The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Previews

Two more sites have done their writeups of the recent hands-on sessions with the Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, and both come away impressed. Rock, Paper, Shotgun.

Good as the combat seems though, it’s not really what I’m looking forward to. It’s the narrative side that feels the freshest about The Witcher 2, coupled with some excellent world design. The dwarf city of Vergan isn’t particularly inspired, but it looks lovely, and feels lively. The shopkeepers in the market babble constantly, and while there may only be a few real characters of importance in the local inn, its benches are full of NPCs with a line or two to be triggered. It definitely feels like a world I want to explore, especially knowing that the branching story isn’t afraid to cut off paths and opportunities throughout the game, not simply at the end.

I can’t wait for Dragon Age II. I’m really looking forward to The Old Republic. But really, it’s The Witcher 2 that has me most excited. Even if it simply repeats what the first game did in a more polished form, it’ll be good. And even an hour with it makes it obvious that CD Projekt has much higher ambitions than that. I want a world that embraces its shades of grey, and that understands that ‘˜mature’ can be a compliment, not simply a content warning. Everything I’ve seen of it suggests it’s going to be very special indeed. I really hope so. I want it to be a game I love, and a game I can recommend to friends without adding ‘˜after the first few hours’.

Raiding Party.

Turns out had we had more of a chin-wag, it would have transpired she wasn’t responsible for the killings after all just one example of The Witcher’s choice-affecting structure. And our choice was a comparatively small one according to Gop some players won’t even reach the city of Vergen depending on the choices they make. (We want to create a story, to write it, script it, and at the same time give the player freedom to do whatever they want with it, and carve their own path. Regarding the story I don’t think there are too many games that do it the way that Witcher does it.)

Definitely food for thought. So our hands-on comes to an end, and The Witcher 2 is filling us with ‘˜want.’ Our 90-minute sojourn with the game was immersive, exciting, and visually spectacular. There’s even time for Gop to tease the possibility of a console release, going so far as to admit they’ve already tested parts of the game on Xbox 360 and PS3.