The Witcher 2 (in depth)
Geralt of Rivia returns, embroiled in political intrigues and ancient curses while still seeking some of his own memories (lost prior to the first game). The game is, overall, a good package and experience with a lot going for it and relatively few points against it.
You cannot save everyone.
That's something of a message and morale I come out of my first play through with. Deus Ex gave us a choice of sides and who to believe, but eventually forced our hands onto a set path. Knights of the Old Republic presented players with choices of extreme (occasionally laughably) light or dark and let the players pick, mostly determining endings. Mass Effect offered slightly more subtle choices between morally upstanding and questionable, with specific (if important) points of divergence.
The Witcher 2 drops you into a mess of believably realistic politics and says "have fun." That's not to say you have total freedom of choice, mind you. Rather, you're faced with a choice of allies that simply doesn't have a "right" answer. Do you support established government, corruption and all, or those who would overthrow them in bloodly conflict for a new rule that may not end up better? Do you side an overzealous spy master, or a fanatical terrorist leader? Are you out for bloody vengeance, or simply answers? While I'll have to do another run to see for myself, I understand the entirety of chapter 2's story is different if you choose the other primary ally. Chapter 3 surely starts from a different slant, too, but it's so short I'm not sure that really matters much. It seems pretty rare, though, that you can help all parties in a situation - it's usually one or the other.
Those options elevate the game above just fairly good and pretty to look at. And it is nice to look at. The doors are a minor annoyance at times, but never delayed anything more than a couple seconds for me and probably serve the purpose of breaking line of sight to segment graphics for the computer's benefit. Aside from a few clothing clipping issues, people in the game look good and the places look even better. Sounds and music work. I found the voice work to actually be pretty good for the most part, though I might be a little tired of Geralt's "Mhm."
Upgrades of abilities and equipment are pretty solid and feel meaningful - with a few exceptions. The high-end gear you pick up in chapter 3 looks so awesome and all, but it comes too late. There's one combat-heavy section (that I did before hunting down some of the best armor/swords), and then... a couple major boss fights. I probably spent more time getting the Vran armor and recipe for a good sword (that I was lacking an item from chapter 1 to unlock fully) than was left in the game after that, so that was a little disappointing.
I've said before that normal is hard and easy is too easy. They creators were unrepentant in regards to difficulty:
"I think the most common misunderstanding is that most people compare our 'normal difficulty' to other games' 'normal difficulty'. Since we are a hardcore game, we do require a hardcore approach on the 'normal' skill. The 'easy' skill is basically for the guys who want to take it light.”
Yeah, guys, heaven forbid we compare "normal" to "normal." Playing on easy, I didn't feel like I learned anything, really. Early combat was perfectly doable and ending combat was a button-mashing snooze fest. Only a couple bosses forced me to do anything other than spam light attacks, but I don't want to reload multiple times each time I'm attacked by a group of three or more (which happens a lot) either. I feel like if I could have started the game at about level 10 - enough to unlock such "basic" skills as parrying and throwing weapons - I could have scraped by those first fights on normal and gotten better. Ah well. Having been through it once, I'll try a little more on my second attempt.
Of course, the series is somewhat renown for its adult situations. In what I played of the first game, I found it laughable how women seemed to just throw themselves at scarred, white-haired, gruff, self-centered Geralt. This time isn't nearly so bad, actually. There's an early nude scene with Geralt and Triss that makes sense (even if Geralt always manages to have pants on when seen below the waist), considering how close they are. All the other sex scenes are pretty much avoidable. There's another with Triss. There are prostitutes you can hire if you feel you have too much money. The only other scene I saw came out of developed respect with a military girl, and the conversation choices were fairly obvious building to that. There are a couple incidents of rape (and as I consider that, both perpetrators are killable), though not graphically depicted. Mostly, you could slap a warning label on the game for profanity, with the euphemism of choice being "ploughing."
And what else? The game's story feels satisfactory while being part of a larger tale. Some of the major politics comes to a head, without showing all the fallout you know is coming. Geralt remembers a number of things, but probably not everything. So there's sure to be a third game.
Geralt felt to me like an incidental hero who is not without loyalty, but ultimately concerned more with his own life than politics. So I set out to clear my name. Since Roche helped me, I helped him, and came to consider him a friend even if he might be a bit ruthless when the safety of his nation was on the line. I didn't care for Iorveth so much - anyone who opens fire on me during our first meeting gets negative reputation points. So that choice was easy for me.
Geralt's relationship with Triss seemed pretty natural to me, too. So when there came the choice of going after princess Anais or Triss, I left Roche to worry about royalty. King Henselt was plenty full of himself right to the end. If he'd shown any reptenance, I might have spared him his fate. Alas, power corrupts. And Letho? Well, I started out hating the fellow witcher who would pin regicide on someone else, but by the end killing him simply didn't matter anymore. I wish I could have learned more about Saskia, but you barely see her on Roche's side.
You cannot save everyone.
That's something of a message and morale I come out of my first play through with. Deus Ex gave us a choice of sides and who to believe, but eventually forced our hands onto a set path. Knights of the Old Republic presented players with choices of extreme (occasionally laughably) light or dark and let the players pick, mostly determining endings. Mass Effect offered slightly more subtle choices between morally upstanding and questionable, with specific (if important) points of divergence.
The Witcher 2 drops you into a mess of believably realistic politics and says "have fun." That's not to say you have total freedom of choice, mind you. Rather, you're faced with a choice of allies that simply doesn't have a "right" answer. Do you support established government, corruption and all, or those who would overthrow them in bloodly conflict for a new rule that may not end up better? Do you side an overzealous spy master, or a fanatical terrorist leader? Are you out for bloody vengeance, or simply answers? While I'll have to do another run to see for myself, I understand the entirety of chapter 2's story is different if you choose the other primary ally. Chapter 3 surely starts from a different slant, too, but it's so short I'm not sure that really matters much. It seems pretty rare, though, that you can help all parties in a situation - it's usually one or the other.
Those options elevate the game above just fairly good and pretty to look at. And it is nice to look at. The doors are a minor annoyance at times, but never delayed anything more than a couple seconds for me and probably serve the purpose of breaking line of sight to segment graphics for the computer's benefit. Aside from a few clothing clipping issues, people in the game look good and the places look even better. Sounds and music work. I found the voice work to actually be pretty good for the most part, though I might be a little tired of Geralt's "Mhm."
Upgrades of abilities and equipment are pretty solid and feel meaningful - with a few exceptions. The high-end gear you pick up in chapter 3 looks so awesome and all, but it comes too late. There's one combat-heavy section (that I did before hunting down some of the best armor/swords), and then... a couple major boss fights. I probably spent more time getting the Vran armor and recipe for a good sword (that I was lacking an item from chapter 1 to unlock fully) than was left in the game after that, so that was a little disappointing.
I've said before that normal is hard and easy is too easy. They creators were unrepentant in regards to difficulty:
"I think the most common misunderstanding is that most people compare our 'normal difficulty' to other games' 'normal difficulty'. Since we are a hardcore game, we do require a hardcore approach on the 'normal' skill. The 'easy' skill is basically for the guys who want to take it light.”
Yeah, guys, heaven forbid we compare "normal" to "normal." Playing on easy, I didn't feel like I learned anything, really. Early combat was perfectly doable and ending combat was a button-mashing snooze fest. Only a couple bosses forced me to do anything other than spam light attacks, but I don't want to reload multiple times each time I'm attacked by a group of three or more (which happens a lot) either. I feel like if I could have started the game at about level 10 - enough to unlock such "basic" skills as parrying and throwing weapons - I could have scraped by those first fights on normal and gotten better. Ah well. Having been through it once, I'll try a little more on my second attempt.
Of course, the series is somewhat renown for its adult situations. In what I played of the first game, I found it laughable how women seemed to just throw themselves at scarred, white-haired, gruff, self-centered Geralt. This time isn't nearly so bad, actually. There's an early nude scene with Geralt and Triss that makes sense (even if Geralt always manages to have pants on when seen below the waist), considering how close they are. All the other sex scenes are pretty much avoidable. There's another with Triss. There are prostitutes you can hire if you feel you have too much money. The only other scene I saw came out of developed respect with a military girl, and the conversation choices were fairly obvious building to that. There are a couple incidents of rape (and as I consider that, both perpetrators are killable), though not graphically depicted. Mostly, you could slap a warning label on the game for profanity, with the euphemism of choice being "ploughing."
And what else? The game's story feels satisfactory while being part of a larger tale. Some of the major politics comes to a head, without showing all the fallout you know is coming. Geralt remembers a number of things, but probably not everything. So there's sure to be a third game.
Geralt felt to me like an incidental hero who is not without loyalty, but ultimately concerned more with his own life than politics. So I set out to clear my name. Since Roche helped me, I helped him, and came to consider him a friend even if he might be a bit ruthless when the safety of his nation was on the line. I didn't care for Iorveth so much - anyone who opens fire on me during our first meeting gets negative reputation points. So that choice was easy for me.
Geralt's relationship with Triss seemed pretty natural to me, too. So when there came the choice of going after princess Anais or Triss, I left Roche to worry about royalty. King Henselt was plenty full of himself right to the end. If he'd shown any reptenance, I might have spared him his fate. Alas, power corrupts. And Letho? Well, I started out hating the fellow witcher who would pin regicide on someone else, but by the end killing him simply didn't matter anymore. I wish I could have learned more about Saskia, but you barely see her on Roche's side.
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