Prelude to a Masterpiece--The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

The Witcher 3:  Wild Hunt is an amazing RPG--one of my favorites, but I've always felt like the second game in the Witcher series--Assassins of Kings--deserves a lot of praise too.  I've been continuing my summer journey that I've dubbed "Witcherfest 2018" and just finished playing through Assassin of Kings.  It had been several years since I played the second game and now I remember all the reasons why I've always enjoyed it.

Assassins of Kings picks up directly after the events that take place in the final cinematic of the first game--a masked assassin makes an attempt on the life of Foltest of Temeria, but is foiled by Geralt.  After the pitched battle, Geralt unmasks the assassin and reveals that he is also a witcher.  Why would a witcher want to kill a king?

As Geralt attempts to get to the bottom of all the regicide occurring in the Northern Kingdoms, he finds himself mired firmly in the middle of a major political upheaval--namely the ongoing conflict between humans and non-humans (in the Witcherverse this means dwarves and elves).  Plus, there's always Witchers work to be done--contracts to fill and monsters to slay--and unruly sorceresses to romance.  There's also the ongoing issue of Geralt trying to recover his memory.

Pros:

--Branching quest design.  Many, many times I've thought "wouldn't it be amazing if the choices you made in a game actually resulted in different stories and outcomes?"  Immediately after this thought I usually realize what a design nightmare that would actually be--there would need to be multiple storylines with different characters, differing environments...it would definitely make an already complicated task infinitely more complicated.

In its own semi-small way Assassins of Kings takes on this task.  It doesn't span for the entire game, but happens after players make a major decision during the Flotsam chapter.  You either choose to assist Vernon Roche and take down the corrupt commander of the backwater outpost or you opt to help Iorveth and the elves flee to Vergen.  Whichever outcome you choose determines which storyline you end up with in chapter two of the game--you are either in a camp full of soldiers with Roche and the Blue Stripes or you are in the non-human town of Vergen.  In the end, you're either attacking the city of Vergen or defending it.

This is one of the few games where your choice does clearly make an impact on at least a small part of the story.  The main outcome of the chapter is essentially the same, but getting to choose from two different perspectives is still a great design choice.

Geralt in the Kayran Carapace armor.

--Armor that looks functional and has an amazing amount of detail.  Witchers wear specially designed armors that are lightweight and accommodate their unique fighting style.  Each piece of armor that Geralt dons is fascinating to analyze.  You can see how and why something connects to another piece and it makes sense.  Each "boss" type of monster that Geralt slays offers the chance for players to craft a new, unique piece.  Even NPC's feature armor that is clearly inspired by medieval styles.

--Fun and challenging "boss" monsters that play into the story.  These monsters each have their own strengths and involve some strategizing to kill.  Whether you're dodging the flailing tentacles of the kayran or trying not to get gobbled up by a dragon, each boss offers a novel conflict.

--Lifting the blood curse in chapter two is epic.  Watching the pitched spectral battle take place and then getting to be a part of it is probably one of my favorite moments from the entire series.  All throughout the chapter you learn the story of the battle and then you get to play it out in different parts.  It all wraps up with the boss fight against the draug (not the best boss fight, but the draug itself is an interesting design).

--Beautiful environments.  From the forested backwater of Flotsam to the ruins of the magical city of Loc Muinne, there's tons of variety and each has its own special kind of charm.  Even for a game that is now 6-7 years old, it's still beautiful to behold.

--Improved side diversions.  The first game introduced some diversionary activities--dice poker and fistfighting--and that trend is continued and improved.  The fistfighting is a QTE affair that involves mashing the correct button sequence that pops up on screen and is relatively simple.  Dice poker is largely the same from the first game with the main difference being that the games are no longer a best of three match and only requires winning once.  Arm wrestling is a bit odd--a moving slider appears on the bottom of the screen and the goal is to make sure that the indicator stays in that slider.  As the match progresses the slider gets smaller and smaller.  Very small mouse movements are required to keep the indicator in the slider.  As opponents get tougher, the slider moves more erratically or gets even smaller.

--Combat that is improved from the first game.  There are no more fighting styles to choose from and the biggest choice that players have to make is whether to use a quick attack or a strong attack (left or right click).  As a result, combat flows nicely but is more difficult than in the first game.  There's no group attack (though there is a talent in the sword tree that allows for attacks to hit multiple opponents) so you have to tackle foes one-on-one.  The ability to craft monster lures and traps allows you to choose the best approach to take down groups of enemies.

--Soundtrack is great.  Each different environment and moment has its own music and it fits so well into the general feeling of the area.  My favorite is "Vergen by Night."

The troll couple in chapter three makes me laugh.

--Trolls are hilarious.  I can't actually bring myself to kill them because they aren't scary at all and have their own set of problems.  I particularly love the trolls in the third chapter because they are having the troll equivalent of a marital spat about Triss Merigold.  I was disappointed when they changed the trolls in the third game.

Cons:

--Save system is still a hot mess.  Each time you save--a manual save, quicksave, or autosave--it will make a new save file.  This means that by the time you've finished the entire game that you could end up with hundreds of save files.  It's not game breaking, but it's annoying.  I made it a point to go back and delete older saves every time that I loaded up--this helped me avoid the logjam of having to delete a ton of saves at the end of the game.  Just be careful that you don't delete your current save.

--Minor crashing issues/black screen issues.  Two or three times I would go through a door, the black loading screen would pop up and then it would basically get stuck.  I could hear the sounds of the environment going on but it would stay on a black screen.  I had to alt-tab out, close the game (when I could...when I couldn't I had to restart my computer), and accept my losses--which fortunately weren't anything too serious.

Other than those two minor hiccups, I think Assassins of Kings is another great story in the life of Geralt of Rivia.  There are several very memorable moments within the game--fighting the kayran, the elven baths with Triss, the siege of Vergen, and Philippas punishment by Radovid.  Even though Wild Hunt is seen as the high mark for The Witcher, Assassins of Kings was the benchmark that set the bar extremely high.

The Steam Summer sale is currently happening and now is the perfect time to snatch up the entire series for just $24.47.  You won't regret it!