Twelve Splendid Things About The Witcher 2

The editors over at Rock, Paper, Shotgun have cranked out a list of twelve “splendid things” that CD Projekt RED’s The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings has going for it. A handful of points that caught my eye:

2. Almost every potion has a negative effect, in addition to the fact that drinking one briefly poisons you. What might add health reduces your magical energy, or vice-versa, while one that lets you see in the dark for a few minutes makes emerging into daylight a painful experience. It’s chemical gambling, choosing what sacrifices you make in the name of success, rather than the dubiously neat’n’perfect potions of fantasy tradition. You also can’t down something in the middle of a fight (really, when does that ever happen in reality?), but instead have to prepare beforehand. You plan your fights rather than simply blindly react to adversity and you may well get your pale arse kicked if you don’t.

6. Granted this was introduced in the first game, but the dramatically improved writing and acting means it’s more convincingly explored this time around. Elves and dwarves aren’t the charming, friendly chappies of this particular fantasy world they’re outsiders, looked upon by the governing humans with contempt at best and violent prejudice at worst. Fairly early on in the game, you need to make decisions about whether you sympathise with a group of bitter elves who are essentially terrorists, or side with a human governor who’s working to protect his people but is openly racist in his attitudes. It’s not easy. The elves (and to a lesser extent so far dwarves) are violently angry about their treatment, and righteously so but that means other lives are placed in danger. This is a morally complex world, with no easy answers.

8. The collection and construction of mega-loot is a proper and satisfying quest in itself. For instance, collecting a certain amount of Endraga jaws to build a powerful sword, or scouring local traders for rare materials to create a new set of armour. It’s all done off your own back, in your own interest, not just because some near-motionless goon with a quest arrow has inexplicably demanded you collect 12 pig testicles for him. It’s meaningful to you, not to a silent NPC.

11. It’s a morally and politically complicated place, on a micro to a macro level. Is slaying a murderous troll under a bridge necessarily a good idea, given he could legitimately keep bad sorts from entering town if only you can talk him out of whatever blood-crazed doldrums he’s in? Is a king who’s sired bastard children and embarked on arguably unnecessary wars a bad king, or does his general conviction and generosity make him a better ruler than most? Or is he just a man, and should be thought of as such? There’s an awful lot of politics in the Witcher 2; unfortunately some of it is near nonsensical to newcomers (a serious worry about the game is it presumes everyone has played and finished the original Witcher) but many fascinating bigger pictures emerge once you dig in. Its interest in dark politicking, wrestling with prejudice and grand conspiracy means it’s immediately a whole lot more interesting than the usual (walk over there to save the world) claptrap.