Frankly, I am still a fan of “Witcher”. The first part repared once five times, read all the books, and even watched a little lousy series a little. In 2007, Poles from CD Projekt Red The almost impossible succeeded – their debut RPG has become one of the best in recent years. The charismatic main character, non -linearity, amazing plot, atmosphere of amazing books Andrzej Sapkovsky (Andrzej sapkowski) – for this we loved the interactive adventures of Geralt.
When the sequel was announced, I really wanted to believe – and believed, damn it! – The fact that the guys will succeed. Some fears, however, were still-and non-reasonable. The new combat system looked strange, the authors did not even try to stutter about “pumping” … whatever, be that as it may, after a puffy press version, the opinion of the upcoming continuation was completely formed. And it is positive or negative – now you will find out.
Kings killers?
Project producer Tomash gop (Tomasz GOP) asked us not to disclose the details of the plot. Of course, we will not lay you and the developers of the pig, so we will only outline the overall picture. The story continues almost immediately after the finals of The Witcher – the Witcher became the personal bodyguard of the king of the foltx and went with him on a military campaign on rebel barons. The interrogation scene is opened – the commander of the Temeriysk special services Vernon Rocher, the circumstances of one of the assaults that ended very … unexpectedly. We are experiencing the memories of the White Wolf to soon help him escape from custody and go to the provincial town of Navy.
Here a very curious feature of the script pops up – the memory of the “book” events began to return to the main character. For those who got acquainted with the works Sapkovsky, – A real holiday. Well, for everyone else, this is another reason to run at least in short content – otherwise the game is not so holistic. Yes, and the history of the world is not superfluous at all: four weighty volumes are not a comic-delusional to a dozen pages for you, so there are many pleasant references and just mentioning the former deeds of Geralt and the company, it is not difficult to miss.
Where to go?
The first thing that impresses at the sight of a navy is a study of locations. The affordable territory is not much more than the razim with swamps from The Witcher of the 2007 model, but much more saturated. Without any doubt, Assassins of Kings – The most technological and at the same time the most beautiful role today. This is one of the few games where you constantly have to replace running with a leisurely step – to admire the tongues of the flame of the village bonfire, the rays of the sun, grabbing ruby hats of mushrooms from the shadows, and scarlet sunset over the water surface. Only the interiors of the houses of ordinary residents are cloned in places;However, to complain about this means to wish too much.
But the lion’s share of the adventure, of course, we conduct without contemplating landscapes, but communicating with people … and not only with them. The authors liked the idea of reducing answers in the style of Mass Effect, but, fortunately, the White Wolf does not carry unpredictable nonsense – most often from a replica that the character will say in the end, we are shown a key phrase or sentence. The disgusting dialogue “wheel”, by the way, swept by. And thank God.
In addition, Geralt learned to convince and intimidate the interlocutors. In principle, he knew this before, but now various threats and persuasion are indicated by icons in the manner of Vampire: The Masquarade – Bloodlines. There are enough tricks – you can promise to “smear the guts along the wall” (and this is a quote, yes), eloquently to puff or powder the brains with a magic sign. The demonstration of oratory arts does not always end successfully: let’s say, notorious bandyuga should not be frightened (but the probability of success, it should be noted), and there is a sworn enemy – to beg help to help.
The level of dialogue setting. The characters are believably acting and gesticulating, and the camera is rarely mistaken with angles. Heroes play real scenes: they are walking during a conversation in the forest, squeezing through the crowd in the square or fidden – everything is extremely vividly. Sometimes, in order to add oils into the fire, the authors rarely use this technique to choose from the answer option, but, unlike Obsidian With her Alpha Protocol, aptly.
The affairs are urgent
Among other things, the Poles brought to The Witcher 2 A healthy share of things. Now our ward, who, in the original, changing clothes, gently say, infrequently, stably clings to himself new jackets, pants, boots and gloves. And re -warns, of course. Things can be pulled out of the next chest, as well as manufactured by local craftsmen – in this case, you will have to put the recipe and the necessary ingredients on the counter. In other words, nothing unusual. Hearing the soul of fuss with equipment is that which was a little missing the first game, and here it is performed without grandiose accomplishments, but with high quality.
To put the freshly coooped blade there is where: a combat system converted from scratch is one of the best in the genre. The rhythmic “jaming” from the first part turned out to be a good, but controversial alternative to clumsy waving iron from Gothic. Today, his place is occupied by the very “Gothic” waving – however, perfectly realized and spectacular. Before us is an almost full -fledged militant – with brutal finished
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off, counterattacks and dashing pirouettes. Conditional division into fencing styles went to a landfill: the left and right mouse buttons are responsible for quick and severe blows, respectively, and if you alternate them, a kind of group technique is obtained. Useful signs have not disappeared-there are still five of them.
Despite the fact that now Geralt is operating with a sword no worse than some Ezio from the latest Assassin’s Creed, the balance between the action movie and the role component is perfectly observed. Yes, we must put blocks with our own hands, but the amount of damage reflected depends on the development of the hero, enemy level and other factors. In fact, the battles have become even more complicated – all the witch’s talents have to be used in full. Ignny, who once burned the balance, no longer incinerates monsters and people in two accounts, but all other signs are helped out in critical situations more often than before.
The townspeople live on their own schedule – they walk, go to work, sleep, gossip in the market … It is strange only that an uninvited guest in the person of Geralt does not bother them at all – they even allow you to delve into their chests.
The ardor of arrogant players who neglect alchemy will cool down quickly. For many fights, you need to really carefully prepare – we start to drink potions from now on only in meditation mode (by the way, it corresponds to the book source – Geralt and there did not risk the elixirs, dodging blows). The very preparation of drinks and bombs is similar to what we saw in the original – only you do not need to look for alcohol. And this simplification, perhaps, even for the good, get rid of annoying little things, instead of cutting important components with a blunt ax, it is not a sin to learn and BioWare.
Without competent “pumping” – also nowhere. The development tree has four branches: the first six points of skills should be invested in the basic “training”, the rest in “alchemy”, “magic” or “fencing” to choose from. Of course, if you give preference to “magic”, the white wolf will not dress up in the mantle and will not pick up the staff: you just have to use the signs often, and work as a sword – extremely thoughtfully and accurately.
Finally, we mention mini-games-they also underwent changes. Fist fights turned into QTE chains;The new engine learned to calculate the physics of the flight of cubes in poker – if the knuckle flies off the table, then the number that has fallen on it will not be counted. A completely new fun – arm wrestling: here it is necessary to hold the ball in the center of the stripes crawling horizontally. Plus, interactive videos appeared – in particular, during the escape from the angry dragon, we will be asked to press the necessary keys several times. In case of failure, the scene will end sadly.
Sincere torment
However, the main dishes The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings – These are, of course, quests and the non -linearity accompanying them. The most pleasant thing is that many side tasks are comparable to plot. Perhaps the first request to kill the violent troll turns into the treatment of Gromadina from alcoholism, followed by hunting for the killers of his wife. It turns out practically a detective-Geralt does not know where to go, and no markers-subscriptions appear on the map, so you have to ask friends, narrowing the search circle. They do not prohibit, however, to finally kill the healthy man and forget about troubles – but this, of course, is the most boring option.
The main instructions are no less magnificent – there is spying with entertaining secretive episodes, and hunting for a colossal octopus, which needs to be killed in the best traditions of slasers. It is here that the non -linearity appears in all its glory. Of course, complex decisions will have to be made as side tasks are completed, but they are unlikely to have an impact on the main canvas. In the plot adventures, for example, the last few hours of the first act almost completely depend on whose side the hero will take – “protein” or royal special services. (It’s a pity to check that the conservation imported from The Witcher will not be changed-in a press version consisting of a prologue and one chapter, the function simply does not work.)
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings reminds of what a real sequel should look like. Quantitative and qualitative step forward, getting rid of unnecessary details, total renewal of technology – in the century when the rules are dictated by publishers such as EA, We seem to have begun to use such phrases less and less often. We hope that the Poles from CD Projekt Red For a long time they will remain tireless perfectionists and will not move under a warm wing Electronic Arts, To lazily rivet annual sequels (finally, we convey hello again BioWare!). In the meantime, everything is fine.