Poll: I'm On The Fence About Trying The Witcher 2

[Joccaren]

There's a simple solution to potions: Don't take the potion drinking skillset, and rely on magic or swordsmanship instead.

I almost never use potions. The only ones I do is 'Cat' for seeing through walls and in the dark, and 'Swallow' when I'm coming up to a big fight to help a teensy bit with regeneration, though after and even during chapter one that becomes useless.

The hardest fight in the game is chapter one's second boss, and that's because he's just pro. All your skills that you could potentially have, he has them. He's a damage soak that throws bombs and spells that deal as much damage as your heavy attack, who blocks most of your strikes and will counter attack you often, leaving you pretty much screwed.

How to beat him is pretty simple once you get the hang of it, and especially if you put skills in the right perks. It just takes a bit of practice to get used to.

Beyond that the only hard fights in the game are when you're swarmed by 10 or 20 enemies in the first chapter. You can deal with it, but it takes some skill and practice.

 

[Xdeser2]

The game has actually been patched since Yahtzee played it. It has a really helpful tutorial and the difficulty has been balanced out and it's overall a better game. And, like many have said, Yahtzee's existence (by his own admittance) is to criticize and pick apart games, as apposed to outright review them and provide balanced recommendation.

Honestly, though, here's the thing. You say you're on the fence about trying The Witcher 2. Here's what I recommend: pirate it. No, no, don't pirate it like that. I mean, find it, demo it for yourself, and if you like it, buy it. There might actually be a demo. Hold on.

...okay, if your bandwidth is good enough, you can <link=http://www.gaikai.com/games/witcher-2-enhanced-edition>play it at Gaikai. So you might want to try it out there? And if it's not, I... well, I don't recommend, but for demonstration purposes, I'd find a torrent of it and "pirate" it. Just play the first few hours, and if you like it then buy it. If you don't, delete it. I'd see no harm in that - the guys who made it, made it DRM-free for a reason.

The Witcher 2 is an example of an RPG done well...

and thats all the praise I can put on it. Dont get me wrong, its well worth a nice playthrough, but dont be expecting the second coming of Christ, as some people claim it is. :/

I think most people love it because CD Projekt Red is quite possibly the most consumer-friendly, fan-honouring and respectful company in the business today. They've handed out so many free games, their customer support is nothing short of astounding, and the amount of free content they've added to all their games - the kind of stuff other companies would charge for - is... unfathomable. The business of The Witcher 2 is worth loving the game for, even if the game itself is merely good/great (as apposed to, y'know, perfect. It's a solid 8/10).

I guess I can understand that. I came in to it a bit late, as I played the 360 version (The PC at my place is a family one) so alot of the new content was just kind of normal to me. I kinda had to look up the diffriences between EE and Vanilla TW2. (though some did really stand out as obvious later additions) I gotta say, bravo to them for fixing up their game the right way, And the arena was a really nice touch.

 

[rbstewart7263]

Story wise its what you remember quality wise from kotor and early bioware games before bioware got bought by ea.

gameplay wise is great. you cant use potions in battle - emphasis on preparation prior to battle.

and on yahtzee and pc games he has a shit computer according to him so id check someone elses opinion. I agree with yahtzee alot but I dont let his opinion define what games i buy.

 

[valleytree]

The Witcher 2 is one of my all time favourite games. The things is, though, that I haave read the two books published in English and also played the first Witcher game. Without that I would guess that the story is VERY confusing. I might be wrong, but I found that the first game was crazy confusing since I had not read the books by then. The Witcher 2 does not deal in hand-holding, so be prepared to do quite a bit of reading. I will say, however, that all the effort is worth it. The Witcher 2 is a great RPG and the universe is takes place in is wonderfully dark.

 

[mattttherman3]

I made the mistake of getting it. Too hard and I couldn't get into the story. they made 0 effort to recap the first game. I had no idea wtf was goimg on even after reading a synopsis on the first game.

 

[Norrdicus]

Without that I would guess that the story is VERY confusing.

Playing the first game will probably not help as much as reading the books. The most confusing part of Witcher 2's story is all the political talk. I almost wish I had the Witcher map on my lap during the some of the moments so I could understand the geography and the different nations that get mentioned

Plus the game has this "Medieval conspiracy" plot that has so many layers that you can't possibly understand everything after just one playthrough

 

[Joshimodo]

It's a fantastic game in most regards. Was my GOTY last year. Don't miss it.


Dark Souls is far, FAR more cumbersome in it's design, don't worry.

 

[tendaji]

In my opinion, the entire story line fell apart in the third act, when you could barely tell what was really going on. But then again that was my opinion, the first two acts were pretty brilliant. Gameplay was tedious at first until you got the hang of it. Environments were nice looking, despite having to run for 5-10 minutes because you forgot something at the end of a really long pathway. It was a pretty good game, but had quite a few flaws.

 

[Dandark]

I just bought it recently and have nearly finished downloading it. Im hoping that I can get past the combat if I dislike it and just enjoy the rest of the game.

Can someone let me know the basics of the combat? I don't really know much about it, is their magic? If there is then is it worthwhile?
If I have much choice in my character then I will probably make a pure warrior or a spellsword, are either of those fighting styles worthwhile?

Im guessing this isn't like Skyrim where you can build nearly anything and have it work.

 

[cojo965]

Now to clarify, The Witcher 2 sounds like a good game but a few mechanics sound intimidating to me. The difficulty isn't the problem, I finished Dark Souls twice but I'm not the one to talk about it so watch Yahtzee's review of the game. I hope you, the Escapists can give me a reason to play it.

Calm down, its in ARPG, not a CRPG.

Everything apart from the combat is easy and streamlined (compared to CRPGs).

On the normal difficulty setting theres only one single time you HAVE to drink a potion to survive, and a character tells you to do so numerous times. If you play on Dark things are gonna get more complicated, but on normal, its a piece of cake.

I am not familiar with those terms. Could you explain?

 

[Flamezdudes]

There was something about the Witcher 2 that just bored me to death, but I can't quite put my finger on it.

The world felt alive, the characters were cool, the story was decent, but I didn't care about any of it.

I dunno, it just lacked 'that spark' I guess.

I know what you mean actually, I got it myself recently about a month ago but I haven't even finished it yet... i'm still on Chapter 2. It just.. lacks something.

 

[Woodsey]

Just play it, the potion stuff sounds worse than it is and you can probably get away with not doing it on normal.

Superb RPG.

 

[The Human Torch]

I have the Witcher 2, I didn't like it. The combat is far too clunky and there is WAY too much stuff they throw at you. This attack needs this spell, this spell need this attack, don't forget to drink your potion that you brewed from several herbs. Also you need to sit down and meditate while you digest that potion.

The combat just doesn't flow, it's as rigid and unforgiving as it was in part 1. Getting ready for combat in the Witcher feels like I am packing for a 3 day weekend in Paris.

The inventory is even worse, the navigation is poorly managed and they don't even bother to tell you what's what. It's an elitist prick of an RPG.

So no, I didn't play Witcher 2 for very long, if it wasn't attached to my Steam account I would give it to you, so that you could try it.