The Witcher 2 will have 16 endings

By Robert Purchese Published 1 September, 2010

And just four load screens.

CD Projekt has boasted that The Witcher 2 will have a whopping 16 game endings, whereas the first game had only three.

Only three? The sequel's got that many game openings, according to a screenshot of a demonstration press slide on PC Games Hardware.

And the willy-waving doesn't stop there: The Witcher 2 has 256 cut-scenes (150 minutes' worth), The Witcher 1 had 130 (53 minutes' worth); The Witcher 2 has over 30 armour types, The Witcher 1 has 5; The Witcher 2 has an extra magic sign; and The Witcher 2 has 4 load screens whereas The Witcher 1 had around 700.

The reason for all these improvements is a brand new engine called TSOOD - one that runs on PS3 and Xbox 360 as well as PC. PC Games Hardware, which witnessed a CD Projekt demonstration of the game, noted that there wasn't any discernible improvement in the PC version above and beyond a higher resolution. This is apparently because the game has been optimised for consoles.

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings will be released on PC in 2011. PS3 and Xbox 360 versions are coming, but so far nobody has said when.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (39) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • bad09 #1 1 year ago

    Must get round to buying the first and have a look before the sequel hits. After reading their policy of not treating paying PC gamers like criminals recently I really like this devs attitude and want to support them with my cash.

  • Ryboy #2 1 year ago

    Epic LOL @ 'willy-waving' !

  • Ducklord #3 1 year ago

    Sooo that's 2-3 endings seen after a playthrough, and the rest watched on youtube :p

    But seriously I seem to have overlooked the first one, any good?

  • Danbojones Verified Senior Staff Writer, GamesIndustry.biz #4 1 year ago

    Pumped for a console release of this, actually - despite having started the first on three, separate, inadequate PCs and losing patience with the hardware before finishing it.

  • ChthonicEcho #5 1 year ago

    Only four load screens? No purchase.

    In all seriousness, I'm not convinced the game will be a worthy successor to the first, which offered a truly gritty setting, quests with complex structures and down to earth enemies. Despite being a mutant with a wide variety of supernatural abilities, you were still far from invulnerable, and that's what truly separated it from other RPGs.

    In the second, your enemies include a flaming Pyramid Head, a dragon and a Lovecraftian monster. The boss fights included QTEs and the same tired 'attack weak point for massive damage' mechanic. I also found combat to be clunky and woefully simplistic, but it's still early in development, so I cannot judge that.

    I'm still interested in this and will be watching its development, but it looks like it takes the same transition Mass Effect 2 did when compared to ME1.
    Edited by 1 at 01/09/10 @ 15:09

  • Bleemo #6 1 year ago

    To previous posters

    Very good, takes a while to warm up but once you improve your level you get to do cool combos. The story starts out slow too seeming generic but eventually builds to something more intriguing than the normal swords and sorcery fare. Geralt is a pretty likeable anti hero in the Garret mould (Thief). Definitely worth a look as it isn't too costly for the enhanced version on Steam.

  • Bertie Verified Senior Staff Writer, Eurogamer.net #7 1 year ago

    A-ha. RockPaperShotgun unearthed these figures last week, as has been pointed out to me. Sorry chaps, missed that.

    [link url=http://www.rockpape rshotgun.com/2010/08/20/gamecon-%E2%80%9910-ripport-day-too- the-witcher-2/
    ]http://ww w.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/08/...[/link]

    Anyway, this was news to me and I hope to you too.

  • SheffieldSteel #8 1 year ago

    Froth Froth Froth.

    Don't believe what my stupid most wanted list tells you. This is the game whose babies I want.

  • WukWhiteWolf #9 1 year ago

    OMFG O.O

  • Golgo #10 1 year ago

    Wow, that's even more than Chrono Trigger I think, which means it's definitely EVEN MORE AWESOME!!!

  • Boomerang #11 1 year ago

    Still fucking and cunting my way through the first one, looking forward to this!

  • anomagnus #12 1 year ago

    The only number that counts, is the number of faces. Please tell me that they have more than 5 faces in the game.

  • darc #13 1 year ago

    I tried very hard to like the first one. On paper it was exactly what I was looking for. But in execution I found it EXTREMELY tedious (and I played through quite a lot of it.) I'll be watching the reviews for this one closely, though, because a Witcher with a few critical problems addressed could be a truly great game.

    Everyone deserves a second chance. :)

  • udat #14 1 year ago

    I bought the "complete" edition of the Witcher recently and it's one of the better RPGs I have played. The world is well realised, the characters have actual character, and there is real scope for feeling like you have an influence on events while still being part of a functioning society. I liked it a lot. I enjoyed it more than Dragon Age, which seemed a bit generic in comparison.

  • TadejVig #15 1 year ago

    Loved the first one, this one seems like it's gonna be the best FRP ever made. Definetly buying this instead of Dragon Age 2, bleh.

  • darc #16 1 year ago

    "Pumped for a console release of this, actually - despite having started the first on three, separate, inadequate PCs and losing patience with the hardware before finishing it."

    I get your point, but I'd sooner take the game itself to task, rather than your PCs. I was running two 10K RPM raptors in a RAID 0 at the time, along with a fast CPU and plenty of RAM, and the loading screens were still intolerable. It's likely been patched since, but in its release state, it was the software that tried your patience, not your hardware.

  • Xardan #17 1 year ago

    This sounds promising.

  • butler` #18 1 year ago

    @darc

    was that the enhanced edition you were playing and unsatisfied with?

  • Fleeby #19 1 year ago

    One really, really good ending is fine by me...

  • darc #20 1 year ago

    "@darc
    was that the enhanced edition you were playing and unsatisfied with? "

    No, I bought this very shortly after release. I'm sure it's been improved considerably in the enhanced version, but I'd dumped too many hours into it before then, and it had left a bad taste. I tried getting back into - maybe this was after a patch had been released - but by then it just felt too much like work.

    It doesn't surprise me that so many people liked this game; it had a lot to reccommend it. But it does surprise me that so few people own up to having disliked it. There were so many things to be annoyed about: the multiple loading screens at every doorway (these bordered on self-parody at times), the l-o-n-g walks around pointless meandering fences, the poorly crafted conversation trees that would sometimes end for no discernable reason, then begin right from the beginning if you re-approached the same NPC... It's another one of my "everyone loves this; I guess I must be taking crazy pills" games. I have many. :)

  • darc #21 1 year ago

    "One really, really good ending is fine by me..."

    Agreed. No sane person will ever see all 16 endings anyway. Unless they all branch out in the last 10 minutes.

  • darc #22 1 year ago

    LOL Here is my original rant re: Witcher 1. Bound to score me a few negs. :) In fact, I actually went on to play through the next couple of chapters, but although there were a few good moments, I still stand by my initial impressions:

    [link url=http://www.amazon.com/review/R 2TAM6OJSKASJX/ref=cm_aya_cmt?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B000R2XJJK
    ]http://ww w.amazon.com/review/R2TAM6OJSKA...[/link]

  • Alivada #23 1 year ago

    The real question is...
    Achievements or graphics?

    I would rather play this on my 360 but the PC looks so god damn pretty and it's probably also gonna be a tenner cheaper.
    Edited by 1 at 01/09/10 @ 19:02

  • darc #24 1 year ago

    I'm guesing the PC version will be the one to get. Graphics and controls will likely be superior (not to mention the console versions will still be vaporware when the PC version hits the shelves.) If you can hold out until both are available, then the reviews will tell you whether there's an appreciable difference, but I'm guessing PC.

  • SheffieldSteel #25 1 year ago

    If it's a cross-platform engine, there is no reason for the console versions to be delayed. In fact, all other things being equal, piracy considerations tend to dictate that the PC version is released after the consoles.

  • darc #26 1 year ago

    Gotcha, Sheffield. I guess I just made that assumption having read this:

    "The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings will be released on PC in 2011. PS3 and Xbox 360 versions are coming, but so far nobody has said when."

    But reading it again, it doesn't rule out the possibility of the console versions coming sooner.

  • mowgli #27 1 year ago

    That's nice, shame there is no way in holy hell I'll complete it 16 times.

  • apoc_reg #28 1 year ago

    This is my number one most wanted. Cant wait!

  • hiddenranbir #29 1 year ago

    Opted for consoles? Oh dear.

    Still....Witcher....and CD Projekt are cool peoples.

  • Dylbot #30 1 year ago

    I'm all for optimisation for consoles, because that means optimisation for (relatively) lower-end machines, which means my laptop will be able to run it without it looking like clumpy dog shit.

  • Nephirion #31 1 year ago

    The Witcher is set to forget it's PC origins and become a console franchise sounds ominous.

  • immateriaux #32 1 year ago

    @ChthonicEcho Christ on a bike I hope you're wrong. When did you play it? I haven't being paying much attention but "The Witcher" is close to my favourite game ever, the only RPG I know where I actually cared what I was saying to people or what decision I made. I actively miss playing it now.

    Really hope the sequel has the same touch, though having consoles versions with all this trite nonsense of pushing into the paradigm "achievements" or "trophies" does worry me. The game needs to have sex, sickness and seediness if it is to keep true to the original template, not fucking "whoopity do, look at me, I've killed my one hundredth pink slimy thing".

  • BigJonno #33 1 year ago

    @ChthonicEcho

    "I'm still interested in this and will be watching its development, but it looks like it takes the same transition Mass Effect 2 did when compared to ME1."

    What, you mean it's going to be better in every conceivable way?

  • darkmorgado #34 1 year ago

    @BigJonno

    ME2 was nowhere near superior to ME1. It stripped back the RPG stuff so much that it was inconsequential. It replaced planetary eploration with an even worse slow-as-snails minigame, the story was awful, the characters were seriously underdeveloped (really? a one hour mission per character and they are supposed to be developed? erm, ok), the conversation system made no sense...

    It was just a poor GOW clone with a cursory nod to being a true RPG. Biggest disappointment this gen.

  • DarknRahl #35 1 year ago

    I'm not the biggest RPG fan as I rarely ever finish such games, as once it becomes really hard to die I seem to lose interest. I almost finished Dragon Age Origins before losing interest once I had a decent healer in my party that pretty much took any of the fun out of combat due to never dying.

    Here's hoping this one might make me look twice.

  • UncleLou #36 1 year ago

    The Gamescom presentation of The Witcher 2 is nothing less than stunning. It looks like (at least half) a generation ahead of what else is out there in this genre, technically, so hats off to them if it really looks the same on all platforms.

  • BigJonno #37 1 year ago

    @darkmorgado

    I'm assuming by "RPG stuff" you mean stats. What it did there was replace a load of virtually meaningless choices with a smaller number of meaningful ones. The conversation system was no different to the first one, so I'm not entirely sure what the problem is there. We'll just have to disagree on the plot and characters, I thought it was a fine continuation from the first. I'll give you the scanning, but the original's alleged "exploration" was terrible too, so perhaps third time lucky on that one, eh?

    What made it so much better, in my opinion, was how it played. The way biotic and technical powers were handled was much better and the variation in the classes made it much more interesting to replay.

    Different strokes for different folks, though.

  • glaeken #38 1 year ago

    A different ending for every single person who buys the game!! That is pretty cool.

  • craziii #39 1 year ago

    even though it was optimize for the consoles, I hope it runs smooth performance wise on pcs. I mean, the game is designed around the performance levels of a 7800gtx. it should not even heat up my 460 like counter strike source. it raises my temps by 3 degrees :p