Conclusion

Honestly, what more can I say? The Witcher 2 is a lovingly crafted, beautiful, and detailed RPG, with a riveting and genuinely mature story. Many of my points of criticism were minor, though some are potentially bothersome, including the odd decisions with the game's interface, camera angle, and aspect ratio, as well as a semi-flawed combat system. And, sure, I would have liked to see more complexity and more balance in the character system. But that doesn't take away quite how strong the core the game is, the choice and consequence playing off against the realistic setting brilliantly, while the level of care having gone into the game helps give weight to the choices offered by making the fleshed-out world feel real.

Considering where mainstream RPGs have been trending towards lately, the Witcher 2 is a great step in the right direction. I don't feel the combat segment of RPGs has to be action-based, quite the opposite, nor do I understand the need to add gimmicks like QTEs to the RPG genre. Yet, if someone wants to craft an “evolved” RPG with action-based combat, this is what it should be. It is about gaining complexity and becoming more mature, instead of simplifying and schlock stories. Leaving aside the debate on combat and camera angles, the core mistake of where the RPG genre is thundering to is that developers do not respect players. The Witcher 2 isn't unremittingly hard, nor will it win awards for complexity in its combat or RPG systems, but what sets it apart from the Dragon Age IIs of the world is both the enormous amount of work put into its every detail, and in not being afraid to challenge the player and offer him or her real and mature choices. It is for those reasons that The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings is easily our early frontrunner for "RPG of the Year", with no title released so far this year even coming close.
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