Still remember being frustrated with the prologue and bugs when it came out. I quit after not being able to go through the dungeon. My friend ridiculed me for dropping it. He was really impressed. But I thought he just liked it because he also played the first one. I didn't, so it was even harder to get into, because the story just throws you into the heat of things without explaining much. Everyone is talking with each other like they're old buddies. I remember asking him if Roche is in the first game or something...
Second chance after a bunch of patches, but before 2.0/enhanced edtion. I was blown away. It felt and looked nothing like any other fantasy at that time. I was especially impressed by writing, voice acting and presentation. And amount of choice and consequence during dialogues. I loved the setting too. Everything about it just felt new. For me it was Game of Thrones of fantasy games. Which, coincidentally, also started in 2011 and had similar elements like mature and gritty setting where selfish interests dominate plot and there's little room for idealism and heroes. It feels like it's more pronounced in the second game than in the third, because the third one feels more like heroic fantasy with saving the world and yada-yada.
Graphics was stunning, with super detailed forests and NPCs/characters looking distinct, memorable and expressive. Character models artsists - bravo. And concept designers, of course. Costuming felt different from other fantasy. Yet it had sense of history and character. You can just figure out good portion of an NPC just by looking at him/her.
The biggest shock was when 2.0 version arrived. I accidentally ended up on Roche's path by choosing different options in dialogue. Before that I joined Iorveth, but I though Iorveth was the only option! I was gobsmacked how it altered the second half of the game. I spend the next 60 or 70 hours just plaything through every damn narrative option possible and looking at all alternative story developments. 3rd act got a major update. So I replayed Iorveth path too. It was one of those games that you want 101%. In my case it's pretty rare. The game needs to be truly something special to commit like that. And Witcher 2 was like that. I still can't truly prefer Witcher 3 or Witcher 2. Because Witcher 2 has certain things that I missed in Witcher 3. And Witcher 3 had so much good of it's own, that it's hard to pick 2 as my favorite Witcher experience.
Thanks for great memories, CDPR.