Today we're continuing in our Witcher Series review, today we're reviewing the 2nd offering from CDProjeckt Red in The Witcher 2: Assassins Of Kings, after their monumental success with The Witcher 1, CDPR went all out in the Witcher 2, giving it amazing graphics and an even more focused story line that really got people into the Witcher series, most people never played number 1 as it was a little bit before their time in the age of consoles, however Witcher 2 was such a success it drew in a slew of players.
Today we're going to explore The Witcher 2 and continue the story of Geralt and the brewing storm that is approaching the Witcher world as well look at some of the game play and graphics changes that really made The Witcher 2 a true game of the year candidate(and winner).
The Story So Far.
After the events of The Witcher in Vizima the Northern realms is at the beginning of a Civil war, the Scoia'tael are now unrepentant in their drive to establish a non human state, the human king Foltest is clearing house as he prepares for a war in the south and the Human king Henselt is on the march to conquer native lands of the elves and dwarves as well as extend his power for a possible attack in the deep south in Nilfgaard.
Geralt, now the "Kings Witcher" accompanies King Foltest and his love interest and advisor to the king, Triss Merigold to the Lavarlet's castle where a strange love triangle has caused the two allied houses to wage a war on each other over the a sordid incestual pairing between King Foltest and his sister resulting in his two children being "held hostage" by their mother and his husband.
Mid way through the invasion of the castle a golden dragon appears and attempts to burn both sides to death, after finally getting away from it and with Anton Lavarlet in custody they head to the tower were the Kings children are being held, as they cross the bridge however the golden dragon attacks again and separates Geralt and Foltest from Triss and Vernon Roche.
The King and Geralt ascend the tower and find the two children alone with a blind monk, the king embraces his children as Geralt gives him some space, the king talks to his children but as he turns his back to the blind monk, the tell tale Cat Eyes of a witcher flash and the monk drives a dagger through the heart of Foltest killing himself instantly, Geralt attempts to give chase to the man but he escapes through an open window with the help of the Scoia'tael to extract him, Geralt is left with sword in hand over the dead king as soldiers burst into the room.
Geralt is taken, arrested and tortured for the murder of King Foltest and an execution date is set he is then questioned by Vernon Roche as they relive the siege of the castle and Geralt explains what happened, thankfully Vernon believes him and explains the chaos Foltests death has caused across the Northern Realms, Henselt is now on the war path to claim all of Aedirn and Foltest lands which puts him in the crosshairs of the scoia'tael and the newly formed free state of Vergen with Saskia the Dragonslayer as their leader.
Vernon sets Geralt free and with the help of Triss Merigold, now an outlaw, set sail for flotsam, a backwater town in the Aedirn river that is a haven for Scoia'tael, bandits and murders, it's there that Geralt and co find old friends in the Bard Dandelion and Zoltan Chivay who are currently on the executioners block for crimes they didn't commit, the town is also being preyed upon by a massively mutated Kayran, a tentacled monster that has blocked the entire river and kills anyone who comes near him.
Geralt explores Flotsam in hopes of find the rogue witcher known as Letho and his Scoia'tael ally in I'orveth, now depending on the players choice the story line differs wildly, however regardless of the players choice, Geralt and Triss meet Sile' the advisor to King Henselt who is in flotsam for the kayran or so she claims, before long however tensions begin to boil over and the entire city is engulfed in war as the Scoia'tael wage war against the flotsam authority the pro humanist Bernard Leredo, as the town burns and non humans and humans wage war Geralt and his choice leave Flotsam to follow Letho who ambushed Geralt in the elven ruins and narrowly escaped.
Chapter 2 is wildly different based on your choices so it's hard to review both at the same time so i'll just give you a quick run down of what happens, based on your choice in chapter 1 you'll either be fighting on the side of Saskia the Dragonslayer and the free city of Vergen or with King Henselt as he tries to snuff out the rebellion, however both sides first have to deal with a massive problem, their battlefield is occupied by the dead which snuffs out any living soul that enters it.
Like I said, Chapter 2 depends on your choices and how you go about solving their individual problems changes depending on what side you're on, they will produce different results, quests and allies or enemies but the main problem remains the same, finding a cure to the curse on the battlefield and let the two armies wage a massive war for supremacy of Upper Aedirn, your chooses in Chapter 2 will also heavily influence not only Chapter 3, but the following Witcher game.
That's about as far as I can go with the story introduction as the chapters are different based on your choices it's better for you to play yourself and choose your own path through the Witcher 2.
Graphics
Visually, Witcher 2 was a stunning game when it came out that stressed even high end PC's at the time, while it was available on consoles it never reached the full graphic fidelity of Ultra on a PC, it also painted a very different portrayal of the Witcher as a vibrant world where numerous things take place at once, in the witcher 1 due to restrictions in budget the towns never felt fully alive, however Witcher 2 does a great job of adding proper weather, NPC involvement, day/night cycles and actually making the places you visit feel unique and alive with various different locations and NPC's practically everywhere.
Even by today's standards The Witcher 2 is a great game to look at as CDPR invested a lot more money into the aesthetics of the game it pays off in a huge way as you can see from the pictures below.
Game Play
The Witcher 2 changes a lot of things from number 1, instead of standard targeting system, players were given a more free flowing choice in which to fight enemies, CDPR did away with the fighting stances and instead incorporated directional based combat for Geralt and his allies which allowed for a lot more flexibility and room to move, it also meant boss fights could be a lot harder as players had to worry about movement as well as striking at the right time, and at harder difficulties some enemies and bosses can destroy you in 1 or 2 hits.
It also added weapons and equipment slots, Witcher 1 was very light on customization, however Witcher 2 introduced new slots for most types of equipment as well as sets and new weapons, bombs and throwing weapons which extend the new range of combat.
Unfortunately they sort of hit a snag with the potions in the game as you can only take potions during meditation as well as creating potions, blade oils and bombs all of which you had to also use or prepare in meditation, while it does tie in better with the preparation mechanics of the game it's a bit of a hindrance in some fights where you need to do things on the fly, thankfully they changed it in Witcher 3 but it's still a bit of a downfall in Witcher 2.
The skills and talents of Witcher 2 however are a massive step up from number 1, they're more focused on creating the character you want and are more refined as you don't require mutagens or special items anymore to get them and as such you can make a very strong Geralt based on your preferred play style right until the end, it also adds extra skills and mutates some based on your choices in the talent tree, i went full Igni spec and by the end i could burn an entire group of enemies with one shot.
There is another slight downside though, while it has a lot more secondary content than Witcher 1 in terms of side quests armor and other things the main story is a little bit short compared to the content in the game, even playing it on the highest difficulty i was done in about 16 hours and that was with me sitting around in towns farming for new gear, due to my choices in Chapter 2, Chapter 3 was pretty short probably around 4 hours, which led to me missing a lot of new gear and weapons solely because I had to go out of my way to farm items for it.
Of course you can do it if you want to completely finished Witcher 2 but it's very immersion breaking to the story to have to stop and run back to a previous area to kill the same monsters over and over again to make enough money to buy the materials to craft new things.
That's another that's new to Witcher 2 is crafting, instead of buying items outright from a vendor like in number 1, Witcher 2 allows you to turn materials into items,weapons,potions,oils and equipment through the crafting system, this was very welcomed by most Witcher fans as constantly farming enough gold just to get a slight upgrade was incredibly tedious, however like I said above, the crafting system does take a lot of time in Witcher 2 to get the best gear that really isn't needed if you know how to play the game.
Overall however, Witcher 2 is much smoother and more user friendly in terms of secondary systems and ultimately it is a step up in the combat system, objectively that is, I still preferred number ones systems but eh subjective experience is just that.
A story driven game and great setup.
Witcher 2 refines the story telling experience of the Witcher world, instead of taking a backseat to events Geralt is now at the front of the line, a big step up from monster slayer, however the witcher contracts and monsters still exist and are still a priority to Geralt but first he most clear his name and bring Letho to justice(or not) while a much shorter game than number 1 and 3, Witcher 2 sets up massive plot lines for Geralt to deal with and creates opportunities for the developers to fully expand their story telling experience leading up to the final game.
The witcher 2 is fully involved every step of the way and there's no real "useless" information or quests as it all ties into the main story line, which personally i think is great, too many games get caught up in accruing content for the sole factor of just having more content in the game, regardless of if it's relevant or not, you can rest assured though everything you do in the Witcher 2 somehow impacts either the people in the game or the main story line that eventually lead into a massive revelation and world changing situations in the finale.
While not the longest game of the series, it still serves an important purpose and it's strangely where a lot of people came into the witcher world missing number 1 entirely, thankfully though CDPR did a fantastic job of introducing new players to the previous game, the franchise and the lore as a whole so that while you may miss certain things and characters by not playing the Witcher 1, you still don't feel left out if you decide to pick up number 2 straight away.
Overall i would say Witcher 2 is a game worth your money for the experience as well as a great set up to what eventually happens in Witcher 3 and given that the developers of the market of the gaming industry it's pretty cheap to purchase today and I would highly suggest any fan of fantasy or ARP games to check out it.
Tomorrow we'll review the final and best installment of the franchise capping off The Witcher series in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.