The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Review

[Bors Mistral]

Frankly, I'm one of the people on the "The same reviewer who gave DA2 a 5/5, gave The Witcher 2 a mark of 3.5?!?" opinion, but I'll skip that.

All I need to say is, that for the last few days I've been enjoying the game immensely. Awesome setting and visuals aside, I'm really glad the game offers some challenge. It's one of the few games doing that lately, a very unfortunate tendency.

 

[kasperbbs]

after giving da2 5 stars with the one location boring characters and no story how can you give this 3.this just doesnt add up.

It's a matter of taste i guess. I never took his reviews seriously, because most of the time i had different opinions, but this one is just bad.

 

[Avatar Roku]

Ah the Escapist... Bioware fanboys to the end... even the editors.

Dragon Age II- Escapist: 100% Metacritic: 79%
Witcher 2- Escapist: 70% Metacritic: 89%

BW gets a +21% over Meta, CPR gets a -21%.

Jesus Christ, you guys really need to get those freaking nostalgia glasses off.

As Skyrim isn't made by BW, I'm calling the Escapist giving it between a 60 and 80%.

The Rasmussen of RPG reviews. Congrats on the title.

I just want to point out, comparing a 5-star system to a percentage system is kind of disingenuous. This system was created so that 3 stars would be average, whereas 60% on Metacritic is seen as god awful. Adam Sessler from Xplay (which uses the same 5-star system) has actually fought to have his reviews removed from Metacritic for this reason.

Not to say that you're wrong, just be careful with those cross-review-system comparisons. It's deceptive.

OT: I haven't played W2 yet for want of money, but it really, really intrigues me. Can't wait to give it a shot.

 

[Throwitawaynow]

If you're referring to the vigor bar, it's only has two notches in the beginning, hence two casts. You get a third soon after (and I assume even more later), as well as abilities that refill it faster both in and out of combat.

So far, I've only seen this happen once. It made me leave on subtitles because I have no way of knowing when it will happen again, but I wouldn't blow that issue out of proportion.

I've slotted vigor for armor, and put points in vigor for character, I've worked my way to the last point in signs. Pretty sure I've also mutated to get more in signs, but that may have been dmg or range. I've done all I could to increase vigor, but still only 2 bars lol.
Edit: @bob1052 Pointed out that I had missed the flat boosts, and was going in to regeneration.

The wind happens everytime I'm outside in part 2 with dialogue. Especially when talking to the Palpatine looking mage. I always play with subtitles because I like to run my own music in the background, I usually just want dialogue sound to stay on. It also happened in flotsam I think with the background chatter. It's as loud as the person talking for some reason. I have to turn off my own music, max out regular sound and just deal with the ridiculous wind. I havn't gotten past the part after you cross through the fog, becuase the combat freezing glitch ruined my save. I'll play again but I have to commit to losing close to 2 hours of play time.

 

[Waaghpowa]

-

I shouldn't have specified what kind of fanboy, but that was my first thought considering some of the ignorant comments coming from their users.

By no means am I suggesting that the W2 is perfect, far from it. The issue that some people are apparently having is DA2 was reviewed as being a perfect game, while the W2 is heavily flawed and not as good by the same person who said:

[DA2 is] A pinnacle of role-playing games with well-designed mechanics and excellent story-telling, Dragon Age II is what videogames are meant to be.

I personally thought DA2 was far from being perfect, minus combat improvements it wasn't any better than the original. While W2, though I enjoyed it, wasn't perfect either though a significant improvement on the original.

I honestly don't care what anyone else thinks. I've already bought my copy, played it, and loved it. People need to just let it go, but I still raised an eye brow upon reading all of this.

I also realize that reviews are all subjective, but it may have been better to have a different person do the review to avoid situations such as this.

 

[Throwitawaynow]

By no means am I suggesting that the W2 is perfect, far from it.

Oops, that perfect quote was directed at someone else. Specificly the guy who made the jim sterling witcher 2 rant thread. Not towards you, my last quote just came after yours.

 

[bob1052]

I've slotted vigor for armor, and put points in vigor for character, I've worked my way to the last point in signs. Pretty sure I've also mutated to get more in signs, but that may have been dmg or range. I've done all I could to increase vigor, but still only 2 bars lol.

You might've missed the talent that gives you a straight boost to vigor capacity.

 

[Bretty]

This game was the most immersive RPG I have played for a LONG time. This beats the pants off of Dragon Age 2, or as I like to call it, Ride Along Dragon 2.

I had ALOT of difficulty to begin with. The combat system is not easy to get used to and the initial tooltips and ability prompts are so easily missed I did in fact miss more than half of them, who knew I could hit space bar?

This is the first RPG where the pacing of the story and the events really gave me an idea that I didnt have all the time in the world to get things done. I was wholly immersed in the story and whether to go for love or duty.

CDProject have beaten Bioware IMO. They have created the ground works for some fantastic future itterations. I loved the crafting, gambling and fighting systems. The fact that there were people around me but I had no control over was a refreshing change.

Also the choices that you need to make in this game are HARD!

Overall a 9/10 due to the first peice of the game and sometimes rediculous quests. I should also mention I loved Dragon Age 1, but I actually think this one had a much faster pace and was more immersive.

 

[Throwitawaynow]

I've slotted vigor for armor, and put points in vigor for character, I've worked my way to the last point in signs. Pretty sure I've also mutated to get more in signs, but that may have been dmg or range. I've done all I could to increase vigor, but still only 2 bars lol.

You might've missed the talent that gives you a straight boost to vigor capacity.

Well, don't I look like an idiot? 1 vigor = 1 bar. For some reason all my clothing and character specializations were in regeneration instead of a flat boost to the max. I'll edit my original stuff to reflect this. I think it's a great game, I just think this foamed mouth defense that some people are giving is really silly.

 

[rsvp42]

I've slotted vigor for armor, and put points in vigor for character, I've worked my way to the last point in signs. Pretty sure I've also mutated to get more in signs, but that may have been dmg or range. I've done all I could to increase vigor, but still only 2 bars lol.

That's really odd, since I know I have 3. I'll check again later to make sure. Another glitch maybe? (edit: never mind, other dude figured it out)

The wind happens everytime I'm outside in part 2 with dialogue. Especially when talking to the Palpatine looking mage. I always play with subtitles because I like to run my own music in the background, I usually just want dialogue sound to stay on. It also happened in flotsam I think with the background chatter. It's as loud as the person talking for some reason. I have to turn off my own music, max out regular sound and just deal with the ridiculous wind. I havn't gotten past the part after you cross through the fog, becuase the combat freezing glitch ruined my save. I'll play again but I have to commit to losing close to 2 hours of play time.

Oh snap, didn't realize it got to that point later on. I'm still meandering about Flotsam after dealing with the Kayran and some other stuff after that. I only have a couple hours each night to play. As an aside, you might want to listen to some of the ambient noise every once in a while. They did a great job with it.

 

[Alma Mare]

Most of the flaws he's pointing out are accurate, but no way in hell they are worth a clean 30% chop in the score, not in my book. This looked like Yahtzee grasping for straws, without the humour part.

 

[rsvp42]

Hey reviewer, do you review books? If someone asked you to review a novel from one of the most respected writers, would you say yes? No, no you wouldn't. You wouldn't because you know that your grasp of literature, your experience with books and your understanding of difficult written concepts is weak.

It's the same here. Why are you even reviewing video games? Who are you? You're obvious terrible at them. You obviously don't understand how to press a button a read a journal. You're just a baby raised on golden trails and compasses.

Why are you reviewing games if you're terrible at them?

Why do you care so much what someone else thinks of this game? Yes, it's good, but he has legitimate concerns. Just because they didn't bother you when playing doesn't mean you need to attack his integrity as a reviewer.

 

[sta697]

after giving da2 5 stars with the one location boring characters and no story how can you give this 3.this just doesnt add up.

In DA2's defense, the characters were the highlight. Really unique and had some great banter. It also had many locations, they were simply reused too many times, which is the main issue with the game. Well, that and the exploding bodies. And it had a story, it was just episodic instead of being one long epic.

no the story of da2 is in the sequel also intresting banter isnt intresting characters also the 10 locations in a 40 hour long campaing isnt many

 

[Throwitawaynow]

That's really odd, since I know I have 3. I'll check again later to make sure. Another glitch maybe?

Oh snap, didn't realize it got to that point later on. I'm still meandering about Flotsam after dealing with the Kayran and some other stuff after that. I only have a couple hours each night to play. As an aside, you might want to listen to some of the ambient noise every once in a while. They did a great job with it.

Yeah, @bob1052 Pointed out that I had missed the flat boosts, and was going in to regeneration.

After you leave flotsam, it gets REALLY windy lol. I listened to the ambience for a while but hearing the same drunk song 100+ times while trying to find something for the troll DLC is extremely annoying. Also, after you leave Flotsam about 3 guys call out another guys name for hours. And it's really loud, they don't stop till you find him. And I can't not listen to it = P, the sound adjustment is just music/everything else. They really should have added an ambience adjustment.

Edit: Playing again, the last loadable save was 1 1/2 hours from the glitched save, oh well. I like the game, just think some people are being silly here.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Hey reviewer, do you review books? If someone asked you to review a novel from one of the most respected writers, would you say yes? No, no you wouldn't. You wouldn't because you know that your grasp of literature, your experience with books and your understanding of difficult written concepts is weak.

It's the same here. Why are you even reviewing video games? Who are you? You're obvious terrible at them. You obviously don't understand how to press a button a read a journal. You're just a baby raised on golden trails and compasses.

Why are you reviewing games if you're terrible at them?

And here lies the problem. I may not agree with Tito's score here or for Dragon Age 2, but a smart person would not use them as a basis to launch personal attacks for having a different opinion.

So he doesn't like the game as much, get over it. Greg Tito reviews games because he is a game reviewer. I can also be a game reviewer, you want to know why? Because it means giving your opinion on a game. You have no right to throw insults around because he disagrees with you. I don't see anywhere in the review where he attacked you personally, or anyone who enjoys The Witcher 2 for that matter.

Get over it, and good luck hanging around the boards with this kind of attitude.

 

[maddhatter190]

clearly , they got the wrong dude to review the game. I can understand the first part of the game being frustrating. but even on hard i never died on anything other than the quick time sequences. In fact ,dare i say this review is a text book example of how the current age of dumbed down console ports ( in which the players hand is held so much that the damn games might as well play them selves) has ruined a generation of gamers.

the witcher series are titles from an indi developer. its not gona be your callofdragonage2 clone.


you'd think with all the fable games we have had that the dodge parry attack formula would be familiar by now. Rather the only thing that i had trouble with was finding which buttons do the blocking parrying etc. ( which 30 seconds of button pressing later solved that conundrum).

its very sad that the current gaming community is so damn inpatient that they would refuse to do the three or four minutes of reading needed to get the control scheme down.

frankly i am glad they didn't do a "hold your hand day care tutorial" as generally most tutorials are done in such a way as the very act of doing them feels hollow and unnatural (" if anyone has played the dawn of war 2 series you will know how much damage a poorly done tutorial can murder immersion"

its about time we got something that isnt afraid to kick you while you are down.

i am not saying the reviewer was bad or anything, but what i am saying is that he was not the best choice to review this game

 

[rsvp42]

After you leave flotsam, it gets REALLY windy lol. I listened to the ambience for a while but hearing the same drunk song 100+ times while trying to find something for the troll DLC is extremely annoying. Also, after you leave Flotsam about 3 guys call out another guys name for hours. And it's really loud, they don't stop till you find him. And I can't not listen to it = P, the sound adjustment is just music/everything else. They really should have added an ambience adjustment.

True. I misinterpreted what you meant when you said you play your own music while playing.

 

[bob1052]

That's really odd, since I know I have 3. I'll check again later to make sure. Another glitch maybe?

Oh snap, didn't realize it got to that point later on. I'm still meandering about Flotsam after dealing with the Kayran and some other stuff after that. I only have a couple hours each night to play. As an aside, you might want to listen to some of the ambient noise every once in a while. They did a great job with it.

Yeah, @bob1052 Pointed out that I had missed the flat boosts, and was going in to regeneration.

After you leave flotsam, it gets REALLY windy lol. I listened to the ambience for a while but hearing the same drunk song 100+ times while trying to find something for the troll DLC is extremely annoying. Also, after you leave Flotsam about 3 guys call out another guys name for hours. And it's really loud, they don't stop till you find him. And I can't not listen to it = P, the sound adjustment is just music/everything else. They really should have added an ambience adjustment.

Just out of curiousity, which choice did you make at the end of Chapter 1?

Spoiler

I didn't experience the wind and I don't recall anyone shouting for another. I sided with Iorveth.