The Witcher 2 Enhanced Edition is now available for Xbox 360 and PC, last week there was a Q&A with Mariej Ocham and Bartek Ocham from CDProjektRed (Check out over coverage here). For the launch of the game they created an hour-long immersive experience where you fight, kill, talk toad and play some dice.
The experience was created using the game’s story as a basis, the people who created the experience were given copies of the game so they could play through and tailor the event from what happens in the game. Real life actors, 2 pubs, a park, smartphones and a toad made up the cast which took you through a fun-filled journey. Smartphones were used as journals that you updated as you progressed through the evening, they also had some very cool augmented reality parts my favourite being a letter in elvish that was translated into english. I even got the chance to gamble for gold coins!
With the event following the story of the game I won’t spoil too much. We started in the royal banquet hall having a feast with the king for his great victory over the elves. There was wine and food to spoil ourselves while speeches were given from the other guests, it was a great feast until the King drank from his cup and felt wine trickle down his throat like none other. He clutched at his throat before taking his last breath, the other guests thought we had killed the King! I didn’t even get chance to eat, let alone kill the king but before the guards arrested us we were rushed away and into a dark lit tavern where our quest for the King slayer started….
With the King dead we had the epic quest of clearing our names by finding the real murderer. After an arm wrestle for gold, a riddle with a toad and a game of poker dice we had our information and were on our way to meet the elves. At this point we were given a choice…. Do we meet the blood thirsty elves with weapons and get the information we need by force? Or win them over by using only words? We decided to use our words to gain the information we need. After a brisk walk to a park….. there stood 3 elves with pointy ears because what elf doesn’t have pointy ears. They were menacing creatures with scars….. A sword and a really big guy… Okay so maybe I wasn’t fearing for my life but they didn’t want to part with their information. After 10mins battling out with the leader using only our words they supplied us a letter written in elvish. We then had to use a smartphone which translated the letter into English, this was very cool. Using augmented reality the words magical changed in front of eyes…. Our journey continued to the red pub where a woman and a bath met us. She invited us to take a quick dip, I couldn’t see any problems with this, could you? Woman with a towel around her body, bath with candles in the basement of a pub, what could go wrong???? But before I could take one for team a Witcher (bloody Witcher) ran in and advised she was under a hex. After we provided some herbs that we were given in East London (it’s not like that) he removed the hex, the woman was then able to tell us who was behind the murder of the king and her hex…….. Another Witcher!!! There was only 1 thing left to do….. It was time to fight!!! We raced to the location and grabbed our swords and a silver dagger to put an end to this evil and clear our names. It was a valent fight where no lives were lost except for the Witcher when we plunged the silver dagger between his shoulder blades! It was a great victory for all outlanders! And the country!
Now if the above doesn’t sound cool it’s because I don’t do it justice, it was a brilliant event with live actors who did a great job at portraying their character and keeping the immersive experience going from start to end. The journal was a great idea keeping you on track with your quest with some very cool augmented reality built in.
It gave me the chance to live a part of the game, to cross that bridge between real life and the Witcher universe. Namcobandi with the help of PremierPR were able to captivate and excite people for a game like no other, with the experience following the story it’s left me wanting to play the game and see everything this game and universe has to offer.
Expect a review in the next couple of weeks as with a game of 45hrs to complete (if you know what your doing) it could take some time but I can’t wait to experience this universe again, but this time as a true Witcher and in the safety of my home where no elves live…….. I think……..
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