The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition

The legendary Witcher known as Geralt is back and now he finds himself in the middle of a war that threatens to tear the lands apart. Someone is assinating the kings on each side for some unknown purpose and Geralt must figure who it is and stop them. With lots of memorable characters, a complex fighting system with two types of swords and an alchemy system that allows you to make potions that have benefits but also cons that you must think about if you need to use a certain type of potion. A must buy for anyone who loved the first game and wants to step into the world of The Witcher once again.

It seems amazing to me that I'd be willing to pay $20 JUST for the game, which needless to say, is fantastic. Hell, I'd be willing to pay $60, but CD PROJEKT INSISTS to take as little of my money for as much as the product as possible. Believe me people, it's all worth it.

By and large the games that have the most time and money invested in them, and have the resulting "AAA" levels of polish and production values, are also those "play it safe". Publishers with deep pockets also seem to be tremendously risk-averse, and as a consequence nearly every triple A title is tried and true concept that breaks no ground (from a design standpoint, though often they are technically groundbreaking), streamlined and distilled to simplification. On the other end of the spectrum, risk-taking, complicated, and ambitious games are very often done on a shoestring budget, or no budget at all. The Witcher 2, after that long-winded lead-up, is a game that does not compromise between the two; it is complicated, deep, ambitious, and does it all with a level of technical and artistic production that puts most AAA console titles to shame. There are some cracks in this improbably successful best-of-both-worlds, namely some clunky controls, and some poorly explained features, but minor quibbles aside this is one of the finest RPG's I've ever played. The best compliment I can pay to this game is that playing through it is very much like reading a great book. The quality of writing in this game is so far above most (if not all) of its contemporaries, that it sets a very high standard for future games in its genre, and made me reevaluate games I'd previously held to be exemplary. But even this does not fully capture it, because against the contemporary grain of games emulating film, this game fully capitalizes on one of the greatest strengths of the medium; granting the player the ability to author an experience rather than to simply witness it. I'm not typically one to hyperbolize, but I could go on and on about this game with unlimited enthusiasm, so I'll just summarize here by saying if you have any interest in RPGs or even simply story-focused games (and a beefy CPU/GPU), it is a near certainty that you will love this game, and you should probably buy it like right away.

People will say that the game is too simple and too hard. Both are right. CDPR tried to make a PC game a cross-platform game and didn't get it 100% right. The combat system is weird. Worse, they left in all of the references to people and places that you will not know or care about unless you've read the novels. Some mechanics and progressions could have been designed better. Finally, a few quests can be difficult to figure out and you might have to resort to using Google. Still, the only thing that makes Witcher 2 look bad is that Witcher 3 exists. The Witcher series changed RPGs for me. Instead of having a moral stat like "neutral good," characters were people who made decisions that were some times honorable and other times less honorable. The games also ask you to consider what it means to "win," to think about your motivations and Geralt's motivations. No RPG hits every point, but this one hits some important ones: * Interesting, often complex characters * Storylines that are flavored by the complicated world in which they unfold * Excellent writing * Good action * Graphics that were eye-popping in 2011 and still look good * CDPRs value per dollar was great in 2011 and today, you can enjoy Witcher 2 for a very little tldr; even if there are things you might wish to change, you will definitely enjoy this game

Aside for the bad optimization and bad learning curve, at least for me, it's a good game, but not great. As always, great characters and story, but also ambiance and atmosphere. Gameplay isn't outstanding, but is doable and provides a good challenge. Overall, liked it, didn't love it.