The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

Overview

The Witcher 2 is a story-focused role-playing game by CD Projekt RED that follows the adventures of Geralt of Rivia, the last of the Witchers: a select group of mutants, professional monster hunters. The game is set in the same world as Andrzej Sapkowski's short stories. The sequel picks up a couple of months after The Witcher's ending and contains many returning characters. There is a strong emphasis on dialogue choices, with no outright good or evil moral choice; player's decisions lead the non-linear storyline to any of its 16 possible endings.

The Witcher 2 uses a new internally developed RPG engine featuring many graphical, gameplay and narrative improvements over the original. The game went "gold" on April 27 and was released on May 17, 2011 for PC. It was also released on the same day through CD Projekt's own digital distribution service, GOG.com, without any DRM.

CD Project later confirmed there would be an Xbox 360 release, along with an Enhanced Edition (a free patch updating the original release with fixes made for the console port) for the PC, on April 17, 2012.

Technology

Large environments with no loading screens.

Citing the limitations of the Aurora Engine (used in the first game), CD Projekt decided to develop a new engine (named Red Engine) to implement their vision for The Witcher 2.

The new engine was built from the ground up to accommodate the branching narrative structure of the game and uses graphical features such as specular lighting and dynamic shadow effects. The Witcher 2 features the same delayed consequences seen in the first game, where player decisions often have far reaching ramifications several hours down the line. The player actions are said to affect every single person within the game world.

The new engine renders large, detailed environments with no need for load times, as players can travel from one zone to another seamlessly. The environments often contain clues and trails that players have to follow to solve mysteries and quests. The game world is also more explorable than its predecessor and allows players to scale walls, hop over fences and ascend rock formations. It also features a full day/night cycle. The art design was inspired by the Slavic culture, with minor influences from Celtic, Germanic and Scandinavian mythos.

Setting

Geralt with returning character, Triss Merigold.

The Witcher 2 starts at an unknown time, with Geralt being accused of assassinating the king and being interrogated. Through various dialogue choices, he recounts the events that led to his capture; events that players will play through themselves and serve as the game's primary tutorial. Geralt's recollection picks up a few months after the first game's ending, with him in bed with Triss Merigold.

Since Geralt is still suffering from long term amnesia, the story explores more of his violent past through various quests and flashbacks. The story features many returning characters from the first game and the book, many of whom often have their own motivations & emotions and take diverging paths to Geralt. Players can also import a save game and see how their previous decisions affected these characters and the world. As players make these decisions, Geralt's journal is updated with poetic text as if it was being written by a bard singing his praises.

The first game's controversial card collection mini-game centered around romance has been dropped, in favor of a more realistic depiction. The dialogue tree has also been changed to illustrate a more dynamic camera, such as the type that Bioware has begun to use in games like Mass Effect and Dragon Age: Origins. The dialogue choices are also more integrated in the world (simply floating rather than being on a menu background) to help give a better sense of immersion. Certain dialogue options will only give players a limited time to make a decision.

Plot

Roche interrogating Geralt

In the beginning of the game, Geralt finds himself imprisoned by the Temerian officials. He is approached by Vernon Roche, the commander of the Blue Stripes, who insists on interrogating the Witcher, as the monster slayer is to be hanged on the following day, charged with assassinating King Foltest and quite possibly King Demavend as well. Geralt reacts unpleasantly to the accusations by insisting he did not do the deed and Roche instructs him to recount the events leading up to the assassination, if he is to believe the Witcher's claim.

Geralt's perspective on the events picks up on the day of Foltest's assault against the La Valettes, the latter faction comprising of both the La Valette family and its supporters, a conflict which arose from Foltest's fathering and denying of bastard children with the Lady La Valette and the desire of Temeria's noblemen to use his children as a 'banner' to usurp his kingdom. Up to the day of the assault, Geralt had followed Foltest in the campaign for he served as the King's supposed lucky charm, and so did his the sorceress Triss Merigold who served as Foltest's personal advisor.

During the attack, the Witcher faces Aryan La Valette... and even a dragon when he finds himself once again in Foltest's company! But luckily he escapes from both events unscathed, and delivers King Foltest to where his children are being held. Things take an ugly turn then, as an assassin posing as a monk slits Foltest's throat and escapes, unintentionally pinning the crime on the Witcher.

Siege of La Valettes

When Geralt is done with his version of the events that occurred, Roche finds the story rather unconvincing. However, they manage to piece together that the presence of the Scoia'tael (noticed by Geralt) may have something to do with the assassination. Ultimately, Roche is compelled to seek out the truth whatever it might be, and so decides to help with Geralt's escape from prison by setting him loose. The Witcher escapes that very night, and together with his Triss, Roche and the rest of the Blue Stripes, sets sale for Flotsam, where an infamous elf named Iorveth and his Scoia'tael were known to be.

Upon arriving in the city's outskirts, they immediately encounter Iorveth who attacks them and confirms the story of the kingslayer monk. Geralt, Triss and Roche flee to Flotsam, where Geralt discovers his friends Dandelion and Zoltan Chivay are about to be hanged, the former for debauchery, the latter for conspiring with Scoia'tael. The Witcher saves them from their fate, thus making his presence known to Flotsam, including to its ruler, the so called Commandant.

The Commandant informs the Witcher of the difficulties Flotsam is facing with the Scoia'tael and a beast that has put a stop to the traffic of boats up the river. He tells Geralt that if he deals with the latter, he will have his full support in finding Iorveth. Geralt agrees, then kills the monster with the help of a sorceress named Silla, who's presence in the town was owed to the monster.

Gameplay

The four skill trees.

The combat from the first game has been overhauled and relies on four major skill trees. Each node on the skill tree has two levels, and some can be further upgraded with mutagens found in the game.

• Training - Increases Geralt's general combat and physical capabilities like his stamina and ability to parry or block in combat. Players must invest a minimum of 6 points in this talent tree to unlock the remaining three.
• Swordmanship - Improves Geralt's sword fighting skills and gives him new moves and abilities. Affects both the normal and silver swords the witcher carries.
• Magic - Improves Geralt's knowledge of "Signs" (which are essentially magic spells he can cast in combat). There are multiple branches which improve the effectiveness of an existing sign by adding extra damage or special effects like a stun.
• Alchemy - Improves effectiveness of potions, oils and bombs made using alchemy. Some talents allow for use of multiple potions or reduce their side-effects.

The multiple stance and rhythmic timing-based system has been dropped in favor of a more fluid, action-oriented approach, inspired by games like Batman: Arkham Asylum and powered by the Havok physics engine. Geralt now has two basic attacks: Quick (Left Mouse) and Strong (Right Mouse), that can be strung together to perform various combos. Players can block incoming attacks and with the right timing, execute a parry and riposte or perform dodge rolls. With good placement, players can trick enemies into causing friendly fire damage on each other. The engine features more gory & brutal kill animations.

Duels aren't always solved at swordpoint.

Spells, traps and potions can still be used during combat and remain a major component. Geralt can use barrier spells to ward off tougher enemies, telekineses to crowd control and cast offensive spells like fireballs to deal damage. Trap placement has been expanded up to three levels, with increasing benefits based on how many traps Geralt lays down. Players can also slow down time by bringing up a radial menu (by holding down the CTRL key) and change weapons, items and spells on the fly. The game has an optional combat log window that details all the stat calculations going on behind the scenes. One thing players cannot do is drink health giving potions or otherwise heal mid-combat, meaning preparation for big encounters is vital to survival.

With the addition of detailed environment, players can use lighting and shadows to stealth around enemies. The cat potion from the first game has been changed to give Geralt a pseudo-X-ray vision, very much like Batman's detective vision in Arkham Asylum. Players can also engage in hand-to-hand duels that use quick-time events.

There are multiple mini-games involving fist-fighting, arm-wrestling, dueling, poetry, gambling etc. The number of delivery quests has been cut down in favor of more exploration and combat focused quests. There are also detective side-quests where players have to use environmental hints to track down monsters and solve mysteries. Character customization has been expanded to a great degree and players can change almost every aspect of Geralt's weaponry and clothing. In addition, players can also craft their own weapons or upgrade existing ones.

Alchemy

Slaying monsters gives a chance at rarer ingredients.

Alchemy no longer requires stringent environmental conditions like fire and can be used to create potions anywhere. In order to create potions the player must meditate, but unlike the previous game brewing no longer takes up game time. Alchemy can be used to create three main items:

• Potions - Liquid compounds that grant temporary powers. They are created by adding herbs and monster body parts to a chemical base, like alcohol. They are also the only alchemy product to have side effects associated with their use. This poisonous side effect is measured in terms of "Toxicity".
• Oils - Oils are special chemicals applied to swords and other weapons to increase their damage or effectiveness against certain types of enemies.
• Bombs - Powerful explosives that can be used to stun or outright kill an enemy from a distance. Depending on their type and quality, they can cover considerably large areas.

Geralt starts with the knowledge of some basic alchemy recipes but the rest are learned by shopping in towns, looting corpses or collected as quest rewards. There are 9 natural compounds used in alchemy: Aether, Caelum, Fulgur, Hydragenum, Quebrith, Rebis, Sol, Vermillion and Vitriol. These can be extracted from various sources, like herbs or animal parts.

Mutagens

Being a Witcher, Geralt is a mutant warrior who can use mutagens to enhance his innate abilities even further. When used, these chemical reagents permanently increase the stats for one of his abilities. These can be looted from dead bodies or created as a by-product from alchemy. They are found in three varieties: Lesser, Basic and Greater; each increasing stats by an ascending amount.

Mutagens can be used to gain one of the following effects:

• Critical Effect: Increase Geralt's critical chance in melee combat.
• Range: Increase the range of Signs.
• Power: Increase sword or melee damage
• Strength: Increase damage reduction
• Concentration: Increase damage dealt by Signs.

Enhanced Edition

Released on April 17th 2012 as a free digital update for the PC, as well as a retail release - and included with the Xbox 360 version right from the start - the Enhanced Edition introduced over one hundred enhancements, tweaks, bug fixes and changes to the core game of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, plus hours of new content such as new quests, new locations and new cutscenes.

A pre-loader for the PC version was released several days before the initial release of the Enhanced Edition to try to eliminate traffic on day-one since the update has over ten Gigabytes of new files. It was made clear that the directory should not be moved before the game was successfully updated on April 17th.

Version 2.0

Released the 29th of September 2011, this free patch, brings two new game modes to the Witcher 2P: Dark Mode, and an Arena mode; along with various tweaks and enhancements, and a tutorial. All of these will be shipped on-disc for the Xbox 360 release.

Dark Mode

Dark mode is a new difficulty level designed for people wanting new challenge for their subsequent play-throughs, and it adds an assortment of powerful, new, dark themed items to the game.

Arena Mode

An arena mode that allows you to fight waves upon waves of enemies -- of which get progressively stronger and more difficult to defeat -- to gather the highest score you can. Leaderboards have been set up so players can strive to have the highest score of any Witcher 2 player. This mode also introduces a new enemy.

Announcement

Promotional Video Leak

On Sept 16, 2009, a video was leaked from CD Projekt's offices that was intended as promotion to obtain a publisher. In the video, it is described that the team has worked hard on improving graphics from the original game, and completely revamping the way the world works.

Announcement Trailer

In March 2010 an official trailer for the game was released showing that Atari would once again be publishing for the developer. The trailer depicted story elements of a large man who specifically targets Kings to assassinate, a man with black hair and an eye patch, and Geralt with a pony tail instead of the hairstyle used in the first game. It can be inferred that Geralt must fight the other two aforementioned men as major antagonists of the game.

Thorough fans were able to find a single frame hidden in the trailer with a secret message to dedicated fans about the game from the developer. They promise that the fans will enjoy the sequel as they made it to be very similar to the original, but to creatively enhance and extend the properties of it. They also mention that they feel that claims of PC gaming and PC RPGs being dead are "unagreeable" due to the fact that the first Witcher sold 1.5 million copies on PC alone.

The text of the hidden message (original smilies included) reads:

This message is for our biggest fans. Analyzing our stuff pixel by pixel. It's good to see you again! :-)
BTW: Simple minded people think that nobody is reading these days, dear reader of this, we think that we can agree that is bullshit, huh?
Same as the fact that single player RPGs are dead, or PCs?
We sold 1.5 million units of the game from a dying genre on a dying platform - so we somehow cannot agree ;-)

Before we start talking about TW2 please let us thank you for your great support and appreciation.
It always motivates us and make us happy.

We started working on TW2 right after release of TW. Our goal was to create all the things which made TW so great even better in TW2.
We are very proud of TW but lets be honest, it was our debut. We never made any game before, and we practically learned as we worked.
So there were many things which could be done better, you know it as good as us :-)
But the vision, the main concept, remains the same: a game with a mature, captivating and non linear story, and full of spectacular combat.
A game created by a team of independant thinkers immune to corporate priorities, who don't care what's trendy at the given moment.

The core vision of the game hasn't changed. What has changed is the quality and the maturity we can deliver. That's largely because we're more experienced and also due to the fact that we've created our own technology. Do you remember how we made significant improvements with the Aurora Engine in the original game, but it still had its limitations?
Now we've created technology designed specifically to create non-linear games with extensive plotlines and a living word...
Well, there's no point in expanding on that too much - you have to check out our tech yourselves!

Nevertheless, we have many reasons to believe that you will like The Witcher 2!
See you soon and stay tuned! :)

Xbox360

On 06.02.2011 during a pre E3 conference in Venice Beach CD Projekt team announced the release of an Xbox 360 version by the end of the year. The Gram.pl - site and shop affiliated with CD Projekt suggested a release date of 11.15.2011. During the presentation a new teaser created by Tomasz Bagiński was shown.

Assassins of Kings will hit the Xbox 360 on April 17, 2012.

Availability

In November 2010 it was announced that The Witcher 2 would be available on May 17, 2011. It was available on Good Old Games & Steam with exclusive content. Until that date several editions were available for pre-order:

Digital Premium Edition

GOG Edition

• The full in-game soundtrack
• Papercraft figures
• Guide
• Maps
• Letters
• Trailers
• Developer diaries
• Gameplay footage
• Interviews and "making of" exclusive video.
• GOG Exclusives: One Free CRPG & a 200 page digital artbook.

Premium Edition

Premium Edition Impression

• Game DVD (except when ordering the digital edition)
• Making of movie
• Soundtrack of the game
• Map of the gaming world
• Game guide
• Manual
• Pamphlet and coin
• Papercraft

Collectors' Edition

Collectors' Edition impression

• Game DVD (except when ordering the digital edition)
• Making of movie
• Etui; box for the game and movie dvd
• Soundtrack of the game
• Map of the gaming world
• Game guide
• Manual
• Pamphlet and coin
• Papercraft
• DLC; varies by vendor
• Artbook; extensive book with 200 pages of artwork
• Gerald head sculpture
• Dice set
• Card deck
• Cards guide
• Stickers; set of three Witcher stickers
• Temerian coin; one temerian oren
• Box; to contain all these goodies

Soundtrack

The Witcher 2's Cover Art

The original score for The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings was composed by Adam Skorupa, with the collaboration of Krzysztof Wierzynkiewicz.

PC System Requirements

Minimum

• OS: Windows XP SP2 / Windows Vista SP2 / Windows 7 (32/64-bit)
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2 Ghz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+
• Memory: 1 GB Windows XP / 2 GB Windows Vista and Windows 7
• Video Card: 512 MB RAM, supporting Pixel Shader 3.0 (Nvidia GeForce 8800 or ATI Radeon HD3850)

Recommended

• OS: Windows XP SP2 / Windows Vista SP2 / Windows 7 (32/64-bit)
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad or AMD Phenom X4
• Memory: 3 GB Windows XP / 4 GB Windows Vista and Windows 7
• Video Card: 1 GB RAM, supporting Pixel Shader 3.0 (Nvidia GeForce GTX260 or ATI Radeon HD4850)

Additionally

• Sound Card: compatible with DirectX 9.0c
• HDD: 16 GB of disc space. (The drive must be formatted in NTFS format since one of the files is 9GB, and FAT32 can only handle files up to 4GB)
• Disc Drive: DVD x8, compatible with DVD9
• Installation requires administrator access.
• Game supports Xbox 360 controller for Windows.