This review does not contain any spoilers for any major events in the game

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings has a great story with a amazing plot. It's plot is based on the fantasy novel series by Andrzej Sapkowski and while the Witcher 2 obviously draws a lot of its inspiration from the book novels it does also deviate a lot from them, which is a very good choice according to me since video games are a different medium of storytelling and therefore the story needs to adapt to the medium it's being told in. The creators of the game are also amazing at storytelling so the Witcher 2 does not suffer in terms of plot because of the fact that it does not follow Sapkowski's novels to a T.
The story has two main "paths” that are completely different to each other. These paths depend on whether you the player decide to side with Iorveth or Vernon Roche meaning that you will have to play the game twice in order to fully experience the Witcher 2. This helps with the amount of hours you play the game and will justify your purchase even more.
The game also has multiple different endings based on your decisions and your choices in the game do actually matter which is great. The decisions you make in the Witcher 2 also can impact your Witcher 3 experience should you decide to import your Witcher 2 save to The Witcher 3.

The gameplay of the Witcher 2 takes a lot of getting used to and is very clunky compared to its successor The Witcher 3 but that is to be expected for a game from 2011. The game is however close to unplayable with a controller but is better with mouse and keyboard. The quests themselves can vary from great to boring and the game does have some very confusing map design. Whilst on the topic of the map the minimap can be extremely buggy and not even work at all at times.
The game is also close to unplayable at times without video walkthroughs and mundane tasks in quests that should take a couple of minutes can take far longer because of the fact that the game does a poor job explaining what you should do or where you should go. It seems that a lot of people that have played the Witcher 2 agree with this sentiment since many of the comments on video tutorials for quests are talking about the entire game or certain quests being very frustrating.
But when you get used to the quirks of the Witcher 2 and learn how to do the quests properly the gameplay can be very good and therefore I believe that the game is far superior on a second playthrough.

The graphics are great for it’s time but do feel a bit outdated for the current decade. It’s hard to imagine but this game was made almost 10 years ago and therefore it makes sense that the graphics feel a bit old but the graphics are not as bad as other games from this time. I believe that with a couple of mods you can get this game to look stunning and performance was actually better than I thought it would be for a old game.

This is where the game truly shines. The Witcher 2 has one of the greatest soundtracks in video game history. It’s epic and fits the games theme and aesthetics perfectly and while the game does not have as great of theming as The Witcher 3 it is really an amazing soundtrack. The main theme is absolutely incredible and gives me goosebumps every time I start the game.
By theming I mean that the game does not have different enough soundtracks for locations and events like The Witcher 3 for example. In the Witcher 3 the music of Toussaint sounds very different from the music of White orchard. And the music for events like fighting monsters sounds different to when you fight certain people.

As you can read from the gameplay section the game has quite a lot of gameplay flaws. The is also very dialogue heavy at times with certain characters having subpar voice acting. The game does also have certain map and minimap bugs and some characters feeling emotionless in their expressions but since this a game from 2011 that is almost to be expected. A lot of the games flaws are honestly down to the game being quite old.

While the game does have its flaws if you can get past them this is an incredible and charming game that you will most likely fall in love with by the end of your second playthrough. It has amazing characters and a very good story to tell

My final rating of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings would have been 6/10 after my first playthrough but after playing the game more times than I can count I have gotten used to it’s flaws and quirks and learned to play around and with them so therefor I will be giving the game a solid 8.5/10.

[h1][i]Played it a bit, it's pretty good![/i][/h1] [b]This review does not contain any spoilers for any major events in the game[/b] [h1]Story[/h1] [b]The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings[/b] has a great story with a amazing plot. It's plot is based on the fantasy novel series by Andrzej Sapkowski and while the Witcher 2 obviously draws a lot of its inspiration from the book novels it does also deviate a lot from them, which is a very good choice according to me since video games are a different medium of storytelling and therefore the story needs to adapt to the medium it's being told in. The creators of the game are also amazing at storytelling so the Witcher 2 does not suffer in terms of plot because of the fact that it does not follow Sapkowski's novels [i]to a T[/i]. The story has two main [i]"paths”[/i] that are completely different to each other. These paths depend on whether you the player decide to side with Iorveth or Vernon Roche meaning that you will have to play the game twice in order to fully experience the Witcher 2. This helps with the amount of hours you play the game and will justify your purchase even more. The game also has multiple different endings based on your decisions and your choices in the game do actually matter which is great. The decisions you make in the Witcher 2 also can impact your Witcher 3 experience should you decide to import your Witcher 2 save to The Witcher 3. [h1]Gameplay[/h1] The gameplay of the Witcher 2 takes a lot of getting used to and is very clunky compared to its successor The Witcher 3 but that is to be expected for a game from 2011. The game is however close to unplayable with a controller but is better with mouse and keyboard. The quests themselves can vary from great to boring and the game does have some very confusing map design. Whilst on the topic of the map the minimap can be extremely buggy and not even work at all at times. The game is also close to unplayable at times without video walkthroughs and mundane tasks in quests that should take a couple of minutes can take far longer because of the fact that the game does a poor job explaining what you should do or where you should go. It seems that a lot of people that have played the Witcher 2 agree with this sentiment since many of the comments on video tutorials for quests are talking about the entire game or certain quests being very frustrating. But when you get used to the quirks of the Witcher 2 and learn how to do the quests properly the gameplay can be very good and therefore I believe that the game is far superior on a second playthrough. [h1]Graphics[/h1] The graphics are great for it’s time but do feel a bit outdated for the current decade. It’s hard to imagine but this game was made almost 10 years ago and therefore it makes sense that the graphics feel a bit old but the graphics are not as bad as other games from this time. I believe that with a couple of mods you can get this game to look stunning and performance was actually better than I thought it would be for a old game. [h1]Soundtrack[/h1] This is where the game truly shines. The Witcher 2 has one of the greatest soundtracks in video game history. It’s epic and fits the games theme and aesthetics perfectly and while the game does not have as great of theming as The Witcher 3 it is really an amazing soundtrack. The [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhSBSjbwEZs]main theme[/url] is absolutely incredible and gives me goosebumps every time I start the game. [i]By theming I mean that the game does not have different enough soundtracks for locations and events like The Witcher 3 for example. In the Witcher 3 the music of Toussaint sounds very different from the music of White orchard. And the music for events like fighting monsters sounds different to when you fight certain people.[/i] [h1]Flaws[/h1] As you can read from the gameplay section the game has quite a lot of gameplay flaws. The is also very dialogue heavy at times with certain characters having subpar voice acting. The game does also have certain map and minimap bugs and some characters feeling emotionless in their expressions but since this a game from 2011 that is almost to be expected. A lot of the games flaws are honestly down to the game being quite old. [b]While the game does have its flaws if you can get past them this is an incredible and charming game that you will most likely fall in love with by the end of your second playthrough. It has amazing characters and a very good story to tell[/b] [h1]Final Rating[/h1] My final rating of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings would have been 6/10 after my first playthrough but after playing the game more times than I can count I have gotten used to it’s flaws and quirks and learned to play around and with them so therefor I will be giving the game [b]a solid 8.5/10.[/b]