The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Reviews

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Written by Brother None on June 6th, 2011

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The overall experience has its share of snags, most notably the difficulty spikes during some boss fights and a couple of really bad stealth sequences that you can miss if you make the right choices. On a few occasions, the story writes checks the game engine clearly can't cash -- especially when it comes to lots of characters onscreen at once. If there's one thing The Witcher 2 doesn't do, it's crowds. But at two very significant plot points, crowds are exactly what it needs. Use your imagination during these parts.

Also, some players might have a problelm with Witcher 2's old-school "tough, but fair" approach. It's not a very cuddly game for how it dumps nearly every trick into your lap at the beginning, without doing much to explain them. You won't get any tutorial where you kill rats in the basement of the tavern. Instead, you're expected to resort to an ancient real-world relic known as "The Manual". The Witcher 2 has a game to get to and it can't be bothered holding your hand. Like I said: tough, but fair. Consider it the price of admission to one of the most memorable and best written fantasy video games you'll ever play.

But the combat proves to be the only sore point in the game. The problem is it is hard. Hard enough to smash diamonds. Into tiny bits. And then mash them a bit more. It will take many gamers a fair amount of time to get into the stride of the combat. With the many nuances of using spells and traps to get the upper hand, it is a bit surprising that you are thrown into the deep end facing multiple opponents in the first level of the game. There are some on-screen prompts to assist, but if you take the time to read them you will be dead already. This is all on easy difficulty.

But as Geralt progresses through the game he gains more skill, experience and better weapons. This in turn has the opposite effect towards the end of the game where he is so powerful that combat becomes effortless. I am still unsure if that is because of Geralt's experience or my own from the many battles I have faced alongside him. Or maybe the game just gets easier to give this very sensation, that Geralt is now more powerful and skilled than ever.

On a second play through of the game the combat becomes much easier. And because of this, and the difficulty described above, it also allows you to change the difficulty while in the game. One of the difficulty levels, aptly named Hardcore, is not for the faint hearted. This does not allow any respawns, and will even delete your saved game every time you die. Yes, when you die you are dead. Kaput. No going back. This is quite daunting in a game easily lasting 40+ hours!

Have I gone this long without mentioning how good this game looks? This game is a visual masterpiece; a technical and artistic achievement. From the texture work on the stone city of Vergen, to the amazing modeling of a giant dragon, both you and your PC (and soon Xbox 360) will be crying in an attempt to plow through the details of every scene.

Every setting in the game succeeds in creating a living, breathing world. There are characters everywhere having their own conversations, doing their own chores, and occasionally getting drunk. What really brings this all together are the atmosphere effects which create a sort of depth-of-field effect on anything in the far distance which turns into a sort of haze effect. This allows the game to have a smaller view-distance without sacrificing visual style and quality.

While the world of The Witcher 2 may be gorgeous to look at, this game does not feature a beautiful RPG world. The towns are haunted by bandits, there's a brothel next to every bar, people aren't very attractive, and monsters are just waiting for you to step outside the walls of civilization. I was especially impressed with the monster and specter designs, which never fell into fantasy conventions. I don't want to spoil anything but there is a battle at the end of the second act which blew my mind in both style and scale.

Let's not kid ourselves though, The Witcher 2 is a difficult game. It does not hold your hand, the enemies take no prisoners and being outnumbered can mean certain death of players aren't on their toes from the get-go. Too often, RPGs have been reduced almost to interactive stories; this isn't the case in Witcher 2. If you want hand-holding then this is not the game for you. It is a good, hardcore game, but the tutorial is somewhat disappointing, with newcomers to the series almost certainly being lost when they first play, with constant checks of the manual needed. At times, the difficulty can become a bit too much though; the first boss is an absolute nightmare, especially for where you are and the level of your attributes at the time. The only hint you'll get from the game is one line your ally will say, the rest is up to you. Again, this is something that could infuriate players and take them out of the experience.

(...)

The Witcher 2 is just what the RPG genre needed, a breath of fresh air to revitalize the genre once more and set the bar for future games in the series. It sets itself apart and manages to do so with utter brilliance. It's scale, fantastic combat mechanics, beautiful scenery, masterful audio and epic story perch it firmly on the RPG throne. Despite some optimisation flaws, difficulty and curious story bumps, there are few more enjoyable RPG on the market this generation. In fact, it may well be one of the best RPGs of the generation. Well done CD Projekt RED, well done.

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