[Review] The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

[Gamercide]

 

The Witcher 2 Assassins of Kings
Developed by: CD Projekt RED
Published by: CD Projekt RED
Platforms: PC (Coming Soon to XBOX 360 )
Players: 1

The Witcher 2 starts with Geralt coming awake to find himself in a dungeon facing execution for the murder of a king.  From there he is interrogated by Vernon Roche to recall the details of the last battle and how the king died.  The story is recalled in pieces and The Prologue unfolds this way.  I would love to tell you more , but so much of the game revolves around the excellent story that anything I could tell would be spoiling the fun. Instead, I’ll cover the overview of it.

The story is fluid and compelling, but not without it’s flaws. If you don’t pay attention the story can be hard to follow. It moves in a lot of different directions with a lot of different names very fast. However, there is an excellent journal with information on all the characters, places, events, creatures, and even some of the dialogue you encounter. So, if you find yourself lost in the story you can quickly catch up there. I actually found myself spending a lot of time reading the books and taking in the history of the world. The information from the books you read is almost always transferred to your journal for you to look at later. This method of story telling allows the very cinematic approach the game takes while keeping the background and depth of a book and RPG.

Journal Menu

The Witcher 2 has plenty of RPG elements without a lot of the ‘fetch quests’ . This makes the game feel so much more involved and cinematic. Most of the quests have a tie in with the story, and I never felt forced to do a filler quest just to advance through the game. Everything had a purpose and often more than one. This is excellent since it keeps the story moving steadily towards a common goal without the feeling of wasting time. You may be stuck and have to do some quests for this person or the next, but it all ties together in such a way that it feels right. Granted, there are side quests and job boards where you can use your Witcher skills to hunt monsters to gather gold and items. These aren’t required, but most are enjoyable and often encountered on the paths the main quest takes. The only ‘quest’ I didn’t enjoy was the dice poker mini games that felt only like filler for items and money. The idea wasn’t horrible, I just always lost. In order to finish the quest line I would guess I lost 3 out of every 5 games. This repetition and failure made the mini game less than enjoyable to me, but I could just have really bad luck.

Along with the great story and cinematic scenes the game boasts some excellent game play, albeit with a steep difficulty curve. The Prologue was especially tough, but during my initial play through a patch was released successfully addressing the balance issues. However, The Witcher 2 still can be frustratingly difficult at times. The trick is to remember your potions and weapon enhancements. These abilities help ease the difficulties early on. Don’t let the early fighting discourage you because after a few ability levels the fighting curve quickly levels out. Eventually leaving you feeling much more powerful, but occasionally challenged by bosses.

Boss Battle - Kayran

The ability tree is where all your leveling is handled in The Witcher 2. I really like this system because you can tell early on the potential for multiple play styles. There are four main branches of the ability tree, Witcher Training, Swordsmanship, Magic, and Alchemy . With the 3 ‘class’ branches locked until you put a certain amount of ability points into the Witcher Training branch. Once unlocked you have a hard decision to make. The ability points are limited and can’t be changed once used. So, you have to decide early on which path you want to take. Taking multiple paths is certainly possible, but the better abilities are found at the end of the trees. I found by the end of the game I had only enough ability points to max out one of the ability paths. What I like so much about this system is how much more powerful you can feel from a simple skill upgrade. Take the swordsmanship tree for example. With one skill point you can start damaging all the enemies around you. This has a dramatic effect on dealing with multiple enemies. I never explored the Magic or Alchemy paths, but they look like they have the potential to greatly effect the way you play the game.

Character Abilities - Swordsmanship

Along with the usual sword, magic, and alchemy method of fighting, The Witcher 2 includes several quick time events scattered throughout the game. Although there is an option to turn on or off ‘difficult QTE’s’ I never found any of them to be difficult with the option on. QTE use ranges from the fist fighting mini-game to parts of the epic boss battles. I enjoy the subtle use of quick time events in The Witcher 2. They add enough interaction to the cinematic events without being too frustrating or intrusive.

Quick Time Event During Kayran Battle.

Graphically the game is beautiful, as the screenshots below will show. The Witcher 2 features some very detailed environments and superbly crafted creatures. I spent a lot of time just gazing at the environment and getting too close to some of the creatures just for a better look. Everything seems to scale well enough that it should be playable on a large range of computers, and even at the lowest settings, The Witcher 2 offers graphics that are good enough to not distract from the joy of the game.

Although The Witcher 2 is fantastic it is not without its flaws. I noticed a few bugs while playing worth noting. On a couple of occasions I found I had to reload because I either became stuck in an animation sequence or an npc or item that should be there wasn’t. I also had a handful of Crash to Desktops that were completely unexplainable near the end of the game. One that forced me to reload to an earlier save to continue. The only other noticeable bug was occasionally my quest marker would outright lie to me. Instead of taking me to the quest location it would lead me to the wrong place then change when I got there. None of the bugs felt game stopping to me because I have so many saves, but they could be frustrating if I didn’t save so often. So, I suggest saving often. Both for the bugs and the fact that sometimes death awaits around the corner.

With the upcoming release to XBOX 360 it is important to add that the game plays fantastically well with the XBOX 360 controller for Windows. I simply changed the control scheme to controller and the game picked right up with it. Menus, dialogue, and quick time events reflected controller buttons and the entire transition was smooth. Judging by my few hours with a controller I have every reason to believe the game will be just as great on the XBOX 360 as PC.

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings is a superb game that I would recommend to anyone. It boasts an epic story with paths, love interests, and consequences on par with any rpg including those from Bioware. The game is fun and exciting throughout without the feeling of repetition, and every chapter leaves you wanting more. The Witcher 2 is beautifully crafted with details that leave you in awe and epic boss battles that make you feel like the Witcher you are suppose to be. Very few RPG games have pulled off the cinematic feel that The Witcher 2 has, and even fewer have a story with so many branches that replaying is almost a must.  I was on the edge of my chair from the beginning, and I am left hoping there is more to come soon.

 

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[Kevnvek]

Oh snap, I've been waiting to read this!

Very nice review, Dat. Maybe I'll have to actually start playing the Witcher games now that I own both lol. Watching your stream and reading the review, I can definitely get a sense for how well made The Witcher 2 is.

[Title]

Noice review. I really do like the Witcher 2. I still haven't finished it, other things hit me. It will be good to come back to.

[spawn622]

Great review Dat. Doubt I'll be picking this up any time soon though. Me and RPGs don't mix.

[Dateranoth]

If you were going to give any RPG another chance, this one would be it. It's very action oriented and would be worth a rent for you at least I think.