I see there's an awful lot of complaining and nitpicking on this forum, so I was wondering:

What makes this game so great?

- I'm playing it on hard, and I love the fact this game is actually hard. It's been 6 or 7 years since I've found a game that wasn't insulting easy. TW2 makes me feel like the devs have respect for their audience, unlike say Treyarch with Black Ops.
- I love the combat. Needs a little tweaking and refining, but I've never felt so involved in an RPG before. It's visceral and fluid, it requires practice and skill, and it looks fantastic. Previously (for me), RPG combat has nearly always divorced me from the narrative.
- I love the forests. They're so rich with incredible detail, and just wandering through the bush is a pleasure. I even like to sometimes jack the settings up to ultra, and just wander around with the horrible framerate, admiring the marvelous work that CDPR's artists and modelers have created.
- I love Geralt's hair, and those piercing sexy eyes.
- Most of all, I love the new presentation of the characterisation, narrative and setting. Every scene is a surprise, every character unique and interesting, every development in the story is artful, and the world is rich with such dynamic richness that it seems believably alive.

So, what do you love about The Witcher 2?


(Please don't come in here and complain, there's plenty of other threads for that.)

You have pretty much said everything I like about the game.
Hmm... I can add that I love how it handles the love scenes, they are very mature and beautiful. Very tasteful.

This game is Game of the Year for me so far. We will see how Skyrim does later at the end of the year but this game is definately one of my favourites.

The story, the characters, the unforgiving combat and the consequences to your actions.

The UI/Inventory sucks though.

As a sequel to a game very close to my heart I am SUPER critical. And I'm finding it really hard to find things to take points off for. It's like being an Olympic freeboard diving judge and not even seeing a splash then getting annoyed at a frayed thread in their suit and tossing up whether you round up if you deduct 0.0005 points.

I love the game, it is amazing. One of the best rpg I played. The world is beautiful, it is fun just to look around and observe the NPSs, the forest.... Characters are interesing, dialogues are great. Story seems good so far, not the usual big evil has to be killed by the chosen one(the player). I really like the combat, better than in TW1. Almost every enemy can be dangerous so you always have to be prepared and think before you engage an enemy. And once you understand the system, how alchemy and crafting works, fighting is really fun and rewarding.

I REALLY love the sound of the game world

Using a good headphone (I have a Audio Technica AD700) and Dolby surround is amazing, makes the world seem alive with voices of people, animals, nature wind rain, and the voice acting is better than the first game. Although Triss's American accent throws me off a little would've preferred a Slavic accent.

I have nitpicks, but taken as a whole, thats all they can possibly be. Nitpicks. Seems like an easy RPG of the year, if not GOTY to me. Skyrim hasn't got a chance, having nothing but graphics to boast of.


Combat for me is night and day from TW1. I hated the repetitive, disconnected combat in that game. I love feeling like a complete badass in this game with the fast, engaging combat, and Geralt being a whirl of motion flying across the battlefield to stab someone in the face.


I love the *challenge*. I love being able to play a game on normal difficulty, and know that I can do everything, but also know that the game will keep me on my toes, punishing me if I get lazy in combat, and making me think about how to tackle larger groups of enemies.


I love the depth of choice. There are some *hard* decisions to make in this game. Other RPGs where you just spam "good choice/bad choice" seem so laughable to me now.

I love the grittiness and vulgarity (without being juvenile), and dark politics of the setting. Its like if HBO decided to make an RPG. It has a very "Game of Thrones" feel.

It's a beautiful looking game. A pleasure to run through the lush gameworlds, and look at all the little details on character's clothing.


Seriously though, please patch some kind of save management feature into the game. For a "PC-exclusive" game, it sure feels awfully "consoley" in some regards.

For now, I really like that it kicks Crysis 2 in the ass with the graphics! ;-)

I know it is shallow, but there it is...

The story. In my eyes, it integrates far, far, far, far, far better with the novels than the first game. I realize that's an opinion, and in fact many, if not the majority (especially Americans) have no experience with the novels and are taking the story at simple face-value, but for me, it was so nice to see a story like this.

I actually have a lot of little things I disliked on the game mechanics side, as I felt the only actual improvement was the implementation of traps while every other mechanic was a step back, but...the story.

It makes me forgive just about anything I might have disliked, I enjoyed it that much. :p

Just imagine... HBO signs with CDProjekt to do the Witcher tv show just like game of thrones.
That would be so awesome. I don't think anyone else can do it so it would have to be HBO for sure. Nah I agree with you, witcher 2 is definately up there in terms of graphics. It's very pretty to look at when you have the graphics all maxed out.

That would be great, especially with no sci-fi shows at the moment (they even canceled SGU, the last of its kind on a Syfy network). And would be a breath of fresh air after FOX-es inability to make good decisions.

How the lighting contrasts the scene, a lot of times. For example, during a dialogue with one of the slimiest characters in Flotsam, there's this lovely purple light streaming in from the windows. Most games would put someone like him in a dark room, illuminated only by candles or something like that.

It's definitely subtle, but much appreciated.

Game of Thrones, superb show!

SGU = i'm glad it's canned, too many bad actors and poorly written story arcs, and eli is fat.

SG1 = superb

I'm happy so many "fans" are complaining about the difficulty, just goes to show there's still a few pc devs out there who doesn't dumb down the combat.

I don't wont to go in an argument here, but:

GoT is a great show, for now.

SGU had a wierd first season, got way better in second, and the last 4-5 episodes mopped the floor with anything you can name here, period.

SG1 was a long running show (11 seasons) that we all like, but it is bunny-petting with guns, that actually made it great, but not the same thing.

So now you're left with only Dr. Who and maybe Sanctuary... Fringe is for complete utter idiots and people that watch anything. Even the main character is irritatingly bad. Camelot and other pu**y shows I won't even mention...

Ack, I forgot to mention the music! The soundtrack is fantastic. I'm almost exclusively a metal head, and I love nearly every song I've heard so far. They invariably capture the mood perfectly, they're filled with unusual by still cordant and quirky sounds, subtle undertones you don't catch the first time, and the variety always keeps it fresh.

Compare this to say, Dragon Age. It had lovely music, but every song was barely distinguishable from the last.

Even after playing The Witcher and loving it, I'm astounded that developers so young have created an RPG of this standard. I'd be prepared to contend they're the equal of BioWare, and perhaps even surpassing them in no few ways. Especially when one might consider the resources and experience at BioWare's disposal...