The second instalment in the RPG saga about the Witcher, Geralt of Rivia, features a thoroughly engrossing, mature storyline defining new standards for thought-provoking, non-linear game narration. In addition to an epic story, the game features an original, brutal combat system that uniquely combines tactical elements with dynamic action. A new, modern game engine, responsible both for beautiful visuals and sophisticated game mechanics puts players in the most lively and believable world ever created in an RPG game. A captivating story, dynamic combat system, beautiful graphics, and everything else that made the original Witcher such a great game are now executed in a much more advanced and sophisticated way.
The player is Geralt of Rivia, a professional monster slayer, a witcher. Entangled in the political turmoil that engulfed Temeria, Geralt helped quell the rebellion of the Order of the Flaming Rose. Soon after, he saved King Foltest’s life when the monarch was attacked by a witcher-like assassin. He continues to protect the king, serving as his bodyguard as Foltest strives to bring peace to his kingdom. The Order’s last bastions have yielded to the royal army, yet one more task remains - the Baroness La Valette announced her secession from the realm, and her fortress must be taken. A month after the attempted assassination, Foltest’s armies stand at the gates of La Valette Castle, preparing for a final assault. Still at Foltest’s side, Geralt is among them, unable to begin his personal quest to discover the mysterious assassin’s origin and identity.
| Minimum System Requirements | Recommended System Requirements | |
| CPU | Intel 2.2 GHz Dual-Core or AMD 2.5 GHz Dual-Core | Intel or AMD Quad-Core |
| CPU SPEED | Intel or AMD Quad-Core | |
| VRAM | 512 MB | 1 GB |
| RAM | 1.5 GB (Win XP) | 3 GB (Win XP) |
| OS | Windows XP/Vista/7 | Windows XP/Vista/7 |
| Graphics Card | GeForce 8800 (512 MB) or Radeon HD3850 (512 MB). Resolution: 1280x720. | GeForce GTX 260 (1 GB) or Radeon HD 4850 (1 GB). Resolution: 1440x900. |
| Direct X | DirectX 9.0c | DirectX 9.0c |
| SOUND CARD | Yes | Yes |
| HDD Space | 25 GB | 25 GB |
| Game Analysis | The Witcher 2 is an intrigue-laden RPG thrusting the eponymous Witcher into a world of kingslayers and conspiracies. And there are plenty of blood-thirsty monsters to hunt down all over the world, as well. A Quad Core processor and a GeForce GTX 260/Radeon HD 4850 is advised for the adventure. | |
The Witcher Game Series [View The Witcher Full Game Series]
- Gwent: The Witcher Card Game
- Wolf
- The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings
- The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf
- The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition
- The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt – Hearts of Stone
- The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
- The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Game of the Year Edition
- The Witcher: Adventure Game
- The Witcher
Never played or really like going around and talking to everybody and what they have for problams. But in this game, I didn’t stop! I did everything, every quest, every fetch thing, and yes I had sexy with everyone.
I loved all the stories and the voice acting in this game!
Conclusion: If you can, buy it! Loved every little secound of this game!
+ Story
+ Atmosphere
+ Voice actors and dialogs
+ Mature fantasy setting
+ long: 45 hours playtime for me
- long accommodation phase
- minor glitches (graphic) and problems (looting) with the engine
First Impression
My first impression was actually not that good. The intro movie is quite okay, not outstanding. The controls were strange and feeling kind of annoying and some of the mechanics did not suit me well.
If this is the case for you aswell, I urge you not to give up in the first ten to thirty minutes. Play the tutorial, read the tutorial and finish the prologue at least!
I got used to the controls, the interface and the mechanics slowly, but I did. And I really really did not regret to play through the accommodation phase.
Story
(No spoilers)
Most important thing first. The story was intriguing. Of course every RPG has some sidequests that are not that interesting, but there were interesting ones as well as funny ones. The main story was superb and hits my top3 (which is not exclusive to games). It even made me buy the books, which I will read while waiting for witcher3.
The story is dark and mature. Monsters, Crime and mystery fit very well in to the dark setting and there is some very original stuff in here. There is romance and sex. There is gore and death not only for monsters. The dialogs all make sense and there are even some really hilarious comments from various characters. So there is funny stuff, but comedy is on a tight leash. For me it was just the right amount.
The story does even have some twists that I could not foresee.
The story alone is enough to get me hooked on the franchise. There is a lot about the past, and a lot about the now known future (Witcher 3), so the story feels evolving. 10/10
Graphics
The Witcher 2 has its own engine. It does the job it was made for quite well. Everything already looks very good, even a few years after release. I cant give this top rating though, since it is not at the today’s optical standards.
There are also some problems with the engine. I did encounter some strange optic glitches in texures, that however did not really bother me. Here and there are some not important objects, mostly for looting, that I just could not use (loot), and the disablility to jump is just feeling weird. Nothing stopped the flow of the game though.
Keeping in mind that the company still didn’t have that much experience at the time I see these as quirks of a still new engine and have the highest hopes, that the new installment for witcher3 will not only look (extremly) good, but will also miss these.
For settings the only thing I missed was borderless window mode. Everything essential was there.
Now the level design, the scenes and most of all the atmosphere was incredibly good. Everything just feels right, there is so much detail in the design of the environment and the clothing. Even the swords on your back a held properly and do not just magically float on your back. Also the npcs get on with their lives and do stuff depending on the time and situation. It just feels alive. 8/10
Audio
Very nice and fitting music. Slider for music, dialogs and game sounds, which is all you need, but you will need to adjust them correctly. Standard settings pretty much made me not hear the important dialogs. If you get it right the atmosphere auf the audio is as good as the optical one, enabling you to loose yourself in the game completely. The only time it fails, is when a lot of npc’s stand together and talk all at once. Especially in the prologue this was annoying, but wasn’t noticeable often later in the game.
The soundeffects were not annoying at all, which in modern games is not really a matter of course apparently. The voiceacting, which is for every npc and the player character, was really really good, too. I enjoyed listing to some of them quite a bit. It was not perfect all the time, but still really good for a game. 9/10
Controls
The controls were the hardest to come around to. It took me more than half an hour to get used to the controls and the fight-mechanics, but after that everything was well. There are not many keys you actually need and you just don’t have to think about which button to press after some time. You just do. I do not think that it matters much, if you play on keyboard or with the controller. I decided to go with the keyboard, because I’m just more used to it.
The settings for controlers had everything I think someone could need. I did not have to change anything. So even with the long accommodation phase… 10/10
Fun
I had a very good time with this game. Lots of fun. It was epic, emotional from time to time and quite challenging. The quests were intersting and had just enough diversity. Some fights are a little bit frustrating and you have to find the right tactic to do it, but it’s more rewarding to beat something, if you lost to it a few times before, right? One or two times it ended in boring hit&run, but since that happend very rarely its fine.
In theory this game even has a high replayability. There are a lot of different game endings, two destinct decisions that will change the course of the game quite a lot, and even some dialog options alone tempt to just reload and try the other one.
It’s still a roleplaying game, though. For me that means… once the story is done, it is done. This is the way it happend, everything else is wrong! It is fun to talk to friends how the story differs from their experience though! The good thing is: you can go on with your savegame in witcher3! So the story as it happend to you will go on exactly as it was for you. This is the same with witcher1 and 2. If you played witcher1 (recommended) you will notice it in witcher2! 9/10
Conclusion: 92/100 igdb rating from me, well deserved. One of the best games I ever played. This game gave me 45 hours of fun. I highly recommend the series to rpg fans, though probably only rpg haters will not have fun with it.
The combat is nice and not too easy.
You have spells that help you in all sorts of situations , each doing something for a different cause.
You can play dice poker, arm wrestle , fist fight and sword fight , and all of this for money and Dice Poker is not a certain win like the other 3.
You chose what to do in certain situations.
You can kill mobs , meditate for a day till they respawn and kill them again for fun. Meditation takes 2 seconds.
You can have a drink in certain situations and you'll feel dizzy after.
If you're willing to explore everything and do all the possible quests you're going on a nice and decently long story (around 40-50 hours).
You can take a haircut and make a tattoo.
You sometimes do amazing finishers.
And you're a bad-ass mage swordsman.
I didn't like the fact that it wasn't open world. First time I did the main mission and then i got moved to chapter 2 so i missed most side quests from chapter 1.
Your inventory has 250 capacity and it gets full pretty fast , not to mention you walk slower when your inventory is full. If you don't pay attention and you're far away from a Merchant or Storage , you're doomed.
If you play the game twice it doesn't give you the option to skip the Prologue if you want to. I didn't find the need to play the prologue so many times as it didn't change anything from chapter 1 to chapter 3.
If you just started playing the game , sometimes you get lost because you don't know how exactly to get to the place that you need to get to for some missions.
At a mission you lose your weapon and you don't get it back.
The game can be hard even on the easiest difficulty for some people.
The game has high graphic standards so not every PC can run it at its max capacity.
If you decide to ignore the side quests and go through the main only , the game can be pretty short . As the speed run is 2 hours and 18 minutes on hard. A beginner on easy would take around 10 hours to complete without side quests.
Invisible walls that wont let you pass even though it's obvious you can pass through that gap.
You get awesome armor and weapons , but in chapter 3 where you have about 40 minutes left of gameplay.
Storyline
The story revolves around Geralt of Rivia which has amnesia and gets through all sorts of problems through the game to find the Kingslayer that murdered King Foltest and ran off right after leaving the blame on Geralt. Pieces of the story keep unfolding throughout the game and mostly the conversations are nice to listen to. The story has a twist where you can chose which side you want to join and you can change every bit of conversation between Geralt and other characters with the phrases you’re presented with. The only downside would be that Geralt doesn’t always say the thing that you chose , but he changes the response a little.
You are also presented with 2 endings so if you really like the game you can play it twice without worries cause you have some more content if you play again and chose a different path.
Controls
The controls are pretty good once you accommodate with them. Though there are problems sometimes when you try to pick up loot because you have no idea where your mouse is and sometimes you can’t pick up some stuff , but that’s not a huge problem , you wont be missing too much.
The character moves pretty smooth and you can do some nice combos , not too hard to do but they look pretty bad-ass. They might tend to look repetitive after a while. ( I played the game 3 times from the beginning to the end)
Audio
The audio in this game is pretty relaxing. It gets you immersed in the game and it fits the situation you’re in pretty well. The dialogues are worth listening to as the voice actors are really good , but some dialogues are pretty pointless and do not affect your gameplay at all. They’re there just in case you wanna know some more.
Graphics
This game is about 4 years old now. And i’d have to say there aren’t many games out there that are so graphically astonishing. We still have Crysis 3 and Battlefield 4 , Arma 3 and so on which are amazing. But witcher 3 ain’t too far either. The surrounding graphics are really good , the only thing that’s not so good is the grass which you can fix with a mod that you can get for free. The lights are bright and colorful which makes the game stunning. There are some graphical glitches from place to place but they aren’t that annoying (one being an invisible pair of boots , your boots wont display neither your feet , but that’s with only one certain pair of boots you get on insane mode).
Also in case you’re disappointed with the graphics in the end , don’t worry , Witcher 3 is arriving and you’ll get even better graphics and an open world.
Conclusion: This game was surprisingly fun to play , you get to do pretty much what you want. From sex with the main character (which can be avoided if you want to) to killing few of the guys that might piss you off. It’s my absolute favorite RPG for now and it will keep its place for a long time probably (cause witcher 3 is coming soon). It’s a 94/100 for me.