The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition

I liked Witcher 2, very much, but it has less intensive story compared to the first game. It has been two years I completed the first, but still remember the twist. However, I really do not remember much from the second. The graphics are better, obviously, but the combat made me crazy. The skill tree is also not so detailed this time.

Perhaps gamers more accustomed to 1st-person slashers will mock my frustration with Witcher 2. All my time with Assassin’s Creed and the like have not prepared me for surviving in this game. I loved Witcher 1, thrilled by the rich environment, non-linear play, and the complexity of the story and NPCs. I wrote a glowing review here on GOG last year. I’ve been drooling over the previews for W2 for months. The soundtrack sounds great. The cut scenes and environmental graphics (what little I saw of them) look terrific. BUT… After wasting an afternoon trying to complete the tutorial mission on the barricades I gave up. With the exception of the crazy queen-bug scene, I made it through Witcher 1 with only 2 or 3 “deaths”. I lost track after about 20 demises on the Witcher 2 tutorial. I guess in an attempt to “action-up” the game the designers have transformed the combat into a whirl of swords and blood splashes. Geralt spends so much time spinning and swinging with the blurry camera sweeping in all directions it’s impossible to get orientated. The “tutorial” flashes HUD instructions in tiny 10 point font for an instant occasionally, but these are next to useless. It is possible to turn off the sickening motion blur “feature” in the game settings and slow down the camera—if not I wouldn’t have played as long as I did. But it’s still a dizzying and disorientating chaos. Gone is the point and click navigation that made getting around in W1 so easy. Now you must sit with your fingers permanently glued to the W A D keys. I might have lasted longer if the game would recognize my game controller. Despite tinkering with emulators and drivers for a few hours Witcher would not recognize the controller despite it having a game pad control settings window in the options menu. I know $20 or so will buy a universal emulator, but right now I feel like that’s just throwing good money after bad. Perhaps it’s made worse by playing a couple months in the boundless world of Assassin’s Creed but I find it laughable that our superhero mutant still gets hung up on ground obstructions a child of 6 would simply step over. So I’m not really judging the game here, I’m simply warning other potential buyers that Witcher 2 is a very different gameplay environment. After several hours of dying over and over in the same introductory scene I’m left disappointed, frustrated, and nauseous. I’m sure gamers more experienced with 1st-person shooter/slasher games will do just fine, but for me I’m giving it up as a loss. So buyer beware, W2 is a very different game than W1!

I'm not going to downgrade my rating due to not enjoying the game, bc it's really just a product of its time. My biggest critique is the combat just isn't that good, even with the full combat rebalance. It doesn't feel too staisfying and can be a hassle to pull off; even for its time. The other issues are due to age. The voice acting is still top notch and the enviorments are pretty. My dislike is mostly due to the lack of flow that modern games have to their UI and systems. But that's a personal preference really, if you don't mind some early last gen PC RPG mechanics, then you're in for a great game.

"The year is 2012. Rumours abound of the end of the world. 'Games journalism' is a 'real' profession. Mass Effect 3 has shown that even BioWare can really drop the ball with endings, when most of the fans just wanted a slideshow presentation. In this contentious era, one game will prove that it's as good as the rest of them." The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings reveals CD Projekt Red's design priorities after their first attempt at making a game, seen in the work put into this game's art design. True, it is the *video*game industry, and such an effort deserves praise, but the problems begin when The Witcher 2 wants to identify itself as a role-playing video*game*, which it barely manages, and only because the public, at large, thinks so. Instead of the vast and clunky dialogue options, we get Joss Whedon quips and RNG Force charm options. The combat is changed from the novel wait-and-click setup to one where getting back-stabbed is a constant worry. The fistfights and the bossfights use quick-time events, excising the real-time control during fistfights and the preparations for hunting monsters as was necessary previously. This might suggest that they were trying to bring the game up to par with other games produced in the West, despite not having nearly as many resources. They did an excellent job with Flotsam. But the story needs Geralt to regain his memories. Of all the choices that the game has, the player's choice to follow Geralt is one never spoken of. If the player reads the books from which Geralt came from, the player will enjoy a game with a shaky grasp of role-playing mechanics. If the player finds them no different from the edgy takes on the fantasy genre, as was the case with me, they will just push through, hoping that the third game in the franchise is a little better. I came away from the game liking the presentation, but, since CD Projekt Red have their own engine, I realised now why this game no longer can be called an RPG, unlike the last one.

Can't launch the game just because errors in two scipts,i had to fix this myself,it's quite disappointed.