The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings is a pretty darn good looking game. There is understandably some apprehension coming from a traditionally PC platform game making its way to the Xbox 360. Actually, you can see the game's PC roots quite clearly, as it seems there's an overwhelming amount of detail packed in. There are lots of varied locations like lush jungles, dirty ramshackle towns, and even caves that are interesting. There's shadows and nice shafts of light pouring in through every crevice. There are fine textiles and goods stacked up in crates. It seems like every buckle and bag was ported over. There are some differences. For example, some extras like the wavy surface of glass in the windows are gone. But where the corners were cut, it's not painfully obvious. Characters are just as detailed as the surroundings, with tons of little details built into even the ragged clothes of the townspeople. One additional thing that struck me as very thoughtful was the option of large text for playing on CRT or non-HD television sets. I've played through games where this really was a problem, and it's nice to see a developer consider their entire customer base this way.

The sound is equally nice, especially in the background music. The scores match their environments quite well, with taverns having their own live music played on simple instruments, and forests having a foreboding, almost horror movie kind of theme. The voice acting is likewise great, matching the overall tone of the game perfectly. It's a filthy, depressing, rough world that the Witcher lives in, and the townspeople are likewise rough, dour, tough, and sarcastic at times. The Witcher himself keeps his even-toned, rough, low volume voice, only rising in emotion in extreme cases. Even the children run around yelling morbid mottos like "Death to the Squirrels!"

If you like your RPGs dark and generally gloomy, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings definitely delivers on that. In this dark medieval world, racism runs rampant, sexism is a way of life, and war is an ever-present threat. Geralt, the game's star Witcher, walks a fine line between hero and hated freak.

The story starts out with the perfect crime: another Witcher frames Geralt for the murder of King Foltest. Geralt, having been the King's favored protector up until this point, has to scramble to clear his name. You embark on a quest to find the killer, and of course, help quite a few people on the way.

There's a lot of political stuff about kings and royal lines of successions, Geralt's past, and other background story that you will need to catch up on to fully appreciate every bit of story you find. Honestly, the first game seemed to count on you having read the books as well, so don't worry so much if you hear a bunch of background detail that you don't understand. The basic plotlines and characters are easy enough to understand. Triss is your old flame, Zoltan and Dandelion are your old pals, for example. A big fold-out map also helps with the geography of the wars and political disputes. Basically, if a few names are dropped that you don't recognize, chances are you'll hear more about them if they're truly important to the story.

If you've played the first game on the PC, The Witcher 2 has been simplified quite a bit. The rhythm-based combat system from the first game is gone, replaced by a more standard hack and slash interface. You don't have to find a fire to meditate, and making potions is a lot less experimental (no making self-blinding potions with random ingredients anymore). You also can't get drunk anymore. The leveling tree is also a bit more simplified, with simple talent points instead of points in bronze and silver categories and so on. This doesn't mean The Witcher is simply a linear RPG on rails now, just a bit more streamlined.

The Xbox 360 version of the game also remains faithful to the PC version in the romance options as well. It's pretty darn explicit, and earns the M rating with ease. But if those scenes didn't do it for you, the foul-mouthed citizens of The Witcher's world should. Every other line out of people's mouth is about "ploughing" this or f- that. I mean, everyone, everyone has sex on their mind in this game. Actually, the insults in this game are pretty damn creative and hilarious, but yes, so very dirty.

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings is a game that's plenty difficult. Normal is challenging, and anything above is for people with a masochistic streak. Basically if you start out in Normal, you'll need to fight pretty much perfect battles. A few hits can eat your health away, a few enemies surrounding you will quickly take you down. Dodging isn't truly effective at the beginning of the game (you have to dodge pretty early to be successful), and it feels like you're way behind the level of the enemies you face at the beginning.

Easy will give you a standard hack and slash experience, but of course, it feels like your potions and other abilities are just an afterthought in this difficulty mode. The Witcher is definitely a game that was meant to be challenging to get the full experience. Luckily, there is a new tutorial mode that wasn't found in the PC version that helps you get up to speed, no matter which difficulty level you choose.

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings could control a bit better, but works very well for the most part. There just seems to be a big delay in a lot of Geralt's actions, which results in you taking a hit most of the time. You'll have to learn to control the the fight rather preemptively to get things to go your way.

Other little things, like picking up objects, are a breeze in The Witcher 2, and don't get in the way of having a good time. There are some times where the camera angle spells death in an intense fight, but you can work around this by moving around, which you probably should be doing anyway.

The Witcher 2 is the Witcher you've been waiting for on the Xbox. You don't need to feel like you're missing out on much if you can't play the PC version. This game doesn't leave anything out, and looks almost as good as its PC counterpart. It's not hard to recommend The Witcher for some good, dirty, RPG fun.