The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Xbox 360 Previews

Without much fanfare, CD Projekt RED has been showcasing the Xbox 360 version of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings behind close doors, and some websites have already been writing down their impressions about it.

GameXplain has a bullet-point preview:

Stunning Graphics While The Witcher 2 is still in its pre-alpha phase of development, the game is already shaping up to be one of the most visually stunning games for the Xbox 360. Though some slight hiccups in the frame rate and some lip syncing issues were ein the demo, these bugs were very minor as everything else was quite stunning. The draw distance and lighting looked spectacular and the art design hasn’t lost any noticeable detail.

While Gamers are Evil goes a little bit more in-depth:

In an effort to show off how non-linear the game is, CD Projekt RED had two people playing through simultaneously. One played it sneaky, quietly incapacitating guards and snuffing out torches. The other ran in sword first and used magic to set enemies on fire. Based on the paths they took and the way they had previous interacted with characters, they each ran into someone else in the dungeon.

One was a young man who had himself escaped while being tortured. The other was a woman about to be burned by a prison guard with a hot iron and a grumpy disposition. After some quick conversation, Geralt went on and escaped with the other prisoner, either by stealth or by sword. We were assured that these were not the only two ways to escape the prison, and indeed on my playthrough on the PC, I had met someone completely different.

While the 360 version obviously won’t be matching with the visuals when running on a high end PC, it still looks damn good. It is a little rough around the edges and the draw distance didn’t seem quite far enough in the open environment at the end of the demo, but CD Projekt RED is working hard to make The Witcher 2 fit on the console and not just be a port. The combat system is no exception, and CD Projekt RED is working to make The Witcher 2 feel great with a controller as the main input device.