Witcher 2 problems

[daveman247]

i'm enjoying the game so far
Just fought letho, good times.

The only things i dont like are you are supposed to take potions BEFORE you get into a fight. I'm not clairvoyant >.< I'm sure it'll be ok once i have finished it though.

Oh and sometimes the quests just leave you to find stuff without marking it on your map. Which is cool i guess but wandering around for half an hour trying to find nekker nests is not fun >.<

Is the AI for the giant spiders broken usually? I had to kill two, and neither of them seemed to want to attack me... I'm not complaining, i just happily chopped away

 

[Murmillos]

I always love it when somebody finds a overpowered ability, proceeds to spam the fuck out of it -- knowing full well that it trivializes everything, and then bitches for performing said actions.

Well no fucking shit.

Example: Kingdom of Amalur: Reckoning - Mage spell, meteor. Holy fuck, with enough +% fire spells, you don't even need to do anything else other then wait the 20 seconds between spell cool down... its an absolute face roll, fun maybe the first .. 20-30 times you use it. But yea, it trivialized everything.

You know what I did instead of continue to use it (and then eventually come to a forum to ***** about it)? I respec'ed my self so I didn't have access to that spell. I was then able to continue to enjoy the game without said spell (and had more fun in the respecing of points to boot).

Problem solved.

 

[Zhukov]

Just out of curiosity, what was wrong with the map/minimap?

Witcher 2 is a pet hate of mine, but I don't recall ever having a problem with the maps/

Mind if I ask what you disliked about the game?

Ohh, license to rant. Don't mind if I do.

Spoiler: Spoiler'd in order to spare everyone else my frothing rage and to spare myself the subsequent angry replies.

First, the story. In short, it utterly failed to make me care about, well... anything. It's hard to pin down why exactly but suffice to say that just one year later I've already forgotten most of it beyond the basic plot. I just remember a haze of indifference punctuated by some silly plot twists (Saskia's secret) and a severe let down at the end when the curtain was swept back (turns out the evil empire was being evil all along).

Similar deal with all but one of the characters (Iorveth, we're cool). I found them to be a dull bunch, lacking in defined personalities, significant development or memorable moments. They could have all died and I might not have noticed, let alone cared.

The setting was trying so hard to be "dark" that it quickly started to get downright comical. At the end of the day it amounted to Standard Fantasy Land #73352 sprinkled with swearing and some optional tits on the side.

Voice acting was, well... not bad exactly, certainly nothing as horrible as the first game, but decidedly flat. Everybody sounded incredibly bored, Geralt most of all.

Interface was a cluttered, unwieldy mess. When I find myself having to consult google to find out how to use mutagens something has clearly gone wrong.

Controls were painfully unresponsive. When I press the dodge button it means I want to dodge right now because someone is about to wallop me, not a half second from now after said walloping has already occurred. Also, I frequently encountered a crippling bug that caused all controls except for movement to completely stop working, leaving me running in circles in the middle of a fight until the game decided to unfuck itself. Hilarious the first couple of times, but decidedly less so by the twentieth occurrence.

Checkpoints were poorly placed and the quicksave button was an unreliable creature. The absolute nadir was just before the fight with the battlefield demon thing. Upon being killed by him I was forced to watch an unskippable cutscene, fight several mooks as a crippled character, click through some dialogue, fight several more mooks, fight a mini-boss, then click through more dialogue before finally being allowed another crack at the boss.

The difficulty curve was backwards. Early on I was engaging in tense combat with dangerous enemies. By the final chapter I was blithely mashing heavy attack at most enemies, spamming the rest with bombs and had a button that would cause Geralt to automatically insta-kill three guys at a time.

It should be noted that I don't really hate the game. But sadly the good ol' opinion polarisation effect of the internet has done its thing. Being surrounded by people singing its praises causes "wasn't impressed" to suddenly turn into "worst thing ever".

Hell, despite the above I actually enjoyed the first third Witcher 2. I wrote this [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.285308-The-Witcher-2-Assassins-of-Kings-Pleasantly-surprised?page=1] just after leaving Flotsam at the end of the first act. But then the second act rolled around and it started to come apart at the seams.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

It should be noted that I don't really hate the game. But sadly the good ol' opinion polarisation effect of the internet has done its thing. Being surrounded by people singing its praises causes "wasn't impressed" to suddenly turn into "worst thing ever".

Goodness!

I almost feel bad about liking it so much now.

Gotta agree on some of the interface complaints though. Inventory management and looting especially I found to be an extraordinarily tedious chore.

 

[endtherapture]

I don't see why everyone gets so angry about the pre-boss "unskippable cutscenes" THEY ARE SKIPABBLE JUST SPAM RIGHT CLICK.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

I don't see why everyone gets so angry about the pre-boss "unskippable cutscenes" THEY ARE SKIPABBLE JUST SPAM RIGHT CLICK.

They were very much skippable in the EE. I didn't need to spam anything. Which was good because that goddam Kraken killed me about 57 times.

 

[Kahunaburger]

I always love it when somebody finds a overpowered ability, proceeds to spam the fuck out of it -- knowing full well that it trivializes everything, and then bitches for performing said actions.

Well no fucking shit.

Example: Kingdom of Amalur: Reckoning - Mage spell, meteor. Holy fuck, with enough +% fire spells, you don't even need to do anything else other then wait the 20 seconds between spell cool down... its an absolute face roll, fun maybe the first .. 20-30 times you use it. But yea, it trivialized everything.

You know what I did instead of continue to use it (and then eventually come to a forum to ***** about it)? I respec'ed my self so I didn't have access to that spell. I was then able to continue to enjoy the game without said spell (and had more fun in the respecing of points to boot).

Problem solved.

Although, if an ability trivializes everything, isn't that a bad design decision? A big reason why Elder Scrolls combat is so terrible is that each game provides multiple ways to break it. Now, I think that TW2 is pretty solidly ahead of the curve for western ARPGs, but it does have a legitimate problem re: spam.

 

[endtherapture]

I always love it when somebody finds a overpowered ability, proceeds to spam the fuck out of it -- knowing full well that it trivializes everything, and then bitches for performing said actions.

Well no fucking shit.

Example: Kingdom of Amalur: Reckoning - Mage spell, meteor. Holy fuck, with enough +% fire spells, you don't even need to do anything else other then wait the 20 seconds between spell cool down... its an absolute face roll, fun maybe the first .. 20-30 times you use it. But yea, it trivialized everything.

You know what I did instead of continue to use it (and then eventually come to a forum to ***** about it)? I respec'ed my self so I didn't have access to that spell. I was then able to continue to enjoy the game without said spell (and had more fun in the respecing of points to boot).

Problem solved.

Although, if an ability trivializes everything, isn't that a bad design decision? A big reason why Elder Scrolls combat is so terrible is that each game provides multiple ways to break it. Now, I think that TW2 is pretty solidly ahead of the curve for western ARPGs, but it does have a legitimate problem re: spam.

Every game has a way of breaking the system somehow.

If there was button on the keyboard in the manual which was say mapped to the "#" key, which would win you the entire game with a click...would you press it? I certainly wouldn't. This is what "breaking the game" kinda amounts to. I don't actively find ways to break the game and I never ended up breaking TW2. Same with Skyrim, Baldur's Gate, Dragon Age etc. etc. and I had fun.

Sometimes combat systems are fairly broken, but if you have the choice between breaking the game out of player choice, and just playing normally, you can't complain about breaking the system if that's an active decision.

 

[jehk]

Sometimes combat systems are fairly broken, but if you have the choice between breaking the game out of player choice, and just playing normally, you can't complain about breaking the system if that's an active decision.

I actively go out of my way to unbreak a game so to speak. Like doing Dragon Age without magic items.

However, there is a certain expected level of difficulty. If the majority of people can easily find that difficultly level then I'd say the system isn't broken.

 

[Murmillos]

.

Although, if an ability trivializes everything, isn't that a bad design decision? A big reason why Elder Scrolls combat is so terrible is that each game provides multiple ways to break it. Now, I think that TW2 is pretty solidly ahead of the curve for western ARPGs, but it does have a legitimate problem re: spam.

I wouldn't say it bad design decision, because to some people -- to them, that IS the game, the fun, the reward.

I personally didn't care for it, but I know of people who absolutely are enthralled that such a skill is in the game.
As such, because it is a choice to be able to use or not to use it -- it is not bad game design.

Its up to the player to play the game as they find fun and challenging. If they want more fun, and less change and love the power of a one button kill shot -- the game fully allows them that right. If a player was a more personal challenge and not have the game be broken down to a single button press, the game still allows them that option to play to those desires.

Its only "bad design" if the game forces that on you -- with no way not use it or being forced to rely on using it.


As for Elder Scrolls... again, the game allows you to become god, if you are willing to take the time and effort to become as such. It doesn't hand it to you, you actively have to seek out and improve your spells, gear, etc,etc.

Example - Skyrim. The game doesn't hand me a Glass Bow (Legendary) that's 300%+ above "default" value that can kill a guy and send his body flying half way across the map, I have to go out of my way making it. If you want a standard challenge, just take your standard glass bow and not upgrade it, thus you still need to take 2-3 arrows to kill a normal guy. But if you want to be the ultra killshot ninja bow master 3000, the game lets you do that - but you have to work on getting that gear.


I honestly don't get players who find a spam, dislike said spam, but somehow continue to use said spam as if they are being forced too use it, and then ***** about using it. (They would have all and full right to complain if it was multiplayer game and you had to play that way to win "easier"), but as a single player game...

 

[KingHodor]

Here is my personal opinion about the Witcher.

(I have only played the first Witcher game)

My problem with the Witcher is that it was such a 'yawn fest' when I tried it. The story was great and intriguing, so it was off to a good start. However I HATED the combat so it broke the immersion completely, hence putting me to sleep.

It's kinda sad since I have respect for the devs and everyone else seems to like it. But there was no way I was going to sit through the rest of it. Just talking about it has made me tired....

Combat in Witcher 2 is completely different and generally far superior.

(For those of you who never played the Witcher 1, combat consisted of selecting one of three combat stances and then rhythmically tapping the left mouse button, occassionally unleashing a spell)

Witcher 2, on the other hand, features a more direct control of Geralt's actions, also allowing/forcing you to do dodge rolls, block attacks, throw daggers and bombs and even lay traps in anticipation of a battle; enemies will use heavy shields or other armor that typically requires finesse to get around, and there is no more "group style" that you can use to easily take out a swarm of enemies that has you surrounded. Your fighting style also changes dramatically depending on which of the 3 skill paths you choose to focus on: Spells, Swordfighting or Alchemy (potions, traps and bombs).

 

[Amaror]

I don't think your points about the story are valid at all. You have to understand that The Witcher was a book first. Even if it is an RPG, you can't expect characters to act completely the way you want them to.

Choices in the game reflect Geralt's personality. He's a character from the books. You can't play a Geralt who doesn't love Triss and doesn't care. Geralt's relationship with Triss is an important part of the lore. And you can't expect from a character with a personality of his own to have absolute freedom over everything that happens in the world. That's the whole point of The Witcher. Every choice you make, every response works within hi character. You can't choose absolute good or absolute bad. You can only choose what you think is the lesser evil or what you think is good. And Geralt will have a justification for his choices. And it always works. Unlike in most other RPG's.

And you can't expect everyone to just bend to your will like in most RPG's. NPC's have actual personalities and they can't all be persuaded to do whatever the fuck you want. It's the other way around in The Witcher. Also, every story driven RPG will eventually corner you into an event designed to push the story forward. That's why you fought the king slayer.

Well to be fair, that Geralt is in love with triss is not at all in the books.
They slept together sometime, but he did love Yennefer and not Triss over everything.
That Triss is in love with Geralt however us lore.

 

[Jynthor]

I liked the Witcher 1's combat. Seeing Geralt pull off all those moves was awesome, great animations. I didn't care if I barely had any control. I mostly spammed Igni though.
If any of you ever play TW1, put a lot of points into the Igni sign, then slurp some Magic boosting potions and have fun. While TW2's combat was great I missed all the great animations Geralt had in the first game. And Igni was pretty lame in 2 as well. Quen on the other hand... Oh man.

 

[Tony2077]

i personally haven't tried either of them so i have no opinion on that side. why do people put stuff they like on a pedestal then ***** when people say its not that great and same with the other side

 

[endtherapture]

People also say you get overpowered as TW2 continues - I didn't find this - I found combat got way more engaging as I continued the game due to extra abilities etc. but I didn't find myself getting overpowered.

At the beginning of the game, Geralt is an awesome dude who can take on groups of armed knights single handedly.

At the end of the game, Geralt is an awesome dude who can take on groups of armed knights single handedly. He just finds more way of killing the knights.

 

[Neyon]

Meh I never liked how everyone says the combat in dark souls is difficult. The combat was just bad thats all. It was like trying to manouver a dead cow glued to the ground with molten lead.

 

[Kahunaburger]

Every game has a way of breaking the system somehow.

I think there are degrees. On one end of the spectrum you've got the likes of Brogue, which presents the player with a closed and meticulously-designed (but complex) system that is nigh-impossible to cheese. On the other end of the spectrum, you've got Morrowind, in which sandboxiness and freedom takes clear precedence over anything resembling game balance. I think that in general the Witcher games are relatively balanced for ARPGs, but that CDPR intended them to be a little farther from the Morrowind end of the spectrum than they ended up being.

If there was button on the keyboard in the manual which was say mapped to the "#" key, which would win you the entire game with a click...would you press it? I certainly wouldn't. This is what "breaking the game" kinda amounts to. I don't actively find ways to break the game and I never ended up breaking TW2. Same with Skyrim, Baldur's Gate, Dragon Age etc. etc. and I had fun.

Its up to the player to play the game as they find fun and challenging. If they want more fun, and less change and love the power of a one button kill shot -- the game fully allows them that right. If a player was a more personal challenge and not have the game be broken down to a single button press, the game still allows them that option to play to those desires.

I think that games that require the player to look up on the internet which mechanics are broken and limit their gameplay options by electing to not use those mechanics would be better off balancing their mechanics properly and implementing some kind of easy mode or "story mode."

Personally, I like games that require me to think my way around problems, and games that punish me for thinking too hard about ways around problems by taking away balance are games I find less fun. As are games that punish me for using certain core features that, if balanced correctly, would be fun gameplay elements by taking away balance.

As for Elder Scrolls... again, the game allows you to become god, if you are willing to take the time and effort to become as such. It doesn't hand it to you, you actively have to seek out and improve your spells, gear, etc,etc.

Or you could just spec Illusion or Alchemy

I honestly don't get players who find a spam, dislike said spam, but somehow continue to use said spam as if they are being forced too use it, and then ***** about using it. (They would have all and full right to complain if it was multiplayer game and you had to play that way to win "easier"), but as a single player game...

In my case, it basically boils down to "hey, wouldn't this game be even more fun if I could actually use options X, Y, or Z without breaking it into tiny pieces?"

 

[DigitalAtlas]

>Complaining about difficulty because you chose to level grind

Hey, I hear that Pokemon is pretty hard when you use all level 1's....

 

[shrekfan246]

>Complaining about difficulty because you chose to level grind

Hey, I hear that Pokemon is pretty hard when you use all level 1's....

Imagine the following being said in a stereotypical "old man" voice:

Back in my day, the lowest level Pokemon you could get through legitimate gameplay was a level 3!

OT: I have very little to contribute to this particular topic. I like The Witcher 2, it's a gorgeous game with a fairly well-written story/characters and decently designed game-play after they've ironed out some of the bugs and re-tweaked things with patches. The developer is also pretty much the highest on my list of people in the industry to respect, because they appear to be the only people who treat their customers like they actually exist instead of just being gigantic wallets that spew out money every time a game is released. They may still see us like that, but along with Valve, at least they don't act like it.

CD Projekt's response to the customer outcry over DRM being used in the game on shipping? "Sorry! The first patch we release will remove it!"

EA/Ubisoft's response to customer outcry over DRM? "They're all filthy pirates! More DRM! MORE DRM!!!"

 

[aldrad]

i agree but everyone's entitled to their own opinion don't like bombs dont use them but dont be a dick in saying it.if you endtherapture did not like pizza and id say fair enough and then threw the pizza at you whats the point in me saying fair enough.