The Witcher 2

The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings is finally here after four years since the release of The Witcher, we return with the witcher Geralt of Rivia. Developed and published by CD Projekt RED a team based in Poland, has brought us a RPG that will be remembered for a long time. With a lot of the returning abilities from The Witcher, the game feels very smooth and holds strong to what it does well. With the weapon combat being open to whatever weapon you choose to use as well as the signs system, can make battles easier or harder depending on what strategy you use. Starting the game you wake up in a dungeon being interrogated by a man you hardly know. In order to prevent spoilers I am just going to vaguely discuss the prologue events.

Being asked to recount what happened on the day of the La Valettes siege. You start off telling the story of how King Foltest wanted you at his side on the day of the battle as sort of a lucky charm. You are awoken to news that the king wants to speak with you. After finding the king he talks about how he is going to take the castle and take his bastard children back from the Baroness. You climb to the top of a siege tower where you roll into the side of the castle and start the siege. With you quickly getting pinned down, the king asks you to fire a ballista into the barricade. Breaking through and continuing on to fight a strong group on enemies. The siege continues where you are introduced to Vernon Roche, the man who is interrogating you, when there is a unknown dragon that wants to take part in the fight. Through some quick time events you are able to protect the king while you get separated from Roche. You then go up the castle to find the kings children with a blind monk... now on to combat.

The way the combat works in The Witcher 2 is much more of a challenge then the previous game. With the need to block and dodge much more necessary in this game can make fighting groups of enemies extremely difficult. With potions you can drink to boost your stats feeling more important in this game then its predecessor, giving you that extra boost to take down a group of enemies. One thing about this game though is, it is very difficult at times. The level of difficulty in this game has been ramped up and makes using traps and spells more important then ever. Laying traps down before you go into a fight  or using gas bombs then igniting it are some tactics that can turn the tide of battle. Some ways that you can get traps is through crafting, by getting the recipe and the necessary items. Making these and having them on you can be important when embarking on a local quest. Potions on the other hand you make yourself by meditating and doing alchemy. The items do not need to be as specific as crafting they just need to have the correct properties in order to make a potion. There are also plenty of sidequests, just as The Witcher you can spend hours helping the locals before moving on to a do the main story quest. Even then there are so many dialog options and choices to make shaping how the story pans out giving hardly two playthroughs the same

This game is meant to played with a lot more strategy and tactic then any other hack and slash RPG out there. This game is for someone who is looking to get a lot out of their money. With so much to do and a good storyline this game is a great pickup. Though there is a lot of nudity and some mature content this is not for younger generations. I think that this game would not be for someone who is not looking for a challenge because this game will make you think and question just about every conflict you get in. There will be times when running away will be the best choice and drinking potions before battle can turn a lot in your favor. That was just a small example of how you will have to think about the combat. The game does come with a lot of bonus content as well including a guide for those who want to have some help making it through the game or want to have that perfect playthrough doing everything and choosing the best options.

This game in my opinion is very well done, the graphics look great and the world feels lively and thriving. However my biggest complaint is some of the minor lack of responsiveness in the controls and how hard some enemies you face are. It took me about 20 minutes to take down this spider queen thing and that was only the first one out of two. I can get pretty frustrated playing some games but I seem to get very frustrated at times with this game because of how a group of enemies can ambush you and kill you before to long. This does add a sense of mortality to the game because in The Witcher you could take down a whole group of enemies without even taking a scratch. The Witcher 2 shows Geralt although a powerful witcher, he is still mortal and can be killed. This game is exclusive to the PC and is available wherever PC games are sold. I recommend gog.com because it is DRM free making it no hassle to play and download if you have multiple computers. Here is a link however to amazon version for five dollars cheaper. The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings