Review Round-Up: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

The second game of an EPIC RPG saga makes it way to the XBOX 360. The Witcher 2 elevates itself about your conventional RPG and offers a brilliant story and other elements. Lets take a look at what the critics had to say about The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings.

MetaCritic:   89/100

GameInformer:   9.5/10

There are very few differences between playing this on 360 or a high-end PC. The graphical gap is noticeable but trivial, load times are short and infrequent on both, and the game plays equally well on mouse/keyboard and gamepad. Several complaints I had about the original – horrid inventory management, punishing early difficulty, targeting problems – have been patched away since launch, and those improvements are incorporated here (thus the slightly higher score). The few flaws I take issue with should in no way discourage anyone from playing this fantastic, unique RPG. So long as they’re over 18, anyway, because this is the most deserving M rating I’ve ever personally played through.

OXM UK:   9.0/10

The Witcher 2 is a huge, complex and expertly written RPG that has the capacity to consume weeks, maybe even months of your life. While its roots are on the PC, it's translated effortlessly to the Xbox 360 with no compromises and stacks up well against the prettiest games on the system. It's more hardcore than Skyrim but by no means inaccessible and, crucially, rewards any extra time and effort you're prepared to put into the crafting and combat.

IGN:   8.5/10

In every significant way, The Witcher 2 on Xbox 360 is the same subversive and compelling fantasy that it was on the PC. There are some minor technical and graphical blemishes, but they don’t detract from what is one of the best RPGs of recent years, and the extra content adds value. This is an ambitious and absorbing game that’s not just superficially “adult”, but genuinely mature.

GameTrailers:   9.3/10

If you missed The Witcher 2 in 2011, don’t miss it in 2012. The Xbox 360 version has some rough edges, but these annoyances aren’t significant enough to sully the experience. The Witcher 2 is a beauty to behold with a rich, involving fiction framing strategic and challenging combat. Most of all, its mature implementation of morality, choice, and consequence is a step forward that more games would be wise to follow. If you’re interested in games as an art form, making the acquaintance of Geralt is a wise choice indeed.

GameSpot:   9.0/10

...there is no reason to feel slighted, as the journey is entertaining and reasonably lengthy, given several hours of additional gameplay over the PC version's initial release. Yet what makes The Witcher 2 most impressive isn't its length or its vastness; it isn't an open-world, content-stuffed game in the way of the Elder Scrolls series. Instead, its triumph is in how your decisions fundamentally transform your journey.