The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition

I will keep this review short and to the point: If there is one RPG you play this year, make it The Witcher 2.

With the strong start that was Witcher 1, this game is a complete and utter disappointment. From the consolized combat and inventory systems to the completely braindead choices on alchemy and overall control systems, this game is, in every way except graphics, a step back from Witcher 1. I tried to slog through 9 hours of this tripe before realizing it just doesn't get any better. To go from the greatness that is Witcher 1 to the stinking pile of faeces that is Witcher 2, that takes dedication and commitment. They didn't completely mess this game up on accident. They wanted it to turn out the way it did, which completely removes any faith I had left in CdProjekt and solidifying them as a One Hit Wonder.

They lost the feeling from the first game and the controls sucks big time. Sorry this was a uninstall.

I've never in my life seen an excellent game dumbed down this much in my life. And this game gets 5 stars? Honestly, as a huge fan of The Witcher, I've never seen a company that I wanted to support take a game that had so much going for it and turn it into something very, very bad. Nothing like Witcher 1, none of the soul, charm or freedom. I know this may upset a lot of folks, but it's the truth. They took everything charming in Witcher 1 and threw it away. The talent system now is a crummy +5% bonus to a stat you see in every other game. They took something original and dumbed it down like every other game. The potion crafting still looks complex, but ain't. No stats. No choices that matter. Save Prince in Prologue? He lets you out of jail. Kill Prince in Prologue? His mother lets you out of jail. WOW! Also, a big "A-S-W or D" popping up on the screen to fight? How can anyone defend that? Yep, the series has sunk that low. They even took some of the better aspects and "fixed them" as well. The combat system is horrible. Was the old combat mechanic REALLY that complex? Three styles for each sword = 6 styles. Now there are two. Left click for fast attack, right click for slow attack. Hit "E" to block then attack, which works on everything. If you get stuck in a corner or facing multiple opponents, well, just don't try to leave the area. The Witcher will stand there and die if you try to retreat. When I started the game, I continued on with my save from Witcher 1. Maybe it influenced something, maybe it didn't. In my game, I sided with the Scoi'tel but for some reason... nope, that didn't matter at all. Things appear to be the same as if I started a new game. Maybe I'm missing something, but that kind of irks me. Also, I got to say something about the conversations. They go on forever, and just aren't as interesting as the small "by-the-way" conversations in the original WItcher. Now they are 90% cutscene/non-interactive speech. Not fun. Just not the way I wished the series went. Why did they have to dumb it down so much?

This is a fun game. Some people might assume from the presence of combat, rolling blocking and many other hack and slash adventures that the witcher 2 is more akin to hack and slashers like Dark Souls or Lords of the fallen. Indeed, association with Bandai Namco can give you that impression. However, this is a story-driven game with some combat to break up the boredom, much like the first witcher. Why? Combat is a nerve wracking dice roll. It's unresponsive, clunky and as opposed to Dark Souls, completely unfair. The beginning of the game you are a wuss. You can fight, but you deal very little damage, take a ton, and can only use signs once every minute. But that's the point. You shouldn't engage in combat, magic is of limited use, and planning is everything. Traps deal excessive damage, knives are far more effective than igni, and once you get past the first few missions, you'll have a witcher that can actually deal some damage. In fact, even on Dark, if you don't die within Flotsam, you can beat the rest of the game without ever coming close. The game forces you to think deliberately about what you want to do: you need to meditate before each engagement, to plan, to stock up, equipment accounts for your usual progression, because witcher skills are few, far between and not strictly for that purpose: they're more tactical opportunities rather than incremental upgrades. I love it.One of the main reasons why I bought this game after pirating it a long time ago. A nice bonus is that this game tried to go out of its way to be as visually impressive as possible. It has a lot of nice touches, like hidden loading screens that don't even show up on an SSD. It has one of the few non-ENB implementations of Bokeh (which admittedly looks far too intense and is sometimes too distracting), and Ubersampling: it renders two frames in time, and takes the average of the pixel colour, which naturally halves your FPS. It's surprisingly less efficient than 4x supersampling.