πππ
We're back with another one (DJ Khalid voice). π My recent Witcher articles have forced me to remain in this amazing world. Felt it necessary to travel back in time to do the game that put the world on notice, that a small indie studio from Poland knew how to make games. πͺ
This is an audaciously ambitious game for the time and team of its size. Above all else though, it's a stepping stone for a lot of designers and producers to find their way and realized "Yeah, we can do this!
And soβοΈ In this edition of Through the Lens π, we'll be taking a deeper look into CD Projekt Red's coming out party from the mythological time of 2011: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, Roll it! π½
π© UP TOP π©
As always I recommend you take a listen at the soundtrack as you read on. It's not the Witcher 3 OST, but it has merits of its own. The names of the composers should be already familiar to those that play CDPR's games.
Before we get too much into it: I don't know if I'll cover the first game. I have played very little of it and will need to study up to do a good article. So we'll see.
But let's focus up here ππ Witcher 2! Yeah! Witcher 2!! This game is so ballsy and so, frankly unique, that it's a miracle it was ever made. CDPR took such a risky gamble on it that I'm surprised we got the product that we did.
There's a lot to get to so let's get to it.
βοΈ PS: This game does a mostly complete retcon of the first game. Just a note before we get into it.
π’ IMPRECISE π’
I was looking for a good word to emphasize this chapter and there really aren't any good options. π This game tries to achieve A LOT. Especially when you take into account CDPR's previous title - The Witcher 1. That game had a rudimentary numbers-based combat system, this game has a fully-fledged 3D combat system. And it's a mess. π π π
I can't even compare it to something, it's a beast of its own. It feels clunky and unresponsive. At its best it's subpar combat, at its worst, it's just terrible. π¬ For instance the harder difficulties are the way to go in The Witcher 3, in Witcher 2? Boooooyyyy, the game gets worse the higher the difficulty is. π
The main issue is that the combat is still numbers-based, kinda. So in harder modes, you will get often one-shot by an unlucky crit hit in the back. Making the overall experience just feel cheap.
While we're here I have to say that the big Kraken boss at the end of the first region is probably CDPR's best boss fight. π
So there's good with the bad but yeah, imprecise.
Another clunky thing about this game is that you have to play it twice. And I'm not exaggerating. Let's see why...
π TWO GAMES π
The intro of the game, where Geralt and Foltest travel through a siege camp, is the best siege depiction in any video game.
Yours Truly, 2022
Witcher 2 is split up into big regions. Not quite open-world, but close. The intro region is just amazing. No question about it. It introduces the major players of the conflict, has amazing quests, and is amazing to navigate. It's just a 10/10 well-done level. π
At its conclusion you have a choice: depending on which character you choose, depends on which game you receive. Yes, CDPR went so ham on the choice department that the game completely seperates into two different campaigns after this. Converging at the end, but if you haven't played both the ending will make no sense.
Like, why? π Honestly this decision boggles my mind to this day. You cannot get the full story unless you play the game twice. The ending will never make sense the first time you play it. And honestly, if you look into it - it never makes sense.
This is because once you know all the details, the characters still don't. π So some actions still don't make sense from their perspective because they haven't seen the required events to think thusly. It's a mess. Once you peel off one layer of the onion you'll start crying. // does that make sense? I think it makes sense
π STILL AMAZING π
So with all of my complaining, I would still recommend this game to any RPG fan. It's just so unique in its execution that you have to experience it. And the production quality is still there, and the environmental design and aesthetics are top-notch. π―
The sex scenes were also something else for the time. // can't talk about Witcher 2 without talking about the sex scenes
I mean Triss was on the cover of Playboy for Chris's sake, and this was before the game came out if I'm not mistaken. π Which frankly is just weird man.
Individual quests are also amazing. The dialogue is also great. The characters are also relatable (when they don't break character to serve the plot, which only happens in the third act, to be fair).
And as an overall package, it is most certainly worth playing. It was just too ambitious of a scope for the team size and time frame they were given. What they pulled off is π commendable.
π LEGACY π
Without this game, there would be no Witcher 3, and without Witcher 3 there would be no Great RPG of All Time. π€·ββ // is that how it works?
Like I said this is CDPR's coming out party, them proving to the world they can make an ambitious AAA level game. And for all intents and purposes: they did.
Some of the company's best quests (and mark my words that's saying something) come from this game. It's just the entirety of it doesn't gel as well as they might have hoped.
And this is me talking about the enhanced edition, the vanilla release has a lot more problems. π¬ And is overall an inferior product.
At end of the day, this game will be remembered fondly. Partly due to the time it was released, and partly due to it being a solely unique experience.
For all intents and purposes, I remember it fondly as well. π
Shout-out to the πPIZZAπ gang, π€ gang. π€
I really am thinking bout that Witcher 1 article but that one will probably be a pass from me. π Never say never, yeah, but I don't like doing articles on games I barely remember. As I said, I played it for maybe 5 hours like ten years ago. I have some thoughts, but not sure if they are enough to write a column. We'll see.
But thanks for reading! You rock!
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Have a great start to your week! π
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The Witcher 2 was really something else. I loved how the later half of the story changes depending on who you sided with!
The sex scenes, like TW1, caused some controvsy. In TW1 a lot of people lost their lids about the sex cards that you got after an encounter. In TW2 a fuss was put up about the succubus quest and how sex was an optional reward.
In fact it was so bad CDPR was forced to remove the sex option from that mission in the Austrailian version of the game.
Yeah, but they doubled down on their sexy times in later games. π Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk have boinking out the @$$. π
Cyberpunk was nuts in how much detail it went into during those scenes xD
We played through each of the Witchers (probably a few years ago now haha), and had an absolute blast with them. I personally really liked the second one and how the devs worked to improve on all of the systems that they introduced in the first game. It's really too bad it didn't get quite the fanfare it deserved when it first released.
You think it didn't? I think it got loads of fanfare personally. It put the studio on the map, before this game nobody knew CDPR existed. π
I also can't wait to replay Witcher 3 with the next-gen releases dropping next week.
Hahaha, what good data you give of the game, it looks like it was quite revolutionary, the game system and even controversial scenes?
That it was man. Thanks for the kind words and for stopping by! π»
Now it doesn't makes sense really. I'd never play such game that needs to be played twice to know the complete story.
Is it like this only in witcher 2? What about other parts? You know?
I actually kept this sequel in my bucket list but of all of them are like this then I'd need to forget about it .
Yeah but the game is good enough that it warrants a second playthrough. Just make a save once you finish the first region/before you make the crucial choice, and you're good. ππ
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It's a nice thought. But what if I forget about that when making the choice? Do I get to load a previous save game?
Of course! And the game has auto-saves and quick-saves so you won't get screwed. No worries. π
Sounds good. Thanks.