The Witcher 2, CD Projekt's new release, looks to unseat Bioware for the non-linear RPG throne. Does it succeed?
CD Projekt's latest creation is a 20 hour digital tapestry of gaming brilliance (Give a take a few depending on your need to explore and thirst for hidden treasure). It follows the story of Geralt, one of the few remaining Witchers (super human monster slayers), as he tries to regain is memory by any means.
Start at the beginning where all beginnings begin......ahem, first impressions. The Witcher 2 is gorgeous. CD Projekt's home made RED Engine has succeeded in producing one of the most heart achingly beautiful games of this generation. Characters are superbly emotive and unique, the women beautiful, the dwarfs lovably gruff, drunk and boisterous, the peasants so downtrodden and filthy their manure sodden stench almost wafts off the screen. Monsters and men alike are suitably diverse, beautifully rendered and superbly animated.
Every setting, without exception, from the forests of Flotsam to dwarven fortress of Vergen is exquisitely detailed and a joy to explore. Each vista and zone exudes character and the developers joyfully apparent love of the source material.
While still under the spell of TW2's immediately obvious visual prowess, you're likely to notice something else within the first moments of the game, and learn it the hard way. TW2 is difficult, and has no reservations about punishing Geralt if you do not master the nuances of the combat system and the offensive/defensive patterns of your foes in short order. It is likely that your first half an hour or so will be spent reloading from a previous save as TW2 makes you it's new &$^£". Top tip, learn to dodge and learn quickly and one of the games 6 spells, Quen (A shielding spell that absorbs damage), will become your best friend as find your feet.
This is not out of malice, nor is it poor game design i.e. throwing unavoidable death traps that cannot possibly be predicted by the player. TW2 is hard the way Demons' Souls was hard. If you die, it is your fault. Certainly, there will be times when you'll be in a corner, or between two enemies being ping ponged between your target's assorted implements of stabby death like a bleeding, white ponytail adorned steak, but it will be you who put yourself in that situation and the resulting hideous death is a learning experience, not a chance to swear profusely at the developers for their seeming lack of mercy.
At this point it is well worth mentioning the game includes one of the most unique difficulty settings that has ever existed. Insane mode in TW2 is just that, insane. You get one chance, one. Make it through the entire game with all the monsters cranked up to their most deadly setting, if you die, that's it. No load previous save, no back to check point, you killed Geralt and now the whole world is stuffed, I hope you're proud of yourself.
This is something straight out of the brain of Hideo Kojima. The first person (read: deranged gaming cyborg) to manage this Herculean task will surely go down in the Hall of Fame for completing one of, if not THE greatest challenges in gaming history.
The learning and subsequent difficulty curve can tend to peak and trough at the start and end of each chapter. Nearly every baddy in any number is a serious potential threat through the Prologue and the start of Chapter 1. By the the time you leave Flotsam you will start to feel Geralt coming into his own as a slayer of monsters and superhuman killing machine. As you invest more and more into your chosen progression tree: Alchemy, Magic (Known as Signs), or Swordsmanship, Geralt will begin to blitz through swathes of infantry and the vile goblin-esque nekkers with ease.
At this point the game will balance the joy of being able to viciously butcher a swarm of lesser foes with the challenge of the glorious set piece bosses. Be under no false pretense, these encounters will challenge you no matter how monstrously strong the minor encounters may make you feel. Don't feel too bad, they will of course look splendid while they do it. What makes them such a challenge is what sets them apart from other such encounters in contemporary role playing games. Bosses in TW2 are completely unpredictable, with a vast array of attacks and tools at their disposal. Your success will depend on quick reflexes, and suitable preparation before hand, not in the memorisation of attack patterns that will repeat themselves on each attempt.
Things are not all rosy, there are of course the performance issues many have had but from which I have been mercifully exempt. The menu system can be a pain to navigate. Finding your attributes page, your compendium of monster knowledge (some of which contains information critical to mission success), and hidden stats is needlessly complex. The inventory system is also a bit of a headache. Nearly all items come with the joy of weight, carry too much and Geralt will be unable to do anything but swing his sword and walk at a snail's pace. This will happen often, but finding the right crafting components or unused weapones/armor to flog or drop can be a time consuming affair, requiring you to navigate an enormous list of often baffling monster parts, dusts and ores.
Another key issue to many will be the lack of tutorial. Hand in hand with TW2's difficulty is the game's refusal to mother you. If you want to know how something works, like Mutagens or weapon enhancements you're going to have to either research it or find out yourself through trial and error. I strongly recommend you do not attempt the latter, as enhancements are permanent. All I'll say is don't use a Mutagen unless it has the word "Greater" in there somewhere.
I have no doubt that the lack of help when it comes to some of the game's more minor customisation and progression will have severely stung some of the more gung ho players out there. Understandably so, and you can't blame people for being a bit vexed by it, but it is in keeping with the game's over arching theme. Once a choice is made, it cannot be reversed.
Should the difficulty or knife edge combat not be to your taste, TW2 has one crowning jewel in it's bloody, mangled crown, and one that is well worth turning the difficulty to easy for the sole reason of its enjoyment. The story.
TW2 takes non-linear storytelling seen previously in other RPG's like Mass Effect 2 or Fallout to an astonishing new level.
Not only does every single action, decision, conversation and kill have a consequence, once made and the subsequent events unfold you will wonder quite how the story could have progressed any other way. The depth of CDProjekt's narrative is staggering. The possible combinations of cause and effect throughout the game almost dizzying to contemplate.
What separates TW2's decision making is that, mercifully there is no morality system. Choices one might consider morally good, or marked blue in Mass Effect 2 are never simply made. Often you will find yourself making tough choices between to equally inviting options, or two terrifying evils. Make a choice that is immediately beneficial to Geralt and your companions and surrounding cast may thank you for it, but the consequences in a following chapter could be dire, result in the death of one of your comrades or one of the many colourful characters of note along the way. Most importantly if you make a decision, all the repercussions will not be immediately apparent, there will no quick save/quick load before exploring each option for the maximum possible benefit because it maybe an hour or two further into the game before your choices bear fruit.
While this may sound like a terrifying prospect, it also adds a greater level of immersion because much like the highly touted L.A. Noire, TW2 asks you to use something so often absent from other RPG's when it comes to these choices. Your instinct. The choices I made were purely based on my perception of the characters I interacted with, the choices/sacrifices I personally felt were right and were of the most benefit to those people/factions I wanted to succeed, even at the cost of permanently alienating others.
This made the game's conclusion feel like a personal creation, something unique to the way I had played the game and such an experience is unavailable in any other form of entertainment. TW2 is an example of how gaming can be a true pioneer in art and narrative. It is for that reason, more than any other, that this game raises the standard for Role Playing and one to which all future RPG's should aspire to achieve.
Geralt's story is far from finished, and should the third installment be on the cards it seems likely that every choice made in TW2 will carry over and effect future titles. Despite the performance issues that plague many players, I have no doubt that CD Projekt are fully capable of realising the ambitious task they have set themselves in the need for a follow up to TW2.
Your move Bioware