Even though the world Polish writer, Andrzej Sapkowski, created is full of magic and monsters, the story of The Witcher 2 focuses very much on politics, schemes, and treachery. The story is refreshingly dark without you being responsible for the fate of the whole world. If not for the fantasy elements, it could have been a noir cop thriller: Geralt of Rivia is framed for a murder he didn’t commit while suffering from amnesia. The only thing he knows is that he’s got to find the Kingslayer to clean his name and prevent more chaos. But first he’s got to get out of this prison.

 

It’s not just the story that makes The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings so great, but also the immersion. The world around you feels alive. Obviously it’s scripted and of course you’ll hear some filler sentences more than once, but the day/night cycle combined with the reactions of one NPC to another in response to the changing situations are quite immersive. Not only do they speak to each other, but they also perform their daily routines, stroll around, and look for shelter when it starts raining. And true to the game’s dark nature, they’ll drink, screw, and curse as if there was no tomorrow. 

 

The Witcher 2 is not only alive, it’s beautiful. Everything is crafted with care and there are only few rough spots to be found. Sadly, Geralt’s hair is one of those few, and looks as if it’s made of only three big parts wobbling rhythmically while he moves. The grass even looks better than the hero’s hair-do, which is just weird prioritization.

 

Though quite time consuming, Witcher 2 consists of only three (long) chapters between the prologue and epilogue. Each of these chapters keeps you in one area with the last one being especially small. Although there are many areas to explore, you’ll never get lost in the vast wilderness as you might in a Bethesda game. Even though you’re not as free to explore as some experienced RPG fans might have been hoping to be, it does keep the game well-paced and avoids too many long walks without any real purpose.

 

Speaking of purpose, you’ll decide your skill-fate with the highly satisfying leveling system, which offers three different branches you can focus on. Besides the basics, you can sharpen your skills in swords rather than magic, or potions, traps, and bombs, if you prefer. By investing points into one of those trees, you aren’t forced to focus exclusively on it--though it is advised to mainly invest in one since the strongest skills naturally are at the end of the tree. For example, you can train Geralt to become a master in using magic spells, called signs, such as reflecting damage and burning hordes of enemies at once. At the same time, his potions might become more powerful and his sword capable of hitting more than a single foe at a time. 

 

There are a bunch of other elements and mini-games you’ll encounter every so often of varying quality. Quick Time Events are a frequent occurrence during boss battles, some of which end your life immediately upon failing. This can be challenging, but adds to the thrill. Then there are the stealth portions of the game. It’s a nice change of pace and mildly entertaining, but they’re few in numbers and suffer from some problems. Controlling Geralt in this mode doesn’t work perfectly and the guards are pretty dumb, too. Thankfully, the mini-games are fun as well: Brawling utilizes Quick Time Events and arm wrestling is focused on keeping your cursor in the right place. While those two are somewhat easy to master, dice poker will be challenging until the end. After all, there is always some luck involved.

 

Like many large-scale RPGs, The Witcher 2 has its fair share of bugs, though one was nearly game breaking. There came a point where I was no longer able to initiate conversations, which is a problem considering you usually talk a lot in RPGs. Luckily, I was able to resolve it with an automatically triggered event, though I only had one left (meaning other players could potentially be screwed completely). Though these bugs were very rare, it wasn’t pretty when they occurred .

The enemies’ intelligence also was lacking. It seems enemies of every kind have a set radius they defend. If you leave this radius, they’ll suddenly ignore you, turn around, and move back to the place they were initially standing. This can disrupt the flow of battle a bit, but isn’t a big problem.

Like the AI, the balancing of the game takes a while to get used to. CD Projekt explained that they were influenced by classic hardcore games, which makes Witcher 2’s “normal” difficulty most similar to any other modern game’s “hard.” If you get swarmed by a group of monsters, the aforementioned positioning-bug can come in quite handy, though more advanced players won’t need the help. After leveling-up a few times, skillfully combining sword, magic, and alchemy should make baddies--even on the hard difficulty--a pushover.
 

 

Well at least as long as you play as Geralt. Periodically throughout the game, you’ll find yourself in control of a few different characters to advance the story. Although it sounds like a fun concept, the loss of nearly all abilities including dodging--even if for a brief time--makes adapting to the situation somewhat challenging and might force you to lower the difficulty. This isn’t a deal breaker either, but it’s a bit annoying to see the difficulty stagger so much. This could have been partially mitigated by having tutorials that pop-up for more than half-a-second and actually give gamers a chance to read them. In spite of these challenging moments, Witcher 2 is still a little too easy in the end. At a high level you’ll burn through your enemies with ease and reach the last bosses without a problem, making the end-game a little less satisfying.

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings is not perfect. Balancing, bugs, and small atmospheric breaks kept it from fully engulfing me. Still if you have the slightest bit of love for role-playing games and your PC, the Witcher 2 might be one of the best games you can play this year. There are small breaks, but in general the atmosphere is awesome, the fighting fluid, and the story engaging, fully immersing you in a world of monsters and crime. And though I am not completely satisfied with the ending, I am sure an expansion will follow where I will get the additional adventure I am longing for right now. While the first Witcher was very good, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings is awesome. It’s worth kings dying for.