In terms of being a grim fantasy world with characters that somehow straddle the line between being complete monsters and likeable people with understandable motivations, The Witcher 2 is a bit reminiscent of A Game of Thrones, and that’s no small compliment. Both of these descriptions are entirely accurate, and choosing where your allegiances lie – if with anyone other than yourself – is a tricky, tricky thing.Įnerally good voice acting and solid writing helps craft characters who are genuinely likeable in spite of their foibles, as well as a fair few who are enjoyably hateable no matter what. For instance: depending on who you ask, the elf Iorveth is either a noble warrior doing the best he can for his downtrodden people, or he’s a filthy terrorist who commits atrocities against the innocent. The actual characters, too, are flawed individuals, and everything’s a murky moral grey. Not that everyone’s like this, of course, but it’s a pretty good guideline before you’re three hours in you’ll have heard humans muttering in hushed tones about what witchers could possibly eat, and fought bandits proclaiming that you can’t hurt them because they have a turtle stone, which they seem to think will repel you like garlic to a vampire. Generally, humans loathe dwarves and elves, who – in turn – hate humans, and most people also hate and fear witchers, with a whole load of local folklore about these strange, awful mutants. Along the way, the choices you make will vastly impact the way the game plays out, right up to seeing kingdoms changing hands because of what you did.Īnd this is a horrible, racist world. From there you’re off on the hunt, both to prove your innocence and to reclaim the memories Geralt lost prior to the start of the first game. It all revolves around Geralt of Rivia, amnesiac witcher (a mutated, highly-trained monster-slayer for hire), who – in the game’s opening – stands falsely accused of murdering a king. It has decent characters genuine choice consequences tactical but fast-paced combat and the usual RPG trappings of quests, equipment management, and character development. Trolls live under bridges, ghosts haunt those they feel wronged them, and everything is more morally complex than it first appears.
It has a well-defined world, which – through fairy tale and folklore influences – manages to feel rather different to the traditional medieval fantasy. I unabashedly love The Witcher 2 (and, as the tagline shows yet again, playing with the word “witcher”).
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