The Witcher 2 Xbox 360 Previews
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CD Projekt RED personnel told me during the demo that the 360 version of The Witcher 2 would include around four hours of new content. I played through one of these new quests, which seemed to take place early in the game -- the build I played threw me into the fray without much context. The mission in question tasked me with protecting a young woman from would-be assassins, and took about five minutes to play. I thought it seemed rather short until I talked to one of the game's developers. Apparently, without intending to, I selected to the shortest possible way to complete the quest. I could have escorted her through tunnels instead of a forest, or taken on spiders instead of assassins -- his list of alternative choices came too fast for me to keep them all straight.
This simple moment reveals the true brilliance of The Witcher 2 on both the PC and 360. The player is never sure what qualifies as a "choice" in the narrative. The options are so subtle that during my PC playthrough, I failed to realize I had a choice in certain matters at all -- at least until the consequences of those actions became clear hours later. Other RPGs that rely upon moral choices for dramatic tension, like Mass Effect, or Fallout, have a tendency to frame those options in the starkest black and white manner possible. The dichotomy might not always fall along good/evil lines -- not all Renegade options in Mass Effect are evil, after all -- however, the game makers ensure that players understand that they must make a binary choice, and that they see the direct consequences of those actions in a timely manner. In contrast, The Witcher 2 takes care never to make anything too direct. You can never trust that the developers didn't hide a major story twist in a seemingly innocuous dialog choice. The few times they do signal the player that yes, this is important, they throw a countdown clock into the mix, giving players mere seconds to make their choice. While I enjoy the clearly delineated structure of something like Dragon Age or Mass Effect, The Witcher 2's world of gray is a subtle touch from a series that can often be anything but -- the first game had players sleeping with women and literally collecting cards with their images after all.
And the second from Official Xbox Magazine:
Our hands-on time was spent on Normal difficulty, and even then, some of the swashbuckling we did (you can equip up to two swords that you can sheathe or unsheathe individually on the fly) had us restarting more than a few times. Gaggles of enemy soldiers (which have with different attack patterns and degrees of armor) can be tough to navigate if you don't have a good grasp of parrying (do it at the right time, and you'll counterattack), dodging, and doing heavy or light strikes. Magic is also an option we had a force-push type spell to help us fling enemies further away when we were cornered, but more spell-types can be learned and unlocked later in the game for heavier, more widespread damage. (We later glimpsed a trap-type spell that ensnared and damaged bad guys, as well as fire magic that set the surrounding environment ablaze.)
And while the combat and adventuring for items are one of Witcher 2's big draws, it's the storyline and characters that intrigued us most and with only an hour or so of hands-on time, our curiosity was barely sated enough. The promise of multiple choices that have far-reaching ramifications had us invested in our decisions, even this early in the game. As an example, in one of the two new adventures included in this (enhanced edition) of Witcher 2, we were paired up with the aforementioned Vernon Roche to stake out a new town. Accosted by one of Roche's informants a woman named Briganda she begs us to accompany her to a meeting spot, lest assassins ambush her. You're free to make a choice whether to trust she's tough enough to look after herself and meet her later for information, or be her escort and ward off any interlopers. Taking the first option earns you a sassy, bitter response from Briganda, but you're free to ignore her request. The latter takes you on a path to duel with bands of roaming enemies. How would it all end? We didn't get a chance to find out, as our session was over.
