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.
