Version played: Xbox 360 enhanced edition
CD Projekt Red's The Witcher 2 is the game Bioware has been attempting to make for five years now, its combat is tactical but visceral and exciting, its plot is mature and complex, and the decisions you decide as monster hunter Geralt of Rivia actually have consequences that really effect the world. Time and time again Bioware pride themselves on being the greatest storytellers in gaming when really the high points of games like Mass Effect and Dragon Age rarely hit the excellence of The Witcher's minute to minute gameplay.
One word often tossed around with this game is "Mature", of course the game has the gore often found in games, but also full frontal (Female) nudity which is both controversial and rare in this medium. But the maturity of The Witcher 2 comes not from sex or gore, but by the pure grit and believeability of the world you inhabit.
The modern Fantasy genre can often be broken down into two forms : Tolkienesque six volume epic adventures where there is a clear gap between good and evil. where elves, dwarves and others inhabit it and magic is commonplace, but these adventures are often vanilla and predictable, and i lose interest long before the final book.
The other type of modern fantasy is the newly popular "contemporary fantasy" that contains books like "Game of Thrones" and such, this fantasy often eschews the magic and elves and revels in moral greyness, heroes dying every other chapter, with little action intead focusing on political intricacies and gratuitous sex. The Witcher is based on a Polish saga written by Andrej Sapkowski that traces a fine line between the two which embraces the action and worlds of the first type, while living in the moral greyness, realism and politics of the other with a dose of the sexuality too.
Story: You are Geralt of Rivia an alchemically and magically enhanced monster slayer for hire who is framed for regicide and begins to search for the kingslayer and must explore a world of corruption and political intrigue. I'm currently only one third of the way but ive experienced enough of the plot and writing to say that it is a finely crafted yarn, not only for a video game but also the fantasy genre. The voice acting is excellent across the board, but it does suffer from that strange anomaly of some fantasy games where everyone except the main character is british, with Geralt and sorceress/lover Triss merigold having american accents.
Gameplay: The game is usually separated into one of these three actions, combat, dialogue and crafting/alchemy. Firstly, and i can't mention this enough, the combat is hard. Very hard in fact. You need to prepare yourself with potions before battle for bonus that you need to survive and you cant drink them in battle, you must use oils and upgrades on your swords or else you will die frequently, actually pro tip: save often to stop dissapointment later. The autosave system of this game is unforgiving and shouldnt be trusted on its own. The game contains the standard leveling up, skill trees found in RPGs and so far i havent specialised in anything so i cant speak on that subject. The dialogue system of the game is the standard voiced affair found in dragon age or mass effect but is styled more like skyrim. Crafting in this game is a dream : easy to use, but contains depth that you are slowly introduced into.
Part Two will be released when i have completed the game.
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