The Witcher 2 - More good than bad.
Posted: Fri May 20, 2011 3:45 am
So... The Witcher 2: Awkward Subtitle, an action-RPG game by a Polish studio called CDProject. Sequel to The Witcher, in case that wasn't obvious.
I actually want to give a positive impression with this post, so I'll get the bad stuff out of the way now:
The story is very average by video game standards. Which means it's garbage by the standards of other media. The voice acting is rather lacklustre, not bad exactly, but decidedly flat. The supporting characters are nothing special. Although some of them show a bit of promise so I suppose there's hope yet.
Then there's the main character... eaarg. Yeah. See, in The Witcher 2 you play a pre-made character, a fellow name Geralt. This is not an inherently bad thing, I have no problem playing as a set character.
Thing is, Geralt is the most blatant Mary Sue I have seen in quite some time. He's a tough, cynical badass with platinum hair and exotic eyes (gold with feline pupils in case you were wondering) who travels the world slaying monsters while being constantly pursued by amorous women. Also, he's an amnesiac with a tragic past. Oh yeah, and he has a slash scar across one eye, because apparently the developers were working off some sort of cliche checklist. His one saving grace is that he's generally a fairly nice guy.
Okay, now that's out of my system, the good stuff:
The combat. At it's core you have a fairly standard third-person hack-and-slasher. Light attack, heavy attack, parry, dodge etc. Behind that you have some nice robust RPG elements that boost your stats and give extra abilities. And around the edges you have five basic spells (force push, stun trap, flame, charm, shield) and a bevy of thrown weapons, traps and bombs. Lastly, you can get high on... *ahem* buff yourself with an almost worrying amount of potions, oils and incense.
What I really like about this is that none of the various elements feel secondary or useless. Instead, they all complement each other nicely. For example, at one point I was having a great deal of trouble with a big ol' bug monster. After an embarrassing number of failures I tried a different approach. I geared up on incendiary bombs, dipped my sword in poison, lay out a half dozen snare traps and slurped a few potions. Success ensued.
The environments. Oh good God, the environments. They are gorgeous. They are detailed. It would probably be an exaggeration to say they are the best I have ever seen, after all, the Bioshock games and Metro 2033 still exist. But The Witcher 2 is certainly up there. Suffice to say, an early area features a small forest and I was more than happy to explore said forest purely based on how pretty and detailed it was. Not many games can achieve that.
The setting. Well... it's a sword & sorcery game. Set in medieval Europe. With monsters. And dwarves who like mining. And elves who like forests. So yeah, we're not exactly staring down the barrel of originality here. However, it's all exceptionally well realized. The forests are leafy (and gorgeous, did I mention that?), the swamps are murky and the towns are bustling and alive.
That last point deserves some elaboration. Here, have a promo video:
When I first watched that I was a bit suspicious. After all, it's marketing. And how many developers don't claim that their digital worlds are vibrant and dynamic and all that? Well, turns out these guys aren't kidding. There are numerous examples of the detail that has been put into this game.
The one failure in this department is the NPC conversation. They have that Bethesda problem where you hear them again and again. For example, in the video you saw a guy trying to extort protection fees from a blacksmith. Yeah... I've heard that exchange at least five times while playing.
Lastly, there is, for lack of a better term, the passion. And no, I'm not talking about the sex scenes. Witcher 2 is quite clearly a labour of love. Sure, the people who made it wanted to collect a paycheck, but they wanted to do that by making a really good game. Now, I'm not one to say that passion is all you need (it certainly didn't make the story any better), but it certainly helps and in this case, it shows.
...
OH GOD SO MANY WORDS. I CANT BREATH.
TL;DR:
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings isn't perfect. It's not even great. It isn't a game I can unconditionally recommend to absolutely anyone. However, it is good. If anything in the above torrent of text has piqued your interest then I would strongly suggest that you look into it.
I actually want to give a positive impression with this post, so I'll get the bad stuff out of the way now:
The story is very average by video game standards. Which means it's garbage by the standards of other media. The voice acting is rather lacklustre, not bad exactly, but decidedly flat. The supporting characters are nothing special. Although some of them show a bit of promise so I suppose there's hope yet.
Then there's the main character... eaarg. Yeah. See, in The Witcher 2 you play a pre-made character, a fellow name Geralt. This is not an inherently bad thing, I have no problem playing as a set character.
Thing is, Geralt is the most blatant Mary Sue I have seen in quite some time. He's a tough, cynical badass with platinum hair and exotic eyes (gold with feline pupils in case you were wondering) who travels the world slaying monsters while being constantly pursued by amorous women. Also, he's an amnesiac with a tragic past. Oh yeah, and he has a slash scar across one eye, because apparently the developers were working off some sort of cliche checklist. His one saving grace is that he's generally a fairly nice guy.
Okay, now that's out of my system, the good stuff:
The combat. At it's core you have a fairly standard third-person hack-and-slasher. Light attack, heavy attack, parry, dodge etc. Behind that you have some nice robust RPG elements that boost your stats and give extra abilities. And around the edges you have five basic spells (force push, stun trap, flame, charm, shield) and a bevy of thrown weapons, traps and bombs. Lastly, you can get high on... *ahem* buff yourself with an almost worrying amount of potions, oils and incense.
What I really like about this is that none of the various elements feel secondary or useless. Instead, they all complement each other nicely. For example, at one point I was having a great deal of trouble with a big ol' bug monster. After an embarrassing number of failures I tried a different approach. I geared up on incendiary bombs, dipped my sword in poison, lay out a half dozen snare traps and slurped a few potions. Success ensued.
The environments. Oh good God, the environments. They are gorgeous. They are detailed. It would probably be an exaggeration to say they are the best I have ever seen, after all, the Bioshock games and Metro 2033 still exist. But The Witcher 2 is certainly up there. Suffice to say, an early area features a small forest and I was more than happy to explore said forest purely based on how pretty and detailed it was. Not many games can achieve that.
The setting. Well... it's a sword & sorcery game. Set in medieval Europe. With monsters. And dwarves who like mining. And elves who like forests. So yeah, we're not exactly staring down the barrel of originality here. However, it's all exceptionally well realized. The forests are leafy (and gorgeous, did I mention that?), the swamps are murky and the towns are bustling and alive.
That last point deserves some elaboration. Here, have a promo video:
When I first watched that I was a bit suspicious. After all, it's marketing. And how many developers don't claim that their digital worlds are vibrant and dynamic and all that? Well, turns out these guys aren't kidding. There are numerous examples of the detail that has been put into this game.
The one failure in this department is the NPC conversation. They have that Bethesda problem where you hear them again and again. For example, in the video you saw a guy trying to extort protection fees from a blacksmith. Yeah... I've heard that exchange at least five times while playing.
Lastly, there is, for lack of a better term, the passion. And no, I'm not talking about the sex scenes. Witcher 2 is quite clearly a labour of love. Sure, the people who made it wanted to collect a paycheck, but they wanted to do that by making a really good game. Now, I'm not one to say that passion is all you need (it certainly didn't make the story any better), but it certainly helps and in this case, it shows.
...
OH GOD SO MANY WORDS. I CANT BREATH.
TL;DR:
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings isn't perfect. It's not even great. It isn't a game I can unconditionally recommend to absolutely anyone. However, it is good. If anything in the above torrent of text has piqued your interest then I would strongly suggest that you look into it.
