The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Review

Wow, has it really been a year since I gave The Witcher 2 on PC a 9.0? Since then we’ve had Skyrim and Kingdoms of Amalur offer their own uniquely differing takes on the fantasy RPG genre, but neither in my mind hold a candle to the sheer satisfaction of playing a Witcher title. Bethesda and Big Huge Games may be offering bigger worlds, but you make more of an impact on The Witcher’s world.

Of course CD Projekt haven’t been idle for the past year either, which is why we’re reviewing the game again now. The Enhanced Edition of the original The Witcher buffed and polished a good game into a bona-fide classic, now we’re here to see if they can do the same for the already-a-classic The Witcher 2 - and on Xbox 360 for the first time no less! Since you don’t need me to tell you about the PC version as the Enhanced Edition is free for those who own the standard game (and if you don’t own it, buy it now) we’ll concentrate on the console version. Has CD Projekt’s first foray into couch-gaming paid off, or will it be too much for the ageing white box to handle?

The opening castle siege is particularly impressive. And less infuriating this time

A quick recap of the story and world for anyone not up to speed. You, Ser Player, takes control of Geralt of Rivia – a Witcher, a partially mutated kick-ass monster slayer with a few spells and two swords on his back (steel for humans, silver for monsters). The first game introduced romantic interest sorceress Triss Merigold, mouthy bard (and narrator) Dandelion, and the outspoken dwarf Zoltan, as well as the fact that Geralt has amnesia –don’t scoff, did I mention that the reason for this is that he was pursuing an army of child-stealing murderous wraiths? Geralt saved the life of King Foltest from a mysterious assassin at the end of the first game, and the second picks up a few months later.



I’m going to get right to the point: if you like fantasy RPGs you need The Witcher 2 in your collection, and no, it doesn’t matter whether you’ve played the first or not. It’s a true classic of the genre and is inarguably one of the best RPGs ever made. If you want to know in detail why The Witcher 2 is so great please feel free to check out my original review. This is a game that scoffs at Mass Effect’s choice and consequence system – The Witcher series is the real deal. Small choices offer different quest paths or rewards, but major choices can completely alter the game – siding with Iorveth (terrorist elf) or Roche (miserable spy) in Chapter 1 for example changes Chapter 2 completely, in terms of story, location, interactions, quests, everything.

The world’s smaller than the likes of Skyrim or Amalur but freer than Dragon Age, and feels more real and believable than any of them. The forest in Chapter 1 is overgrown, dank, and oppressive, and towns feel like people actually live there, packed with mud and dirt and with a brothel and a gallows at the centre. This is a world with no obvious good and evil choices, it’s all wonderful shades of grey and every choice can have an unexpected outcome. This is a game where you can side with the terrorists, the skull-faced eye-hunting vengeful spectres or the powerful man-eating trolls (incidentally my favourite characters in the game). The Witcher 2 is an RPG like no other – one where you feel you’re making an impact with every action, which is a tremendously satisfying feeling.

Now then, on to changes. I’m not going to say the Enhanced Edition is as spectacular a redux as the first game got, but that dearly needed it. The Witcher 2 just needed a polish in a few areas, and that’s exactly what you’re getting here. With a few exceptions which I’ll also get to, the major two areas that needed buffing were the beginning of the game and, er, the end of the game.

The beginning, although spectacular (the dramatic siege of a castle partially interrupted by a dragon assault!), just utterly failed to introduce the combat fairly or properly. Penny Arcade even did a comic to mock how the first fight in the game is arguably the hardest, just because you have no idea what you’re doing. Well, now not only has that fight been softened slightly there’s also – yay – a tutorial. I’d advise players of the PC version to still do this tutorial on 360 though, as the new controls do take a bit of getting used to. Oh, and you also can’t accidentally skip straight into the dragon battle anymore, as our own David Brown did first time he played it.

Unfair boxing matches with quick-time events are a Witcher’s speciality

The controls are, in general, natural-feeling and well adapted to the console pad. There are oddities however – some which just require getting used to, but also others that stray into “please patch this” territory. For the former a quick quiz: how many hack-and-slash titles on 360 can you name where ‘X’ is Light Attack and ‘Y’ is Heavy Attack? Answer: all of them. In Witcher 2 though it’s ‘A’ for Light and ‘X’ for Heavy. Of more concern is the radial menu, where you need to hold down LB to bring it up, move the Right Stick to select an item or spell (or Sign)… then press ‘A’ to Confirm. This is incredibly unwieldy, and I’ve no idea why ‘A’ is necessary at all since you’re not actually using either the items or Signs this way. Just as annoying is having to press LB and RB to scroll through all seventeen inventory pages rather than just using the control sticks (and I’m sure CD Projekt could have cut out a couple).

Graphically the PC version obviously is superior, but it’s amazing how well and smooth CD Projekt have got the 360 version to play. Yes there’s a bit more mist, a few more doors in towns, a bit more pop-up and a slightly less colourful look to everything, but overall we’ve still got a fine looking game here. There’s little slowdown as well, for which CD Projekt get a pat on the back.

Plenty of areas that drove me mad when I played the original have been improved upon, like the boss battles and the combat in general, and while I swore my way through the PC version during my first review this time around I enjoyed it all the way through instead (a massive improvement!). Nevertheless there are a fair few areas which still could’ve done with a bit more tweaking. Stealth is still unwieldy and you’ll often fail for no real reason. Checkpoints are still terribly placed and I advise saving often, since the game often won’t. Loading times can be all over the place, and it takes about 25-30 seconds to get back into the game after dying. There’s still a few bugs too, as I had one quest disappear and another fail to be tracked, or enemies disappearing mid-charge. The map is still almost useless and poor quest marking caused me to fail a few. Oh, and potions are still a pain – you can’t drink them through the inventory screen, you have to go through the radial menu to Meditate instead (plus there’s no drinking animation anymore).

Finally, what of the end of the game? I’m obviously not going to spoil anything, but the main problem was that after the meaty Chapters 1-2 the third part was a massive anticlimax – a huge city with just a few quests in it and a rushed ending (no matter what one you get). I’m pleased to report that Loc Muinne (for that is the city’s name) now has been expanded and has a lot more to do in it, but unfortunately the story still reaches its conclusion without really wrapping things up or explaining things adequately. However the Enhanced Edition does at least a better job of conveying the story and keeping players au fait with what’s going on, what king rules where, and why Nilfgaard is actually bad. A few extra cutscenes narrated by Dandelion work wonders.

To wrap things up, I’m proud to say that The Witcher 2 on Xbox 360 is no slap-dash port, it’s a proud conversion handled so well that it feels like it was meant to be here in the first place. Barring a few control curios I quickly began to feel like playing the game with a 360 pad was the most natural thing in the world, and graphically CD Projekt have moved the PC version’s system-straining engine over elegantly.

Iorveth the freedom fighter stroke murderous terrorist elf. You either love him or hate him… and the game will change accordingly!

However, I just can’t bring myself to give the game a better score. The Enhanced Edition is undoubtedly better than the standard version, offering far less frustration, a smoother beginning and a fatter finale, but there’s still a few areas missing the polish. The 360 version adds long loading times to the mix, which combined with the still-poor checkpointing system makes for a frustrating experience if you don’t remember to save often (and remember, no quicksaving on 360). Finally the ending still feels abrupt, leaving the door completely open for a sequel to finish things.

Nevertheless this is an RPG you really have to own, and if you’ve been holding off for the console version rest assured you’ll be getting a smooth experience that was well worth the year-long wait. The Witcher 2 itself is still an incredible title that really makes you feel that you’re having an impact on the people and politics of this world, and the Enhanced Edition only makes it better. Have you bought it yet? Well, do so. Go on, Amazon’s right around the corner.

I went a different path this time so I didn’t get the giant chicken hallucination, but the troll couple you can reconcile still wins.