More than a port: The Witcher 2 360 Preview

The first few months of this year have been more than a bit busy. We've had Final Fantasy XIII-2 and Mass Effect 3, for instance, but one of the highlights of the month for me was seeing an RPG that actually released last year again: The Witcher 2.

CD Projekt RED have been hard at work on preparing the Xbox 360 launch of the game, officially titled The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kinds Enhanced Edition. As the name suggests, it's a little more than just a port, featuring a bunch of new missions and story content - more on that later - but what really left me impressed after several hours of hands-on play was the quality of the port.

Most developers would groan at the idea of taking their baby and having it make the jump from machines where they can stretch the specifications as far as they feel is realistic to one that is now six years old and not aging gracefully in every area. It's going to be hard, killer work - but CD Projekt appear to have embraced that task with gusto, building a port that puts many other PC to console translations to shame.

Some of it is down to clever design choices in the original game. As noted in our original Witcher 2 review, the super-difficult, tight timing of the combat in the original Witcher is gone, replaced by a more accessible, simple system.

It's no less deep, but by doing away with extra baggage like stances the system is easier to understand and easier to implement on a controller with fewer buttons.

It worked well for The Witcher 2, allowing that game to garner an audience and a critical reception that the very hardcore first game struggled to. Here the design decision pays off even further still, making it easier for console players who are more familiar with titles like Fable and Elder Scrolls to pick up and play.

Even Mass Effect's influence is felt in the form of a circular menu that can be bought up, slowing time and allowing you to pick some of your more complex abilities. While combat doesn't pause entirely like in Bioware's Action RPG, the similarity is obvious. Like those games, it allows for a depth in the number of skills on the table and options in combat without a million hotkeys.

Subtle tweaks to the systems behind the camera and the way Geralt moves both in and out of combat help to bring the experience more in line with traditional console experiences. It seems like a small change, but having the camera now automatically follow Geralt's movements and map itself around obstacles and walls makes a huge difference with a controller, while a new lock-on mechanic makes targeting the right enemy in combat easier, too.

While The Witcher is marked as one of the most hardcore PC RPG series' on the market, the way it has been tweaked and edited here makes it easily accessible to fans of simpler console RPGs.

Given several hours with the game, I was able to dive into a cross-section of content from numerous places throughout the game including the opening and much later in the game, where some of the new 'Enhanced Edition' content shows up.

Here's the thing: it looks and performs great. You're going to have to take that statement and keep in mind that there is no way this is going to look as good as the original did on the highest settings on PC. It's just not possible, but CD Projekt has done an impressive job anyway.

The frame rate was solid but for a few hiccups and screen tearing was rare. Textures look great, and never displayed that jump in quality as the high-res versions are loaded that sometimes haunts some ports. While there were a few instances of noticeable pop-in such as when Geralt's handcuffs magically flashed into existence about his wrists during a cutscene this non-final build of the game performed in a manner which I'd describe as more than satisfactory.

If the game launched tomorrow looking like this, 360 owners could still be content in saying it is one of the better looking games on the platform - in part thanks to clever coding of the port from CD Projekt and in part thanks to the beautiful artistic direction the title takes.

The vast world of The Witcher 2 is intact, now spread across two discs that'll involve a swap when you reach a certain point in the story. While there sadly won't be an option to install both discs and play off one, the story-based swap - meaning you might potentially only need to swap once - is welcome.

The game's new content mostly comes in the back-end of the title, I'm told, and will also be added to the PC version free of charge later on. That includes four new hours of gameplay content which packs in major new quests set in large new locations. All new, fully voiced characters are introduced in the new quests, also.

On top of that there's an impressive new CGI introduction from a BAFTA winning director and new story sequences to help players not familiar with the world of The Witcher jump right in. It's not a bad deal for 360 owners, but is even better for PC fans, who'll get all these upgrades free as a download.

The Witcher 2's Xbox 360 port sets positive examples that other developers who work on PC first ought to follow. The quality of the port is impressive, and makes the changes necessary to be accessible and successful without damaging the original experience that fans loved on the PC.

We gave the game's original release an impressive score, and this version truly lives up to its 'Enhanced' moniker. If you haven't got a decent gaming PC, this is going to be worth your time. If you have, it might be time to prepare for the patch...

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition launches on April 17 for the Xbox 360. The PC version is available now, and will be patched to the 'Enhanced Edition' in April.