The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition

The Witcher 2 is a great sequel to the first Witcher game. It's better in almost every way compared to its predecessor but stays true to the foundations of the first game in terms of gameplay difficulty and RPG elements that made the first game so unique. In terms of gameplay changes there are several big differences such as the flawed combat system from the first game that has been completely changed and for the good. The combat is now much faster and gives you more freedom to move around. Apart from that you will get the occasional quick time event during cutscenes and by combining signs and fast and heavy attacks you can get special kills. Difficulty is still a major feature. This game does not hold you hand, when you face enemies at the start of the game they will kill you easily. Only through learning the combat system, using signs, drinking potions, using weapon oils and obtaining better gear can you successfully take on all the enemies in the game. There is somewhat of a learning curve here and just like in the first game not everything is explained well but all in all I would say The Witcher 2 is an easier game to get into then the first. You play once again as Geralt of Rivia. You've lost your memory and you're being falsely accused of assassinating King Foltest. With the help of some of your friends you will need to find and pursue the real assassin in order to clear your name. Along the way you'll meet some familiar faces and given plenty of difficult decisions to make that can drastically change the story or the ending of the game. The visuals in the game are simply gorgeous. The locations you'll visit during the game are beautifully rendered and there is a layer of detail to everything you'll encounter, from lush forests, to dark and gloomy caves, small villages and massive fortresses. The devs have done a fantastic job of bringing the world of The Witcher to life. Alas everything comes at a price. You will need a powerful PC to be able to run it all in an acceptable frame rate, even to this day. Luckily the game scales pretty well and by disabling or lowering settings such as ultra textures and super sampling you can get beautiful looking visuals and a pretty solid frame rate for most of the game. I did however have my fair share of crashes, mostly straight to desktop without any reason. This seems to vary among other players a lot so it most likely has to do with hardware configurations. I also experienced the occasional fps drop, especially during some cutscenes but luckily it did not take away too much from the experience overall. The Witcher 2 is an excellent game and one of the better RPG's from the last few years so it's easy to recommend it to anyone that likes this sort of games. Even if you did not particularly care for the first game it's still worth checking out in my opinion. It took me roughly 50 hours to get through the game and it's very possible I might have missed some side quests along the way. Be sure to check it out!

The Witcher 2 has done a lot of things better than the original. It is an overall polished game. This also meant that it is much more mainstream, and some elements are made with the consoles in mind. Combat received a much needed overhaul. It is more free flowing, and it an overall better experience. It has some quirks, such as the target locking system, which can be unwieldy at times, especially when multiple enemies attack in a very narrow corridor. Combat styles are gone, and there is much reliance on dodging and using signs. I enjoyed this system a lot more compared to the first game. Story picks up where the first game left off. It has a lot of very interesting side quests, and the main quest sets itself up for the next game. I am looking forward to playing The Witcher 3. I imported a save from the first game. I am not quite sure how this has changed the game compared to starting without importing a save file. I took a backup of the savegames, so if Witcher 3 allows me to import them, I intend to do so. The choices in the game have a much larger impact than in the previous game. I discovered that depending on some key decisions made in the first act, the second act will branch into different story lines and then both converge for the 3rd act. This offers a lot of replay value. Visuals got a huge upgrade compared to the first game. I installed the Better Texture Environment Mod. The game looks fantastic on my GeForce 1080 on Windows 10. I played it at 2560x1440 on ultra settings, and it rarely ever dropped below 100FPS. The game did crash to the desktop a few times, but nothing major in terms of performance. For all the freedom the game offers, the boss battles are terrible. There is no room for improvisation here. This is by far the worst thing about the game for me. Skills is another aspect that could have been a lot better. I went through the entire game without allocating a single point to alchemy. There was no reason to use it. Just make sure you upgrade Quen, and upgrade your swordsmanship, and you are good to go. There were only a few instances where I found potions to be useful. Certain sections of the game require you to drink a potion, but otherwise, Cat was the only potion I found useful. The inventory system is a mess. It is very poorly designed. The developers announced at the time that they were targeting consoles as the primary platform. The inventory system in the first game was far superior compared to this. All in all, it is a fantastic game. I thoroughly recommend it.

Graphically, this is a major glow-up from game 1. Everything looks beautiful. The different clothing, environments, combat, character movement, all the effects... Everything just looks really great. It also kept up the tradition of having a mostly strong English VA cast. Alexander Morton, who plays Zoltan, was my favorite. The gameplay is pretty easy to get a handle on, much moreso than game 1. I could play almost entirely without using potions or even Aards, and Geralt always hits something when you swing, even if you don't hit it like you should. And the sword-fighting is pretty satisfying to do and watch. The inventory system is a nightmare, though, and the crafting system is silly. That being said, the story is largely nonsense, and almost every character sucks. There are some lovely character moments. When Geralt speaks to Zoltan and Dandelion, or when Iorveth warms up to Geralt as a friend, the game has some touching characterization. And I know I laughed at least once at an intentional joke. The world-building is intense, but not in an interesting way. Although the overarching theme seems to be "even if you make the choice of the lesser evil, you are still doing evil", I have to question if someone thought "is that an enjoyable game to play? At least when your protagonist is a centrist who spends most of the game spouting nonsense about how Both Sides Are Bad and the Best Way to Win is Not to Play?" The game also spends half of its time prepping for game 3, which... I mean could they make sure game 2 is fun first? Please? I think I'll just go back to "Dragon Age".

... surpassed only by the witcher 3. (I played the linux version on the highest graphics settings and had no performance issues whatsoever, so complaints in older reviews in this regard which can be found on the internet do not apply to this enhanced edition running on modern hardware)

Not enough space? Well, even less praise than: - Superb Charcters, worlduilding, (english) voice acting and pretty good story. - Above average dialogues, graphics (considering 10 year age), music and framing for quests. - Actual content of quests is mediocre (but does not feel that way), sound is mixture of often faulty positioning of quite good snippets. - Level structure is rather limiting, but hard to remember none the less and the automap is useless joke - Storage options are far apart and carrying capacity is limited to light setups, but alchemy, quests and crafting do not allow predictions. You will often sell items common in one area only to buy them back somewhere else where they are rare. Also you have to backtrack often because of loot masses or stash these on the ground to stay mobile in fights - and risking loosing everything because such stashes are gone on a reload. - After 10 years of patching I still found one sidequest breaking bug and had crashes. The above for lost equipment... - You are supposed to react quick and precise, but fighting sequences last up to a 2nd or include unwanted movement. Mile wide collision zones make avoidance even more difficult; you will suffer a lot of deaths because of miserable controls => frustration - AI is non existing => hardly any challenge in some supposed to be hard situations - enemys almost always swarm you and can instakill you from behind on "hard" => more frustration - you are often pushed into situations where you cannot prevent enemys from getting behind you and where your retreat options are blocked => Frustration² - Balancing does not exist. At all. On "hard" I was literally bored even on some major quests, but unable to proceed on others, even minor ones, even when using walktroughs => Frustration ³ tl;dr: Play the incredible Witcher 3 first, than the for-its-age quite good 1. Witcher 2 can spoil your appetite for more within 1 hour. If you are already a fan, you will continue it for its story.