The Witcher 2 is a slashing-action RPG on a superficial level but CD Projekt RED understands the simple pleasures of coordinating tactics and mastering a handful of Sign spells to show the full potential behind Geralt. This exists as a place of practice, where practice is rewarded by chests after defeating a string of enemies, and where strategies can be developed and honed. However in your first encounter with it, it works to teach you the intricacies of the combat system: dagger throwing, the laying of traps, sword-play, the concept of Signs which are cast by your Geralt de Rivia character. Generally speaking The Arena gives you a place to fight waves of enemies, with points gained from each wave added to a leaderboard. It’s of little interest to seasoned players already aware of the systems, at least until the Arena rears its head. On console we’re offered a tutorial to take us through the basic concepts of alchemy and meditation – which are used to create potions, heal, sleep to specific times of day, and so on. Both markets are coaxed back to the game by way of a smoother introduction to the world and the concepts that hold it together. The Witcher 2 on Xbox 360 is designed – or re-designed, however way you want to look at it – simultaneously for new users and the older users who have been loitering around the back-lots of CD Projekt awaiting new Witcher material, so compared to the PC’s pre-Version 2.0 offering it’s a gentler kind of animal.

Its first four minutes are the work of Oscar nominated animator Tomasz Baginski who turned out a new CGI introduction, something that lays out the darker, knife-to-aorta tones for the rest of the game. It’s the same story of dark fantasy politics that you played last year on PC, with roughly four hours of new material slotted into the game, added cutscenes, introductory features for new players, alongside a number of additions from Version 2.0 of the original PC title that will be recognised by anyone who played the game after its release late last year. This isn’t even a port, the development crew keep telling us, this is an adaptation. In a large way that’s because the console version justifies its existence. CD Projekt might be career-championers of the purity of good old fashion PC gaming, and most have heard their swan song against DRM banging through the halls of PC development, but you wouldn’t guess that console game development is alien to them after playing The Witcher 2 on Xbox 360. PC loyalists to whom “consolelol” has become the default response when discussing PC-to-console ports can rest assured that The Witcher 2 is in safe hands.

The witcher 2 tutorial