The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Analysis

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Analysis

David Hunter

January 25, 2018

1 Overview

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings is an action RPG title developed and published by CD Projekt RED in 2011. It is the sequel to the 2007 game The Witcher, and was followed by The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt in 2015. This trilogy is based on a series of novels and short stories by the Polish author Adrzej Sapkoski.

2 Formal Elements

2.1 Players

The Witcher series are all single-player games. In them, the player takes on the role of Geralt of Rivia, a famous witcher. In Sapkowski’s fantasy world, witchers are people who have been genetically mutated and trained in order to hunt dangerous monsters. The Witcher 2 picks up an unknown amount of time after the events in The Witcher. Geralt has lost his memory previous to the events of The Witcher, and a main plot point in The Witcher 2 is Geralt attempting to regain his memory.

2.2 Objectives

The player is tasked with uncovering the mystery of Geralt’s missing memories. To achieve this, he will become entangled in a political assassination, a conflict between several human kingdoms and an alliance of non-humans struggling for freedom and equal treatment, and of course hunt monsters.

2.3 Rules

Like many RPGs, The Witcher 2 features a complicated rule set.

2.3.1 Items and Inventory

Geralt may interact with and pick up a great number of items. Weapons and armor from defeated enemies may be picked up and equipped, as can body parts from fallen monsters, flowers and herbs from plants, and random bric-à-brac.

Witchers use two swords, a steel sword for humans, and a silver sword for monsters. Geralt always has both equipped, and the player may upgrade them using rune stones, by finding better ones, or by crafting them using diagrams and crafting components at a blacksmith shop.

Boots, leggings, gauntlets, and body armor may similarly be equipped, upgraded, and crafted.

Herbs and monster parts can be used to make alchemical potions which give Geralt different abilities, such as regenerating his health, making his blood poisonous to vampires, allowing him to see in the dark, and many others. Monster parts and the bric-à-brac may also be used in a complicated crafting system: leather may be crafted by taking cloth, oil, and necrophage skin and combining them together. Leather itself may be used as a component to create items such as leather jackets, boots, etc, or it can be further crafted into Hardened leather by adding more oil.

All items, including armor and weapons, have weight. If the weight of the items Geralt is carrying exceeds his weight limit, he will be unable to run, and during combat he will be unable to roll or dodge.

2.3.2 Stats and Leveling

Geralt has several stats, which include: Damage, Armor, Vitality, Vigor, Adrenaline, Resistance, Critical Effects, and Knowledge.

• Damage indicates how much an attack by Geralt will reduce an enemy’s Vitality. This is a range, as all weapons have slightly randomized damage.
• Armor blocks damage from enemy attacks. The higher the rating, the more damage is be blocked.
• Vitality is the amount of health Geralt has. When his Vitality reaches 0, he dies and the game must be reloaded from a previous save. Potions and abilities can increase vitality regeneration outside of and during combat.
• Vigor is how many times Geralt may use a magical sign in a row. One use costs one Vigor, but potions and abilities can increase Vigor regeneration during combat.
• Adrenaline is a meter that is filled by engaging in combat. Potions and abilities can increase its generation. When the Adrenaline meter is full, a special ability can be used.
• Resistance comes in many flavors. There are bleeding, incineration, and poison, among others. Increasing resistance to one of these damage types will increase the percentage of the blocked damage.
• Critical Effects are the opposite of resistances: they indicate how much freezing, incineration, poison, or magic damage Geralt will inflict on enemies.
• Lastly, there is knowledge. Geralt can talk to NPCs, read books, and of course kill monsters himself. Through these means, he can gain knowledge about monsters. Some quests are locked behind knowledge gates (requiring a knowledge level of two or three, for example), and in any case, reading the books will give the player clues about what kind of oils, potions, signs, or fighting styles may be most efficacious against his foes.

2.3.3 Combat and Magic

Combat in The Witcher 2 has a reputation for being difficult and unforgiving. Patience and preparation are highly rewarded, to be sure. Potions cannot be drunk in the middle of combat, so if the player sees a group of monsters or soldiers in the distance, it would be best to apply an appropriate oil to one’s sword, make sure good bombs are equipped, and drink Swallow or another potion to boost his abilities.

As mentioned before, Geralt has two swords, one for killing humans and one for killing monsters. If the wrong sword is equipped, minimal damage will be dealt, but Geralt can switch between swords relatively quickly. In God of War-fashion, he has a strong but slow attacks and weak but fast attacks. Unlike God of War, these cannot be chained into combos, but the game system instead animates Geralt as best it can into a whirling slashing god of death. Geralt has bombs, throwing knives, traps, and signs at his disposal during combat. Geralt has five magical signs: Quen, Igni, Yrden, Axii, and Aard. Quen acts as a magical shield, protecting Geralt from a single blow, while Igni is the stereotypical fireball, Aard works as a Jedi Force push, Yrden is a magical trap, and Axii functions as a Jedi Mind Trick, possibly turning one of your enemies against his companions.

Similarly in some ways to the Souls series, Geralt takes damage pretty easily. Because of this, the player must dodge and parry successfully, besides using his magical signs effectively, in order to succeed.

2.3.4 NPCs

There are a great many NPCs in the game, and similarly to those in the book series, they seem to delight in all being assholes. Some of these may be killed, but many may not be attacked under any circumstances. Geralt may interact with many by entering dialogue, during which they will say something and Geralt typically has to choose between several different responses. Sometimes, these may all be spoken, but at times they are mutually exclusive.

Besides its uses in combat, Axii can also be used during specific dialogues to affect the outcome.

2.3.5 Areas

Although in some ways more open than The Witcher, The Witcher 2 prevents Geralt from climbing or moving around in many places that he should be able to reach. These restrictions come from level design considerations, engine limitations, and story telling concerns. Expect to meet many, many invisible walls, insurmountable logs, rocks and ledges, and water that apparently repels witchers. Besides these limitations, there are three distinct areas, plus a prologue, and while the player may explore each area, the player may only progress from one area to the next in linear fashion, with no backtracking allowed.

2.4 Procedures

2.4.1 Exploring

Although not a large open world, The Witcher 2 nevertheless features three relatively large areas. There are fields, forests, ravines, caves, ruins and more for the player to navigate. The Witcher 2 does have a game map and minimap, but the game map can only be accessed through a menu, and the minimap is zoomed up so close as to be of limited use. Further, the level design makes navigation quite difficult, as forests have areas of impassable rocks or shrubbery, and and fields might have cliffs or other obstacles which are not clearly marked on the map, and are not clearly player-readable in the game world.

The game world is a joy to behold, even if it is not a joy to get around in. Talking to NPCs and finding evidence of current or past inhabitants or past events feels like coming across such in the real world.

2.4.2 Talk to NPC

Conversations in The Witcher 2 are something like those in real life. Although of course limited in the number of options which the player may broach, the NPCs sometimes do not wait around passively for the player to make a choice: sometimes there is a time limit for the player to choose. The NPCs also do not always tell the truth, so you need to be careful who you believe. The player’s choices during dialogue have quite profound effects on the game world: a pivotal decision at the end of the first chapter, for example, sends the player to one of two completely different locations, with different NPCs, quests, story lines, and decisions to make there.

2.4.3 Leveling and Upgrading

The Witcher 2 has a deep and complicated leveling system. Geralt gains XP by killing enemies and by completing quests. The game designers have made a choice to limit the amount of XP Geralt gains by killing enemies; instead, the player will have to complete main quests and side quests to gain the most XP. Killing a monster or soldier may grant 0 or 11 XP for example, while completing a quest could grant 200 or up to 2500 XP.

For each 1000 XP Geralt collects, he will gain a level and one talent point to spend on abilities. He has four ability trees: Training, Magic, Swordsmanship, and Alchemy, but the player must invest the first six points in Training before unlocking the other three. Further, the roots of Magic, Swordsmanship, and Alchemy must be unlocked before progressing further in each tree.

2.4.4 Questing

The player will spend most of the game completing quests. These typically require the player to speak with several NPCs to gather data what he is dealing with, investigating a scene by using his witcher senses, gathering more information from books, etc. There are usually several ways to complete a quest, and they often lead to very different results.

2.5 Resources

2.5.1 Abstract

• Vitality: described above
• Vigor: described above
• Damage: described above
• Armor: described above
• Adrenaline: described above
• XP: described above. After each level up, this is reset to zero and any remaining XP is added.
• Level: an integer which indicates Geralt’s overall power. Each level up adds 5 to Geralt’s Vitality.
• Resistances: described above
• Knowledge: knowledge comes in three levels, each of which grants Geralt a further bonus against that particular kind of monster.
• Talents/Skills: After each level up, Geralt is granted one talent to spend on a skill.
• Toxicity: the amount of poison due to drinking potions. This decreases over time, but can lead to reduced damage, vitality or vigor during combat.
• Weight: All items have a weight, although for certain items this is 0. Their combined weight contributes to Geralt’s encumbrance, which influences whether he can run and roll.

2.5.2 Physical

• Weapons: The Witcher 2’s combat focuses on the use of steel and silver swords, but there are a few other weapons, such as axes, pickaxes, and throwing knives. These all have weights, damage ratings, and values. Some items have additional slots that the player can place runes or other upgrades in.
• Orens: Orens are the money of the Witcher universe, at least for many of the countries.
• Armor: Geralt can wear many different kinds of armor, and like weapons, they all have weights, blocked damage ratings, values, and other properties, such as generating adrenaline or increasing resistance to magic damage. Some items have additional slots that the player can place runes or other upgrades in.
• Trophies: When killing monsters, Geralt can sometimes collect trophies from them. These are worn on his belt, and grant bonuses depending on the monster.
• Crafting Items: There are a great many crafting items, some of which are crafted from other more basic ones. Like all other items, they have weight and value. Alchemical crafting items additionally have one or two elements associated with them, which determines how they are used to make motions.
• Potions: Potions are made from alchemical crafting items, and give Geralt different bonuses and penalties, in addition to increasing his toxicity.
• Bombs and traps: Bombs and traps are crafted like all other craftable items, but during combat these can be thrown or placed on the ground. They are necessary to complete certain quests or activities, such as destroying nekker nests.
• Mutagens: These are items collected randomly from certain monsters, which can be used to augment or mutate some of Geralt’s abilities. They may give him bonus critical damage, increased Vitality regeneration, or some other special stat.
• Companions: Throughout The Witcher 2, Geralt will be accompanied by an NPC. Sometimes he will have to protect them, and will either fail the game or fail the quest if they die.
• Diagrams and Recipes: These are necessary to create new items, bombs, and potions.
• Books and Notes: These play a critical role in learning about the world, its backstory, and also in completing quests and learning how to perform certain rituals throughout the game.

2.6 Conflicts

2.6.1 Stat Point Investment

There are over 100 abilities to unlock in The Witcher 2, but the level cap is 35, so the player can only ever unlock 34 abilities during gameplay, and therefore must invest talents carefully to most effectively match their playstyle.

2.6.2 NPCs

Perhaps more than most other games, the Witcher series thrives on conflict between NPCs and Geralt. Geralt might be tasked with finding out what happened to the royal heirs, and during his investigation he might learn that there were no less than three separate betrayals and plots to try to capture them or harm them. Some of these might be a betrayal of a betrayer, dependent on that first betrayal’s results before the second can take effect. He will be forced to choose from among these who to ultimately punish, and it is agonizing.

Geralt will take part in a conflict between humans and other races who are losing their land, way of life, and rights to humans. Who should he support? The humans are assholes and racists, and they look down on Geralt for the most part, while the other races are also assholes, could be accused of terrorism besides, and also look down on Geralt. There are no clear choices, and even so-called ”good” choices might lead to horrifying consequences: for example supporting a ”law-and-order” NPC might lead to a literal witch hunt and increased persecution of elves and dwarves.

Will Geralt put his own needs and wants above those of the world at large? He will have to choose between rescuing his love and helping the Northern Kings secure a more stable future.

Geralt’s dialogue choices carry over from one section of the story to the next, so that if he supported one NPC over another previously, the NPC he did not support will remember and be hostile to Geralt and Geralt will not have access to any quests from that NPC in the future.

2.7 Boundaries

2.7.1 Stat Point Investment

As mentioned before, the level cap is 35, so it is impossible to learn every ability of Geralt’s

2.7.2 NPCs

Many NPCs are invincible, and Geralt simply cannot harm them. Other NPCs may live or die, depending on Geralt’s choices, or story events.

2.7.3 Map

The maps, while sometimes larger than those in The Witcher, feature many insurmountable obstacles and invisible walls.

2.7.4 Inventory

Geralt may carry as many items as the player wants, but after his weight reaches 300, his movement becomes restricted to walking.

2.8 Outcomes

The major outcome of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings remains unchanged no matter what the player does: the Nilfgaardian Empire invades the Northern Kingdoms, leading directly to the backdrop of events in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

The other outcomes are quite variable: killing or sparing a character in the prologue affects some of Geralt’s abilities, and certain following events, while as mentioned before, a critical decision in Chapter 1 leads to separate Chapter 2s. Decisions during Chapter 2 result in different kings living or dying, which generate different story beats in Chapter 3.

3 Dynamic Elements

3.1 Day/Night Cycle

The Witcher 2 features a day/night cycle. Besides influencing visibility, this affects NPCs, as they will sleep during the night and may not be available for conversation or commerce.

3.2 Story

The story dynamically reacts to the player in diverse ways. Talking to one NPC will cause an NPC who opposes the first to speak to Geralt differently than if the player had not done so. Supporting one group causes other groups to become hostile to Geralt.

3.3 Patterns

This section focuses on game patterns as discussed by Ernest Adams and Joris Dormans in Game Mechanics: Advanced Game Design.

3.3.1 Playstyle Reinforcement

3.3.2 Static Engine

3.3.3 Stopping Mechanism

4 Dramatic Elements

Like all the games in the Witcher series, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings features strong dramatic elements.

4.1 Characters

The characters of The Witcher 2 are all mostly well voice-acted, touchingly animated, and speak dialogue that is quite well-written, especially compared to other video game titles. Instead of all good heroes and all bad villains, we get a complicated cast of distinct grey characters. Geralt can even engage sentient monsters, such as trolls, in dialogue and decide whether to resolve the matter with them peacefully or with violence.

Geralt, while he tries to maintain witcherly neutrality, clearly cares when others are mistreated, but he is sarcastic and can be cold. His main love interest in this game, Triss, is one of the kindest and gentlest characters, but as a sorceress, is not always truthful and sometimes has a hidden agenda. Letho, in the beginning a clear villain, is reveled to have a complicated past history with Geralt and an understandable motivation for his ”reprehensible” actions. Two other supporting characters, Vernon Roche and Iorveth, are similarly complicated. Vernon Roche leads a commando group of humans, who, among other activities, hunt down ”terrorist” elves, whilst Iorveth leads a group of ”freedom fighting” elves who just want their ancestral land back and want to be treated equally.

4.2 Story

The story takes place a few years after the events of The Witcher: Geralt still does not remember what happened before he was found feverish near Kaer Morhen, the witcher training compound and residence. Beginning in the middle of the action, Geralt has been arrested for the assassination of King Foltest, who Geralt was serving. As Geralt relates his story to Vernon Roche, the prologue begins. The prologue has four sections which can be completed in any order, and serves as something of a tutorial for the game. Following his escape from prison, Geralt makes his way to the nearby town of Floatsom, where Chapter 1 begins and where he meets several of his friends and becomes embroiled in local politics. Here, he must defeat a monster called a kayran to progress events along. Following Triss’s abduction by Letho, Geralt must choose to help Roche or Iorveth, either of which can take Geralt to his next stop, Vergen.

Depending on who the player chooses, Geralt will have a relatively different experience in Chapter 2 and Chapter 3. But throughout both Geralt will learn more and more of his past, and will learn more about Triss’s whereabouts and what Letho is up to.

If the player chooses to support Iorveth, he will be taken to the camp of humans, dwarves, and elves who are rebelling against King Henselt, while if he supports Vernon Roche, he will be taken to King Henselt’s camp. In both camps, Geralt can complete side quests, and in both he will need to venture out into the surrounding areas to collect items, either to remove a curse from King Henselt, or to remove one from Saskia. Doing so will involve learning about and revisiting a past slaughter in the area. Once Geralt has cleared up the problem, events will again force him to move on to the next location: Loc Muinne. Here, in Chapter 3, he can choose to either aid Phillipa Eilhart (if the player supported Iorveth) or try to rescue Triss, or to aid Vernon Roche (if the player supported Roche) or try to rescue Triss. Either way, events conclude in a summit that causes chaos among the Northern Kings. In the epilogue, Geralt wraps up his business with Letho and Triss.

5 Conclusion

In The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, you can see CD Projekt RED truly begin to flex their game design muscles. The player is faced with many difficult choices, the outcomes of which are not entirely clear to the player before hand. At the same time, the player experiences a gripping mature story. The gameplay supports the player in paying attention to the game world, observing, and judging it, just like a witcher.

5.1 Potent Elements

The branching story based on player decisions sends a powerful message about player agency. The combat, which although more cinematic than the Souls series, cements this by forcing the player to react quickly and pay attention to enemy positions, strengths, and weaknesses.

5.2 Areas for Improvement

The UI has not aged well. Chief culprits are the navigation of the skill trees, which with a controller is frustrating; the inventory screen, which is poorly organized (items can appear in many categories), difficult to tell which element the player has selected, and overall not intuitive; and the main pause screen, from which the player can access the journal, character screen, and map, but after exiting those, takes the player back to the regular game screen.