The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings 2-Years Later Reviewed

[Bosco]

Tonight Jim takes a look at The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings 2-Years Later.

 

Read his review here:

 

http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/witcher_2_review/

[Nyt]

Nice review. I was thinking about playing it again before the Witcher 3 comes out.

 

When you said : 

 

"Thankfully the years have been good to the hardware market and I was able to play the entire game at maximum settings, with two exceptions. The first being motion blur and the other is the limit on dangling objects."

 

 

Does this mean that Ubersampling is finally working properly after 2 and 1/2 years ? I remember my GTX580 SLI struggled with it and a year later my HD7970 was struggling with it.

[Guest_Jim_*]

It worked fine for me on my GTX 770. It did hit performance some, but I played the entire game with it on and had no problems.

[Bosco]

I have zero issues playing the game, quite fun but a lot to do lol.

[bp9801]

Witcher 2 is marked down to $4.99 for today only at GOG. DRM-free copy, can't be beat.

[Guest_Jim_*]

Also, just so people know, there is or was a way to redeem Steam keys for the Witcher 2 on GOG. Came in handy for getting the complete soundtrack, because at the time I did it the Steam copy did not have all of the tracks, and I think there were issues with some of the files as well. That has since been fixed I believe (the issues with the Steam copy that is).

[bp9801]

Also, just so people know, there is or was a way to redeem Steam keys for the Witcher 2 on GOG. Came in handy for getting the complete soundtrack, because at the time I did it the Steam copy did not have all of the tracks, and I think there were issues with some of the files as well. That has since been fixed I believe (the issues with the Steam copy that is).

 

Well, you can get a free backup copy of the first and second games on GOG. You get the Enhanced Edition of both, which means all the goodies. If the Steam key for them shows as not valid, then you just submit the proper info on this site.

[suedenim]

I really like this review series, older games, newer hardware. Especially in this case as TW2 is my next game to play. What i would like to know in addition is how does the game play with a controller as opposed to the mouse/keyboard.

[Guest_Jim_*]

I do have a controller but my plan is to only use it for games with poor or bad keyboard/mouse controls. As the controls for the Witcher 2 were good on kb/m I did not try using it, but I just plugged it in and started it up. (I've a Logitech F310, by the way.) The controller worked pretty well. I could see people playing it with a controller quite comfortably. I'm still a kb/m guy, but this game can be played either way.

[MandoPatriot]

Yes, this is obviously well past the day it was released. No, I have not played it up until now. I believe I picked up the game during the Steam holiday sales, and never really got into it until recently. I powered through and beat it in like 4-5 days. Others have done it faster, but I am not a speed rusher, and I have lots of other things to do as well. Also, I have not played the original Witcher, but I would like to now.

 

Anyway, after starting and finishing the game, it did leave some impressions on me, both good and bad. I never really wrote a review on a game before, but I felt that this one needed it. So lets get into it. Every section will be based on a 10/10 scale, then the average will be the final score.

 

Graphics: Absolutely stunning, tons of options to tweak it and everything looks gorgeous. Not exactly life-like, but I can tell a lot of work was put into the visuals in the game. Only gripe is reuse of same NPC models throughout the game for non-important roles. Minor issue, but really only one I have. 9/10

 

Sound/Music: Great voice acting, great sounds, decent music. I never really get into the music in games, but everything flows well. Everything seems correct, did not hear any issues or sounds that left me wondering what made it. 10/10

 

Controls: To be honest, the controls are a bit clunky and somewhat odd. There are quite a few keys you will normally have to use, and some of those are bound to keys that most people do not normally use. Also, to change key binds, it can only be done via the launcher, as you cannot access the key binds in game. You can't even see what the keys do in game, so jumping right in was very confusing as the tutorial did not give adequate description. One other thing, inventory and chat controls are very poor. You can use your mouse to click or move anything, but sometimes the space bar and the enter key interchange. For instance, to add a mutagen to a skill, you first have to press the space bar to mutate it, space bar to select the mutagen, and then enter to confirm. That isn't that hard, but the constant back and forth for everything you do is pointless, why not just make the space bar the only control? There are many other control quirks that I had issues with, similar to the mutagen controls, that really brought my opinion down. 5/10

 

Gameplay: The fighting is excellent, especially once you rebind keys to ones that make it easier. Signs are great, but I found bombs and traps and knives to really break the flow of combat. Most traps take a few seconds to deploy, so you more than likely have to suffer a few hits if you are fighting multiple enemies. Aiming bombs and knives was simple, but sometimes hard to see the impact point, so I had trouble lining up my shots when I first pushed the key. Beyond fighting, dialogue is pretty normal, pick a line and go through the conversations. Pretty similar to other RPG games. Alchemy and crafting was decent, but drinking potions took way too long and really decided why I went sword skill path and not alchemy skill path. Drinking one potion takes a minimum of 20 seconds because of the pointless mini cutscene of Geralt drinking a potion every time. Too long in my opinion, and really breaks the flow of the game. Meditation was simple, but I only really used it 4-5 times throughout my playthrough, just did not need it as much. The mini-games were nothing more than time killers, and you could not bet enough to make a decent income. Plus, the games never gave instruction and controls were sometimes not listed, so I had a hard time figuring out what to do. Again, minor quirks that break the flow of the game and drag it down. 6/10

 

Story: The story, once you get into it, is very well done. Lots of action, decent romance, good dialogue, among other things. It flowed pretty well with the theme of the game, and I did not feel out of place. My gripe with the story is that so many things happen or are talked about and I have no idea why or who these people are. There is almost no explanation for what happened in the past or who some people are, maybe because I need to play the first game? As a first time player, I have no idea who Zoltan or Dandelion are, and beyond the game telling me they are from Geralt's past, you are pretty much left to figure it out on your own. Yes, the story flowed in the theme of Witcher 2, but a game should not have me constantly looking up via the internet who people are or why things happened or are done a certain way. 7/10

 

First-Timers/Replayablitity: As a first-time player, the game has to be viewed as a good RPG with poor intangibles. The tutorial was a waste of time. CD Projekt Red could have made this game a complete knock-out with minor changes, but the fact that it has been out for a few years and these issues still persist is mind-boggling. Maybe some of that is because they are a Polish company and I live in the US, but I can only account for the game as it is for me. I would not recommend this to first-timers unless you are an avid gamer and willing to deal with the inconsistencies and clunky behavior. For replayability, I am definitely interested in going through again, especially since I know what to expect. I am also excited to get my hands on Witcher 3 when it comes out, as I am now a fan of the games. So, if you can get past the clunkiness and other issues, then the game is fun. 7/10

 

Final Score: 44/60 - 73.3% The game has so much potential and should be a lot better, so hopefully the company will listen to feedback and make Witcher 3 the 9/10 or 10/10 game it could be. Anyway, even getting a C score, I still enjoyed the game. Thoughts and/or critiques? I am no way a good reviewer, just thought that this game needed it because of the potential I saw in it.

[MandoPatriot]

Thank you whoever moved my post, got so caught up in typing the review I forgot to even look for another thread. Sorry!!

[ClayMeow]

You're welcome. I feel it's always good to read multiple reviews on a game anyway, so this way people have access to two in one thread.