The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Review

Mr. Omega

ANTI-LIFE JUSTIFIES MY HATE!
Jul 1, 2010
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*Sees score* Prediction: People are going to blame the reviewer for the fact that it doesn't have a 5-star review...
There will be at least 3 Dragon Age 2 comparisons.
There will be one butthurt fanboy.

Reads comments: damn... just two comparisons. so close...

OT: Good Review. And enjoyed the video. Not much else to say.
 

Tigurus

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Apr 14, 2009
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What is the song which is played at the beginning and the end with the women? It sounds so lovely.

On the review side:
I really want this game. While the interface wasn't the best in the first game (hence why I nearly never made potions and even bothered with it) it still sounds like one of the best games around this year.
Difficulty is fine by me :)
 

Keava

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Mar 1, 2010
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Theotherguy said:
I read the whole review, than said to myself without checking the mark: "This is a 7 from a lotr/dragon age fanboy". And than I smiled.

Yes the ui is kinda bad, but the rest of the stuff like "I died there, I died here" is just funny. I can understand Dragon Age 2 dragging ou by the hand with it's pathetic difficulty level, but come on! How lazy can You get?

And You didn't mention so many things in the review, which are good sides of The Witcher 2. Dude, being objective is a must for a reviever, the game is a 9 not a 7.
Oh c'mon. Either don't troll, or don't be so obvious fanboi. Hell i'm on brink of fanboism towards CDP since they are my homies and i do rate Witcher 2 at an 8/10 due to all the meta stuff that get's in the way.

Like the fact that there is no way to save an ingredient setup for potion making, it was an issue in the first game, it's in second as well, each time you craft a potion/bomb it will revert to it's default set up, forcing you to repick each and every plant/monster part again if you want to save some of them for other purpose.
Or the completely unnecessary parts on the Character screen about monsters, when there are already entries in the journal? Yet to figure which type of bombs you need for the nekker nests you actually need to look in that obscure place - bad design decision.

Those are small things that don't ruin the experience for me, but things i would be much happier without for sure.
 

6FootImp

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Mar 31, 2011
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While I completely understand the reasons for your problems with the game I think you have to consider that this game was made for a niche audience. At a time when every company out there is streamlining games so that every 6 year old can play them its extremely refreshing to see a company interested in complexity and sticking to the game world's concepts over marketability. if the games that my demographic are too complicated for the general gamer audience and every company tries to make games for everyone, there simply wont be any old school CRPG role playing games left. There are plenty of RPG games that are simplified for a general audience, and many of them are very good, but variety is needed.
 

Khada

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Jan 8, 2009
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It's true that there are a few aspects of the game that could use improving but I've been thoroughly enjoying Witcher 2. The combat is much, much better than the original, the story is engaging and brilliant and yes, it's hard at times and you will die... something that is sadly lost to most games today.

I would think that fans of the gothic series would likely enjoy this game, though it's not as open as the Gothic games.
 

Zenphic

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Tigurus said:
What is the song which is played at the beginning and the end with the women? It sounds so lovely.
It's a remix of "Hedningarna - Vargtimmen"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1Zr1sEh1oE

Lovely music indeed.
 

Tigurus

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Zenphic said:
Tigurus said:
What is the song which is played at the beginning and the end with the women? It sounds so lovely.
It's a remix of "Hedningarna - Vargtimmen"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1Zr1sEh1oE

Lovely music indeed.
Thank you Very much :D
*glomps*
 

RhombusHatesYou

Surreal Estate Agent
Mar 21, 2010
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Between There and There.
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The Wide, Brown One.
Keava said:
Like the fact that there is no way to save an ingredient setup for potion making, it was an issue in the first game, it's in second as well, each time you craft a potion/bomb it will revert to it's default set up, forcing you to repick each and every plant/monster part again if you want to save some of them for other purpose.
Yes, I wasn't paying as close attention as I should have been to the alchemy screen and used a quest item to make a potion so off to the loading screen I went. *grumble*

Deflagging quest items after the quest has finished would also be nice...
 

Sartan0

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6FootImp said:
While I completely understand the reasons for your problems with the game I think you have to consider that this game was made for a niche audience. At a time when every company out there is streamlining games so that every 6 year old can play them its extremely refreshing to see a company interested in complexity and sticking to the game world's concepts over marketability. if the games that my demographic are too complicated for the general gamer audience and every company tries to make games for everyone, there simply wont be any old school CRPG role playing games left. There are plenty of RPG games that are simplified for a general audience, and many of them are very good, but variety is needed.
Agreed on the old school flavor and how I am happy to enjoy playing it. I am looking forward to what they do in the third one and I am happy to wait another four years for it. With luck we will not have to as I am sure part of that four year wait between 1 and 2 was developing the Red Engine. Now that is a nice piece of work! :) Love the esthetic in the game as well.
 

rsvp42

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Grevensher said:
Let me get this straight, actually having to craft spells breaks your immersion? Having to tactically utilize your potions breaks your immersion? The complex combat system breaks your immersion? I'm sorry this isn't Dragon Age 2. Go and pop that in for another ride if all you want is hours of mindless button mashing.
He said dealing with a clunky interface was breaking his immersion. It calls attention to itself and reminds you that you're playing a game instead of a role in the world, hence immersion-breaking. Not being able to use potions in battle means that in cases like the quest he was describing, he wasn't able to properly buff for fights he was expecting (probably after being killed by surprise mechanics a few times). And what the hell is "complex" about TW2's combat? You click one button for small slash, another for big. Then you roll around and use the signs you have. It's definitely fun and challenging, but I wouldn't call it complex.

Go back to hating on DA2 for overblown reasons somewhere else.

edit: for the record, I'm loving TW2 in spite of the issues outlined in the review here
 

Baneat

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Mangue Surfer said:
Baneat said:
I had the same issues with the games, even posted on this forum and got dismissed as rtfml2pconsolescrub

People are unerringly blind to things if they choose to be.

But, cheers for the spoiler in the middle of the video!
But you basically are doing the same.

I'm blind? No! I just play games that challenging their audience much more than the Witcher 2. The castlevanias games for example (not the last one). You can acuse the developers to make nostalgics choices but call everyone that can play without problem blind?!
People that say that the problem doesn't exist are blind. People that force themselves past it anyway are people like me.
 

Veloxe

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Mr. Omega said:
*Sees score* Prediction: People are going to blame the reviewer for the fact that it doesn't have a 5-star review...
There will be at least 3 Dragon Age 2 comparisons.
There will be one butthurt fanboy.

Reads comments: damn... just two comparisons. so close...

OT: Good Review. And enjoyed the video. Not much else to say.
Gah! Had you waited 6 more minutes you would have managed to nab the 3rd one and you would have hit it out of the park! Alas, everything can't be perfect.

OT: Ya, I have been working through Witcher 1 and the inventory/menu system makes me want to punch something. Unfortunately it looks like that hasn't changed much (I'm all for complexity, just not complexity for complexities sake, which is what it seems to go far). At least the combat looks to be better then the first one was, so that's something to look forward to.

I figure I'll just sit back and wait till I can grab it on sale somewhere or borrow it from my buddy if he ever finishes with it.
 

Woodsey

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Aug 9, 2009
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"The fundamental problem is that the game is terrible at teaching you how to enjoy it. I have no qualms with offering players a challenge, but too often I failed in the opening of The Witcher 2 because I simply didn't have the mechanics properly demonstrated to me, not because it was actually challenging. My experience with the prologue carried through the rest of the game."

I think that's a little unfair - it is very challenging given the skill set you have at the time anyway, and you can't really judge it all that well if you come back to it after playing 30 hours worth. Its a weird curve, but there's only so much you can do with training placards anyway - I'd much rather have the shit smacked out of me and just learn by doing instead of these bloody stop-and-start openings to every damn game, or the 15-hour-long tutorials (GTA IV).

But really, all you need to know for combat is to use absolutely everything to survive. I found I had the signs and general idea of the combat down within the first fight (that I died in several times over) - and it soon felt very rewarding. Its not like the design is particularly alien - you can't hit shielded/larger enemies head on, you'll need to dodge or block, etc.

There was only one point in the game, at the end of Chapter 1, where I thought there was a major flaw in the difficult curve - one that went through the bloody roof and didn't let you prepare for it either.

Also, the prologue thing is set in order of the day. I'm pretty sure that's fairly obviously sign-posted (I certainly remember just going through in order).

"After a quick, but still painful, QTE fist fight, you are let loose to explore the corrupt human settlement."

Painful? I don't really like them in there either but its about 3-button presses.

"It's a good thing the landscape looks so awesome, because you will be wandering around those woods for a long time. Finding quest-specific locations is usually easy, but simple navigation is tough because there is no indication of which direction is north."

Yes there is, there's an orange arrow on the circumference of the minimap.

"The main quests also have you going back and forth to the same location often which made me wonder why they spent so much time building the rest of the place."

Sidequests?

"Drinking potions gives you an edge in combat, at least I assume so because I never seemed to have drunk the right potions at the right time. You can't drink potions while you are engaged in a fight, which seems like a silly holdover from the meditation mechanic of the first game. There is a lot of granularity in the potion system, with most giving you both positive and negative effects. I thought that once I bought enough recipes, I'd be able to dovetail the effects of the three potions you can drink at a time for a net gain, but those recipes never materialized. I defaulted to only using the few potions that I couldn't do without, namely Cat, Swallow and Tawny Owl which let me see in the dark and regenerate health and vigor, respectively. Another opportunity missed"

What do you mean? The potions either help generally in battles or make up for various missing skills, or armour/weapon upgrades.

"The list interface screams for some way to sort, and there's absolutely no good reason for every recipe to clog up your inventory."

If you look at the potion list then it'll show you how many materials you need for a particular recipe.

"I fail to see why I can't easily see which recipes the merchant has that I don't already own,"

Your inventory lists are put side-by-side like every other game?

"One particular moment stuck out: when Geralt openly mocks the plot of The Lord of the Rings as a frivolous fairy tale, it feels like such parody is beneath the integrity the game achieves the rest of the time.

Yeah, that was... bizarre. Its essentially the only thing I felt probably got lost in translation it was so unsubtle.

Not being bitchy, I just haven't seen these complaints all that much - they certainly never occured to me (especially the inventory stuff). Even the combat difficulty seems to be accepted as something that's just better to learn-by-doing instead of being told on placards (I really cannot see that being helpful with such an in-depth system) or a bloody tutorial of today's standards.

You don't really cover the game's choices and consequences all that much either (like the two different second acts), or just how morally ambiguous everything is.

9NineBreaker9 said:
A friend is lending me the game, so I'm looking forward to trying it out. I enjoyed the setting and theme of the first, but disliked the gameplay... doesn't seem like much has changed, but it'll be a nice diversion.

Also, doesn't awarding half a star kind of ruin the point of a 5-star system?
Round it up to 4. Trust me.

Veloxe said:
Unfortunately it looks like that hasn't changed much (I'm all for complexity, just not complexity for complexities sake, which is what it seems to go far).
Its really not complex - most recently collected stuff is put at the top, and there's about 10 different categories to break everything up. If you need to check ingredients for a potion, you can look at what you're missing (and how much more of ingredient X you need) by clicking on the recipe, where a big diagram will show you.
 

abija

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Sep 7, 2008
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The first sign of trouble was when I chose a dialogue option that sent me to battle a dragon with little preamble. As Geralt of Rivia I had to defeat three well-armed individuals without any knowledge of game mechanics or tactics all while dragon fire rained down around me. Windows popped up with the knowledge I needed to survive, but stopping to read them only resulted in a quick death. Geralt, the famous Witcher, died so easily and so many times in the first seconds of the game that I began to wonder if I was just an idiot. I was so frustrated and pissed that any fondness for the characters I'd met so far was completely erased.
All you need for that sequence is the mouse attacks, roll and maybe parry. You get all of them as tooltips when you start with that sequence. Also you might have the common sense to let the other npcs lead the fights since you just started the game and you're with a spook and a sorceress.

There is a lot of granularity in the potion system, with most giving you both positive and negative effects. I thought that once I bought enough recipes, I'd be able to dovetail the effects of the three potions you can drink at a time for a net gain, but those recipes never materialized. I defaulted to only using the few potions that I couldn't do without, namely Cat, Swallow and Tawny Owl which let me see in the dark and regenerate health and vigor, respectively. Another opportunity missed.
So you learn in prologue that Quen is your best friend. Yet you fail to see how a potion that decreases vitality and increases all damage like thunderbolt is good?

There's also just too much that's never explained in the game at all. I only knew that buying and reading a book about specific monsters let me loot more from the corpses of said monster from playing the first Witcher.
http://i.imgur.com/xttDa.png
It's also mentioned in plenty of conversations.

Btw, kudos, you delay the review to give us a through analyze of prologue and beginning of first act. I guess that's the problem when the game doesn't teach you how to use your head and how to enjoy it.
 

JerrytheBullfrog

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Grevensher said:
Greg Tito said:
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Review

Geralt of Rivia is one badass motherf'er.

Read Full Article
Let me get this straight, actually having to craft spells breaks your immersion? Having to tactically utilize your potions breaks your immersion? The complex combat system breaks your immersion? I'm sorry this isn't Dragon Age 2. Go and pop that in for another ride if all you want is hours of mindless button mashing.
Typical fanboy whine.

There is no excuse whatsoever for the "can't drink potions in combat" mechanic. You get these interesting potions, combat relies heavily on you using them especially early on, but it asks you to be goddamn Nostradamus before you can ever use them.
 

Traun

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Jan 31, 2009
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You know, I was about to pass this, but seriously?

Your problem with the game is that the game doesn't tell you how to beat enemies? You didn't infer from the fact that it's FIRE to stay away from it? You wanted a briefing before every battle on how not to die? Somehow having to prepare for battle, outside of battle, broke your immersion?

Play on easy, the fact that you aren't sufficiently skillful at the game shouldn't be an influence.
 

Denamic

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Aug 19, 2009
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The only real grievances I have with the game is the overly consolified and obnoxious UI, and that the tutorial is so absurdly difficult, relatively speaking.
Also, that it takes so damn long to drink potions.
*slowly sitting down, then reaching out for a potion to drink, quaffing it, then tossing it. Then you can- no wait! Gotta wipe the sweat off of his brow.*