The Witcher 2

[nbamaniac]

This was one of the few games where I actually thought that the developers did their all and put their hearts into making the game. I was actually stunned. I really wanna hear thoughts from the rest of the escapists.

PS: I didn't have the time to check the forums for older posts that are similar to this, so feel free to inform me.

 

[Ilikemilkshake]

I havent played the the witcher 2 yet but from what i heard the start is offputtingly difficult, and towards the end it's laughably easy.

But i couldnt get into the first game (might try again actually) but until the price drops significantly i wont be picking up the sequal

 

[nbamaniac]

The difficulty is actually welcoming though in my standpoint. It surely is more of a challenge than the recent titles under a 'hard' setting.

EDIT: What i really liked though is that everything in the game world felt polished up to the minor things.

 

[Agayek]

I really like the game. It's one of the best RPGs to come out in years. My only real complaint about the game is that it really needs a better tutorial. I have no idea how to go about that, but any game where the player dies 5+ times in the first few minutes isn't going to appeal to a whole lot of people. Once I figured out the combat mechanics, the game worked great, but up until then it was an exercise in annoyance and failure.

 

[nbamaniac]

Not to mention those huge save files. xD I'm not quite the enthusiast to have more than 300 GB of free space. But like what you said those are minor annoyances to the brilliance that i have experienced.

 

[Savber]

Several game design choices made me facepalm myself several times while playing Witcher 2.

Not really fan of the "fuck you if you don't get it" approach of the devs and the accusations that I'm pansy if I want a freaking rundown on my what I can do etc.

The arm wrestling is downright annoying especially when it's part of the quest like Indecent Proposal.

The lack of support for 4:3 screens is almost unforgivable. I expected that from Ubisoft but not from CDPR.


Don't even get me started with Witcher fans.


Other than that, a damn great game... 9/10 stars

;D

 

[wolfapocalypse]

I played the first Witcher and thought it was a fantastic and great game. Although I did have a love hate relationship with it because some parts were just so difficult! Right now I'm on chapter one on The Withcer 2. So far the game has given me good impressions and bad ones. Its a beautiful game and the story is fantastic but the combat is still clunky. Also the Arad sign only does a small blast of wind that only affects one person while in the first one it would effect multiple enemies. Also whats up with not being able to drink potions if your not meditating? That is were I think the game has failed. Its stupid that you have to meditate in order to pull a potion out of your pocket and drink it. All in all so far its a pretty good game.

 

[nbamaniac]

I actually got used to the combat. I guess it's quite a hit and miss issue with players.

 

[wolfapocalypse]

I actually got used to the combat. I guess it's quite a hit and miss issue with players.

Its not that the combat is hard to get used to, its that it feels clunky and unresponsive at times. Like I'm surrounded by nekkers and I smack one in the face with my sword and when I try to roll away it takes a second or two for Geralt to respond and move. In the time 4 more nekkers gang up on me and have their way with me. It would be easier if I could just use the Arad sign to blow them off of me but seeing how it only effects one person now that's not an option.

 

[PrinceOfShapeir]

That's interesting. Isn't the difficulty curve supposed to start easy and end hard, not vice versa?

 

[nbamaniac]

hmm actually i had those issues too, but since i finished the game it became a minor deal for me i guess. Anyway i think the response delay is because you can't cancel Geralt's previous animations impromptu.

I'm more of a defensive type; a swordsman Quen spammer So i guess i didn't really notice.

 

[GrimSheeper]

Close to the final mission and I love it... So much to do and explore even if the levels narrow down just a little as the game progresses. Smart riddles, too, if pretty much ridiculously hard if you don't pay attention. It gets quite a lot easier thanks to far more powerful items in the third act but there is so much going on and it all makes sense and feels exciting. Every little thing that happens seems to have consequences which will affect your future gameplay far more than just making a slight difference in how you finish a task (looking at Bethesda games here).

The second act can be a completely reversed game depending on the choices in Act 1 and I still enjoy finding out things about the White Wolf that slowly reveal themselves. I must admit, the arm wrestling is downright annoying most of the time except if you use steroids which you can only buy for the absolute last arm wrestling match (remember kids, drugs mean success). Fighting is a lot of fun because it is player skill based whereas with dice poker it seems that especially later opponents downright cheat against probabilities. No way can a single person throw five sixes in a row for several games.
But minigames definitely aren't the meat of this game and it's a great, very mature and dark storyline combined with rewarding visual style and challenging (read: stonkin' impossible) combat that makes boss fights in particular feel that much more rewarding. (Even if the Kayran was a chore while the Draug went down in no time).
I can highly recommend this as my personal favourite RPG. They still have to work on the loading issues, but it has improved tremendously since The Witcher and it feels like a fluid game if you have the computing power. Just a lot of fun to play and it rewards exploration and replaying it, that's all you need to know.

 

[Akihiko]

I actually got used to the combat. I guess it's quite a hit and miss issue with players.

Its not that the combat is hard to get used to, its that it feels clunky and unresponsive at times. Like I'm surrounded by nekkers and I smack one in the face with my sword and when I try to roll away it takes a second or two for Geralt to respond and move. In the time 4 more nekkers gang up on me and have their way with me. It would be easier if I could just use the Arad sign to blow them off of me but seeing how it only effects one person now that's not an option.

Yeah, that was my problem with it, it wasn't that the game didn't tell you anything or that I didn't like it being difficult. It was just the controls felt so unresponsive at times, and so instead of it feeling like you failed at the game, it felt more like the controls failed you.

I'm happy to say when you put talents into everything, they get far better. Like roll, which becomes great with two talent points in, and Aard which goes back to being a bigger area. Although Geralt still sometimes won't put up his sword to guard, or cast a spell as soon as I press the button, maybe that'll be improved in a patch or something. Unfortunately, because the difficulty was due to those problems, once they get fixed by talents, the game becomes stupidly easy.

Oh right, and before any witcher fan jumps me and burns me at the stake. I do actually really love the game despite the above problem, infact I'd argue that's my only problem with the game.

 

[nbamaniac]

Never specced my magical talents. Well guess that's what my next playthrough's for..

 

[MetallicaRulez0]

Some random thoughts through my first 10 hours with the game:
-I'd like better tutorials. I had no idea what Mutagens did until I looked it up online.

-Using up Vigor for blocking is pants-on-head retarded.

-Inventory weight management is a bad design.

-Side Quests really need better indicators, especially for things like "go kill these guys". Ummm... where are "these guys"?

-Graphics on Ultra are probably the best I have ever seen in a video game, period. It may be the first game to eclipse Crysis for environments.

-BOOBIES!

That's all I can think of at the moment. I'm enjoying it, although there are a lot of minor annoyances throughout.

 

[adrian_exec]

I like The Witcher 2, I think its an amazing game! But it has two issues that really pissed me off, for an example I hate Dice Poker!

Dice Poker was one of my favorite things to do in the first game but they just ruined it in the sequel. Only one round is stupid, if the AI gets a lucky roll I'm done, I will lose. Also the camera angle at which we have to roll the dice is annoying, the top view from the first game was 10 times better.

The other thing I dislike to a certain degree is the cheap combat, Yrden and Quen Signs seem so overpowered (compared to the others signs at least) that I found some boss fights quite boring because of them. The Quen Sign in particular I find it really overpowered when enhanced with the Magic Talents.

Other than these two things, I can't remember any other flaws about this game that I disliked. Auto-saves would be nice if we could turned them off, but that's not something that has bothered me to much.

 

[Wolfram23]

Not to mention those huge save files. xD I'm not quite the enthusiast to have more than 300 GB of free space. But like what you said those are minor annoyances to the brilliance that i have experienced.

Really? I'll have to look into that. I quick save a lot so I have a list of save files...

Anyway, I'm not very far in, basically I'm just finishing some side quests (can't... find... nekker tunnels!) before going for the Kayran (w/e it's called).

I really like the game thus far. It's fantastic.

I also seem to have partially kicked my OCD habit of exploring every single house for loot lol. Most of them just have garbage anyway so far.

 

[Harb]

To be fair, The Witcher 2 is the best RPG I came across (just started chapter 3) since The Mask of the Betrayer. You can guess I care mostly about storytelling and characters. Rest is....gently put - optional.

I enjoy challenging combat, strongly refuse to lower down to "easy" for some fights. At least it forces me to use all potions / bombs / daggers / traps / signs.

The Witcher 2 is the game Dragon Age II was supposed to be, thus I have to shout: "Are you watching, are you watching, are you watching Bioware?!?!" (taken from UK football stadiums ).
Just worth mentioning, if we compare first weeks between TW2 and DAII (on PC only), The Witcher 2 has 68 000 more copies sold. Yeah!

Some random thoughts through my first 10 hours with the game:
-I'd like better tutorials. I had no idea what Mutagens did until I looked it up online.

-Using up Vigor for blocking is pants-on-head retarded.

-Inventory weight management is a bad design.

-Side Quests really need better indicators, especially for things like "go kill these guys". Ummm... where are "these guys"?

- Mutagens are fairly well explained in game's manual.

- I don't understand why blocks require Vigor to use, but hey, there is no real need to block attacks anyway.

- On contrary, I was so happy to see weight management. You actually HAVE TO think about what you sell / loot / carry with you. Love it.

- I remember games that had no bloody quest pointers and you had to figure out things on your own (with your own damn brain). Good times. Also, "these guys" are where they are supposed to be if you buy a book about them and read it (i.e. Nekkers).

- However I don't quire enjoy the way potions. Quite often I don't know if a combat is about to happen (thus drink potions), leaving me vulnerable if I happen to be caught "with pants down", even worse if you go down the alchemy path. And potions really shouldn't keep expiring during dialogues. The rest about potions (quantity, mixing, toxicity, ect.) is fine.

 

[Danceofmasks]

...

On the subject of the difficulty being backwards, I gotta say .. while games should be easier at the start than at the end, that's just the choice the devs went with.
When it's the other way round people go "@#$%! level scaling don't make sense"

On the subject of Yrden and Quen being OP ... all signs are powerful.
You can upgrade Aard to be both AoE and have much higher chance to stun. I mean if you like those execution animations it's cool, but I think they just waste time.
With enough upgraded raw damage, Igni will kill enemies so fast it's not even worth swinging a sword. Even boss level characters.
With upgraded Axii, you can keep half your enemies mind controlled ... heck, it's even worth using on single foes, just walk around them and whack 'em from behind & repeat.

 

[imperialus]

Not to mention those huge save files. xD I'm not quite the enthusiast to have more than 300 GB of free space. But like what you said those are minor annoyances to the brilliance that i have experienced.

Really? I'll have to look into that. I quick save a lot so I have a list of save files...

The quicksave overwrites the previous quicksave so you're OK on that front. None of the other saves do though and after plowing my way through chapter 1 I had over a gig worth of save files