The Witcher 2 Review Posted by Tim R (with_teeth26) on May 31, 2011 - 1:20am EST (May 31, 2011 01:20) |
It is becoming difficult these days to find a major developer that isn’t trying to pander to a wider audience. This is understandable since they want to expand their market and make more money. This attempt at widening the appeal of high budget games has probably been most evident in the Role-Playing genre, where games have been becoming increasingly accessible in order to accommodate those who do not wish to face a steep learning curve and challenging gameplay. The developer of the Witcher series, CDProjectRed, is one of the few teams who refuses to conform to this trend, and with their second release continue their trend of making games that actually require some intelligence, patience and effort on the part of the player. Most of the awkward and clunky components of the first game have been removed or revamped in the sequel, and the general appeal is consequently far greater, but this doesn’t mean that the game doesn’t require any effort from the player.
Everything from the lore to the combat to the story require that you put in the time to learn, understand and follow everything that goes on in the game. You are thrown in to the deep end with this title, and if you aren’t at all familiar with the Witcher universe or the events of the first game you might flounder in the dialogue and story early on since so much jargon from the Witcher universe is used without explanation. Fortunately your journal contains a log of characters and events, so if you put in the time to read through it you can get caught up on most aspects of Geralt’s past without having to read the books, although playing the first game is certainly recommended if you want to get the most out of the story.
 Understanding the context for the game is especially important here since the story is so integral to the player’s enjoyment of this remarkable game. Some things you will learn of easily, such as Geralt’s amnesia and trade, but how he associates with other characters in the game, and the events of the first game, isn’t always well explained in the character log section of your journal. The Witcher 2 starts off with a bang, where Geralt relives a siege upon a castle and his witnessing of regicide. He is blamed for this assassination, but he himself knows who the real culprit is. This sets the stage for the story involving Geralt trying to clear his name and bring the real king slayer to justice. From here the plot twists and turns fantastically based on the decisions you make; your ability to influence the game’s overarching story is one of the most remarkable things about The Witcher 2.
When you aren’t making important decisions about the story you are probably completing quests, most of which are quite entertaining and often branch out in interesting ways. You can still pick up contracts to kill monsters, but most quests involve solving mysteries or finding and dealing with different people in different scenarios. There aren’t a huge number of side quests in The Witcher 2, but those that are there are of very high quality and impressive variety. Unfortunately at this point there are a number of quest bugs that mostly involve scripting errors; sometimes events that are required to complete a quest aren’t triggered, and this can force the player to re-load an earlier save. If you stick to the main storyline you can expect to finish the game in 20-25 hours depending on the difficulty, but if you seek out and complete side quests the game can easily last well over 30 hours. The first two chapters are both lengthy and feel well fleshed out, but the third chapter feels a bit rushed and is overly brief, despite the story remaining strong throughout.
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Jun 6, 2011 03:35:29 (Jun 6, 2011 03:35)
