The events of The Witcher 2: Assassins of the Kings take place one year after the assassination attempt on the king of Temeria Foltest, which Geralt prevented. After that, Geralt stayed with the monarch as his personal bodyguard during the investigation of the assassination attempt. As time went on, the investigation came to a standstill. Geralt accompanied the king throughout Temeria on his march, the purpose of which was to quell all sorts of pockets of civil war. However, no sooner had the ground dried with blood than the Baroness of La Valette rebelled against the King, infuriated by the fact that Foltest was unwilling to legitimize the children born to her without giving them the right to the succession. With the support of part of the earldom, she intended to diminish the monarch’s influence and undermine his authority in the eyes of the nobility. The king immediately marched with an army and laid siege to La Valletta Castle, and then launched an assault, in which the witch doctor also participated. After the successful assault, the king and the witch doctor went to fetch his children, whom he was going to take with him to the capital. However, at the most unexpected moment, a new assassination attempt occurs on the king, which this time Geralt was unable to prevent. The king dies, and Geralt, in the absence of any witnesses to what happened, is accused of the monarch’s murder and thrown into prison. Now the hero has to figure out who and why killed the king, and restore his name by proving his innocence.

From the very beginning of the story campaign the game plunges the player into an abyss of intrigue and suspense, luring in interesting questions and situations. The protagonist, as well as the player himself, seems to be in a fog, in which sometimes barely discernible outlines of significant events emerge. This allows the game to sustain a special atmosphere of mystery and invisible scale of events. Who is responsible for the death of the king? Who benefits from the weakening of one of the strongest states of the North? Who is behind all these events? Although some of the answers lie on the surface, the script skillfully takes the player’s attention in another direction, leaving simple answers out of his sight.

In general, The Witcher 2 has become a real political thriller. From now on the decisions made by the player depend on the fate of entire states, and the witch will meet with several rulers of the northern lands, each of which will pursue their own goals, completely opposite to the other participants in the events. And therein lies the problem. On the one hand – it is very interesting to watch and even take part in such large-scale political events, having a direct impact on the fate of the North, but on the other hand – the game itself seems to not understand what it wants to be: a story about Heralt or a story about the North. The constant shift of emphasis from the witch’s personal story to the history of the kingdoms and back creates a feeling of inferiority in both story arcs and leads to a lack of proper empathy for the characters.

But despite this, the story of The Witcher 2 still manages to catch and hold the player’s attention, immerse in the atmosphere and tell a rather interesting story about a little witch in a huge geopolitical mechanism of the North. In addition, unlike the first and the third parts of the series, the plot in The Witcher 2 can be called really non-linear. Yes, in the end all events will lead to one of two opposite outcomes, but the opportunity to pass the game though only two, but VERY different ways – really pays off. In fact, dramatically changed only one chapter of the three, but even that is enough to re-pass, because it allows you to look at the same events based on different points of view. True, and in this barrel of honey has a fly in the ointment. It’s about the consequences of choices made in the original The Witcher. What’s wrong with them? They just aren’t there. And yes, perhaps for some it’s something not very significant, but personally for me, the choices made in the first part were very important both emotionally and logically. And the sequel… just flushes it all down the toilet, telling the player, sorry, but you’re going to play by my rules. And yes, I understand that this was necessary in order to create a coherent and coherent story, but you could have at least explained it somehow. Because of this, it was much easier for me to make some “hard” and emotional choices as I went along, simply because I was already preparing myself for the fact that these choices would have no real consequences for the plot of the entire trilogy. And, spoiler alert, I turned out to be right, but that’s a whole other story.

Back to the characters

The characters in Assassins of Kings are real gold. Every more or less significant character that appears on the screen evokes a palette of different emotions. Some the player will wholeheartedly despise, some will respect, but what each character succeeds is to instill in the player the belief that they are real, that each of them is a person. Each of the characters pursues their own goals through their own methods, and few of them can be reproached for being too grotesque. As a result, by the end of the game you don’t want to part with them at all, even those who evoked sharply negative emotions.

Even the in-game communication with the characters became much more lively. The characters are not just talking heads as they were in the first part, now they gesticulate in every possible way, interact with objects, and in the end do not stand still. In general, the production in the game has reached a new level. Epic battles, magical cataclysms, and eventually sex! The Witcher is now not only enjoyable to play, but also enjoyable to watch.

However, it’s time to talk about the gameplay, which was the most ambiguous part of The Witcher 2. The gameplay concept compared to the original The Witcher is almost unchanged. In front of us is still a full-fledged Action RPG with a third-person perspective, with a focus on combat, which in comparison with the first part of the extremely strongly evolved. Henceforth the combat is not a mini-game where you have to press the attack button for a continuous combo, no – now the combat system has become a complex and demanding to the attention and tactics of combat. Opponents hurt, and The Witcher has become somewhat less agile. These conditions force the player to be constantly on the alert, to have time to block or dodge the blows of opponents, choose good moments for a counterattack and be able to make a tactical retreat in time. That said, a bit of a problem for me was the intuitiveness of the controls, which I spent a good portion of the game constantly confused, leading to unpleasant and seemingly unfair deaths.

The game has introduced an energy mechanic, which Geralt spends on using signs or blocking blows. Energy is spent for each individual active action and is restored gradually. Fighting stances are gone, so in battle with different types of enemies (which, by the way, is much less than in the original The Witcher) have to adjust to their style of battle is not a change of stance, and their own tactics and various devices, such as traps, bombs or throwing knives, as well as the competent use of the signs, which have also been redesigned. From now on signs began to work not on the area, but point by point on each individual enemy, which the player has chosen as his target. This greatly complicated the battle against a large concentration of opponents, as now you can not, for example, knock down several opponents at once with the Aard to seize the initiative, now signs have to be used more thoughtfully and try not to waste energy in order not to remain defenseless at the most inopportune moment. Due to the inability to block all blows, as there is not enough energy, from now on the sign Kwen became the most useful and used sign, leaving the others far behind in terms of frequency of use. Because of this poking skills associated with other characters almost lost meaning, because the usefulness of them has become much less.

Speaking of pumping. It too has undergone significant changes and has become more simple and familiar to the modern RPG. From now on skill points do not differ by level of their application (bronze, silver, gold talents in the original The Witcher), and represent the most common skill points, issued for the achievement of a new level, which can be spent to improve the available abilities in each of the four branches of skills – basic, alchemical, weaponry and magic. And, as in the first part, the alchemical skills are only useful at high difficulty levels.

Difficulty

In The Witcher 2 the situation is very strange. The difference between difficulty levels here is built disproportionately and unevenly. On a light difficulty you don’t have to worry about combat tactics, but as soon as you try to increase the difficulty to medium, the game becomes much harder and more demanding, as if you’re playing not on medium, but on high. And the high level of difficulty itself is practically the same as the medium. Began to pass the game on medium the first time, because of unpreparedness, I could not overcome the first boss, and when I decided to pass it on easy, just shut him up with a sword in a few seconds. The game is very lacking balanced medium difficulty, which would not be too much bother to customize the build, but do not relax more than necessary to get pleasure from not the easiest victory.

The game has introduced an energy mechanic, which Geralt spends on using signs or blocking blows. Energy is spent for each individual active action and is restored gradually. Fighting stances are gone, so in battle with different types of enemies (which, by the way, is much less than in the original The Witcher) have to adjust to their style of battle is not a change of stance, and their own tactics and various devices, such as traps, bombs or throwing knives, as well as the competent use of the signs, which have also been redesigned. From now on signs began to work not on the area, but point by point on each individual enemy, which the player has chosen as his target. This greatly complicated the battle against a large concentration of opponents, as now you can not, for example, knock down several opponents at once with the Aard to seize the initiative, now signs have to be used more thoughtfully and try not to waste energy in order not to remain defenseless at the most inopportune moment. Due to the inability to block all blows, as there is not enough energy, from now on the sign Kwen became the most useful and used sign, leaving the others far behind in terms of frequency of use. Because of this poking skills associated with other characters almost lost meaning, because the usefulness of them has become much less.

Speaking of pumping

It too has undergone significant changes and has become more simple and familiar to the modern RPG. From now on skill points do not differ by level of their application (bronze, silver, gold talents in the original The Witcher), and represent the most common skill points, issued for the achievement of a new level, which can be spent to improve the available abilities in each of the four branches of skills – basic, alchemical, weaponry and magic. And, as in the first part, the alchemical skills are only useful at high difficulty levels.

The main incentive for the player to get into all these battles, as usual, are the quests. Both the main and additional tasks, in comparison with the first part, became more varied and diverse. Sometimes you need to solve a riddle, and sometimes even pass the level on a curve, but still stealth. Many additional tasks can be performed in different ways and get completely different results in making your own decisions, which, again, contributes to the replayability.

The only problem is the locations themselves and the endless backtracking, which became though less than in the original The Witcher, but still a lot. Locations became more compact, but at the same time Geralt cut the speed of movement, so I had to pump up the skill roll to the maximum, just to roll faster and more to reduce the time of empty running.

And perhaps this running would not be so depressing if the environment did not introduce boredom. The game locations, in general, can’t be called terrible, but they lack some… charm, some atmosphere, or something. They are rather monotonous and quickly get bored because of the constant running back and forth. And because of the not very handy map, navigating the area often becomes very problematic, which leads to even more running. Of course, my point of view on the location design is pure subjectivity, but even I remember the damn Swamp from the original The Witcher more than any location from The Witcher 2.

But what you can’t take away from the game is the really beautiful visuals. Compared to the first part of the series, the graphics level is on a cosmic level. Shadows, textures, characters’ faces and especially the lighting – everything looks great even today. Furthermore, we want to highlight the design of the characters. Costumes, hairstyles, makeup, various features of appearance – all this makes you fall even more in love with any fleeting hero. Only minor optimization problems and, of course, bugs and crashes, of which I had quite a few, overshadow this idyll. Almost every third quick save caused crashes, which at one point made me quit the game for 2 months. Perhaps this problem is rare enough, but extremely unpleasant and painful.

And with what there is no problem – it’s the way the game sounds. There were no revelations and no revolutions, but the game sounds and the soundtrack generally work well for atmosphere and dynamics, intelligently highlight accents and in the end just please the ear. It doesn’t reach the level of the original The Witcher, but it doesn’t fall to the level of “average”.

So what’s the bottom line?

Is The Witcher 2 worth the time invested? In my opinion – definitely worth it. Yes, the game is uneven, in some places it is problematic. But after I’ve completed the game three times, I really enjoyed it. It is completely different from its predecessor, and so it was more interesting to get to know. I loved The Witcher for its ambiguous but interesting, challenging combat, memorable characters, interesting story, and beautiful visuals. But I also disliked it for its abundance of backtracking, its dragging out in places, and its technical state. And no matter how many times I polled people who played The Witcher 2, I never heard the same opinion. And that’s the sign of a true work of art.

Pros

Thrilling story; interesting combat system; memorable characters; overall picture quality; non-linear narrative and quests; soundtrack and overall game ambience; memorable bosses.

Cons

Technical condition (crashes, bugs, FPS slumps); poor environmental design; lack of balanced difficulty; little variety of enemies; unintuitive controls; lack of results from the original The Witcher decisions; plenty of backtracking.

The post Game of Thrones [Review of The Witcher 2: Assassins of the Kings] appeared first on BouGame.

Game declared for platforms: macOS, Windows, Mac OS.

The plot

Surreal. Five years ago, a ship disappeared in the ice. Let’s go out in search of one just like it, and take a limited supply of everything? The idea is “as reliable as a Swiss watch.”

From the start, some mysteries to be solved are obvious.

Gameplay

Gameplay is a beautifully designed visual novel with resource management.

At the beginning we are interviewed by the captain and there is the creation of the personality of our hero. Whether it will be a sea wolf, or a land rat (proudly named – Landlord), or a military, or a civilian. Depending on these parameters, different members of the crew will treat the hero differently.

To retell the plot, as always in visual novels, makes no sense, in order to avoid spoilers. Therefore, I will focus on the technical features of the game.

The actions in the game consist of several types of activities

Communicating with the team, listening to their requests. Come weekly, the events are strictly scripted according to the story. Varying reactions of our hero, which affects further events. At first the reception of “patients” occurs in the company of the captain (he agrees with everything and does not affect, in fact), then deal with everything alone.

Cycle runs around the ship or other area, doing the maximum possible activities – talking to those who want to talk, collecting important items and resources (about that below).

Participating in the election of the captain. As the story progresses, our hero becomes a candidate for captain. Elections take place, which depend on the relationship with the members of the team. There are several candidates, you can also lose. The election involves the entire team.

A little more detail should be provided on the resources that are in the game. There are several types.

Morale. If it drops to zero – loss and revolt of the team. “Correct” answers in the dialogues will cheer up the fighters, and “wrong” answers will make them sad.

Food. We need food. Very important – to bring in more munchies, you have to pull up more crew members. I fail and lug, it turns out, alone, is not enough. There won’t be enough provisions – people will get sick, die.

Fuel. It’s the same as with food. We have to carry as a team. Fail. If there will be a shortage, it will affect in the most negative way – freezing, death.

Crew members. They do a variety of jobs. No people – no closure of any problem. NPCs are divided into several specializations: scouts, scientists, engineers, “specialists” (cook, carpenter – all in one pile), sailors.

Those with the right skills will obviously do better in the tasks they are used to. But you can, in desperate situations, send in all those who are free at the moment.

Interestingly, the theme of getting to know the crew is implemented. You walk around the ship and “discover” the characters little by little. As long as the unit is not “open” – it is not available to perform tasks.

Dogs. Allow, under the guidance of scouts, to explore the terrain, extract resources, explore the road.

And so, week after week, enduring hardships and overcoming difficulties, it is somehow to win.

Consider the pros and cons of the game, and summarize.

Pros:

• Awesome graphics.
• Excellent music and sound accompaniment.
• Intriguing main story. There’s just something mysterious going on.
• Interesting activities.

Something that can be both a plus and a minus:

± You can really tighten up your knowledge of the English language. You have to translate short sentences, not walls of text, which inspires some enthusiasm.

Cons:

• Very ill-conceived system for gathering critical resources, which can screw up the playthrough if you don’t move in. You have to guess that it is desirable to carry resources by the entire army. The distance to the coca – one door. In general, it is not clear why it was done so.

Conclusions objective

A large, well-designed visual novel with interesting mechanics (exploring the world, choosing the captain). Of the shortcomings, we can call some of the drag of what is happening.

Conclusions subjective

I did not manage to finish it. It’s really kind of slow. Yes, and zafeililil, did not immediately realize that food and coal have to drag the whole squad every cycle. But, must and recognize that the game is well made, the plot intrigues, design (graphics and sound) elegant.

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Contexture 1

The British company System 3, co-founded by Mark Cale with Emerson Best and Michael Coo (sorry if I’m wrong) in 1982 was making and publishing games for various popular consoles from Atari 8-bit to SNES, not skipping consoles like ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC. But they were making mostly arcade games, action games. That was the time. There was no time for strategy. But the success of other companies, released their now legendary Warcraft and Dune 2 strategies gave impetus to the development.

The game was released on MS-DOS, Playstation 1, Mac OS and Windows with DirectX 3 support.

Despite the title, Constuctor greeted players with a story about a mobster using concrete for something other than its intended purpose: he punishes a negligent worker. The poor guy’s unnecessary shouting is protected by pleasant music, and the game appears on the screen. What kind of game is this? The player is the boss of a construction company that will compete with others for tidbits in the form of building areas. Under the control of the player – a couple of teams of workers and repairman. District is clean, even the streets are not really built: the meadows yes ruins. The warehouse is almost empty, at least we need a sawmill. And while one brigade is cutting wood, the other is building the first houses for the poor, drunkards and other antisocial individuals. The first shacks, tents, and other houses begin to grow.

However, it is not only construction that needs to be done. Residents, though poor, but more capricious than many others. And we want trees on the plot, and a wider bedroom, and the house is on fire, we need to fix it up. And God forbid to choose the wrong fence around the house – they will yell nonstop.

But the tenants are not immortal, so we have to prepare replacements for them, for there are few who want to move in. It is necessary to make new, and the new workers will be useful, and the money issue should not be forgotten in any case. And so the first tenants are, new ones are also growing, the first money is flowing and it is necessary to start developing. We buy new neighborhoods, a new resource in the form of the cement plant, fintech from the Gadget Factory. In fact, we are ready to move in residents of the second of five levels: Punks and Students.

So we begin to develop, pay our taxes faithfully… Until we notice that we forgot about our opponent, who began to send suspicious guys: hippies, mafia, thieves, giant cockroaches (although here we ourselves are to blame), bandits, a maniac with a chainsaw, and the streets of others are patrolled by police, bribed by competitors. That’s when you realize you’ve been doing something wrong all this time. And therein lies the fun. Take your enemy’s territories, answer his wrongdoings with your own, make him weep when you take away his territory of a huge villa and then sell it for a huge sum of money. And don’t let your enemies do it, while earning money, on time to the mafia and police, while paying taxes.

Constructor 2 or WHAT IT IS!

The second full-fledged installment of this series came out two years later, but one thing still remains a mystery to me. Why so many different titles? Judge for yourself: Mob Rule, Constructor: Street Wars, Street Wars: Constructor Underworld are all names for the same game. I hope the knowledgeable can tell us why this is the case. With us it was called Street Wars: Street Wars. An acquaintance from a nearby yard it came across with Theme Hospital and Dungeon Keeper 2 discs. But still, I was more attracted to the Mafia at the time, and the descriptions of the other games I could not find.

Unlike the first part, the second part had tutorials. A cutscene, sure, but I knew how to start and what to do. The graphics were tweaked, I can’t say anything about the music for the simple reason that I don’t remember what it sounded like in both games.

How else did the game change?

It has changed in little things. Yes, we still need to maintain the population, but houses no longer improve room by room. Gangsters we do not buy from the mafia, but just trade workers, and they now have only one weapon – a shotgun. Of the minuses I remember the bugs and glitches in the quests of the campaign. But at the same time there is an innovation that seems to me more sensible – they have removed the foreman. In the first part, he just managed the workers, not really doing anything. Consequently, it is easier without the foreman. Also, the first Constructor was pleased with the scenarios, maps, there were a lot of them.

Completion – Constructor Plus

And now 20 years had passed. 20 years of waiting, lost hope, nerve-racking screenshots of an updated game… And finally, a bang! System 3 is back to relaunch Constructor 1. New textures, increased resolution, new scenarios, new builds. Lots of stuff. I waited. I waited for Constuctor HD, then Constructor Plus. And now I suggest you also try an old-school game that’s been driven into the repair shop, painted, dressed up, taught new things, and released into the world. Yes, it has bugs in multiplayer, but it’s still a great game from a mix of city building and military strategy. I can play it on both PC and Nintendo Switch (though the latter has yet to be felt and tasted).

Journey through the games and may your journey never end and adventure be seen in many new worlds. All the best to you.

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