Second in series better than first

“The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings,” a video game developed by Polish studio CD Projekt Red, is an enjoyable adult role-playing game.
Originally released for the PC last May, “The Witcher 2” was ported and released for the Xbox 360 this month.
“The Witcher 2” is based on a series of books by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. The books are heavily based in Polish mythology and contain political and historical references which may not be as accessible to Americans. Despite this, Americans can still easily follow the plot.
The story revolves around witcher Geralt of Rivia, a man bred to fight monsters, as he tries to stop a man who is killing the various kings of the area. The plot is well-crafted and deals with several themes including racism and morality.
As in the books, morality plays a large role in the story. Sapkowski wrote the books in a way that shows the shades of gray in the morality of all his characters, including Geralt.
The adult nature of the game helps this, with the opportunity to cheat on your girlfriend constantly with various people and kill almost anyone who will argue with you.
The game is extremely adult and should not be played by anyone who is squeamish.
The language alone is enough to get a mature rating, but with the addition of large amounts of sex, nudity and violence, the game can seem a little over the top.
The combat in the game is more difficult than most games in the action-rpg genre.
While fun, the game requires players to prepare before fights. On the hardest setting, dark mode, the combat starts out nearly impossible and only gets harder. However, when you are successful in a fight, it is a satisfying feeling. Despite being fun, the combat never sets itself apart from similar games, making combat one of the few areas that does not stand out when compared to other games.
As a port of a PC game, “The Witcher 2” looks amazing. The landscapes and set pieces in the game are large and beautiful.
The graphics do not quite hold up to the original PC version, but are still some of the better graphics on a home console. Character animations can be jumpy during cutscenes, but the flaws are far outweighed by every other facet of the graphics.
The highest achievement of the game may be the voice acting. The quality of the voice acting is high enough that it could be on a television show or movie. While some of the side characters may not have been as well cast as the primary protagonists and antagonists, the majority of the voice acting is well done.
“The Witcher 2” is not a perfect game, nor is it for everyone. However, if you enjoy fantasy games or television shows such as “Game of Thrones,” this may appeal to you more than you think.
With a strong story, voice acting and graphics, the game sets itself as one of the better action-rpg games to come out in the past few years.