An interesting fact is that it was from this part of the trilogy that my acquaintance with this fantasy universe began. But still, even without knowing anything about Geralt and his previous adventures, I was imbued with the plot, the image of the witchers and the atmosphere of this world.
What about the game itself? She's good, good at a lot of things. Such a variety of weapons, armor and elixirs! A very interesting plot, well-developed secondary tasks, beautiful graphics for 2011. And now that I have tried all the games in the series, I would like to compare the first and second parts. If you look at them, it’s hard to believe that they were created by the same studio, despite the fact that “Assassins of Kings” was released only 4 years later! The developers really tried, created a new engine for their brainchild, improved every aspect, and removed this terrifying combat mechanic from the first part.
But, undoubtedly, if you look closely, you can recognize the handwriting of CD Project: most of the NPCs are clones of each other - but that’s not so bad! Every time I watch them, I am reminded of the old GTA, and hence a warm feeling of nostalgia; limited locations and lack of a seamless open world, for me the most impressive drawback of the entire series; lack of normal fast travel, maybe I’m too spoiled by all sorts of Skyrim, but I miss it so much, especially at times when I need to cross the entire location several times.
Be that as it may, none of the above spoils the impressions of the game. The only thing that upset me was the length! It is one and a half times shorter than its predecessor and many times smaller than the third part. One playthrough takes about 30 hours. But! The fact is that the game is extremely replayable! There are two plot threads here that are completely different by the middle. And also many quests where you need to make a decision that changes its outcome. And of course, on your first playthrough you are unlikely to find better armor and weapons. And therefore, you need to go through the game, at least twice, in order to see all its facets.
Result: a revolutionary game for its company in technical terms, which created a worthy basis for the emergence of the legendary heiress. And just a really good RPG that tells an interesting story. And of course, the sound engineer here is clearly better than in the first part!