Lessons have been learned, and learned well, across the board.
#The witcher 2 full#
Most importantly, while the opening chapters of the first game practically defied you to actually play them, The Witcher 2 hits the ground running, with huge armies clashing, dragon attacks, daring escapes, and an opening village full of drama and intrigue and interesting moral dilemmas. Even in the intro, with Geralt's arm carefully positioned to frame his lover Triss's bare buttocks while she sleeps, it's not subtle, but it works. As for the infamous sex cards, they're gone, replaced with animated cutscenes full of uncensored nudity, but which are true to the characters involved and pack a decent amount of sentiment in with their gratuitous fan-service. The towns are even smaller than Witcher 1's Vizima, particularly the dwarf city Vergan, but you don't bump into the same character model every five seconds. You don't have to buy books to complete basic missions any more. The Witcher 2 still has too much backtracking and too many invisible walls, but neither are on anything like the same scale as before.
#The witcher 2 plus#
On the plus side, the problems of the first games have mostly been dealt with. Technically, yes, much of the information is available in expensive real-world books and in Geralt's journal, but neither is any use when you're trapped in a key conversation with no idea why everyone hates Nilfgaard, or the political implications of a Temeria/Redania pact. As for the plot, there's so much lore and so many factions and elements that go unexplained that it's easy to feel lost. Quest markers and descriptions are frequently confusing, wrong, or just plain missing - very much the sort of mistake someone wouldn't notice if they already know where they were going and why. The Witcher 2 often feels like CD Projekt struggled to take a step back from their game, or were unwilling to bring in fresh eyes to playtest it. The Witcher 2 is packed to the gills with big decisions and major plot branches, and unlike most RPGs, these have consequences far beyond whether or not you get a magic karma point, a kiss from an NPC, or an extra bit of shiny loot from a treasure chest.Īll this detail and ambition comes at a price, however.
The best thing about Assassins of Kings? They only think they're in control. After that, it's a brand new story, with our hero Geralt - a travelling mutant monster-hunting-swordsman-alchemist - on the run after being fingered for the death of the Temerian king he was meant to be guarding, while powerful factions try to take advantage of the post-regicide chaos. You don't have to have played The Witcher to get into Assassins of Kings, although expect a confusing intro if you haven't. The rest is simply amazing, from the beautiful writing to the gorgeous visuals, meaningful choices, and a world that feels like a real place that exists beyond the game's limitations.įor fans of the first game, this shouldn't be a surprise. It's let down by only two things: an undercooked combat system, and a story resolution that it actually hurts to watch. Over its 20-30 hours of almost relentlessly superb moments, Witcher 2 raises almost every bar it can get its hands on.
Ultimately, it falls short of that, but not without giving it a damn good go.
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