REVIEW - The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings - Enhanced Edition (Xbox 360)

   The Witcher 2 is not what we've come to expect from roleplaying games. This fantasy world is not filled with playful fairies and elves singing songs. While not the first game to be described as a mature RPG it is the first I feel that deserves it. While other, similar games are happy to show a bit of nudity and throw buckets of blood on the player, this one deals with sophisticated issues and ideas. It's a world of politics, racism, and terrorism, not unlike our own.

There's still plenty of blood and boobs though.

   In this tale you play as Geralt of Rivia, the eponymous Witcher. A Witcher is a monster killer for hire, and business here is good. He starts the game with amnesia, but other than being horribly cliche, it's rather interesting to see him try to regain his memories as the game goes on. I'd classified him as a generic badass when I started the game, but as I played I grew to appreciate him as a character, the hero with flaws that he is.

Seen here, ready to Witch some things.

    I'd never played a Witcher game before, nor read any of the books.  CD Projekt insists the game is stand alone enough for anyone to enjoy it, but for the first hour or so, I wasn't so sure. So many characters and references to past events were flying past my face, and those characters would constantly reference other characters. But over time I started to understand who these characters were, and what happened in the past. Eventually I started to forget that this was even a sequel at all.
   The complexity of this game extends to all of its many interfaces and gameplay systems. You can build traps and bombs, brew potions and poisons, craft armor and weapon upgrades. And these require both a formula or diagram and ingredients, as well as the proper level of know how. Combat is similarly nuanced. It is a matter of proper parrying and countering, blocking and dodging. Button mashing will get you killed quickly and you will have to be properly prepared for every fight. It may take some time for you to get your head around everything, and it will involves some deaths, but it is very rewarding as you begin to really come to grips with it all.

"You will die by my sword, Geralt of Rivia! Oh shit, never mind!"

   You'll be putting your skills to the test to tackle some very interesting quests. The main storyline is always engaging and the side quests will have you solving murder mysteries, hunting monsters, and exorcizing haunted mansions. Choices to be made in these quests usually aren't black and white, and you may really struggle with some morally grey decisions. These quests always feel like they somehow affect the world and aren't just there to waste time. There are some time wasters in here, in the form of arm wrestling (which is a fun enough way to earn some quick coin), dice poker (which might be fun if I ever won it) and fist fights (which after the complex sword fighting is disappointingly just a series of QTE's)

   One thing that must be brought up is the graphics. This game is absolutely gorgeous. The fact that it's running on the now ancient Xbox 360 is nothing short of a marvel. The cities look appropriately old and lived in, the forests lush and overgrown, the dungeons and caves are dank and dingy. The lighting is a particular highlight, with sunlight and fire creating realistic rays and shadows over the landscape. I stopped more than once to just stare at the beauty of the game world. Though this comes at a price. Texture pop in rears its ugly head semi frequently and once in awhile the frame rate will drop, though far less frequently. None of that really serves as much more than a blemish on what is one of the best looking games on consoles.

The Witcher 2: Better looking than real life.

   The sound never reaches the same heights as the graphics, though it's never bad. The voice acting ranges from passable to great and the music is fittingly "fantasy". The atmospheric sounds do much to make the cities and forests feel alive.

I never really noticed any bugs or glitches outside of the usual wonky animations or clipping issues. The game did crash on me once, though it never happened again. Also the quick save can be less than reliable. After a death I lost a good deal of progress once, so manual saves should be frequent and numerous.

 

                      Though it has its share of technical quirks, this is not a game to be missed.