Wiedźmin 2: Zabójcy Królów - Edycja Rozszerzona

My old review is still present under this edit. Let us just say that the game made a lot of progress between the first time I tried it and a few months later. I sent a few emails to GOG to edit this review at the time (years ago) but the process then was tedious. It was still a pretty honnest review of what the game was back then, but it is not that anymore. Now it is a pretty good game, but you probably laready know about this. It is still hard and a bit frustrating at times (also I got old) and it is still a bit frustrating that you are one of the most fragile creature in this univers, at least at the start of the game. BUT it does not prevent the game from being quite enjoyable. The story is good, there is a lot of replayability (actually if you want the full picture on all that happens you need to replay - I think you need three full runs to get a decent picture of the situation) So now a good game, enjoyable and captivating, even if you have the reflex of an old man. Thanks to GOG for making this edit possible. ============================== I bought this game on GOG because it was DRM free, and that is a nice thing. I hate games that requires you to install tons of crap on your computer in order to work. So I thought it was a good idea to reward the initiative. Now for the game itself. I did not like it, at all. Here is what I felt of the game : In Witcher 2 you play the role of a crippled weakling whose delusion is to think he is a mosnter killer. Basically anyone in this world is way stronger than you. It takes you about seven to eight swords slash to bring down an unarmoured skinny bandit, while you can wistand about three or four from the same bandit. Most tougher opponents will bring you down in two to three blows. Geralt as many handicaps, the most frustrating being that he can hardly open a door unless he is at the right distance and at the right angle. This can leave him struggling at the front of an Inn for as much as twenty second while you try to gently make him take a walk around the door to position yourself correctly. Geralt also as a very bad vision, its depth perception seems to be completely off for example. When in a fight he will instinctivly choose the furthest less dangerous opponent among the pack. and jump at him (only to immediatly change target unless you lock your opponent at that moment). Doing this he will land right in the middle of the pack only to be hacked down since he is a weakling (most peasants, low soldier and even girls can survive for quite a long time in the middle of a pack of monster, Geralt cannot last more than 10 sec). Geralt also seems to be afflicated by some grave psychomotor afflication, once he starts a move he will finish it. If you click on the mouse button more than once and the first blow is countered, Geralt wil refuse to try escape or parry until the complete combo is done. This makes "strike once then run away" the most powerfull attack in the game. Expect for one detail, Geralt cannot back properly, if you tell him to move out he will also immediatly turn around, leaving his back open to enemies (who will then cause double damage). So you end up doing some kind of an awkward crab dance trying to keep one enemy in focus while praying not to get surrounded. Another technique consist in laying lots of traps, kitting enemies into them then runnig to the point where they will give up the chase and starting over. In both case you will have a lot of fun and feel like a real hero.... I stopped playing the game with the fight against the Kayran. The first time I fought the Kayran I would kill me in two attacks. So I went back to an earlier save, did all the side quests, upgraded my stuff to the maximum possible, gulped quite a few potion and then ... the Kayran would kill me in two attacks. After learning patterns by heart and slicing quite a few tentacles, I noticed a little something : a QTE challenge. It is quite hard to miss, because QTE informations are displayed in bright orange, so it really stands out against the bright orange Kayran skin, the bright orange herbs or the bright orange reflexion on the water of the bright orange sky. Add to this the fact that the camera is constantly changing against your will (new angle when you cut a tentacle, new angle when the Kayran strikes the bridge, new angle when you are done cutting a tentacle, new angle when the QTE comes) only to come back in the worst position making you go exactly at the place you were trying to avoid when the angle changed. Al in all it is painfull. If you try to do anything heroic, you get chopped down in a flash, and if you play to survive, you get bored. None the less you will end up saving a lot, by fear that something horrible (two bandits, including one with a buckler for example) might happen. I got bored....

This is prime example of a great game that was revamped instead of tweaked. The original wasn't perfect but it was still a great game. Unfortunately, the developers decided to rework almost everything and it's very obvious that this is no longer a PC exclusive game. They made extensive use of cut scenes which can be very irritating when they are in the middle of a fight with multiple enemies! Not all is bad though, the signs are a little more helpful in battle. Alchemy is not as complicated and more useful. I know I won't scare away any of the original Witcher fans with this review but if you are new to the series I can't fully recommend it.

This game screams of quality and attention to detail from top to bottom, so I'm going to try and touch briefly on the things that have impressed me so far. I am going to sound like a fanboy, but this is the game that has won me over to CD Projeckt RED's side. So if I sound impressed, it's not because I feel like I have to prop up a mediocre product out of loyalty but because I am so amazed by the quality of this game. The writing in this game is fantastic. The dialogue and background banter transitions from comedy to dark and threatening and even mundane without breaking immersion or feeling forced. The voice acting is superb, and the facial animations really help sell the lines. I am only a couple of chapters in so far, but I felt compelled to pull myself away from playing and write about the engaging storyline. So far none of the choices I've been given have been that tired old angelic vs. pure evil crap that is present in nearly every other game in the genre. The responses you are given to work with all convey genuine attitudes that real people would have. The problems you are told to solve are rarely trivial and are almost always the kind of urgent situation you would hire a medieval commando for. It may be controversial, but I feel that the mature content in The Witcher 2 is present without feeling forced. Violence, nudity, racism, and foul language are all present where you would realistically expect them to be. So far I have not felt like the game was being dark just to prove a point. What the game does convey is a sense that people's lives can be short and brutal, and that many folks are grabbing whatever they can because they are motivated by hatred or self-interest. The average person of any race has to contend with corrupt officials almost daily, and at some point in their lives murderous racists and horrible monsters. They use sex, alcohol, gambling and fistfighting to help them forget all that. The visuals are easily among the best I've ever seen, in any genre on any system. Every time I get into a new environment I am amazed by the lighting and details that have gone into every corner of every environment. The rain looks like real rain, dust clouds are stirred up by breezes on dry streets, and cloth/leather/chain are all amazingly detailed. It may sound foolish, but I absolutely adore the way that gatherable herbs blend into the other foliage seamlessly, unlike other games where you can tell it's a "model" apart from the scenery. The environments all look so organic and real. There are little details everywhere, e.g. after it rains roof shingles glisten and you kick up spatters of mud instead of clouds of dust when you walk around. I don't know what the game looks like on lower-spec machines, but on a good gaming rig it looks absolutely stunning. Character designs are also excellent. The Witcher looks like a mean, grizzled veteran without straying into "herp derp Space Marine in Camelot" territory like so many protagonists do. Very few characters are clean and unmarked, which is fitting for the dark medieval setting. The military uniforms and armor sets are well-designed and I imagine draw a fair bit of inspiration from real-world historical armor. Details like tattoos and scars are all handled very well. The gameplay is also deeper this time around than in the first Witcher. Combat is much deadlier than it was in the original game, which shows the influence games like Demon Souls had and is a change I really like. In the first game, as soon as you learned to chain combos together you were basically immortal. In the sequel, many enemies are credible threats, especially on the higher difficulties and when they are present in large numbers. No more running into a group and mashing your attack key until the baddies are dead. Instead you are forced to buff up beforehand, leap around picking off stragglers, and try to find a way to deal with the range of giant two-hand swords or the defences of shield users. Luckily your magic spells are all useful, which is a great change from the original where you could easily get by with using only one or two spells and ignoring the others. In The Witcher 2, you can toss an opponent off his feet, light him on fire, paralyze him with a trap, charm him to fight for you, or give yourself short-lived invulnerability with a shield, and all your choices are viable and upgradeable. The alternate game modes have also been given a revamping. Fist-fighting has been improved, going from the bland duck-punch-duck-punch routine of the original to quick-time-event style reaction tests. The resulting animations are absolutely brutal and are reminiscent of no-holds-barred MMA fighting. I am not a fan of being able to lose your dice by tossing them out of play, but you will definitely feel like you are actually rolling dice when you play poker and not just looking at a fancy random number generator. New to the sequel are stealth sequences, which are handled better than a lot of games if not quite as well as dedicated stealth games like the Splinter Cell series. Still, they are enjoyable and present a welcome change in the type of challenges you have to overcome. Finally, arm wrestling is an interesting, if minor, diversion. One last thing to mention is that CD Projekt RED has stated that all DLC for the game will be free. I only found out after I bought the game and I think this is a fantastic gesture to the community that shows they are as dedicated to the player's experience as they are to profit. I love this game, and after feeling burned by the shortcuts taken in Dragon Age 2, I have been won over by the obvious care that was given to the creation of The Witcher 2. Excellent job on a superlative game and I will be pre-ordering their titles in the future.

The Witcher 2 starts with Geralt coming awake to find himself in a dungeon facing execution for the murder of a king. From there he is interrogated by Vernon Roche to recall the details of the last battle and how the king died. The story is recalled in pieces and The Prologue unfolds this way. I would love to tell you more , but so much of the game revolves around the excellent story that anything I could tell would be spoiling the fun. Instead, I’ll cover the overview of it. The story is fluid and compelling, but not without it’s flaws. If you don’t pay attention the story can be hard to follow. It moves in a lot of different directions with a lot of different names very fast. However, there is an excellent journal with information on all the characters, places, events, creatures, and even some of the dialogue you encounter. So, if you find yourself lost in the story you can quickly catch up there. I actually found myself spending a lot of time reading the books and taking in the history of the world. The information from the books you read is almost always transferred to your journal for you to look at later. This method of story telling allows the very cinematic approach the game takes while keeping the background and depth of a book and RPG. The Witcher 2 has plenty of RPG elements without a lot of the ‘fetch quests’ . This makes the game feel so much more involved and cinematic. Most of the quests have a tie in with the story, and I never felt forced to do a filler quest just to advance through the game. Everything had a purpose and often more than one. This is excellent since it keeps the story moving steadily towards a common goal without the feeling of wasting time. You may be stuck and have to do some quests for this person or the next, but it all ties together in such a way that it feels right. Granted, there are side quests and job boards where you can use your Witcher skills to hunt monsters to gather gold and items. These aren’t required, but most are enjoyable and often encountered on the paths the main quest takes. The only ‘quest’ I didn’t enjoy was the dice poker mini games that felt only like filler for items and money. The idea wasn’t horrible, I just always lost. In order to finish the quest line I would guess I lost 3 out of every 5 games. This repetition and failure made the mini game less than enjoyable to me, but I could just have really bad luck. Along with the great story and cinematic scenes the game boasts some excellent game play, albeit with a steep difficulty curve. The Prologue was especially tough, but during my initial play through a patch was released successfully addressing the balance issues. However, The Witcher 2 still can be frustratingly difficult at times. The trick is to remember your potions and weapon enhancements. These abilities help ease the difficulties early on. Don’t let the early fighting discourage you because after a few ability levels the fighting curve quickly levels out. Eventually leaving you feeling much more powerful, but occasionally challenged by bosses. The ability tree is where all your leveling is handled in The Witcher 2. I really like this system because you can tell early on the potential for multiple play styles. There are four main branches of the ability tree, Witcher Training, Swordsmanship, Magic, and Alchemy . With the 3 ‘class’ branches locked until you put a certain amount of ability points into the Witcher Training branch. Once unlocked you have a hard decision to make. The ability points are limited and can’t be changed once used. So, you have to decide early on which path you want to take. Taking multiple paths is certainly possible, but the better abilities are found at the end of the trees. I found by the end of the game I had only enough ability points to max out one of the ability paths. What I like so much about this system is how much more powerful you can feel from a simple skill upgrade. Take the swordsmanship tree for example. With one skill point you can start damaging all the enemies around you. This has a dramatic effect on dealing with multiple enemies. I never explored the Magic or Alchemy paths, but they look like they have the potential to greatly effect the way you play the game. Along with the usual sword, magic, and alchemy method of fighting, The Witcher 2 includes several quick time events scattered throughout the game. Although there is an option to turn on or off ‘difficult QTE’s’ I never found any of them to be difficult with the option on. QTE use ranges from the fist fighting mini-game to parts of the epic boss battles. I enjoy the subtle use of quick time events in The Witcher 2. They add enough interaction to the cinematic events without being too frustrating or intrusive. Graphically the game is beautiful, as the screenshots below will show. The Witcher 2 features some very detailed environments and superbly crafted creatures. I spent a lot of time just gazing at the environment and getting too close to some of the creatures just for a better look. Everything seems to scale well enough that it should be playable on a large range of computers, and even at the lowest settings, The Witcher 2 offers graphics that are good enough to not distract from the joy of the game. Although The Witcher 2 is fantastic it is not without its flaws. I noticed a few bugs while playing worth noting. On a couple of occasions I found I had to reload because I either became stuck in an animation sequence or an npc or item that should be there wasn’t. I also had a handful of Crash to Desktops that were completely unexplainable near the end of the game. One that forced me to reload to an earlier save to continue. The only other noticeable bug was occasionally my quest marker would outright lie to me. Instead of taking me to the quest location it would lead me to the wrong place then change when I got there. None of the bugs felt game stopping to me because I have so many saves, but they could be frustrating if I didn’t save so often. So, I suggest saving often. Both for the bugs and the fact that sometimes death awaits around the corner. UPDATE: As of Patch 1.3 many of the above bugs have been fixed. With the upcoming release to XBOX 360 it is important to add that the game plays fantastically well with the XBOX 360 controller for Windows. I simply changed the control scheme to controller and the game picked right up with it. Menus, dialogue, and quick time events reflected controller buttons and the entire transition was smooth. Judging by my few hours with a controller I have every reason to believe the game will be just as great on the XBOX 360 as PC. The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings is a superb game that I would recommend to anyone. It boasts an epic story with paths, love interests, and consequences on par with any rpg including those from Bioware. The game is fun and exciting throughout without the feeling of repetition, and every chapter leaves you wanting more. The Witcher 2 is beautifully crafted with details that leave you in awe and epic boss battles that make you feel like the Witcher you are suppose to be. Very few RPG games have pulled off the cinematic feel that The Witcher 2 has, and even fewer have a story with so many branches that replaying is almost a must. I was on the edge of my chair from the beginning, and I am left hoping there is more to come soon.

Bardzo polecam, straciłem kilkadziesiąt godzin w wersji na Xbox 360, dubbing kozacki, bardzo dobra mechanika walki, malutki nieotwarty świat, ale jest bardzo dobrze wykonany. Polecam.