14 DAY TRIAL // What it is: The Witcher 2 impressed pretty much all of the legions of role playing game fans, thanks to a deep overarching story, lots of choices, fast and fluid combat as well as stunning graphics. Now, the development team at CD Projekt Red is preparing a massive update for the game, in the form of The Witcher 2 version 2.0.
Among many fixes and improvements, The Witcher 2 2.0 brings a new difficulty level, Dark Mode, and lots of other changes, so let’s see what the company shared with us at its private meeting during Gamescom 2011.
How it is: The Witcher 2 is already quite a stunning game, even if a few glitches are still plaguing it, after quite a few patches released by the developer. As such, the 2.0 update aims at including all of the previous fixes, as well as lots of other big enhancements, over 20 of them, in terms of the game’s performance.
Besides these improvements, The Witcher 2.0 has a new tutorial sequence, streamlined in order to get players completely new to role playing games up to speed with the variety of things that can be done in the actual game.
The opening segment of the game has become infamous for its difficulty, which has been subsequently lowered through recent patches, but is still quite grueling on Normal difficulty, so the new tutorial should bring back many people that abandoned the game after its first few missions.
For those who didn’t have a problem with the difficulty and want an even bigger challenge, update 2.0 brings an all-new Dark Mode difficulty level, which is not only tougher but also brings special Dark versions of clothes and weapons for Geralt, the main character. The new mode will be almost as challenging as the current Insane one, but allows players to save their progress throughout the experience. For the first player to complete the new Dark Mode, CD Projekt Red is preparing a big surprise, so that’s quite a large incentive to try it out.
Another all-new feature is the introduction of the Arena, basically a place where Geralt, alongside the player, can test out their powers against waves of enemies. The best scores and times can then be shared by players through Facebook or The Witcher forums, to brag or gloat, prompting others to give it a try as well. Another great incentive is that after each wave the player is rewarded with experience points or new gear.
When and on what: The Witcher 2 update 2.0 is scheduled to appear on September 29, for the PC version of the role playing game.
We have a special page with all our Gamescom 2011 coverage.