The Witcher 2: A Primer for New Players

There are many reasons to pick up The Witcher 2 while it remains on sale on both Steam and CD Projekt's own GOG.com service. For starters, it's a fantastic RPG with great dialogue, choices (like a real RPG is supposed to have), and character development. Vastly underrated, but so much better than Dragon Age 2, The Witcher 2 isn't something you'll want to 

You may have some reservations about playing the game if you haven't yet played the first game—so much so that playing the game for the first time can be very daunting to newcomers. Understandably so—for the game is set in a complex world. 

The saga of The Witcher that spans over both games takes place in a deep, political setting, and should be ideally played in proper order. Plot threads from the first game carry over onto the second, which can make it a little difficult for players to catch up to events. Thankfully, the plot of the first game is non-essential to anything that happens in The Witcher 2, for the two are independent story arcs.

If you have little time to spare and want to get into the second game without experiencing first, here's a few things you should know to get you started.

* Witchers, like the protagonist Geralt, are chemically engineered mutants. They wield two blades—a silver one for supernatural monsters, and a steel one for human opponents. They act as swords for hire in a world overrun by monsters.

* The Northern Kingdoms in which the games take place are constantly at war. A war of succession is raging on at the start of The Witcher 2.

* The Nilfgaard Empire has its sights set on global conquest. They conduct invasions of the Northern Kingdoms.

* The Flaming Rose is an order of knights, akin to the Knights Templar. They despise elves.

* The Sqoi'a'tel are a group of elven freedom fighters/terrorists who want to put an end to their oppression through violent means.

* The Nilfgaard Empire backs both the Flaming Rose and the Scoi'a'tel to destabilize the Northern Kingdoms, making the region ripe for conquest.

That's all you'll need to get started with The Witcher 2. Get going!