The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition

I have to wholeheartedly agree with TigerLord's review: TW2 has awesome story-telling and beautiful graphics, but in mechanics it falls way short of its predecessor. I don't want to expand on the points already mentioned by TigerLord (bad inventory system, pointless alchemy system, in my opinion worse and less dynamic fighting system), but there is one thing that really irks me: invisible walls. While in TW1 I could basically roam freely (outside of the city), the "open" areas of TW2 are full of invisible walls and insurmountable small ledges. Getting to a quest objective quickly becomes a frustrating game of "let's find the way the devs wanted me to go - which is the only one they didn't block", instead of the free-roaming in TW1. In the swamps in TW1 I could decide whether to run cross-field and risk a dangerous fight - but hope to find something awesome - or to follow the safer roads. In the woods in TW2 I can't stray more than a few meters from the path without hitting an invisible wall. This really badly breaks the immersion and leads to a lot of frustration. For me, it kills a great RPG and makes it into a movie where I am allowed to press the W key and kill a few enemies from time to time. A great movie, yes - but still just a movie.

This is a great game that really feels crafted with love and attention to detail, and while I want to give this game a 4 1/2 for the combat which could use much improvement, I feel this game is closer to a 5 than a 4 and will give it such.

From a company with good values. I bought this on Steam first, but had to buy it on GOG too (although on sale) to support the DRM free approach. Very entertaining (not for kids) fantasy with great graphics.

Just about everything with this game is top notch (story, atmosphere, characters, graphics, etc.) except combat. It's not necessarily cheap just extremely difficult. I'm playing on normal difficulty and death can be almost instantaneous. Because the dodge mechanism is too sluggish to be useful, I downloaded the semi-official combat mod 2. It was supposed to make your characters movements quicker. But it really hasn't upgraded the experience like I was hoping. Enemies still try to surround you and attack all at once. The only way I manage to stay alive is to run like hell and catch each enemy separately. It's really a shame because I love everything else about this game. As I'm too old to still be interested in games like Final Fantasy, this was the adult experience I've been looking for. It doesn't try to cater to a wide demographic but instead assume that you're mature enough to appreciate it's subtleties. I'm going to keep playing it even if I have to play on easy [sigh of shame] because it's that compelling. Easily a Five star, perfect rating if not for the combat (a significant part of the game) being broken.

Worth playing because the good things were really well done and the bad were forgivable. I have many suggestions for improvements because I would like to play more games like this, just with a further evolved combat / character development system and a better written / more involving plot. Not that that matters, I had to buy this game to support quality anti-DRM CRPGs, so it was a no-brainer. I did get into it and played it through though, so here's some points I have. Starting with the negative: - Fight mechanis. Not too bad, but very gamey and cheesy with not much skill and timing involved and every monster / character felt pretty much the same. Some had armor, some blocked a lot and some could trample you. Tactics always the same if you wanted to do it that way: quen, slash, roll. Bombs, potions and other signs completely optional. I wish the Witcher had more real moves you could learn and employ in certain situations instead of generic insta-kill animations (The Witcher gutting a man in full plate armor from groin to neck like he was wearing pajamas, huh?) which get old and start to detract from the immersive experience pretty fast. - Quests and plot could've used some moral conundrums, this would've fleshed out the world and the character much more. The game could be very much more involving if the main choice wasn't "Do I kill this critter with bombs or quen/slash/roll?" but rather "Do I sell this elf to sex slavery for the best armor and weapon in the game?" or "Do I kill this peasant to hide a secret I want to keep from Iorveth / Triss / Whoever?" or "I'm out of money and supplies, but still the baddest dude for miles. Do I rob these townsfolk for their supplies and risk them turning on me or go on underprepared?" -Boss fights. Whether or not they were too difficult, they were way too gamey. My GOTY RPG just turned into a platformer with the kayran and the dragon. I want climactic battles, but it would be nice to be able to have some strategy and planning involved, not to mention character build making a big difference in how they can be defeated. ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE that they make you play that tedious intro fight every time you attempt the draug or whatever it was called. - "Adult" content (sex and nudity) was anything but. Puerile and tacky. Now, a game that is seriously adult could do some pretty moving things with sex (and violence), but this sophomoric T&A buffet isn't even approacing that. Zero emotional depth to any sexual encounter, and zero insight into any human interaction in the writing. Maybe hire someone who's actually HAD sex to write the sex scenes from now on, huh? - Pretty linear game, not that much freedom of movement or exploration. - What were junk items doing in this game, in addition to pissing me right off? Oh, and WHAT WERE THEY THINKING WITH THE SLOW SCROLLING ITEM DESCRIPTIONS IN THE INVENTORY, SERIOUSLY YOU GUYS WHAT THE FUCK! - The ending was extremely forgettable and anti-climactic. Plusses: + The plot was involving enough, slaughtering random monsters in Chapter 1 swamp was slightly unnecessary though. + Characters were mostly enjoyable, some only decent, not many bad. + Tedious running around much improved (reduced) from TW1. + Game ran pretty smoothly with middle-of-the road system while certainly pretty enough for me. + The beginning was chaotic and almost prohibitively difficult. In hindsight, it was a real challenge and still better than boring idiotproof handholding. Once you get the hang of it, it's not that hard either. + Fighting, though flawed, was still enjoyable.