The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition

I was a huge fan of The Witcher 1 when it got out and had a PC with a good enough build to play without sacrificing quality and performances. When it broke, I had to wait five years to be able to afford a PC again and play The Witcher 2 — Enhanced Edition. Needless to say that I was very looking forward to play it, even more when I watched the superb introduction to the game again with the assassination of the King. But TW2 was much less thrilling to me than TW1, even though it looks beautiful. It felt short (as a story) and long at the same time (gathering plants, side quests) and less interesting. I feel like it pays a homage to the old RPG because of all the lines of dialogues between the different characters — you'll actually may end up reading TW2 more than playing it ! I'm disappointed by the game both because I may have expected too much from it and because I don't feel it's that much better than the first episode.

After playing W1 which had few bugs, but so many great ideas, I felt really limted in W2. Mini-games are really bad in here, and sometimes the flow of the story depends on them. Framerate sometimes does strange things so the keys are irresponsive. Usually when you need a block a blow, cast a sign or dodge and you have a milisecond to do it. I got used to it, but then many fights are in something like invisible "arena" so you cannot run away when you started (example, you jump over 1m wide gap in a cave meet a golem, find out you are no match for it, and you just cannot jump back). So it ends you die 100 times re load and maybe with a bit of luck you can kill that. I would preffer not to die at all and solve it somehow smart. Or the fact you can drink potions only in meditation mode so far far from the combat, along with the fact that mighty Geralt can be stopped by a shrub filled me sometimes with desperation. All together it is a good game, with great locations (I loved Vergen and surroundings), and some quests and characters are good. But still compared to W1 characters feels a bit more blunt and for same strange reason most of drinkers drink vodka :-)

Truly a beautiful roleplaying game with high replayability (Chapter 2 is different based on choices you make). Graphics still stand strong, even in 2017. The story is unbeatable with so many neaty-gritty details on political frictions inside of the kingdom, I found myself stopping for some extra side-questing to catch a break. There's no good or bad choices in Witcher 2. Actually, let me rephrase that. There's no good choices in Witcher 2. There's lesser evils without any absolutes. And this approach is a faithful representation of Geralt's mindset established in Sapkowski's books. A word of advice, do spend time to finish Witcher 1 and import saves into Witcher 2, as the universe that's based on them becomes way more personal and story becomes easier to understand.

I never played Witcher and only bought Witcher 2 because it was one of the early games to be released on Steam for Linux. I bought it again, later, on GOG because it's well worth having. It's a keeper. It's a fun game set in a fascinating world that you want to delve into and learn more about. I don't know that I'd call it an RPG. Allowing for the fact that few RPG's on a computer can truly be a role playing game, Witcher *still* doesn't really qualify. You play as exactly one pre-defined character, and I rarely get the sense that player choices really matter that much. There are several major plot points that are predestined; you can't really change alignment or turn the tides of even subtle story arcs. That said, it's a really fun game. It's sort of a medieval third-person shooter, I guess, with heaps of controls and intricate combat. You might be playing a preset character in a mostly scripted story arc, but you definitely have plenty of options in how you play it. You can be a tank, a sort-of rogue, a mage; it's really up to you. There's plenty to choose from, and the world is nuanced and full of history and lore. It's a fun game, and it's on Linux. Buy it twice.

Great game with an amazing story, i always come back to this game to replay it once in a while1