This review contains spoilers
This one is significantly better than the last one.
I'm actually impressed with this game. The amount of game changing choices that are present within this game are significant and there seems to be many different playthroughs one can have. In fact, it doesn't even just come down to unique endings, Chapter 2 is extremely different based on whether or not you decide to go with Roche or Iorveth at the end of Chapter 1. Even though this was a shorter package, clocking it at over 10 hours less than the first game, my time with the game was really enjoyable. It didn't really drag, and it's far less of a walking simulator than the first game. The quests, and especially the side quests, were so much more interesting this time around. Generally, in the first game, the side quests amounted to killing some monsters and bringing some of their corpses to a contractor. This Witcher 2 had a lot more variety. For example, there was a quest in which you had to either kill or help a troll by finding out who murdered his wife. The characters all felt unique as well, as many of the side characters were just copy and paste models and voice actors in the first game. This only added to the interesting nature of the game too.
There's not really many pure negatives I have about this game, in all honesty. Including the epilogue, there were three boss fights in the game and two of them were pretty mediocre. Mostly just damage sponges where you'd do the same hit and roll tactic over and over again. The Chapter 2 ending (for Iorveth's path) was uninteresting too. Just a boring onslaught of the same enemy over and over again. Also, dice poker is bullshit.
Overall, it seems like this game lost some of its depth, so that it could have a really strong replay value. I had fun throughout the vast majority of the game, and I really liked to see how it improved over its predecessor. Loose mentions of lore points from the last game got a pop out of me too. A good time. I'd recommend The Witcher 2 to most gamers.
I'm actually impressed with this game. The amount of game changing choices that are present within this game are significant and there seems to be many different playthroughs one can have. In fact, it doesn't even just come down to unique endings, Chapter 2 is extremely different based on whether or not you decide to go with Roche or Iorveth at the end of Chapter 1. Even though this was a shorter package, clocking it at over 10 hours less than the first game, my time with the game was really enjoyable. It didn't really drag, and it's far less of a walking simulator than the first game. The quests, and especially the side quests, were so much more interesting this time around. Generally, in the first game, the side quests amounted to killing some monsters and bringing some of their corpses to a contractor. This Witcher 2 had a lot more variety. For example, there was a quest in which you had to either kill or help a troll by finding out who murdered his wife. The characters all felt unique as well, as many of the side characters were just copy and paste models and voice actors in the first game. This only added to the interesting nature of the game too.
There's not really many pure negatives I have about this game, in all honesty. Including the epilogue, there were three boss fights in the game and two of them were pretty mediocre. Mostly just damage sponges where you'd do the same hit and roll tactic over and over again. The Chapter 2 ending (for Iorveth's path) was uninteresting too. Just a boring onslaught of the same enemy over and over again. Also, dice poker is bullshit.
Overall, it seems like this game lost some of its depth, so that it could have a really strong replay value. I had fun throughout the vast majority of the game, and I really liked to see how it improved over its predecessor. Loose mentions of lore points from the last game got a pop out of me too. A good time. I'd recommend The Witcher 2 to most gamers.