Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, The – Enhanced Edition (Video Game)
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Developed by CD Projekt RED
Distributed by Warner Bros. Interactive
Rated M for Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Nudity, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, Use of Drugs
Available for Xbox 360 (reviewed) & PC
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings released for PC last year and was instantly regarded as the best roleplaying game of 2011 and one of the greatest RPGS ever produced in any year for any platform. To make even more money… I mean to share the great game with a wider fan base, CD Projekt made plans to produce an enhanced version of the game for Xbox 360 that would include a plethora of additional content not seen in the original release. As it turned out, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition is so epic and the support of our last cooperative review was so positive, we decided to whip you guys up another BioGamer Girl specialty. Enjoy!
AMANDA DYAR: The story of The Witcher 2 centers around the protagonist Geralt of Rivia as he attempts to clear his name of a nasty assassination accusation, piece together his shattered memories and live his own life in a world constantly in conflict. Geralt is a witcher–a monster slayer with enhanced abilities and great fighting skills stemming from both his heredity and his extensive background in combat. Although Geralt is the game’s main protagonist, the game feels much less like a single player RPG due to the grand history of the world and the huge library of important places and characters. It may feel a bit overwhelming to take it all in at first, because Geralt has a lot of friends and even more enemies. So, you better prepare to learn a ton of names and faces. Luckily, the game offers up an extensive prologue to catch you up on the game’s backstory, and there are character biographies and event recaps located in the game’s menus should you ever lose track of the many things taking place within the game’s massive world.
Progressing through the game’s storyline feels fresh and unique each time you play the game thanks to an enormous amount of choices that can affect how players talk and interact with Geralt, and even missions can change based Geralt’s past deeds. Meanwhile, combat remains relatively familiar to anyone who has ever picked up an action adventure RPG recently. There is a nice mixture of melee combat with swords–silver blades for supernatural foes and steel blades for those pesky humans, elves and dwarves-spellcasting that requires Geralt to use special Signs to cast and the use of potions and traps crafted outside of combat that will help you gain an advantage over your opponents. Unlike most games however, you will have to successfully utilize all of your available combat techniques, since charging into a horde of enemies while swinging your sword like a complete noob will get you killed rather quickly on any but the easiest difficulties. Of course, the game also features skill trees that allow you to level up and gain more power and abilities to help fight off your foes with ease as you progress through the game.
When you’re not completing main quests or tangling it up with the game’s monsters and other challenging enemies, you can tangle up with a lovely lady in bed. After all, violence and sex go together better than bread and butter. If whoring around isn’t really your thing, you can check out some of the game’s other interesting characters and sites. Women aren’t just sex objects in the game though, as you’ll find plenty of strong and influential females in every aspect of the game. Many of the npcs are a rough bunch of blokes that make a bleak world seem authentic, and nothing is held back in this regard. When these thugs aren’t pillaging, raping, drinking, or stealing you can mix it up with them in backyard fight clubs or gamble with them to earn extra currency. There is simply a lot to do and see in the world of The Witcher 2, and Xbox 360 owners can rejoice knowing the game is available for their console. It was definitely worth the wait!
KENNY KING: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition is a fantastic game, but many people will be interested in how the game performs on the Xbox 360, when it was first designed for high end PC usage. The answer is The Witcher 2 does present a polished game that looks spectacular, has a great control scheme with a minor learning curve and still contains all of the game’s fantastic content with even more bonuses crammed onto the game’s three discs, but it still doesn’t look quite as sophisticated as the graphical quality produced by a top of the line graphics card.
Still, the game looks good enough to make any other game on the Xbox 360 envious, and the game is still a much better bargain on the Xbox 360 unless you are hung up on having the best graphics possible or already own a capable PC.
The Witcher 2 has no glaring flaws. The game expects players to be mature and sophisticated enough to be able to absorb the game’s complex, gritty and adult-themed storyline based on politics, corruption, racial tension and violent brutality, so it’s clearly not for everyone. However if you are a fan of these types of stories or simply a fan of RPGs, you should not hesitate to buy The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition. There is simply too much great content and continuously entertaining gameplay in the game for you not to enjoy playing.
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition released for Xbox 360 and PC on April 17, 2012. For more information on the game, eheck out the official The Witcher website.
Game Features
4 1/2 out of 5
Categorized:Horror Gaming Reviews
