Witcher 2 - In Depth Impressions

OK, so I finally got some time to put into this game over the weekend and I am back with an updated opinion. This game kicks ass! I suppose I could end it there but that would probably be a cheat so lets' break it down a bit.

First off, the graphics are top notch. Are they as good as the PC version? I don't really know because I have not seen the PC version but let's assume NO. They are however as good as anything on the 360 currently and that is saying something. The graphics are sharp and the world is rich with detail. The settings are fantastically designed and set in a living world with a history that has been fully fleshed out. This is something that really draws you into the game world. I am not sure how many of you know this but the Witcher games are based off of novels by the same name. The benefit is that this game world has a full set of back stories for every character and race in the game. Everything from the politics of the lands and their kingdoms to the races and the wars they fight are all fully fleshed out with a deep history and it is evident for the very beginning of the game. Because of this it is hard not to get sucked into this game after just a short while.

So, how about the gameplay? It too is fantastic. The controls are solid and the combat is amazing. I will say that the beginning of the game is a little jarring. They drop you in this world and there is a lot to learn. The tutorial and training sections last a while and there is a steep learning curve at first. There is a lot to take in and the game try's to explain most of it pretty quickly but fear not, you'll get used to it in no time and be kicking ass before you know it. Combat ends up being a combination of swordplay, ranged weapons (bombs and knives), spells, traps and potions. To be truly effective you need to be a master of all these components. Hey, I said it was deep! I should also note that the camera did seem a little fast and twitchy as first but now I don't notice it at all. I am about 5-10 hours in and I don't even think about it any more. Much like the rest of the controls, you just get used to it and it all flows pretty well (especially for such a complicated combat system).

The beginning of the game is pretty easy for the most part. It allows you to get used to the combat system and comfortable using traps, spells, potions and sword play all together in a single battle. This is a good thing too because you are going to have to use all of these things if you want to live. This game is hard. Make no mistake of that. You will actually get a taste right in the beginning. Basically the first thing the game does is throw you into an arena battle. You will not win this set of fights (unless you have played before) but that is ok. The game is testing you and deciding your difficulty level. When I got done the first time the game recommend the "easy" setting if that gives you any clue. To survive in this game you will have to prepare for the bigger battles. If you know you are fixing to head into something you better coat you blade with poison, fortify your armor, drink some fight enhancing potions and get you traps and spells properly equipped. Your going to need all of these to beat some of the fights in this game. Of course, some are easy to beat also. Many of the encounters I have had could be handled with hack and slash gusto but not all of them. It's a nice balance so as to not punish you all the time. The harder battles usually come from new harder fows you have not encountered and boss battles.

How about the Story? Yes please! The game starts off right in the middle of things. It's a little jarring, especially going from the tutorial to the actual beginning of the game. You might feel a little lost and overwhelmed but stick with it for a few minutes and you'll be fine. You start to get the picture rather quickly and you'll feel right at home before you know it. The story really picks up quickly and pulls you in. In fact the pacing is so good that I don't really want to stop playing. Even most of the side quests are interesting to play. There have been very few fetch quests so far. Most everything I have done so far has had some real substance to it and the main quest is really getting interesting (and I am still in the beginning of the game). I seriously can't wait to get back and play some more. The voice acting is pretty good most of the time but every now and then hits you with a few bad moments (especially right in the beginning of the game). All in all it is solid and once again benefits from the deep back story the game world has. Most everything is interesting to listen to and learn about. I enjoy talking to new people and learning more about this world and finding my place in it.

Speaking of, you play a Witcher and you are pretty much the biggest bad ass there is. Witchers are professional monster hunters by trade. Not entirely human, you are a mutant with special powers and abilities. It is your job you kill the things normal humans, elves and dwarves can't. For a price of course. You are both feared and revered by the people of this land. Almost a monster yourself you don't really fit nicely into society but people consider you a human for the most part. This is important as relations between humans and non-humans (elves and dwarves) and tense at best. Because you are a Witcher (and don't fit nicely in the mold) you often find your self in the middle of the two/three factions. Personally, I don't really like the humans so I find myself siding with the elves and dwarves more often. Non-humans are treated as second class citizens and forced to live in ghettos etc... Those not living in the cities have fled and live in the woods or turned to the life of crime. Many are bandits with no real home. Attacking humans and raiding villages for supplies. This obviously doesn't help the situation and makes for a great backdrop to the story.

It should be noted that this is a full-on RPG as well. You level your character using a skill tree. There are three basic branches you can follow. Swordsman, Magic and Alchemy. Each branch is full of goodies and I am sure you will only be able to truly fill one side. Like all good RPG's I am positive you will benefit from specialization rather than the "jack of all trades" approach. I actually just unlocked the ability to pursue these branches and I have decided to follow the swordmans path (the first part of the game requires you to choose from a training tree before the others are unlocked). It is still early on but I can't wait to unlock some of the higher level abilities, like finishing moves for entire groups of enemies, with my sword! Oh hell yes!

Oh and there is a lot of loot too! Not just finished items but ingredients and crafting items too. Sure you will find finished products like armor and swords but the best stuff comes from crafting (so far). You get crafting diagrams throughout the game. Either from a quest, looting, reward or by purchasing them. Once you have the diagram, you need to have the required items to make it. If you can manage to find all the required items you can have a blacksmith craft you the finished product. These item's are usually better than those available to you normally. It has taken me a while but I finally got upgraded armor and a "superb" silver sword last night. Both of which are bad ass. And like all good loot, there are different grades. So far I have seen worn, rusty, robust, fine and superb as well as ratings such as common, magical and EPIC! And I am sure there are a lot more grades/ratings that I have yet to see. Plus, on top of all that you can enchant item too.

I have really just scratched the surface of this game and am blown away. I really could go on and on but I think this is getting a little long winded as it is (mrmiller is waiting). The basics you should take away from this are these:

- Great story set in a rich and detailed living world.
- Fantastic and deep combat system
- Superb graphics
- Full on RPG
- Lot of loot
- All in all a superb games for any RPG fan.

Since you've put in a ton of time in SKYRIM!!!, how would you say this compares in:

1.) Graphics
2.) Voice acting
3.) Story/backround
4.) Ease of play/learning curve
5.) Quality/quantity of quests
6.) Openness of world
7.) RPG nature (leveling character, choices in type of character/specialization, equipment, etc.)

Also, for someone like me that usually doesn't like to have multiple RPGs that I'm working on (unless they're of different genres like ME3 and SKYRIM!!!), would you suggest dropping SKYRIM!!! and moving on to this game or possibly wait on this game until I have SKYRIMed myself out?

Good job on the write up- sounds great. I really want to play this one, but with GRFS and D3 coming out next month, and needing to finish off KOA, I don't know if I'll find the time. Maybe late this summer or early fall before the other big titles hit.

~mrmiller

S7 SockPuppet wrote:Since you've put in a ton of time in SKYRIM!!!, how would you say this compares in:

1.) Graphics
2.) Voice acting
3.) Story/backround
4.) Ease of play/learning curve
5.) Quality/quantity of quests
6.) Openness of world
7.) RPG nature (leveling character, choices in type of character/specialization, equipment, etc.)

Also, for someone like me that usually doesn't like to have multiple RPGs that I'm working on (unless they're of different genres like ME3 and SKYRIM!!!), would you suggest dropping SKYRIM!!! and moving on to this game or possibly wait on this game until I have SKYRIMed myself out?

All good and fair question but also hard to answer. SKYRIM!!! is an amazing game and stands alone at the top of the open world RPG's available today (in my opinion). And while certainly comparable they are also quite different games. Witcher 2 is more like Mass Effect 3 set in medieval times. It is 3rd person and only half-open. This means the sets are more detailed and controlled but still allow for a lot of exploration. It is also 100% voice acted. And you can pause the action to select spells, area effects and ranged weapons (< see the comparisons to ME3?). Now on to your questions specifically...

1) The graphics are better as a result of the tighter maps and explorable areas, just like in ME3.

2) The voice acting is probably better but is a little stiff at times as I mentioned above. All in all, I would say it's better and is helped further by the story and deep backstory this world has.

3) The story is better... so far. I haven't finished but I have high hopes for this one.

4) It is not very easy to play right out of the gate. There is a much steeper learning curve for this game but I feel comfortable with it now. I never had too much trouble but this game is harder than SKYRIM!!!

5) The quality of quests are on par with SKYRIM!!!, which is to say great. The quantity of those quests will be lower. No other game can even touch SKYRIM!!! in this respect. However, the story is better so that might put the edge in favor of W2 in that respect.

6) W2 is not an open world RPG. Not fully anyway. So far I have only visited 1 location. It is large and I have fully explored it at this point. I should be moving to a new location soon. The missions and side quests are all pretty tightly scripted. There is no general exploration. If there is a cave, you will be sent there during a quest. You don't just wonder like in SKYRIM!!! Again, think more ME3 in this respect. It has larger more open areas than ME3 but it is still more similar to that.

7) As stated in my review above, this is a true RPG. You character levels and you get to choose one point to put toward a skill set. There are 3 major branching skill trees and specialization will be key to building a truly powerful character. However, you don't create a character from scratch. Like ME3 you are a set character. Garalt of Rivea (not sure on the spelling there). You are a Witcher. All customization branches from that point out.

On the flip side, this allows for a more personal story (again, like ME3).

As for dropping SKYRIM!!! to play this? That would be your call. SKYRIM!!! is amazing. I would not stop playing that until you are played out. Hell, I am still playing now, even after I beat the main story line.

All I can really say is Witcher 2 is a fantastic game and any RPG fan will enjoy it.

Good information. Sounds like this is more on par with what I wished DA would have been, only better. That being said, I still really enjoyed DAO and DA2, but not as much as I love SKYRIM!!! I think I'm in the same spot as Miller in that I'll probably wait until later this summer or early fall to try it out, if I do. I'm still enjoying SKYRIM!!! and now that I've beaten ME3 once I can get back to SKYRIM!!! as my only RPG.

Nice write up.

UPDATE:

This game continues to blow me away. I have continued to push on and I get more impressed as I go. Like many of my favorite games right now Witcher 2 has consequences for your actions. Save someone here and they may help you out later. Piss someone off and they may come back to haunt you later. That would be cool as is but W2 takes it to the next level too. Not only do you get the little things like I mentioned earlier but the game actually splits into two separate games at the end of the first act. You have to make a choice of who to follow and from there, the rest of the game is completely different. And I am not talking about a little difference like with the civil war in SKYRIM!!! I mean completely different! Different locations, story, quest lines, side quests, companions, characters etc... The game dose not join back together until the 2nd to last quest at the end of the game in the 3rd act. Oh and there are different endings of course too. The game practically requires you to play through twice. It's not like you can just save at the end and load up again to see the different endings. From what I can tell, they basically made 2 separate games.

I literally can't wait to play this again and I am not even finished yet. This game is amazing!

P.S. I am currently estimating between 30-40 hours for 1 playthrough the way I play (pretty much exploring everything).

Sounds really sweet and I'll have to keep that in mind for later in the summer or possibly for xmas.

So after the 30 min or so to install this to my box, I put in about 3 hrs last night and was pretty impressed with what I saw. I won't be as "wordy" as Zak, but here's my first thoughts:

Pros:

1.) This combat style is pretty sweet. I love being able to drop some combos on one opponent, spin and hit another with a bomb or sign, and then whip back to issue a finishing move to the first opponent. It's like playing Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat.

2.) The graphics are very pretty. I think I like the overall SKYRIM!!! graphics better, but I think this game has less "glitches" or "hiccups" in the graphics.

3.) While the menu system might be a little clunky to start, once you know where everything is it works pretty well.

4.) I agree that the world style is similar to the Dragon Age games but it's much more smooth. I like not having to wait "forever" when I enter a building, especially since I'm a looter and I like to check every bit of the map that I can.

5.) The tutorial system is nice and I like how it's integrated into the game so it's easier to see how you'll actually use the bombs, traps, signs, and combat and how you'll need to get used to mixing them up in order to defeat opponents.

Cons:

1.) I wish I could assign more than just one sign and one item, but it's not too difficult to pull up the menus on the fly and switch what you have selected.

2.) The speed of the camera takes a little getting used to. I have had a couple times where I've been surrounded and tried to whip around to engage a second or third opponent and have overshot the intended target. That being said, it's just a matter of playing to get used to this and it shouldn't be a huge issue.

3.) 15 GB is a lot of HD space to store the game. I didn't play any of the game before installing it to the HD, but from what I hear this is a must when it comes to keeping the graphics fluid.

Those are a couple of my thoughts on what I've seen so far. I look forward to putting in some solid hours in this game and being able to mess around with fantasy world politics.

Update: I finished my first playthrough last night and I must say I was thoroughly impressed all the way through. The 3rd chapter and epilog were a little short compared to the first two chapters but everything was wrapped up nicely. The story was great from start to finish and they also set up the Witcher 3 with a little foreshadowing and an extra scene after the credits. This, like the books, is an ongoing series and I look forward to seeing many more games. All in all the it was a good length, especially if you take your time and do the side missions etc... By the same token, I think you could actually finish the game pretty quickly just sticking to the main quest.

Now I get to start my second playthrough and choose all the other things I didn't get to do the first time. I can't wait to see what all ends up different this time. Especially the big split at the end of Chapter 1. It will be great to see what lies down the other path and how it changes the main story.

In closing, the Witcher 2 is a fantastic game start to finish.

According to Zak is sounds like I'm close to that split and I'm looking forward to seeing how things go. I have a pretty good idea as to what the split will have to do with and I'm on the fence as to what I'm going to do when I have to choose. Can't wait!