Goomb Played! - The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

It's a wonder how a game like The Witcher 2 manages to be gritty and positively beautiful at the same time. Polish developer CD Projekt Red's newest role-playing game is set in a gorgeous fantasy world, lush with details, a strong lore and absolutely amazing characters.

No one is a hero in Geralt's group of acquaintances, including himself. He lost his memories and the only thing he's sure of is that there's trouble brewing and somehow his order, of the witchers, is involved. It all starts when a serial king murderer strikes where Geralt happened to be. Framed for the regicide, he's forced to prove his innocence and avert a global crisis.

For an RPG, The Witcher 2 plays extremely simple. You got three "evolution trees" which you can follow when you level up, in the form of alchemy, sword fighting and magic. Each of them is tied to an aspect of combat but also influence other key abilities, like crafting and the making of potions. Potions work differently and are only used before fights, when you enter Geralt in a meditation state, where not only you can drink these concoctions but also mix them.

The fighting part of the game is very basic and easy to handle. The Witcher 2 turns into more of a hack and slasher, although not as involved as God of War, for instance. Depending on your choice as a 'spec', your prowess with swords, magic or status effects is improved. Fights can quickly turn hairy since enemies swarm you at about every chance they get.

Role-playing is probably the best aspect of Garelt's adventure, thanks to some excellent dialogue and interesting quests. Sidequests are far from the usual fetch and destroy a certain number of enemies and manage to be important to the overall story. Sure, you will run into RPG tropes here and there, like the repeated monster contracts but even those are relatively varied and make use of more than just 'kill kill kill'.

A great presentation isn't the sole reason to jump into any game, although it helps a lot. The Witcher 2 is an absolutely gorgeous game. Environments are colorful and feel alive, even when you're sneaking through a cave. Geralt himself looks rugged, as he should look, like an aged warrior that's been on the wrong side of many blades, with scars to prove.

Music is superb as well. The score manages to be epic at just the right spots in the story or during action scenes and subtle at softer, calmer moments. When a character opens his or her mouth to speak, you're treated with very well performed voice acting. Geralt sounds just as gruff as he looks and dwarves... well, they sound like dwarves. Did I mention dwarves are the kinkiest race on the planet?

They sure are, thanks to how of a more mature tone CD Projekt Red takes in this game. Dialogue more than often turn sexual, with the constant use of the word "plowing", The Witcher 2's version of "frak". You get the drift, right? There's more than one instance of actual sexual situations too. While not nearly as intense as was hyped during this game's development, they are treated in a far less awkward manner than in a game like Mass Effect nor as say, interactive as God of War. They work more as cutscenes than anything though and don't particularly affect the story at all.

It's worth mentioning that this is an open ended game that features more than one path during the story. These forks in the road work a lot better than the usual karma options and they actually show unique facets of the story. The Witcher 2 demands a second playthrough as soon as you set your controller down if you wish to know the full story or see where a different choice in allegiance can take you, for instance.

The Witcher 2 is one hell of an RPG. While the combat can get mindless and cheap at some points, the story and atmosphere are just incredible. It's the type of game that will grip you. Simply put, if you got the machine to run this, you shouldn't miss it. |10