The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Review

Now this game was ported over from PC a while back and I have to say CD PROJEKT has done it pretty damn well. Ok  the consoles namely the Xbox 360 won’t have as good of graphics as the PC or run quite as smoothly as the PC on certain games but I think that this transfer onto a console has been perhaps one of the best I’ve seen so far.

As far as graphics are concerned they are pretty damn good on both the PC and console versions, obviously the console won’t be 100% flaw free and the PC has the advantages of graphics settings and mods. However with all of that taken into consideration the graphics for this game on the console are outstanding and are easily in my top 10 of graphics and are perhaps some of the best I’ve seen on a console game.

Now as with a lot of RPG games the story is “non-linear” which basically means that it does not follow a set path and that every action has an outcome good or evil, now although this is not literally true, a lot of choices do have outcomes which gives the game a lot of replay value but minor choices don’t affect anything that much.

Ok so the basic story of The Witcher 2 is that you are Geralt of Rivia a famed monster hunter who is a witcher which is a partially superhuman warrior monk, who while employed by a king is framed for the murder of said king, and so you set out to clear your name and capture the actual killer, oh yeah and you have amnesia so you don’t remember a heck of a lot about your past but you start to unlock more of your past and piece together the storyline bit by bit over time.

Now as for the side quests some are lacking such as killing contracts but are merely designed to get money and supplies, where others have a brilliant backstory of their own.

This is where The Witcher 2 gets a bit more versatile as you have 4 main skill trees which are the Training tree, the Magic tree, the Swordsmanship tree and the Alchemy tree all of which should be obvious except the training tree which is a little bit of all the others and allows you to be quite flexible in the way you play, however the spell casting is limited so you can’t just spam a fireball spell, which forces you to invest in more than one skill tree. Now the skills vary some, upgrade previous skills while others add new passive abilities such as arrow redirection, which allows you to deflect arrows with your sword.

Now there are other options to help with combat such as potions and thrown weapons and traps. With potions you have to focus on what’s necessary as you have a toxicity meter which limits your intake of toxicants and let’s just say it’s not best to have too many of those. Thrown weapons mainly include daggers and bombs which have effects like slowing targets down.
Now although this game is free roam you are confined to a limited area which means no fast means of transport but this will allow you to find resources which are always handy.

Now the music in The Witcher 2 is nothing to go downloading from the internet and if you are immersed in the current task you are likely to overlook it but the music adds a lot of atmosphere to certain scenes.

Sounds effects however, can be amazing from the sounds of the monsters howling at you to the blow of your sword in an execution move.

The replay value of this game is not massive but it should leave you asking yourself what would have happened if you completed an act in the completely opposite way which should leave you itching to play through it a few more times.

To sum up, I think that The Witcher 2 is a title worth owning as it will have you craving for more after one play through.
It also promises a unique RPG experience that would leave you kicking yourself if you missed out on it,  however I am a big RPG fan and in such games I tend to expect more variety than this game offers. But this is one of the best transfers from the PC that I’ve played and is easily in my ‘top ten’ regardless of it’s negatives.