The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Previews

Today, we have a few more previews of CD Projekt RED’s The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings from various websites that have gone hands-on with the title. PC Gamer.

Some of the best touches are on a smaller scale though, like the moments where Geralt gets together with his friends to just talk politics, his deadpan responses, or cute details like the way the kids in town start following him around asking (White Wolf, are you the one who ate Red Riding Hood?) or asking if he carries two swords because he keeps losing one. Market traders shout things out, characters note your approach (although always with the same line, unfortunately) and there are more than enough people to fill out the scene. There’s no great technical feat to this, unlike some of Bethesda’s Skyrim plans, but that doesn’t matter. After the ghost-town of Kirkwall, The Witcher 2 feels positively bustling.

Onto the more ‘˜mature’ mature content. The Witcher’s handling of sex was one of its more divisive design decisions, and that’s likely to be the case here too. The main difference is that this time, the sexist elements feel more like the background of the world itself than the game being childish, from the notable way one female spy is introduced in her biography as one of the toughest under the local spymaster’s command, yet still spends the entire prologue doing nothing but fetching drinks, to the nature of the more misogynistic characters. The first big example for instance involves a group of soldiers who apparently captured Geralt at some point during his missing memories, now greeting him like an old friend. (We’d have set you free, the sorceress too,) says one. (Boholt was just fooling about the raping and all.)

RPG Site.

I soon discovered that the developers have taken liberties in modifying the dialogue system for the sequel. While some conversations play out as normal, a few hectic moments will include timed responses for Geralt to decide upon that can either help or hinder the situation I found myself in. Due to the fact that Geralt is still facing the tribulation of memory loss that plagued him in the original game, it is once again up to the player to rely on the important characters of the story to help them along and figure out just what in the hell is going on. Time will tell whether the choices you make in the conversation you have will have a real impact on the story as a whole (I didn’t go back to try other lines), but so far, I actually appreciated that the game didn’t try to shove these decisions down your throat like it was some sort of life-or-death situation.

Shortly after being transported to the front lines and given an onscreen tutorial, what was also evident was that the combat mechanics have been radically altered. Instead of the somewhat polarizing combo-focused sword fighting of the original, attacking is now more about clicking as much as you can. Geralt moves a little like Batman in Arkham Asylum in that he will fly around the area of battle attacking anything with a red health bar attached to their heads. Things are certainly more acrobatic and graceful, no longer a focus on combos. Timing may not be as important this time around, but seeing Geralt swing and roll around the field to get to the next chump is still pretty damn entertaining. Aside from the use of magic and alchemy, traps will also come into play for players to utilize (or run into as I did on MANY an occasion).

The Gamer Buzz.

It’s important to keep in mind that The Witcher was known for its extremely non-linear gameplay, and this title will be no different. The game is diverse and adaptable it seeks to create a path that the player will enjoy based off of his or her personal preferences, whether it involves a focus on plot elements, the combat, or the exploration of magic. Naturally, based off of this, The Witcher 2 incorporates decision-based plot progression which affects your relationships, the outcomes of political decisions, and so on. While one would think that this is already a sufficient level of depth to any well-drafted RPG, this depth has been richly embossed with more and more options. There are sixteen different endings, three difficulties (one of which requires the player to start the game over from scratch if Geralt dies), and over two hours of cut scenes.