The Witcher 2 is a game which does not deal in black and white, and the moral ambiguity and the core of the universe seem to be a way of bringing the player deeper into the experience, but also a way of making the player think about issues that are beyond the limits of the game.
The Prologue of the game is very, very political and a lot of the information and plot elements thrown at the player seem to be taken directly out of The Witcher books (which I have not read).
At first, I tended to ignore most of it and focus on what directly affects Geralt as a character, mainly his relationship to King Foltest and to the sorceress Triss, but after battling my way through the tough challenges of the early game and moving on to the first chapter, I understood that the politics are somewhat central to the coming experience.
I've read about the world some more on the wiki and talked to other
Witcher 2 players and the consensus seems to be that the universe of the game is one where self interest rules and where the morality of our era cannot apply, creating characters that, even when they seem like aiming for good manage to be rather unlikable.
Take, for example, the good king who drags Geralt around as a protector and talisman, with his obvious dreams of uniting the kingdoms around him but unable to do so without resorting to nefarious means, and ultimately led to death by his inability to stop falling in love and fathering children.
Or Geralt himself, a character that has the power to make a lot of things right in the world but somehow seems to always be at the center of events which lead to more suffering for the wide majority of inhabitants.
Combine this trend towards very flawed heroes with the cynical outlook expressed by most of Geralt dialog and you get a game that manages to raise up questions about the essence of humanity just using in-game choices and dialog.
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