After getting sidetracked by Risen 2, I was now finally able to finish
The Witcher 2 (Enhanced Edition).
CDP's latest has definitely secured its place among my top favorite RPGs. If they can iron out a few of the issues that hold the game back from total awesomeness then
The Witcher 3 will be a serious contender for best RPG ever made.
Quick prologue for anyone who does not know:
The Witcher is based on a Polish series of novels by Andrzej Sapkowski. You play as Geralt of Rivia, a mutant professional monster hunter who is mostly a "gun for hire" in a dark, gritty, mature medieval fantasy world.
Graphics
The Witcher 2 is an insanely good looking game on the highest details, even with the unplayable UberSampling disabled. My GTX 680 produced a stable 60fps with Adaptive VSync turned on. There was some occasional stuttering when a lot of dynamic light sources like torches appeared in a scene but other than those very few times it was smooth sailing all along.
The animations are top notch with one notable exception. There is a certain erotic Tête-à-tête in the early part of the game where Triss Merigold goes from moving about naturally to moving like a robot when she takes off her clothes. I'm talking about
this scene right here. The drop in quality can be witnessed starting at 1:20 when Triss somehow switches from natural movements to being a Barbie doll.
On a whole the game is extremely pretty though. The camp fires with rising smoke, the fog in the forests, the lighting depending on the time of day, the incredibly detailed monsters and characters, … you name it. Their art department has done an exceptional job of capturing the atmosphere… of creating the environments and the scenes just as they had to be to carry the story and the dramaturgy.
I have attached a few screenshots below as "proof".
Characters
This category really deserves an extra mention. CDP has once again done an exceptional job here. I do not know the source material (Sapkowski's books) so I can't speak for the veracity of the characters but what I do know is that every major character is extremely well fleshed out. Everyone has a personality, they have their motives and they behave accordingly, they just feel right and natural and not just like digital actors or like quest automats as in so many other RPGs.
The voice acting is also as good as it gets. Every character from the snobby nobles and sorceresses to the dwarves and the cynical Elven leader Iorveth has a voice that fits perfectly to the role they are playing. Whoever did the casting here deserves a freaking Oscar or two
.
Sounds & Music
I know that I'm beginning to sound like a slobbering fanboi here but sound and music is once again a category where CDP have outdone themselves and many others. I really like the music that has elements of Gregorian chants. It fits the realistic depiction of this cruel, medieval world perfectly with its melancholy.
The sound effects are also very fitting. They have once again paid so much attention to detail here. For example, you can always hear what kind of shoes and gear a character is wearing. You know
exactly -without looking- how heavy he/she is and what surface they are walking on. They've really worked this out to AAA movie-like perfection.
Gameplay
We're finally over with our fanboi rant
. Well, almost. The game is generally lots of fun but it definitely does have its weaknesses that taint the otherwise near flawless experience.
Generally, the gameplay is very typical of a RPG. The game has three main areas to explore that are reasonably open and large. You have story objectives and a few side quests (less than in other RPGs but the side quests here are more fleshed out), you talk to NPCs, you explore, you fight, you play the mini games (arm wrestling, dice poker), you can let NPCs craft items for you, you brew potions, you level up your character, and -yeah- you go to the brothel to fuck around - literally
One of the biggest issues of the game is its somewhat laggy controls. There is about a 0.5s input lag between pressing a key and the action being performed. This can be extremely irritating, especially in harder fights and in the boss fights. I originally started to play on hard but due to this issue switched to normal about half way through the game and I'm not ashamed to admit that I lowered the difficulty to easy for some of the boss fights (thank you for on-the-fly adjustable difficulty, CDP!). It was simply too annoying when Geralt did not do what he was supposed to do.
Another annoyance is the lack of zooming. The point of view is very far zoomed in which is a real pain in the butt in some of the boss fights where it would be great if you could see more of your surroundings (like the Kayran fight where it would be very helpful if you could see the tentacles before they one-hit kill you).
Another controls issue is the targeting. It is incredible how hard it can be in this game at times to just pick something up from the floor. Sheesh. Forward. Oops, too far. Turn around. Oops, too far. Hold the 'walk' key to slowly turn around. Bingo. Got it. It's really annoying how you sometimes need to maneuver Geralt into a position so you can correctly target whatever you wish to interact with.
There's also a bit of interface overkill. The game constantly shows some pointers and helpers like a mouse symbol and some text that tells you to left-click to initiate dialogue. OK, maybe this can be turned off somewhere in the options but thanks to the poor targeting, I felt kind of forced to leave it on to make sure I wouldn't miss opportunities of interaction.
The game also suffers from some consolitis. For example, the arm wrestling mini game was definitely made with the analogue stick of a console controller in mind and not for a mouse. With a mouse it's way too easy in the early and mid game and too hard (unless you up the sensitivity like mad) for the final opponent that you meet in the game's last area.
Combat
The Witcher 2 has a different combat system from the first game. There is no longer any timed clicking when a little pointer lights up but now there is just a fast attack, a strong attack and blocking as far as melee combat is concerned. In addition to that you have secondary weapons like throwing daggers and bombs or traps that you can throw at or set up for the enemy.
With regard to magic there is once again the 'Signs' (schools of magic) so you can obtain a decent variety of offensive and defensive spells.
I found the combat to be quite a lot of fun and reasonably challenging (on hard). As stated previously, the boss fights are an exception to this positive impression because the input lag and camera issues make those fights very frustrating. Frustrating enough for me to lower the difficulty.
On normal difficulty you can quite casually hack your way through the game. It will only get dangerous when you are overwhelmed by several high level enemies. The game is fairly easy on a whole (normal difficulty).
Story
Don't worry. We'll keep this spoiler-free. The story of
The Witcher 2 basically revolves around the assassination of several kings (d'oh - thus the subtitle of the game), one of whom Geralt was supposed to protect from that fate.
Geralt now needs to find out why (he already knows
who did it) someone is having the kings murdered and he slowly uncovers a pretty convoluted conspiracy.
That would also be my main criticism here: Convolution. I don't know if it was my lack of background (i.e. no knowledge of Sapkowski's source material) or just a lack of paying attention but at times I was thoroughly confused about who wanted what from who and why.
There were the interests of (by region) Kaedwen, Temeria, Redania, Aedirn, Mahakam and Nilfgaard.
It was clear that the Northern kingdoms were going through times of trouble and Nilfgaard (the south) -among others- was trying to take advantage of the situation but some of the exact details were lost on me.
Anyway, CDP once again did an exceptional job of capturing this very realistic setting. The events from the game depict pretty much exactly what must have happened in the real medieval ages as well when there were many neighboring kingdoms and kings were murdered and power vacuums required filling. They really nailed the visceral cruelty with which interests were pursued back in the day. When a human life (or in case of this game non-humans, too) counted nothing. Terrific job by CDP on this end.
It is also nice that you basically get two games in one since it does make a big difference whether you side with the human special forces commander Vernon Roche or the Elven leader Iorveth.
I chose Iorveth's path and only did some reading on the differences to Roche's path (the CE of the game included a guide book which I used for reference) but it is clear that contrary to other RPGs where only a few quests differ, you are pretty much playing a completely different game depending on the path you choose.
Conclusion
I think I'll just repeat what I said in the intro to this post. If CDP can iron out the mostly technical issues and weaknesses then they have an excellent chance to become the best RPG developer of our time. The Witcher 2 is an excellent and -as far as our historical knowledge of the European medieval ages is concerned- realistic, and accurate portrayal of the cruel life during those dark, war-torn times. This is almost more of a movie than a game with extremely high production values in visual and aural fidelity. The characters are detailed and memorable and the story -while at times a little convoluted- is well written and directed. All I can hope is that in addition to the just announced Cyberpunk RPG
The Witcher 3 is coming along nicely as well…