The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition

Great game. Played through all of it on the Xbox 360. But of course the PC version is the better platform. It was already amazing on Xbox, so here you've got gold

Witcher 2 is definitely visually stunning. I'm happy to see that there is a Eastern European studio which can do such a polished game and be confident enough to provide it DRM-free. Gameplay -------- Combat is well-done. A major difference between W1 and W2 is how potions are handled. You prepare them in advance. That seems like a good idea because it's closer to how they were used Witcher's books. Although boss fights were challenging, the final boss fight was very easy; it took me about 2 minutes. Inventory feels very console-like. There is a lot of painful scrolling. In the end, I tried to avoid it, didn't trade much and just kept the most necessary things. Story/Characters ---------------- One great thing about Witcher's games is a narrative. Dandelion, known as Marigold in Czech, guides you through the story (and the journal) with his typical boasting. Thus, I never missed the chance to read a journal's entries which were often a reason for laugh. Other thing I like a lot about W2 is how differently you can perceive a significant aspect of story if you follow a story with Roche/Iorveth. In books, characters aren't either black or white. They don't like to share with strangers and above all, they prefer to tell "their version of truth". It's certainly one of their highlights. I didn't have to like their decisions but I was able to feel somehow about them. They felt real. In the game, characters' shady opinions and actions are taken to extremes. Also, they usually share same attributes with a small amount of exceptions. When it came to "fast" decisions, I didn't prefer neither of them and just picked up one at random. As a result, I didn't feel involved in the story, I simply observed with a slight interest. Women are a special chapter. In books, they're complex. In the game, they are, well, items. Their dialogs are more like a coverage for proposing a sex. They are either sexually-willing or evil vampers. Majority of their reactions generally go like this: "Oh my gosh, I was almost raped, thank you for saving my life... So, do you want me to do you?" I mean, who cares about intimate scenes in games nowadays, we're adults after all. Just bother to create a fluff around them, so characters feel like persons, not animated objects waiting to be triggered. Actually, I got a sense (it's my feeling, not a fact!) that Triss can be killed as a part of story and I sort of played it keeping in mind that I'll eventually sacrifice her because it'd mean to encounter less badly written females in sequels. Yes, she's one of better written females but it's still tooth-grinding. I'm *very* glad Ciri hasn't appeared to be objectified in the game. I think I'd enjoy Witcher a lot more if there weren't women, just men talking about their women in their usual bit racy Witcher-like way. At least until writers get better grip of what were female characters in the literal original actually about. Dubbing/Subtitles ----------------- Do yourself a justice and play it with Polish dubbing. It's so far the best voice-acting choice. Subtitles are better this time. In W1, from time to time the translation felt very minimalistic or lacking. This happens in W2 too but it's very rare and in that case, it helps a lot to listen to Polish audio. Synchronization improved too. Mostly, lines last long enough on screen to read them. I really appreciate that Czech localization follows terms used in Czech translation of Witcher books. Overall, Witcher 2 can entertain you for a couple of afternoons. It has a fine gameplay, it's a bit atypical and it looks good. It's a shame it didn't balance a storyline and characters better since it's based on such awesome novels.

best regards This message is for CD Project Red who is dedicated to developing this great game and working on Linux Development, this game I bought to play on kubuntu 16.4, but is currently on version 18.4. So I want to thank CD Project Red for this feat and would like to charge the other versions of the game and other titles I would like to play to other types it has in store.

Bought it on Steam a long time ago. Love the game very much. Great story and experience especially after books. That's how games should be done! But the perfomance of a latest version is really bad! Had to find ver. 1.3 that works a lot better. Please add this version for Win users.

Great second part of this awesome game series. The story is a bit shorter than witcher 1, and I think that's a good thing.