves a second play through and perhaps a third to follow all the different paths.
Overall: 9/10
This was my first review I hope you find it useful.
Originally Posted by Kamos
