The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition

the powerscaling is a bit weird but the gameplay is definetly an improvement over the last game and story wise aswell

The prologue did not grab me, but I'm glad I continued playing, because the game is a masterpiece. It's a story-driven game that provides the player with a lot of meaningful choices, which is something I love. The controls were awkward at first, but once I got the hang of it, I started to really like the combat system. Which is a bit unforgiving, so if you like hard fights, this is a game for you. I'd say it's still worth playing in 2025.

If I'm to enjoy a video game, it has to tick the following boxes: Gameplay Characters Story Atmosphere ... in that order. Gameplay will always hold the 1st place, as the strongest aspect. If the video game is to be enjoyed, it needs to play well. That's what the 'game' part represents. The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings is an unique instance where The other three parts take over and hold the experience. It's been 10 years since I've played this game last (writing this in 2025). Story still holds up, the twists are captivating, characters memorable and inteligently written and the atmosphere is palpable. The game basically gives you two separate, but still interconnected paths to go down, ensuring at least one 2nd playthrough. However the gameplay suffers quite a bit and it's a tad too long in its rotten tooth. The movement feels as if you're a puppeteer controlling your puppet that's suspended on 5m long rubber bands. The traversal via the prompts slows the pace down by quite a lot. The combat is a step in a right direction, however it lacks polish. I'm an Elden Ring veteran and if someone told me that they kept dying in TW2:AOK due to its clunky combat, I'd believe them. In all fairness, this game isn't perfect, however of you haven't played it yet, do not hesitate. You won't regret it. Furthermore, there's no other way for Geralt to have a neck tattoo in TW3:WH, other than importing the save file from this one, so ... that alone is a reason to give this game a try.

this game represents the ground on which the witcher 3 will be made, so much of it is resembling its mechanics and gameplay designs as well as the narrative strucure. it greatly reinvents its prequel's game design in every almost every way though not always in a better way, for as much jank you can find in some aspects in the first game this one corrects them wether it be in combat, stealth, customization, dialogue and cutscenes. it also fumbles on other aspects like alchemy and the potion system, you can't eat food anymore for some reason, you can't drink potions whenever and whenever, and i also noticed that while the combat is improved it's also stiff and janky and suffers from a bad input lag. I can't quite deduce wether this game's story is better than the first because although this one has a more intriguing sequential story with lore revelations that keep you on your feet, the first game i think had a better flow to it from chapter to chapter, the characters you meet are more organically explored and developed whereas this one seem to do a lot of skipping in that regard. in any case it remains a solid entry and compared to the jump from this one to the sequel I think its biggest strength is in how reinventing it is of the first game's formula.

Potions are mostly useless and you can only drink them durning meditation. Crafting is also novel and useless. You spend all your orens on diagrams and materials only to find much better gear in some damp cave five minutes later. The only good thing about this game is the story. Wich is much shorter and linear than the first game's. The big choice of either side makes no significant impact on the third game. Much like how the first game's choices made no impact on this game's story.