{"id":7564,"date":"2012-06-13T23:52:34","date_gmt":"2012-06-13T13:52:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=7564"},"modified":"2014-05-13T12:03:31","modified_gmt":"2014-05-13T02:03:31","slug":"the-witcher-ii-assassins-of-kings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=7564","title":{"rendered":"The Witcher II: Assassins of Kings"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"thewitcher2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Platform:\u00a0 <\/strong>Xbox 360<\/em>
\nDeveloper:\u00a0 <\/strong><\/strong>CD Projekt Red<\/em>
\nPublisher:\u00a0<\/strong><\/strong> Bandai Namco
\n<\/em><\/p>\nT<\/span>he video game industry is changing.\u00a0 I’d wager to say that not since the arrival of the Nintendo Entertainment System arrived in the mid-Eighties, which marked a shift for gaming from arcades to home consoles, have we seen such a state of transition for electronic gaming.<\/p>\n

The vast majority of today’s gaming is done on web browsers and smart phones which offer free-to-play options and $1 downloads.\u00a0 This tipping point was reached two years ago where seemingly overnight, companies like Zynga were suddenly worth billions of dollars, rivalling established video game companies like Nintendo.\u00a0 The shift in the casual audience play-space has significantly changed the landscape for traditional home consoles.<\/p>\n

Normally, when a generation of game consoles reaches maturity, which is usually around 5-6 years into its lifespan, there is a large market that can support second tier games.\u00a0 Niche genres like horror games, stealth games and adventure games.\u00a0 Games that had modest budgets but could still find a big enough fanbase to make their money back.<\/p>\n

In today’s climate, that segment has all but disappeared, and it might be taking down established publishers like THQ, SEGAand Capcom with it.\u00a0 We’re in a day and age where a game like L.A Noire<\/em> can sell 5 million copies and yet the developer Team Bondi still goes into administration.\u00a0 Where a South Park<\/em> RPG developed by Obsidian needs to sell 2 million copies to break even.\u00a0 Where THQ offloads its UFC license to EA because its not worth investing in a license for a game that ‘only sells 1.5 million copies.’\u00a0 With high production costs and a tough market that is heavily entrenched around a select few games (Call of Duty, Assassin’s Creed<\/em> etc.), once popular game genres such as the traditional role playing game have suffered and these smaller games have begun to disappear.<\/p>\n

Which is why Polish developer CD Projeckt’s The Witcher II<\/em> is a breath of fresh air.\u00a0 This Western action RPG is based on a book series of the same name by a Polish author.\u00a0 It is unashamedly ‘gamey’ and expects a certain level of familiarity with RPGs of the player.\u00a0 It doesn’t have an online access key or a multiplayer mode but it comes with a thick, detailed colour manual, a fold out map and a bonus soundtrack CD.\u00a0 It is clearly targeting a very particular type of gamer.<\/p>\n

The Witcher II<\/em> is set in a medieval fantasy world called Temeria where the player controls a character named Geralt, an assassin for hire.\u00a0 Geralt is a ‘Witcher’ which is comparable to a Ranger in Lord of the Rings<\/em>.\u00a0 Witchers are genetically superior humans that possess gifted traits – greater strength, speed, intelligence and so on.<\/p>\n

In the game’s prologue, Geralt is wrongfully accused of regicide and he sets out to clear his name.\u00a0 The story quickly becomes much more expansive than that however and becomes an enjoyable yarn than spins together politics, sex, sorcery and war-mongering.\u00a0 After playing through Square’s gorgeous but crushingly shallow Final Fantasy XIII<\/em> series, this was a welcome, grungier alternative.<\/p>\n

The Witcher II<\/em> may be a B-tier game in terms of budget and distribution but it still holds its own graphically.\u00a0 CD Projeckt’s engine runs smoothly enough on the old Xbox 360 hardware and despite the occasional spot of texture pop-in, there is a large expansive world to be explored here that looks crisp and detailed.<\/p>\n

The game’s branching storylines were a welcome surprise.\u00a0 There are some pretty significant decisions that the player can make in the game including who they choose to form a relationship with, who they form an alliance with and when they choose to fight or use diplomacy.\u00a0 It’s this final option that I really appreciated the most.\u00a0 Many games like Deus Ex<\/em> and Mass Effect<\/em> offer branching dialogue trees and token love interests but insist on combat when it comes to interactions with the major antagonists.\u00a0 Not so in The Witcher II<\/em>.\u00a0 You really are given a range of options when Geralt crosses pathes with Letho the kingslayer, Roche the captain of the guard and Iorveth the elvish rebel.<\/p>\n

The Witcher II <\/em>has a challenging but fair combat system.\u00a0 There is an easy to follow skill-tree for levelling up Geralt as either a swordsman, mage or alchemist.\u00a0 Or if you’re indecisive like me, a weak jack-of-all-trades that isn’t particularly good at anything.\u00a0 In addition to hand to hand combat, you can set traps, cast spells and throw daggers.\u00a0 And if all else fails or you run out of stuff to throw at your enemies, you can contiously barrel-roll like Donkey Kong until you flank your opponent, then get in a quick stab to the lower back.<\/p>\n

I liked the world of Temeria that CD Projeckt have crafted.\u00a0 It’s a thoroughly R-rated environment that takes influence from George R R Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire<\/em> series.\u00a0 The world is populated with thieves, wenches, crooks and politicians who all desperately try to serve their own interests. as best they can\u00a0 You are given plenty to do if you want to stray from the main storyline.\u00a0 There are games of dice to be played, pub brawls to be had and monster hunting sidequests galore.<\/p>\n

The main storyline in The Witcher II<\/em> can probably be completed in around 15-20 hours.\u00a0 I probably took twice as long as that because I enjoyed exploring the world to its fullest.\u00a0 I like that the story seems purposefully low-key.\u00a0 It feels like just one chapter in a series of events.\u00a0 Some plotlines are resolved, others left open-ended.\u00a0 Its not like a traditional Japanese RPG where the final boss is always God in an apocalyptic showdown.<\/p>\n

The Witcher II<\/em> is an excellent game but I appreciate it all the more because it belongs to a category of game that is becoming increasingly rare.\u00a0 It is a modestly produced RPG that doesn’t come from a megabucks publisher or well known developer.\u00a0 It contains mature content, satisfying gameplay and interesting, thoughtfully developed characters.\u00a0 Whatever happens to the game industry next is anyone’s guess.\u00a0 But I hope that affordable middleware and cheaper distribution models will help sustain an ecosystem in which games like this can continue to thrive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yennefer? I hardly knew her!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":7566,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1291,1290,1282,9],"class_list":["post-7564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gaming","tag-cd-projeckt","tag-the-witcher","tag-the-witcher-ii","tag-xbox360"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7564"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14817,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7564\/revisions\/14817"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}