The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings: Enhanced Edition is an excellent game. If you don't have time to read a whole blog post (then why did you click on this in the first place?), then you an stop reading now, because you know my overall thoughts. But I'll expand on them nonetheless.

The thing that I think is The Witcher 2's biggest strength, but also the source of the game's only "frustrating" moments is the combat. Fighting normal enemies is fine, it's the boss fights that weren't so great. I don't want to go into too much detail, because I don't want to spoil anything for those who haven't played it, but there are two boss fights in particular that are, to be frank, poorly designed. Each is a fight against a large monster, and (to quote a friend of mine), they "don't play to the strengths of the combat at all." And those strengths are about finding the right way to take out a group of enemies (be they people or monsters) without getting surrounded and overwhelmed (which could still result in quick death for me late in the game if I wasn't careful (but that was mainly my fault for never putting points into reducing back-stab damage)). Those boss fights play out like video game boss fights. You wait for an opportunity to attack, then you do. Then repeat that until it's dead. And they don't follow Miyamoto's Rule of Three, so they last a bit longer than they probably should.

But beyond those couple of boss fights, I thought the combat was extremely good, especially late in the game once I had leveled up a lot. The game has four "paths" in the character screen. There's the "Training" path, which is just there to force you to get some basic skills before the other three open, the "Swordsmanship" path, which has a lot of melee combat and defensive skills, the "Magic" path, which deals with magic (both offensive and defensive), and the "Alchemy" path, which I believe deals with potions and bombs. I say "believes," because I never actually put any points into it. I didn't check and see what the skills are, but none of them seemed that interesting to me.

At least not when compared to stuff like better fireballs, or the ability to create a circle that slows down all opponents inside it, but leaves Geralt moving at normal speed. Or the ability to do a group finisher, which as the name implies, allows you to finish off a group of enemies at once (I never got more than three at a time, so I don't know how many it can work on, but it does seem to have several different animations depending on who/what he's fighting). Both the time slowing skill and the group finisher skill are governed by an adrenaline meter that fills as you fight enemies (and does not deplete over time), but both are also activated by the same button (up on the d-pad). I'm not really sure why this is, maybe the people at CD Projekt Red never thought that someone would have more than one of those skills (both are near the ends of their respective "paths," and there is a similar one near the end of the Alchemy path). But it seems like something they didn't fully see out. So, what usually happens is that I would push the button, then Geralt would do a group finisher, and then cast the slow spell, which would slow down the remaining one enemy (so I guess it doesn't kill everyone, now that I remember more clearly). Or sometimes it would just slow down time, with no finisher. Maybe I should have just focused more on one path, but I'm not a min/max kind of guy, I like to be good at everything in games. Why be good at swords when I can be good at swords and magic?

While that may be a little janky, I found the story and voice acting to be far less janky. Well, some of the voice acting has a, "We hired people we found at the Ren-Fair" vibe to it, but most of the important story characters were very well voiced. Geralt and Vernon Roche stood out to me as the best of the bunch (also the best in terms of their faces, as both were among of the best non-LA Noire faces I've seen in a video game).

Of course, that was the impression I got based on the path I took through the story, which I will briefly describe within a "Spoiler Block" for those who have beaten the game. But remember, I will be spoiling a TON, so don't read if you haven't played the game yet.

And that's just the stuff that I was able to impact. There's even more stuff that I didn't have an impact on, and all the quests and story stuff that would have happened had I chosen different. Though, I should say that the people online who say that you make a choice that results in you going to one area whilst locking off another area aren't being fully truthful. What really happens (or what happened to me) is that you pick a path, which locks you off from a lot of quests, but you are given an opportunity to explore the areas "on the other side." I don't think I got full access, but I was able to explore a fairly large forest-y area and part of a town. And I was able to do one side quest that was on "that side" that involved finding harpy feathers for a guy and...Well, I shan't spoil what happens, but I'll say that it's probably the funniest moment in the game (and also really silly).

But overall I really liked the story in the game. Or at least I liked all the stuff about the kings, and all the political intrigue. I didn't really like the stuff about Geralt recovering his memories, because they were all about him trying to find a character that isn't in the game, and thus I had no reason to care about because I was never given any reason to care about this character other than Geralt saying that he wanted to find said character.

And now I'm excited for The Witcher The Third. Well, they'll probably call it The Witcher 3, and it'll probably take them a while to make it. And yes, there will be another one. The Achievement for beating the game (which is not a secret Achievement (and the game has plenty of secret Achievements)) is called "To be Continued..." And the end of the game clearly indicates that a lot of big things are going to be happening in this world, and that Geralt and company are probably going to play a role in those events.

Since I continue to not have anything going on in my life beyond video games (and that book I keep blabbering on about), I'm not really sure what to do next. The only other un-played game I have is the copy of Metroid: Other M that I bought last year for $10, but I haven't played that because my big TV broke, and my current set-up (small TV on a table) doesn't really allow for enough room to do the pointer stuff in the game. So...

I guess I could start playing Majora's Mask. A few months ago my friend and I started playing the game, but we literally haven't played since, so I'm probably just going to play it without him. We were able to get though all of Deadly Premonition and Alpha Protocol (both picked for their great stories but not so great game-play), but that was with me "secretly" beating Deadly Premonition on another save months before we were able to beat it together. We might play Fez together instead if I ever get a new TV (that seems like a game that would be good to play with two people, what with all those apparently insane puzzles). Or not, I dunno. Unlike me, he actually has a life, and a job (or at least last year he had an internship or something, so he probably has something similar), so whatever. I'm rambling at this point.

Or maybe I'll go back to Mass Effect 3. I still haven't S-Ranked it yet. If I remember correctly, all I have left are to beat the game (and every mission) on Insanity, romance someone, and get 5000 kills. All of those seem doable, just time consuming (especially the 5000 kills one, but thankfully kills from all modes/play-throughs count). Part of me kinda wants to wait until they put out the new ending DLC, but those 5000 kills aren't going to kill themselves (and if they did, they wouldn't count as me killing them). Conversely, the existing ending is astoundingly bad. But I suppose I could just skip most of that stuff since I've already beaten the game, and know what happens.

I'll figure out something, and write about what happens. But, I leave you with a clip of our greatest living voice actor, because that's what I do.

Actually, I changed my mind. I was going to embed a video of Nolan North on Hollywood Squares, but it contains footage of Brad Garrett, and I know how the GB fan base reacts to him, so watch the video at your own risk.

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings: Enhanced Edition is an excellent game. If you don't have time to read a whole blog post (then why did you click on this in the first place?), then you an stop reading now, because you know my overall thoughts. But I'll expand on them nonetheless.

The thing that I think is The Witcher 2's biggest strength, but also the source of the game's only "frustrating" moments is the combat. Fighting normal enemies is fine, it's the boss fights that weren't so great. I don't want to go into too much detail, because I don't want to spoil anything for those who haven't played it, but there are two boss fights in particular that are, to be frank, poorly designed. Each is a fight against a large monster, and (to quote a friend of mine), they "don't play to the strengths of the combat at all." And those strengths are about finding the right way to take out a group of enemies (be they people or monsters) without getting surrounded and overwhelmed (which could still result in quick death for me late in the game if I wasn't careful (but that was mainly my fault for never putting points into reducing back-stab damage)). Those boss fights play out like video game boss fights. You wait for an opportunity to attack, then you do. Then repeat that until it's dead. And they don't follow Miyamoto's Rule of Three, so they last a bit longer than they probably should.

But beyond those couple of boss fights, I thought the combat was extremely good, especially late in the game once I had leveled up a lot. The game has four "paths" in the character screen. There's the "Training" path, which is just there to force you to get some basic skills before the other three open, the "Swordsmanship" path, which has a lot of melee combat and defensive skills, the "Magic" path, which deals with magic (both offensive and defensive), and the "Alchemy" path, which I believe deals with potions and bombs. I say "believes," because I never actually put any points into it. I didn't check and see what the skills are, but none of them seemed that interesting to me.

At least not when compared to stuff like better fireballs, or the ability to create a circle that slows down all opponents inside it, but leaves Geralt moving at normal speed. Or the ability to do a group finisher, which as the name implies, allows you to finish off a group of enemies at once (I never got more than three at a time, so I don't know how many it can work on, but it does seem to have several different animations depending on who/what he's fighting). Both the time slowing skill and the group finisher skill are governed by an adrenaline meter that fills as you fight enemies (and does not deplete over time), but both are also activated by the same button (up on the d-pad). I'm not really sure why this is, maybe the people at CD Projekt Red never thought that someone would have more than one of those skills (both are near the ends of their respective "paths," and there is a similar one near the end of the Alchemy path). But it seems like something they didn't fully see out. So, what usually happens is that I would push the button, then Geralt would do a group finisher, and then cast the slow spell, which would slow down the remaining one enemy (so I guess it doesn't kill everyone, now that I remember more clearly). Or sometimes it would just slow down time, with no finisher. Maybe I should have just focused more on one path, but I'm not a min/max kind of guy, I like to be good at everything in games. Why be good at swords when I can be good at swords and magic?

While that may be a little janky, I found the story and voice acting to be far less janky. Well, some of the voice acting has a, "We hired people we found at the Ren-Fair" vibe to it, but most of the important story characters were very well voiced. Geralt and Vernon Roche stood out to me as the best of the bunch (also the best in terms of their faces, as both were among of the best non-LA Noire faces I've seen in a video game).

Of course, that was the impression I got based on the path I took through the story, which I will briefly describe within a "Spoiler Block" for those who have beaten the game. But remember, I will be spoiling a TON, so don't read if you haven't played the game yet.

And that's just the stuff that I was able to impact. There's even more stuff that I didn't have an impact on, and all the quests and story stuff that would have happened had I chosen different. Though, I should say that the people online who say that you make a choice that results in you going to one area whilst locking off another area aren't being fully truthful. What really happens (or what happened to me) is that you pick a path, which locks you off from a lot of quests, but you are given an opportunity to explore the areas "on the other side." I don't think I got full access, but I was able to explore a fairly large forest-y area and part of a town. And I was able to do one side quest that was on "that side" that involved finding harpy feathers for a guy and...Well, I shan't spoil what happens, but I'll say that it's probably the funniest moment in the game (and also really silly).

But overall I really liked the story in the game. Or at least I liked all the stuff about the kings, and all the political intrigue. I didn't really like the stuff about Geralt recovering his memories, because they were all about him trying to find a character that isn't in the game, and thus I had no reason to care about because I was never given any reason to care about this character other than Geralt saying that he wanted to find said character.

And now I'm excited for The Witcher The Third. Well, they'll probably call it The Witcher 3, and it'll probably take them a while to make it. And yes, there will be another one. The Achievement for beating the game (which is not a secret Achievement (and the game has plenty of secret Achievements)) is called "To be Continued..." And the end of the game clearly indicates that a lot of big things are going to be happening in this world, and that Geralt and company are probably going to play a role in those events.

Since I continue to not have anything going on in my life beyond video games (and that book I keep blabbering on about), I'm not really sure what to do next. The only other un-played game I have is the copy of Metroid: Other M that I bought last year for $10, but I haven't played that because my big TV broke, and my current set-up (small TV on a table) doesn't really allow for enough room to do the pointer stuff in the game. So...

I guess I could start playing Majora's Mask. A few months ago my friend and I started playing the game, but we literally haven't played since, so I'm probably just going to play it without him. We were able to get though all of Deadly Premonition and Alpha Protocol (both picked for their great stories but not so great game-play), but that was with me "secretly" beating Deadly Premonition on another save months before we were able to beat it together. We might play Fez together instead if I ever get a new TV (that seems like a game that would be good to play with two people, what with all those apparently insane puzzles). Or not, I dunno. Unlike me, he actually has a life, and a job (or at least last year he had an internship or something, so he probably has something similar), so whatever. I'm rambling at this point.

Or maybe I'll go back to Mass Effect 3. I still haven't S-Ranked it yet. If I remember correctly, all I have left are to beat the game (and every mission) on Insanity, romance someone, and get 5000 kills. All of those seem doable, just time consuming (especially the 5000 kills one, but thankfully kills from all modes/play-throughs count). Part of me kinda wants to wait until they put out the new ending DLC, but those 5000 kills aren't going to kill themselves (and if they did, they wouldn't count as me killing them). Conversely, the existing ending is astoundingly bad. But I suppose I could just skip most of that stuff since I've already beaten the game, and know what happens.

I'll figure out something, and write about what happens. But, I leave you with a clip of our greatest living voice actor, because that's what I do.

Actually, I changed my mind. I was going to embed a video of Nolan North on Hollywood Squares, but it contains footage of Brad Garrett, and I know how the GB fan base reacts to him, so watch the video at your own risk.

Whoa, you go big guy

I recently finished The Witcher 2 as well. I did make a few different choices than you.  It's a damn good game on the 360. I plan on going back and making different choices, but thought I would take a break from it. Playing Dead Space 2 right now. I can't believe it took me this long to buy it. Cool blog, keep on gaming.

If you wanna know what up with Saskia, play again and go with Iorveth this time.

@Claude said:

I recently finished The Witcher 2 as well. I did make a few different choices than you. It's a damn good game on the 360. I plan on going back and making different choices, but thought I would take a break from it. Playing Dead Space 2 right now. I can't believe it took me this long to buy it. Cool blog, keep on gaming.

I can't believe I'm the one that is saying this but the 360 version and the PC version are night and day. If you can run it on PC I would recommend that. I have done comparisons that make people laugh out loud. Not to say that the 360 version is bad by any means (I own that as well obviously) but it is a bit weird that they removed some of the smaller periphery stuff that helped give the game atmosphere, like the meditate animation and so on. Actually I don't know where I'm going with this post.. Play what you have, because it's fantastic either way.

Meh...felt like Fable but with more serious overtones. I actually really liked the political aspects (even though I had no backround information on the kingdoms of The Witcher) but I hated the many little things that soured my experience. Things like a terrible map, constant loading (the game over screen has to load...really?), bugs, bad dialogue, boring characters, hilariously bad swearing, weak third act, etc.

I have honestly never felt more distanced from a protagonist in any game. I will still go back and replay it just to see how different the events can turn out to be, but that won't happen for a very long time.

I am very excited for the third game as well, hopefully you will get to play the Witcher 1 at some point, just for the fun of it (the witcher 2 is by far the better game)

@CJduke: As soon as I get the money, I'll buy a gaming PC, buy PC versions of both The Witcher games, and play them as "intended." I recently re-watched GB's Quick Look of the PC version, to see how much different it looks from the 360 version, and even just in that video, with them saying they weren't using a "state of the art" machine, the PC version looks WAY better. And fewer loading screens.