The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Preview

The GamesCom coverage of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings continues with some firsthand impressions of the RPG sequel over at GameSpot. The article is based on the demo footage we’ve linked to a couple of times, so you’re probably not going to digest a whole lot of new information:

Skipping straight into the action we were reintroduced to monster-hunting mercenary, Geralt who had found himself in a bit of a predicament in a mission called Escape from Valette Castle. Suspended in the air by his wrists and covered in fresh-looking lash marks on his back and chest, we scrolled around the environment to take in our setting. Cobblestone walls met our gaze everywhere we looked, while not too far away, on the other side of some thick, steel bars two guards sat chatting. Unbeknown to them we already had the key for our escape in our possession, but with armed guards clearly not ones to shy away from a fight we opted to play the social card first. Goading the pair into the cell we dropped down violently, unleashing a swathe of fist swings to knock one of the men unconscious. Guard number two fell with little resistance and once the room had been cleared we took the opportunity to reacquaint ourselves with our sword rather than take on all comers with bare knuckles.

The development team was quick to point out that it is still in the process of tuning difficulty, and that for the purpose of skipping through the combat quickly, most enemies required only one or two swipes with the sword to be dispatched. Itemisation has been a key area of focus for the studio, with the character menu screen being divided into all the archetypal inventory slots such as belts, pants, and gloves. The Witcher 2 will include a significantly raised number of items available to players, while a new crafting system will allow you to add runes to weapons, in our case giving it a faint blue glow and some juicy new stats. Cat potions are just one of the items that has been given a rethink in Witcher 2 and now allows the imbiber to not only see in the dark, but to spot targets through walls, not unlike Detective Mode in Batman: Arkham Asylum.