The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Previews

We have a couple more previews for you for CD Projekt RED’s upcoming The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. First off, GamesXtreme has a one-page look.

The game also earns its Mature Rating with a frank depiction of sex, this isn’t a little giggle-fest cut-scene and nor is it pornography. If you have a problem with sex then really, this game isn’t for you. In fact it’s not for kids so I hope the moral majority takes a back seat in regards to this one, because if they thought Mass Effect 1 and 2 with its schoolyard groping was sex… they haven’t seen anything yet. Gone are the sex cards and the juvenile approach to sex, Witcher 2 doesn’t shy away from the act at all.

Sapkowski didn’t shy away from it in the books, so the developers have obviously decided that they’re not going to be scared about maturity. I say ‘good’ on them for that. That’s another rant for another time.

From what we’ve seen of the Witcher 2 it’s going to be a good looking game as well, with a lot more detail and quality to the characters. There seem to be a few animation issues from some of the footage we’ve seen, but that is usually because its early version footage and the developers don’t want to let the cat out of the bag concerning their final version. What is really cool is that the developers motion-captured their stuntmen using real shields, and real armour, so that knight you’re going to fight in the game, he feels like he’s wearing plate mail in combat and reacts like it.

The Game Effect summarizes what we know.

Combat has also been overhauled, as one common complaint from the original was that combat was an oversimplified (point and click) excursion. Combat in The Witcher 2 promises to be more (hands on,) with responsive moves and the ability to change battle stances on the fly. Another common complaint was that the game was far too easy, and a rather popular modification increased the difficulty substantially. CD Projekt Red has stated that there will be four difficulty levels this time: easy, normal, hard, and insane. On insane mode, you will have only one life. Should you die, your save game will be deleted as well, meaning you have to start over as well.