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CD Projekt RED recently announced that they were going to bring their hugely successful RPG title, The Witcher 2 to Xbox 360 in a press conference on June 2^nd, 2011.  However, they did not have much beyond a canned trailer and the announcement.   Instead, they set up a private viewing for select media to show off the first gameplay footage for the game, and Aeropause Games was one of the outlets selected to see The Witcher 2 running on an Xbox 360.  What we saw was an early build of the game, but at this point in time, it was running very smooth and it brings all of the features of the PC version without compromising the vision that CD Projekt RED had for The Witcher 2.

First and foremost, the development team stated that The Witcher 2 was not a port in any way, shape or form from the PC version to the Xbox 360 version.   CD Projekt’s new engine, RED, was designed from the ground up to be a cross-platform engine, allowing for the development of a game across any of the three platforms.  Of course, this prompted the question of a PS3 version of The Witcher 2, which was met with the stoic, politically correct PR answer, “we are only discussing the Xbox 360 version of The Witcher 2 at this time”, so take that as you will.

One of the things that PC players will know from playing The Witcher 2 is that the game can be very demanding with your PC specs.  While it is designed to run on low end computers, it shows off its very best when running on a well-oiled machine, complete with all the trimmings of a bestial video card, processor and memory.  How would that experience transfer to a console that has hardware specs that come from roughly 2004 to 2005?  In a word – magnificently.  I have played The Witcher 2 and it is gorgeous on the PC, and the 360 slice that we saw at the presentation looked on par with the experience that I played on my computer.  Lighting effects, minute character details and more were present and accounted for in the 360 build of the game, and it should give 360 owners a new game to show off to friends when they want to show off visuals in a game.

Most console players have not experienced The Witcher up to this point, as the first game was a PC only title released back in 2007.  In it, you star as Geralt of Rivia, a man who has become a Witcher.  Witchers are persons that undergo changes through training to battle evil creatures and magic in the world.  They were celebrated for many years, but slowly lost favor with the local populace, who thought of them as being very similar to the monsters that they were tasked with killing.  Witchers carry two swords, one for killing normal persons like humans, elves and others, while the second sword is silver and is used for killing beasts of all shapes and sizes.  They are also attuned to the ways of magic and can cast spells and create potions.

In our presentation, we watched Geralt escape from prison, but we watched it from two different presentations.  The reason for this is because most quests in The Witcher 2 present themselves with multiple ways to solve the problem at hand.  Some people might enjoy just going into the fray, attacking those that are around, while others might like the stealth approach.  And for some problems, you can mix and match depending on what the situation brings.  The Witcher franchise has always been about choices, but not in the mode of black and white, but in multiple shades of grey.  Sometimes a choice will present itself with no good alternative, and you are bound to offend someone at the end of the day, just like in real life.

Moving forward, we watched as Geralt had to find a way to escape from his prison cell, and work his way out of the dungeon in the castle, so he could follow up on a mystery that we will not spoil here.  Just be content with knowing that Geralt has been implicated in a capital crime, but one that he is not responsible for in any way.  In our first playthough, Geralt taunted the guards into coming into his cell, where he then freed himself and entered combat with them.  Melee combat is handled through a simple quick time event where you have to match the buttons on the screen to be successful.  Geralt defeated the guards and then snuck out of his cell, using his powers of magic to snuff out torches and sneaking up on guards and incapacitating them, silently working his way through the prison.  He escaped when he met up with an old foe who promised him a way out if he helps him regain his honor.  Offsetting this method of escape, our second play had us breaking out of the cell the same way, but instead, we picked up the nearest weapon, and extracted vengeance on all guards we found on our way out of the dungeon.  Two different approaches, that were both successful, but each provides experience at different values based on the difficulty of completion.

Now some may have heard that The Witcher titles are mature themed due to their dealing with tough decisions, brutal combat and frankly, Geralt getting his freak on with some of the lovely ladies in the world.  CD Projekt RED has never shied away from dealing with controversial topics or themes, and thankfully it looks as if this vision is staying true on the console.  While I have only seen a small, vertical slice of the game, we did see a lot of violent kills, grim details and decisions, and of course, some topless nudity in the span of ten minutes, it appears that the full vision of The Witcher 2 is coming to the Xbox 360, with no compromises from the development team.  Of course, it is easy to state this now, but I do have high hopes that it should turn out fine at the end of the day.

CD Projekt RED also made it clear that it will not be a watered down experience in the way of extra content for console owners either.  Any DLC or patches that have been made at the time of the certification process in the PC version of the game, will find their way into the console, free, with no extra charge in any way.  They also are going to do whatever they can to make sure that any future DLC that is released on the PC version comes to the console version as well, with no cost.  Now we know that Microsoft has long had an issue with free DLC, so it was not explained how CD Projekt would make this happen, but they did say that there were ways to make it happen.  It would be great to see Witcher 2 DLC being offered free, sponsored by Burger King, but somehow, I think it will happen a little differently.

At this point in time, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings is shaping up to be a great, uncompromising experience for Xbox 360 owners.  The game looks to have all the visual fidelity of its PC counterpart, while keeping the thematic elements and combat mechanics in place.  While we had no confirmed release date, we do know that The Witcher 2 will be coming to Xbox 360 before the end of the year 2011.