Well, this has been a long, long time coming, but 93 hours and 5 playthroughs later, I finally feel ready to review this monster. This review is both for people who have never played the game, and for those who played the original release and are wondering whether the upgrade to Enhanced is worth it. There is a chance of spoilers, but I will tag what I can, just consider yourself warned.
The original Witcher was an interesting, deeply engaging, yet hugely flawed experience. It told a riveting story, with meaningful choices, but tripped in the un-intuitive combat and the lackluster graphics. Severely limited by Bioware's aging Aurora Engine, CD Project RED decided to build The Witcher 2 completely from the ground up, and boy was that a fantastic choice. The RED Engine remains one of the most jaw-dropping engines of this generation, exploding with colour, life and some amazing animations and character models. It's still hard to find a game that looks better than the Witcher 2, even on it's low settings. It has been fiercely well optimized since release, and my ASUS G73jw laptop can keep her above 30fps at almost max settings. There is, of course, a lot more to the Witcher 2 than graphics, but it's thanks to not only the graphics, but the superb art direction, that The Witcher's world not only feels real, but feels like a place you want to explore and spend time in. From the vicious forests of Lobinden, to the dwarven city of Vergen and the infested sewers beneath Loc Muine, each location feels vibrant and alive, and intrinsically designed around it's inhabitants.
Everything you do in The Witcher 2 can have a permanent, and often surprising, effect on the world, making you truly feel like what you do matters. It's often the little choices you barely realize you're making that have the biggest ramifications, ramifications that often don't appear until many hours later, removing the "oops, I made the wrong decision, quick load" gameplay of more recent choice systems. Mixed throughout the adventure are critical decision, causing the story to branch along its two main routes in Chapter 2 and 3. It takes a brave game to completely shut off half of its content based on one decision, but it takes many, many playthroughs to experience everything this game has to offer. Even at my 5th playthrough I was still surprised by the subtle changes within the story.
And it's thanks to the strength of the story and its characters that you actually feel like you are making a meaningful choice, not just an arbitrary Paragon/Renegade points hunt. There is no morality system, though how you act will not only affect what people think of you, but potentially cause you to lose friends, or even cause their death. Even by my 5th playthrough, I still agonized over some decisions, such was the connection I still felt to the characters and the world they inhabit. Things are going from bad to worse for Geralt. Someone is killing kings, and thanks to some severe bad luck, he ends up framed and ready to hang. Aided by an unexpected ally, he flees in search of the real killer, as well as answers to his still patchy past. See, Geralt has amnesia, brought on by his supposed death. However, CD Project RED utilizes the amnesia cleverly, as Geralt still remembers most things from his life and past and it never becomes all about trying to restore your memories. However, the way Geralt's mysterious past ties into the events of the game are often surprising, and sometimes horrifying. Especially the final revelation. Along his journey, Geralt must fight to protect Triss, his sorceress love interest, as well as aid or crush a non-human rebellion, battle monsters both massive, small and human and finally attempt to stop the decent of an entire nation into an all out war. The story is carried through beautifully crafted cutscenes. as well as dialogue driven sequences, gameplay and books. New to the Enhanced Edition is some animated cutscenes preceding each chapter, and as an epilogue, narrated by Dandelion. These make a huge difference to the story, summing up some of the more convoluted plot lines and constantly reminding you of where the rest of the world stands. (SPOILERS) Also new is an epilogue, an immensely powerful scene showing the march of Nilfgaard down through the south. The final image of the massive Nilfgaardian army and the fire spreading throughout the map leaves you yearning even more for the sequel.(SPOILERS)
But even the best story would be let down without a brilliant soundtrack and fantastic voice-acting. The voice-acting is much better this time around, even Triss' performance feels more nuanced, even if she remains the weakest element at times. The American accents of Geralt, Triss and Letho, the Kingslayer, can feel a little out of place amongst the sea of British accents, but I feel it suits their characters. Geralt's dead pan approach cracks at times, he shows genuine concern and affection towards Triss, and even comes close to rage at times, especially towards the end of the game. Saskia, the Dragonslayer and leader of the non-human rebellion, is another stand out performance. The soundtrack is one of the best I've heard, improving from the amazing soundtrack from the first game in everyway. The combination of stirring orchestral tracks with rich and haunting vocals, as well as folk instruments and screaming electric guitars somehow seems to suit the Witcher's world. It's a mess of medieval, folktale and the modern world, filled with filth and grime, but also great beauty and mystery, each element captured within its sound track. The main theme and the night theme for Vergen remain my favourites.
But of course, it wouldn't be a game without gameplay, and here some of the cracks begin to show. CD Project RED is still an inexperienced studio, relatively independent when judged against the American and Japanese studios, and at times their inexperience shows. Combat is heavy and satisfying, highly tactical and based around clever evasion and combos, as well as tactical use of bombs, potions, traps and Signs, the Witcher's version of magic. There's no way to heal yourself in the Witcher, instead you must brew and drink potions to buff yourself. You can speed up health or stamina regeneration, buff your attacks, or your defense. Potions can only be taken before hand, not throughout battle, so scouting out the area and reading up on what you might face is critically important. For the most part, the combat is fair, though the learning curve can be steep. However, some enemies gang up on you, pumelling you with block-breaking and stunning attacks. Also, when combat is initialized during dialogue, Geralt almost never draws his sword. Also, it takes a second or two for you to gain control again, which can lead to some cheap deaths on higher difficulties. Signs and bombs sometimes don't fire straight away, and the targeting can be wonky at times, too, with Geralt flying at someone off screen instead of hitting the guy in front of him. However, there are a lot of improvements in the Enhanced Edition, to the point where nothing really breaks the flow anymore. There's no fast travel system, and levels can be massive at times, but there is a lot of fun in exploring it, and missions rarely send you running from one end to the other. The boss fights still feel underdeveloped and cheap, but it's the mini-bosses that really shine. These encounters are tense experiences, I still remember my first fight against the Endrega Queen. The best part is, a lot of these encounters are entirely optional. Questing is refined in the Witcher 2 as well, with event he side quests and jobs feeling like an expansion upon the law. Geralt is a monster hunter after all, and chasing down that contract will provide you not only with money, but valuable information about the monsters you hunt and often times, the eradication of that monster from the area, making it much easier to explore. A simple fist-fighting competition might reveal shadowy backstory to some main characters, or lead to encounters otherwise unavailable. Side quests are often surprising, such as a late night drinking party that goes all kinds of wrong. The main quest itself is expertly paced and crafted, driving you on with a sense of urgency when it needs to, but leaving you open to explore at more quiet moments.
The last thing that need be mention with The Witcher 2 is that there is a lot of sex, nudity and violence in this game. It is mature in every sense of the word, with a dark and adult tale. Still, almost all the nudity and sex is optional, barring one scene at the start and one towards the end. If you want to see tits and sex, then you'll have to either work or pay for it. However, there is a tasteful and beautifully shot love scene between Geralt and Triss that rewards your hardwork wooing her throughout the first chapter and acts as a consummation of your love for each other, as well as motivation for what is to come after. It's certainly more tasteful than the first Witcher's sex cards.
Okay, for the lazy guys, here's the summary. The Witcher 2 is the one of greatest RPG of the last 10 years and just about the best games of last year, only just losing to Dark Souls in my Game of the Year list. It provides deep and rich lore and story, with stunning graphics, a moving soundtrack and mostly satisfying gameplay. It's few flaws have all but been resolved with this, the Enhanced Edition and best of all, the upgrade is entirely free. CD Project RED continues to support the game with patches and updates, all completely free. It's DRM free, as well. If nothing else, CD Project RED should be supported for being so loyal to their fans and consumers and not following the insanity of the larger publishers. I can guarantee you, you will fall in love with this game. It even has an easy difficulty that trivializes the combat for those that only want to experience the story, as well as an insane difficulty that adds permanent death into the mix, for those gluttens for punishment out there. There's also an arena mode, for those who want to fight up the leaderboards and hones their combat skills, as well as a new tutorial level that fleshes out the basics in more detail than the original game. I find it hard to believe that anyone out there hasn't played this game yet, but if there is, then what are you waiting for? Go and buy it and prepare to experience something wholly unique and amazing. You cant hank me later.
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