Review:The Witcher 2.

 

The Witcher 2 follows Geralt of Rivia, a mutant human who serves as a mercenary and monster hunter. Geralt is currently serving as an assistant to a king he helped in the previous game but after he is accused of a crime he didn't commit he is forced to go on the run and clear his name while trying to recover his unfortunate bout of amnesia. While the premise of this game may seem by the book the way it is executed is not. The Witcher 2 incorporates a choice system similar to fallout 3 or Mass Effect but with a slight twist,there are no "good" or "bad" decisions to be had here as every decision exists in a moral grey area however they do have a clear impact on how the game unfolds. Not only will these decisions effect how the story plays out but how the gameplay plays out as well with your choices changing objectives and endings to missions and an early choice will even give you a completely different set of missions from that point on, effectively splitting the game in two. A game you won't mind playing over again due to it's mature plot and interesting characters. while we're talking about it's mature plot let's talk about this games decisively hard M rating. This game does not mind "fleshing"out it's sex scenes with fully nude sex scenes, and while this might make some gamers uncomfortable the games use of these scenes doesn't come off as adolescent as the Witcher 1's nudie card collection minigame or the use of a sex scene as a award like you'd see in Mass Effect.

 

While The Witcher 2 has a lot of gameplay to share with you it doesn't come easy. This game is insanely difficult even on the easy settings and has no problem throwing you against multiple enemies almost immediately with all of your abilities and only the flimsiest of tutorials. This can make the game frustrating as each enemy requires strategy to defeat. Encounter an enemy with a shield and you have to get behind him to defeat him, encounter an enemy that charges and you may have to set a trap to subdue him. The game takes the learning curve and clubs you over the head with it but once you have the game figured out it's actually quite fun and kind of reminds me of a cross between Dragon Age and God of War.

 

As of right now the game is only on the PC with a Xbox 360 planned for the end of the year. And while I'm not sure what the 360 version of this game will look like this game is capable of stressing out even the most powerful of PC's with high quality lighting and texture work as well as a "ubersampling" mode which practically eliminates any and all "jaggies" from your screen. My moderately powerful I5/Radeon 5870 desktop was slowed to a crawl when I tried to max out this game and there is no doubt that this game replaces Crysis as the game people will use to show off how powerful their computer is. But don't let this fact intimidate you, this game still looks good on lower settings and has reasonable minimum requirements.

 

The game has some rough boss fights and stealth sections and a little too much political intrigue embedded in it's plot for my taste. But fun gameplay, great execution, and a choice system that actually matters makes this a game every rpg fan should try.

8.5/10