The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition

I didn't expect Witcher 2 to be that good cause all of the things of skipping to 3 I heard on social media, people get triggered mostly are the ones who played 3 then go to 2 and they see that its not as good, but if you play the series in order then you would enjoy every single one of them. Pros: *Great story. *Great music and soundtracks. *Main quests are very good. *Interesting boos fights even though there wasn't many. *The concept of actions and consequences are amazing that makes Gerlat feel more like you since he is written in a way where he is too much neutral. Cons: *Kind of short for RPG game. *Side quests are not that good compared to Witcher 1 and 3. *Map are way much smaller compared to Witcher 1 and 3.

Truth be told, I'm not the biggest fan of the first Witcher game. Took me two attempts to finish it, and mostly did so because of the world and the story, because they were quite interesting, though the story was confusing at times. In any case, I did not like the gameplay, especially the combat, and the constant running around mostly the same places. So although I was intrigued to see the story continue, I waited quite a bit to play the second one, although I already had it in my library (from a sale way back were you could get it for free). Well, now I have played it and I'm glad I did. Great story, characters, world... and the game itself is alright, too. I liked the combat more this time, though it is more action-oriented, but there are still different tactics and playstyles to choose from. It's not very long, but I don't mind that, in fact the first one was maybe a bit too long, at least for what it was. This time, there are fewer side quests, though they are mostly quite good, some are small stories in themselves. Though the main storyline is really this game's strongest point. Yes, the Quick-Time-Events are stupid, but I guess it just was that time... in any case, there are a number of really meaningful decisions to make, some of which influence large parts of the game (and even events in the third game, as far as I know). You really wonder how it all plays out if you chose a different path, and I could see me replaying it some time. It'll probably be some time until I play part three, of which I have heard many good things. Mostly because I still have other games to play and I don't own Witcher 3 yet. But I don't think I'll wait as long this time...

This is a good game that is unfortunately hindered by poor combat balancing and some strange design decisions. You can't use potions in combat, however you can apply blade oils. Another very strange moment occurs where, at the start of chapter 2, the player suddenly finds themself in control of King Henselt (which is very jarring!). However, imo the biggest issues are the combat and balancing. The developers have completely thrown out the combat system from W1, which is unfortunate, as the W1 combat system (with e.g. the different stances) was imo interesting and distinctive. It needed refinement, not complete replacement. The 'Dark Souls'-like combat they replaced it with feels more generic and derivative. The balancing of the game is very bad - it has an inverted difficulty curve, with the prologue and chapter 1 being very punishing and chapter 3 a relative cakewalk. There are a number of reasons why it seems so tough early on. Monsters/enemies don't seem to scale at all as the game progresses and Geralt's character development is somewhat whacky. It seems to be based on saddling him with a load of artificial weaknesses, which require perks to be obtained to correct. Without the right combat feats, dodging is very difficult; blocking costs valuable vigor points; and you take 200% damage(!) from hits in the back. This last point combines with the combat mechanics to be a big culprit for the early difficulty. Hits in the back do double damage; however there is no way to back away from an opponent whilst facing them. So the only way to escape from a powerful enemy is to turn your back on them and risk getting one-shotted from behind. It's bad mechanical design that makes the game feel difficult for the wrong reasons. The game is redeemed by the intriguing and complex plot, the characters, the roleplaying with meaningful choices, and the gorgeous graphics. I will give it 3 stars, as I feel it has a lot of design issues and the current rating is way too high.

I'm just going to say it. W2 is a typical late 2000/early 2010s AAA title. Form over substance, presentation over depth. Button mashing combat, unpolished fundamental gameloop coupled with bloated unnecessary mechanics. It's a typical and quite serviceable movie-game with some fanservice. If that's your type of game, than W2 can give you 30-40 hours for a bargain of a price [during sales] and will run on any toaster these days. However the question stands, is it worth playing in current day? Probably not. If you missed it years ago, you've really lost nothing of value unless you really enjoy the IP.

This is probably the best story CDPR pulled, but aside from these many political, romance and religious battles the game, the gameplay that is not quite what it should be. There is a vision, perhaps hard to birth into reality, but a lot is not executed well, specially the potions that can only be taken during rest, instead of just outside battle. The hardest difficulties aren't very working, group battles are very weird. All and all it has great ideas and at least on the story side is fantastic but at the actual thing is lacking the finishing touches. Graphics are really what shines here, being held by too simple anymations and eyes that don't follow characters. But there is nothing to top it, even the sequel doens't get this pretty and atmospheric. Not to mention that is is the best Geralt character, not to pretty, not ugly at all. Choices are quite really fantastic and gives you different perspectives and polical choices that I love so much in RPGs, which makes it quite replayable. Not a 5/5 because of the middle-of-the-road gameplay, the fighting is a downer with QTEs. But is such a lovely incarnation of the Witcher, it's world and the Polish voice acting is more than perfect than ever here.