Unfortunately, not all of us can afford a super duper computer that is capable of running CD Projekt’s The Witcher 2, but thankfully in just a few short weeks, Xbox 360 owners will be in fantasy heaven when The Witcher 2: Enhanced Edition is released. When CD Projekt decided to bring their much loved fantasy series to the Xbox 360 they also took the opportunity to make some changes to the game that fans had wanted, which both Xbox 360 and PC owners will be able to enjoy.
One of the major changes that The Witcher 2: Enhanced Edition has is an extensive tutorial. When the game first arrived on PC, many gamers were a bit confused with all of the different menus, features and controls, so this tutorial is there to assist new players and help them get started in this mammoth game. The tutorial teaches you the basics of almost every feature from the simple tasks of moving your character, attacking and conversing to the more technical menu system that allows you to choose your spells and abilities. Although you may feel overwhelmed at the beginning, I can assure you by the end of the tutorial almost everything will make sense to you and by the end of the Prologue it will become second nature.
Another big change is the switch from keyboard and mouse to an Xbox 360 controller, which CD Projekt has transitioned really well. CD Projekt have utilised every button on the Xbox 360 controller and it isn’t difficult to control at all. The only moments where you may come across some difficulty is when you are trying to interact with objects and the game requires you to stand exactly in front of it and pressing the A button. Aside from this there were no noticeable issues with the controls, and if it hadn’t been released on PC first you would never have guessed they had to switch the controls over.
The other worry that I’m sure a lot of gamers have is whether or not The Witcher 2 will look anywhere near as good as it’s PC counterpart. Of course, with the limitations of the Xbox 360 it will never look as good as it could with a high end PC, but you can rest easy, as it looks absolutely amazing, and the cut scenes in particular look outstanding. The load times have also been significantly reduced and in most cases you will load an entire town, dungeon or forest and then not suffer from any additional load times while you explore it. Simply said, The Witcher 2 easily sits up there with the other graphical kings on the Xbox 360.
Aside from the two changes above, there are a large number of smaller additions that have simply made the game look and feel even better than it did when it was first released. There are hundreds of new animations for the people that wander the world of Temeria and the way Geralt, the main character, attacks his enemies. Lots of extra cut scenes have also been added to help tell the story of Geralt as well as some more quests which take place in new lands, and contain new characters that help to further expand your adventures. The Xbox 360 version will also include all of the DLC that has been released up to now, so you are going to be getting a lot of content for your hard earned cash.
With so many other genres dominating the console market these days it’s nice to see another RPG coming out and The Witcher 2: Enhanced Edition has everything an RPG fan could look for. Whether it’s stripping a soldier of all his gear, picking herbs to brew some potions, helping out the innocent folks of a town being attacked by bandits, or just simply having a nice stroll down a forest lane. This is one hell of a game, and from the few hours I spent with it this week, one that will most definitely being getting my money!
The Witcher 2; Enhanced Edition hits our shelves 19th April 2012.
