The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition

I came to this game a little late, because I wanted a boxed edition and then waited for the DRM-free patch before even installing it. I finished the boxed premium edition a couple of nights ago (so no EE extras) and was left with that empty "what am I going to do now?" feeling that follows a great game. This would be a very long review if I detailed all the things I like, so I'll just list the things I didn't like so much; take it as read that I loved everything else. 1. First thing was the non-functioning launcher, even though the desktop links to the launcher. Took me quite a while to figure out that I had to run the .exe file to launch the game. This bothers me because I wonder how many people returned boxed copies because they "didn't work." 2. Still more console than PC. - No saved game management, not even the ability to delete games, let alone name them. This is unbelievable in 2011/12 for a PC game. - still suffers from 'Keep Off The Grass' syndrome (follow-the-path/invisible barriers) though it didn't feel anywhere near as restrictive as The Witcher (TW.) The climb points helped a bit. Maybe I'm being a bit unfair though, as this isn't meant to be a sandbox game. - QTEs (though these weren't all bad.) 3. Some annoying boss fights. I shouldn't really whine about this because I usually whine about PC games being too unchallenging now. I did find the Kayran and Letho fights very frustrating though. This wasn't helped by the QTEs and the unresponsiveness of the keyboard & mouse. Very annoying, for example, to stop to cast a sign, press the sign key and nothing happens. 4. The final chapter seemed very short to me, not helped by the fact that I was informed at its start that I was nearing the end of the story. Geralt had pretty good gear and skills by then and I couldn't stop myself from rushing through to see how the story unfolded. 5. The rich detail behind alchemical ingredients (mixing different components in different ratios) didn't have any impact on alchemy for me. I just used the same 3 potions throughout the game and never ran short on ingredients. Some how I feel an opportunity was missed with alchemy. 6. Very minor point, but I noticed "routed" (as in rout rather than route) pronounced as "rooted" twice. I guess it shows how polished I thought the game was overall when I bother to point out something like that. Some positive things I just have to mention: 1. A huge improvement over TW for me. TW didn't impress me very much to be honest. Grats to CDPR on their new engine, its delivery was vastly superior to the BioWare engine used in TW. More European accents was a big plus too, they just seem more 'right' in this type of game. Overall TW2 felt more 'matured' than TW. 2. The quality of writing and story-telling is really excellent and the main plot is complex. Great job from the writers. 3. Great characters and voice-acting. My favourite line is "F***ing idiot actually went in there" which was delievered with such passionate exasperation that it almost made me choke on my coke. It said so much about the relationship between Geralt and Dandelion and is a good example of how voice acting can add so much more to a simple line of dialogue. I really hope that the story is concluded (or better still, continues) in The Witcher 3, rather than a TW2 expansion. I certainly wouldn't turn my nose up at a TW2 expansion though.

I've played both Baldur's Gate, I've played Planescape Torment, I've played the good Fallouts, I've played the two other Witchers. I've also played Vampire: The Masquerade, Tyranny, and Pillars of Eternity. I've played Arcanum, Dragon Age, and both Kotor, as well as the 3 newer Elder Scrolls. I've played some of the Fire Emblem, Neverwinter Nights, Icewind Dale, Shadowrun, Divinity, Diablo. I've even played to stuffs like Inquisitor, Always Sometimes Monsters or Jade Empire. And I've never had a story so interesting, entrailing than in Assassins of Kings. I probably wouldn't do another run-through today, for reasons you can read in details in other reviews. But I'd definitely suggest that you do one, without spoils, maybe with unofficial patches, in easy mode (if there is one) because the combats aren't that interesting. And let yourself immerse in story where you're a pawn to some powerful men and women and can't do much except avoiding the worst.

The Game is just great. Awesome story, cool gameplay, many options and great graphics. I also like their mindset of simply giving all the new content thy produced for the console version later to all PC player for free.

Until GOG gave away Witcher 2, I had never played any of the Witcher series. Dang, now I'm going to have to have them all. The graphics are beautiful, the story is compelling and Geralt of Rivia (who you play) is a complete and total badass. If you want to play a character that is 1 part Shaft, 1 part Raistlin Majere and 1 part Arnold Schwarzenegger's Conan, Geralt is your man. If you didn't get this game when it was free. Kick yourself.

Easily the best modern RPG I've ever played. What can I say that hasn't already been said? Excellent game play, a better talent system than the previous game, but still heavily biased towards sword combat, the most amazing story ever. The writers of the game outdid themselves, especially when crafting a story where your choices actually matter. Small, subtle things can change in this game based upon what might seem like a mundane decision by the player. You never know when a seemingly insignificant dialog option might have a huge impact on the game further down the road. The game is split into three Acts as opposed to the five Acts from the first game, but it does a great job at not making the game short. This is not a quick run-through by any means, even if you've previously beaten the game. Even though there are only three acts, none of them feels dragged out. Right about the time you start to feel like an area is becoming tiresome and repetitive, you are sent elsewhere. The pacing is superb. Anyhow, I'm not the best review writer in the world, so I'll cut short here with some parting thoughts. A lot of complaints against the game say it suffers from "consolitits" and while it's true that the game was developed with consoles in mind, if you keep your control scheme to keyboard and mouse, you will never notice. In fact, I recommend playing with keyboard and mouse. I've got an Xbox 360 controller specifically for my computer and I tried playing this game with it and the experience was severely lacking. Do yourself a favor and ditch the controller for this one.