2 swords, sorceresses and potions.
The first thing I keep hearing from a lot of people in the games business is "Witcher, oh that's that crazy PC RPG, right?" Sure, the first Witcher was exactly that and after playing through that game I couldn't run around like a madman recommending everyone to play that game. It was a good niche title and I think the developers at CDProjekt are okay with that, especially as it has sold over 2 million copies by now. The sequel, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, is a much more ambitious project. Upon it's release on the PC in April 2011 it pushed graphics forward and it was also a notoriously hard and inaccessible. CD Projekt proceeded to patch that game, constantly adding features and quests for free which has brought us to the version I'm reviewing now - The Witcher 2: The Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition.
The Witcher 2 is an Action RPG - combat is handled in realtime and with enough skill you should be able to vanquish every foe with the sharp edge of one of your swords. There are five diverse spells you can use and even bombs and throwing knives, provided you've crafted or bought some to bring with you. That, however, is not the end of it. Geralt is a witcher, a human who has undergone a lot of mutations so that his body could withstand drinking performance enhancing potions. These potions are something that'll allow you to bring yourself to the peak of your abilities in combat - some will increase your health regeneration rate, some will allow you to see in the dark, some will bring your various resistances up and there's many more to choose from. Geralt can drink only three potions at a time and you'll either pick your battles or drinking habits accordingly. There's also oils you can cover either of your swords with to make them hurt certain enemies more or inflict status effects. Proper preparation is a very rewarding thing in The Witcher 2 and it's highly recommended.
In terms of overall gameplay, combat is only half of it. A lot of your time will be spent in one of the four towns your current story chapter has thrown you into, where you'll gather quests, info, loot and also meet a lot of people. Fight clubs, dice poker, armwrestling and the occasional bit of whoring are all there to help you soothe your spirits after all the witching you've done. Although the banter you'll hear in the cities is of high quality with snappy, memorable writing and usually high quality voice acting, what you'll really want to be doing is some actual witcher's job. While the main quest offers some bigger beasts to slay, like a huge tentacled beast terrorizing a whole port town, the side quests will not disappoint. By now probably everyone has heard of the quest involving an alcoholic Troll, but that really doesn't even come close to my favorite - a quest involving a soldier nicknamed "The Pooper," three wraiths and the realization of what wraiths really are. The sidequests in this game are of a consistently high quality and it's easy to recommend you check them all out.
There's enough diversity in building your character. A skill tree full of abilities you'll want to strive for and equipment ranging from Geralt's steel and silver sword down to his boots. While the armor and weapon choices don't go as high and grandiose as something like Dark Souls there's still enough choices and variety for what this game is. Geralt is a developed character and he doesn't belong in a silk dress nor an armor made of rock and chains. This same attitude goes into the dialogue choices you'll make. Everything is grey and it's very rare to come upon a choice where one would make you an asshole and the other a saint. Some of the harder choices are made even more stressful with a timer and one of those choices even concludes with essentially cutting you out from a lot of content and throwing you into one of the two cities in the second chapter. This is absolutely enough to warrant a second playthrough of this game pushing the game-time you'll get out of The Witcher 2 into 60 hours.
CD Projekt are not calling the Xbox version a port, but rather an adaptation. What this means is that they made sure to run the game at the absolute maximal graphical fidelity they could crank out from the Xbox 360 and they even remade the lightning engine. All that work definitely shows, because in my opinion The Witcher 2 is the best looking Xbox 360 game to date. Sure, they had to remove features like Motion Blur and ingame Depth of Field and even the level of detail fade-in is at a minimal distance to make sure that the framerate keeps at a constant 30. Yet it still looks totally amazing and comparable to the PC version. There are some minor technical problems with the game and the sound volumes can be a little weird at times, but those are not problems that are going to ruin your overall experience with this game.
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings is absolutely a game you should get if you even slightly care for RPGs. The story offers plenty of drama and likeable characters to keep anyone with an adult's attention span entertained and the gameplay goes pretty deep with both it's complexity and challenge. It's not an inherently hard game, but it does require patience and preparation, making it quite an unique experience worth checking out. As a Witcher veteran I enjoyed it a lot and it's about just as approachable to a newcomer.
