Conclusion
That’s a pity, because the background is stunning - the new game engine created for The Witcher 2 is probably on par with any other PC game at the moment, again straining DX9 to the limits and leading you to question why we need later technologies. HDR lighting, god-rays, shadows, amazing textures and techniques that make stone structures look like they’re using tessellation, an SSAO implementation that actually works, great weather and spell effects... the list goes on. If there’s some payback for using DX9 it’s possibly in the very high CPU requirements of the game as all these effects seem to require hefty amounts of calculations to be performed outside the GPU. It’s proven in practise as well - a powerful CPU paired with an old GPU performs far better in the game than a less powerful CPU and modern GPU. With a mildly overclocked i7 950, 6gb RAM and a HD4870 512mb the game suggests the ‘high’ preset, which runs fine and looks amazing.This engine is also put to work with the very lush gameworld. Rather than striding on top of an environment like many games seem to, you feel completely enveloped in The Witcher 2 - buildings tower around you with a proper sense of scale, and forests stretch upwards in dense and detailed canopies, the thickness properly making initial exploration bewildering. In fact these are the best forests I’ve seen in any game. Game areas are also far larger than the original, although there are fewer of them to go with the fewer chapters.
There’s little to complain about in the sound department either, with suitably meaty effects and a cinematic soundtrack, as well great voice acting with far more variation and quality than the original game. However in becoming so cinematic the soundtrack has lost quite a bit of its individual character, and is inferior in my opinion as a result.
Pacing-wise, the sequel has moments where you simply don’t want to put the game down, but overall the pacing isn’t as exquisite as the first game, and big sequences can have you stopping out of frustration or boredom. It’s not as long a game either, but branching caused by choices is so much more significant that replays should be factored into total game time.
At the end of the day, The Witcher 2 is a quality game that really shows Bioware et al how RPGs can be designed to appeal to today’s market as well that that of yesteryear. In the whole it has significantly improved over its predecessor in gameplay and visually, however not every new introduction to the game is fully successful and it doesn’t quite have the same magical touch as the first game.
