In most games, you're nearly required to go along for the ride. When you turn up circumstantial evidence against an accused traitor and the local constabulary decides to hang her, she claims she just needs to show you something deep in the woods to clear her name.

The Witcher 2 isn't afraid to let you miss content, or punish you for doing something stupid. You're intended to explore every option and any quest or task is worth making, no matter how foolish it seems. Too many games are afraid to waste development effort, so they'll make every quest worthwhile. If any single thing is The Witcher 2's greatest strength, it's that honesty. The Witcher 2 isn't as dark or as Slavic as the press might lead you to believe, but it is honest. Imperfect Solutions for an Imperfect World It was only once Geralt of Rivia (the eponymous Witcher) escaped from confinement to prove himself innocent that the game really took off. While the narrative, told as a flashback, was compelling, the sequence strove to be 'action-packed' by breaking up the required path with constant, dull combat sequences. Instead, I was forced into a heavily linear sequence retelling the death of a king. Gone was the massive, open world I remembered from The Witcher.

The opening cinematic was positively jaw-dropping, but my first in-game experience stopped almost as soon as it started.Īfter giving up on the tutorial, I moved on to the prologue. except when the tutorial breaks and won't allow me to continue thanks to some bug with the riposte system.

Even compared to other role-playing games, The Witcher 2 is complicated. This is one of those times I'm glad that I'm reviewing the game, else I'd have stopped sometime during the prologue. I almost quit playing The Witcher 2 before I'd really gotten started.

Witcher 2 riposte tutorial