The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Reviews

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Written by WorstUsernameEver on May 28th, 2011

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The fundamental problem is that the game is terrible at teaching you how to enjoy it. I have no qualms with offering players a challenge, but too often I failed in the opening of The Witcher 2 because I simply didn't have the mechanics properly demonstrated to me, not because it was actually challenging. My experience with the prologue carried through the rest of the game.

The first sign of trouble was when I chose a dialogue option that sent me to battle a dragon with little preamble. As Geralt of Rivia I had to defeat three well-armed individuals without any knowledge of game mechanics or tactics all while dragon fire rained down around me. Windows popped up with the knowledge I needed to survive, but stopping to read them only resulted in a quick death. Geralt, the famous Witcher, died so easily and so many times in the first seconds of the game that I began to wonder if I was just an idiot. I was so frustrated and pissed that any fondness for the characters I'd met so far was completely erased.

To make matters worse, after I finally made it past that section of the prologue - on normal difficulty, damn you, I'm nothing if not stubborn - the game brought me back to the first four dialogue choices. Clicking a different one sent me to the first part of the prologue, which calmly introduced that Geralt has amnesia and has thrown in his lot with the King of Temeria in a little civil war. It's not necessary to have played the first game because this section deftly explains the opening plot without the constant threat of death. Why on Earth would CD Projekt allow me to play the prologue out of order? Such areas are not the time to allow player agency because the choices are meaningless and playing them out of sequence seriously impacts the player's enjoyment.

Overall, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings is an awesome game, and is a must have for those that seek a mature CRPG with an excellent story and amazing graphics with a great combat system. There are two small problems with the game, but they're only minor ones. Even with its problems, it still has the potential to be named (Game of the Year) (in my opinion), but if it doesn't win The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings is definitely one of the best PC games released this year.

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings took me by surprise, I wasn't expecting such a leap in visuals or technical wizardry from CDProjekt Red. Making an impressive engine from scratch and improving everything from the first game with additional polish is a great achievement. TW2 is a fantastic RPG, and possibly one of the best this generation. If you have money to spare, get this game and enjoy a fantastic ride through a wonderfully realized world, filled with interesting characters and beautiful varied environments. Whatever niggles it has like a hard learning curve or short length is dwarfed by everything else in the game and that makes it special.

The Witcher 2 has to be one of the best RPGs I've played. It's a strong contender for RPG of the year. There are a few glitches here and there, but rumor is CD Projekt Red has patched them up by right about now. The bottom line is that there are few games I know that can meld fantasy and reality in a passionate, intuitive, and balanced way. I'll be a die-hard Witcher fan as long as CD Projekt Red exists, and rumor has it they're already getting ready to start working on a new title.

In a way, the Witcher 2 leaves us wishing there was a middle ground between the dumbing down of the RPG and this slightly wilful (rtfm) (or (rtfj) with (j) for journal) approach. The game could do with a more forgiving start and some more obvious ways of filtering in advice, and without irritations like swarming, respawning critters and unskippable cutscenes placed before a boss battle. Overall, though, it's a game that more than gives back whatever you put in. The longer you play it and the more you think about how you play it, the more absorbing and incredible it gets.

At times, The Witcher 2 seems to take a perverse delight in scaring off more casual gamers, but the story, the tone and the visual style are so strong that anyone with an interest in fantasy adventure should persevere. It's a stronger game than Dragon Age 2, and a serious contender for RPG of the year.

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