The Witcher 2: A Joy to Experience
It would be wrong to provide praise to The Witcher 2 for any single element alone. This game combines fantastic storytelling with fun, challenging gameplay, and unparalleled presentation to form a truly fantastic experience.
The story follows Geralt of Rivia through the turmoil of the Northern Temerian Kingdom in search for the kingslayer and answers about his past. This is the only thing that can be said for certain. This game’s story can play out so differently from player to player that my opinion of the story will vastly differ from someone else’s simply due to the fact that it wasn’t the same. This becomes obvious when the entire second act occurs in a different location simply due to who you choose to travel with.
While the story is unfolding in the present, Geralt is piecing together the story of his experience with the Wild Hunt, slowly rebuilding his memory in what can only be described as a series of flashbacks, each with a series of pictures that go along with the story. This method of developing the side story was truly captivating and I cannot imagine how it could have played out better.
The fighting system is the only place that I can even imagine a criticism. I struggled through the prologue and much of the first act only barely understanding how the fighting system worked and how to use all of its different features. As the game progressed however, the challenges definitely turned into determining how actually to defeat an enemy, as opposed to figuring out how to do the things that would be needed to do so. As a final criticism of the fighting system, it seemed like an odd choice to have quick-time event portions of the combat in the fights with dragons.
This game looks fantastic. That is all that needs to be said about the presentation. All of the scenery looks like you are actually standing there. My personal favorite locales were the forest area early in the game, as well as the third act city of Loc Muinne. The sceneries in this game were clearly a point of pride for the developers and they were executed beautifully.
Combining all of the factors above, with the fact that it is still a fairly long game, and you get a game which is unrivaled as a great action RPG. I can’t wait for it to release on Xbox so that more people will experience one of the best, and certainly the most underrated, games of 2011.
