The Witcher 2 - The Good Bits @ RPS

What The Witcher 2 really nails is that the people you meet live and have history in this world, and what happens will have serious effects in their future. The common people will get hurt, the kings and sorceresses will play their games, the fall of nations has effects for both the world and specific people caught up in it. This isn’t simply Geralt’s playground in a way that, say, Skyrim is for the Dovahkiin, but a world that feels like it lives and breathes and where life goes on where you aren’t. Just about every RPG tries to convey that feel, but very few actually succeed. With its political focus and close-knit group of recurring characters, The Witcher 2 managed it… even if it’s not always clear exactly what’s happened and what the larger implications of it are. (This, like many problems in the original release, was massively improved in the Enhanced Edition.)

And So Much More Good Stuff

I could go on, but we’re already at around 2000 words here. The Witcher 2 is easily one of the best RPGs of the last few years, both in its own right, and as something to be built on. I can’t wait for Wild Hunt to land, even if it does look like I’m going to need a RAM upgrade first.

But! Was The Witcher 2 perfect? No, of course not. Tomorrow, the things it got wrong, and more importantly, the things to hope that Wild Hunt has taken onboard and managed to fix…

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