Posted on: April 21, 2014
BinksMagnus
Verified ownerGames: 328 Reviews: 1
Best story in series held back by combat
Witcher 2 is worth playing for the story experience alone - it's the high point of the game. In my opinion the main quest here is better than the main quest in TW3, with greater replayability due to the fork that occurs at the end of the first act. The world feels hand crafted, the lack of an interactive map leaves you to figure out quests for yourself using context clues in dialogue and quest text (I prefer this), and most of the characters you meet are interesting and well voiced. Alchemy in this game is unique in the series, as you're required to drink potions ahead of time in a meditation menu screen - this forces you to plan ahead for what you might encounter, which is good in that it feels rewarding when you get it right but bad on a first playthrough when you don't necessarily know what to expect from upcoming encounters, if you even know those encounters are coming. The combat is the weakest point in the game. It's a first attempt at an action-adventure hack and slash combat system that was improved upon in Witcher 3, but here it's slow and cumbersome and suffers from serious hit detection issues, where your damage hitbox is more dependent on camera angle than your sword's physical location. There are mods that attempt to fix and improve the combat system, but it never comes close to Witcher 3's combat, which itself is less than excellent in my opinion. I would recommend this game to anyone as a full price purchase if you like The Witcher or dark fantasy in general.
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