You just have to play this game.
I was not disappointed. This is (for the most part) one fantastic game. First off it looks absolutely tremendous. The game suggested 'ultra' settings based on my system configuration and while it looked unbelievable with those settings, the game stuttered as if someone was shoving it though a slide projector. After reducing the detail settings to 'high' and turning off the ubersampling option, the game was very stable and smooth for me and still looked far better than any RPG to date. Some of the environments were actually breath taking. It is not too often that I will stop in a game and just look around. I did this several times in Witcher 2 and that alone is a testament to the richness and believablity of the various locations you travel to and through. The creatures were also designed with equal care. All of them look and sound fantastic. And while there isn't a great deal of variety in the creatures you encounter and fight, given that you are deliberatley constrained in how and where you can go in each Act (more on that later), it makes sense that you wouldn't run across hundreds of different types of monsters within a circumscribed location. The towns and places you visit are each unique and well designed. Those who inhabit them, from companions who follow you from Act to Act, to NPCs whom you only interact with while in a given Act to NPCs whose sole function is to fill up space so towns don't feel like empty graveyards, all behave and act as if they belong there. It's pleasing to walk through a market square on your way to this or that, and hear someone comment, "Look. It's the White Wolf", or have someone comment on the current state of the game after you have made some of you choices that should impact how the city is behaving, really adds a great deal of depth to the game.
The world of the Witcher as most of you know is fraught with greed, deception, racism, violence, classism and a host of other less than pleasant sins and all of them rear their ugly head during your adventure. Kings and Princes spit on the idea that serfs should do anything more than work their fields and that they should be grateful for the opportunity to do so. Women are largely relegated to whoring or barmaids and while they seem to partially accept their fate, they are clearly upset and angry at the unfairness of it all. Violence is rampant and it's usually race related. Dwarves and elves are treated as second class cititzens and are relegated to to the slums or districts that separate them from the humans, unless they choose to ostracize themselves and join the Scoia'tael and live in the forests. Which is not to say it's all fun and games for the humans in this world, poverty is endemic and everywhere you look you observe people living in squalor scraping away at a near pitiful existence. All of this just adds to the constant underlying river of violence that rages beneath the surface of every conversation or interaction. Inevitably that violence explodes and Geralt often finds himself in the center of that violence.
It's in those occasions where I find the game either truly shines or falls a bit flat. Some of the choices you are faced with as Acts come to a close or when that undercurrent of violence finally breaks free, really involve some difficult moral choices that have dramatic effects on how the game plays out. For example, choosing who to side with at the end of Act 1, either the Scoia'tael or Vernon Roche, neither of whom is truly evil, is a really difficult decision and dramatic moment in the game. Where as on other occasions the game dramatically builds to a dramatic choice or conclusion, but when the time to choose ultimately arrives, there really is only once choice to be made as choosing the other just makes no sense whatsoever, except to see how it might play out. But those choices lack any sort of moral impact if you are only going to choose them to see what happens and it's a shame that more morally driven outcomes weren't avaiable at times.
The gameplay is changed a bit from the first installment. I would argue those changes are for the better. There are no more stances to deal with and the timing aspect of when to attack has been (somewhat) removed. You still need to time your attacks but you don't wait for visual queus to do this: you need to watch the opponent for counter attacks, dodge and resume your attack. You still have to keep both a steel and silver sword and the fights are still fluid and dynamic. The game is pretty challenging although I found the challenge actually went down as Geralt's level increased. It is almost as if the creatures and enemies all stayed at some static level while Geralt advanced and it made some of the encounters rather trivial. Also a great many of the fights boiled down to the following: attack, dodge, attack, dodge, attack, dogde ... That did feel a bit stale after a wile. However, there were occasions when the combat was downright unfair. Instead of using your mouse to select an enemy to attack, the game uses Geralt's line of vision to choose whom you are going to attack and sometimes you will find yourself attacking someone in the middle of a group of four or five enemies when you meant to choose one on the outside. This can cause to to get stuck in locations where you will just get hammered into the ground by repeated and inescapable chains of attacks. Happily this doesn't happen too often. The boss fights are fun and the mechanics that surround each one are pretty well thought out. I did find the Act 2 boss to be a bit of a push over, but for the most part the other two were challenging enounters without being too punishing.
There are three skill trees to choose from. I chose the Swordsmanship path as it seems most befitting of a Witcher. Some of the later talents were downright devestating and watching Geralt eviscerate three enemies with a kick ass combo was just plain bad ass. I chose to upgrade the Quen sign in the Magic tree and I have to say spending those two points was a double edged sword. It almost makes you invincible to some degree which adds to the triviality of some of the encounters, but it also adds to the Geralt's mystique. Upgrade at your own "risk". I didn't touch the Alchemy tree at all as I found the potions you can create were all sufficient to the task.
The inventory system sadly has not been improved. You will come across a ridiculous amount of herbs, crafting supplies, armor upgrades, trophies, books and mutagens. Most of which are completely useless and you should vendor at your earliest convenience. Also the amount of weight you can carry is pretty restrictive at 250 pounds. However you still have no way of knowing what is worthwhile and what can be safely discarded. This boils down to the game not providing enough information as to why you may or may not need these items. For the record, sell or don't bother to pick up any lesser mutagens. You can only use those mutagens on the last three talents in any tree so why would you waste those slots on lesser mutagen versions. Armor enhancements can only be used on armor you won't be able to get until Act 2 and cannot be applied to anything other than your chest piece. Why you will find some many prior to Act 2 when you can't use them before that is a mystery. Pick up every herb you come across as they are expensive to buy and orens are yet again pretty hard to come by. The potions can be life savers but are time limited. But why do cutscenes count towards the time available? That was extrememly frustrating at times.
I was also disappointed in Act 3 of the game as it was a total sprint to the finsh compared to Acts 1 and 2. There are only two ancillary quests in Act 3, one witcher contract to kill gargoyles and another to complete the arm wrestling mini-game if you bothered with the previous matches in the earlier acts. Also there was some really nice equipement you could craft in Act 3 but there seemed little incentive to do so. One chest piece even required a dragon skin that as far as I know is unavailable in the game. And the end sprint was a damn shame as the previous two Acts were thoroughly fleshed out. Act 2 in particular blended a strong sense of urgency with the freedom of exploration and tied it all up very neatly at the end. Act 3 on the other hand felt rushed and incomplete. There is really only one plot related quest: get arrested or find another way into the prison cells through the sewer system. And finding that entrance was the hardest thing I had to do in the game as there is no indication on the map as to where it was. After that, the game rushes head first like an arrow shot straight to the finish. Thematic events and quests that have plagued Geralt from the start are so quickly and neatly tied up that I couldn't help but feel a bit let down. One converation you have with the Kingslayer at the very completley baffled me in that it happened at all and that so much plot closure occured during it. Although enough is left hanging such that you can almost feel the DLCs and sequels coming.
To sum this game (and review) up, an extraordinary amount of attention went into the finer details of this game and it paid off in spades. The complaints I had didn't detract from the over all experience in any truly significant way and you would be absolutely crazy not to play this game -- especially if you are an RPG fan. Even if you are not, you should still be able to appreciate the degree of effort and care CD Projekt poured into the Witcher 2 and have a truly enjoyable gaming experience.