Witcher 2

Second that. Quen wins battles. It becomes pretty much overpowered once you level it up, hell the whole game becomes much easier come Act 2. I died more in the prologue than in the entirety of Act 1 and 2 I think. IMO target lock-on should have been ditched, just let me attack the nearest goon, seeing Grealt whirl around and lose half his health because I forgot to turn the screen around and press the out of the way ALT key is annoying.

Also, anybody found a use for Mutagens? I am level 21 so far and only found one skill that I could use a Mutagen on, and I have like 30 of the things in my pockets. Maybe it's the Alchemy skills that use them, so far I pretty much only invested in swordsmanship and magic (Whirl is an amazing talent, get it).
 
Finished it. I think I needed approx 30 to 40 hours and it was fun. So for me it was worth the money that I've spend on it. The ending wasn't as bad as I've imagined after all the chatting from other folks.

[spoiler:386e479511]I liked that there is a pretty long dialog at the end, which can help to bring everything together.

What I don't like was the fight with a dragon-- Because you don't fight dragons, you run away. It felt a bit meh that Geralt now can kill a dragon, regardless of how hard it was. Dragons should remain unkilled, imo.[/spoiler:386e479511]

Also it is true that chapter 3 is very short. But I'll have to say that I like it that way- The chapter has a very tense and "hurry up!"-feeling. So adding more fillerstuff in here would have just ended badly and annoying.

Can't say much about the choice & consequence now. The game definitive has a lot of it, but I am not sure how big the impact is. Guess I'll have to play the game again, at least once.

The game really was hard. The hardest game I've played since years. At the end of chapter 1 I've actually switched from "normal" to "easy" because I just couldn't stand all that reloading anymore. :>

Though, I think the game is much better on "normal," when you have to prepare better- oils and potions, etc. But this also requires a deeper need of research *and* luck. I've tried hard, but often I couldn't figure out what enemies I might face in the next step, so I couldn't really prepare for that... and then you simply fail, as the enemy is pwning you like the whimp you are. On easy-mode, you barely need anything of that- like in Witcher 1, a sword and lots of jumping and clicking is enough, which is a bit sad.

Graphics are nice. The area that was stressing my computer the most was the forest in Floatsam. Everything after this was running pretty good, with only some stuttering when the game was loading the next part of an area and textures. The gameworld has a really nice atmosphere and the sound / ambient music is really great too. It's just strange that you hear dogs and ducks and stuff here and there, but never see any (or maybe I am just blind... at least *I* never saw any).

Last but not least, the obvious: Generally I think Witcher 2 is a great game. Cinematic and story-driven, which also makes it look pretty linear in times, though. Don't expect the next super fancy big roleplaying game when playing Witcher 2, because it just isn't. Feels to me more like a better Mass Effect.... But here again, I don't see anything bad in it. It's just how it is.
 
well if you played Witcher 1 on hard it was not just "clicking" either. Sure most of the usual "mobs" could be killed if you knew how. But actually you could NOT hope to make it alive out of fights if you did not used potions and oil. I just remember the part with the Ghost and their king which you had to kill for this old bum to save the souls of his friends or something like that. One of the most difficult situations as you will get swarmed by lots of those creatures.
 
To be honest, I didn't even finished Witcher 1. Stopped playing in the swamps, because it was just too much running from A to B while slaughtering stuff over stuff. Here I am glad that Witcher 2 makes it better: You don't run from one end of the map to the other all the time, the walkways are generally shorter and you aren't send out to kill lots of random shit all the time.

The generic kill-jobs you can get from notice boards in Witcher 2 feel a bit deeper as well, because now you need to prepare a bit for them. Reading books about the creatures, crafting traps or such, etc. It's a better staging and therefore more fun for me personally.
 
sea said:
General tips: quen is amazing. Upgrade it as soon as possible and enemies practically kill themselves, though it's not very useful on large enemies and bosses. Hit and run tactics always win, just keep rolling, take a few strikes, run away again. Don't rush into mobs, you'll die really quick that way (unless you have quen active). Buy upgrades for your equipment, they don't look like they do much at first but they are more than worth it, especially the stuff that adds elemental and poison damage. Bombs, throwing knives and traps are extremely useful, always keep a trap or two on hand for if you see combat coming, while bombs are great for crowd control and knives can be used to assassinate single targets quickly. Combat in The Witcher 2, despite being action-oriented, is far more versatile than in the first game, and any of the skill trees (alchemy/magic/sword) are viable depending on how you play - if you find yourself dying a lot, the problem might be the skills you've chosen, or the way you're using them.
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You misenderstood - I know how to fight in-game, I get the idea and all, but the clunky targeting system makes it frustrating at times.
 
^It's not just the targeting system that's clunky, the entire combat system is a bit too slow to respond; I really hope they can somehow patch it to become more similar to sth like DMC in terms of response time.

Also, anybody found a use for Mutagens?
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Some of the skills you invest in can be mutated, you'll see a little empty space in the skill circle, and the button to the right that says "mutate". That's basically a mutagen slot. Careful though, it's mutated FOR GOOD so you can't change it later. For example, I accidentally wasted one of my slots on a "lesser" mutagen.

Also, Witcher 1 on hard was still easier than Witcher 2 on normal, in large part because you could drink potions anytime, and they lasted a lot longer.
 
Short before finishing my first playthrough I've noticed that there seems to be some kind of stamina / endurance? This would explain why it's not always possible to block. :>

Man, the game really would have needed a better tutorial.
 
Lexx said:
Can't say much about the choice & consequence now. The game definitive has a lot of it, but I am not sure how big the impact is. Guess I'll have to play the game again, at least once.
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You'll have to :) The choice you make at the end of the chapter 1 makes the other two chapters completely different. And it's great. While chapter 3 is played in the same location, chapter 2 is played in two different depending on your choice.

There are some other choices which make the story branch in different ways. And that makes a pretty good balance between linearity and non-linearity. You don't feel being railwayed though sometimes you are.
Great thing that you even face the consequences of your main choice in Witcher 1 later in the game.

And yes, I can agree with you, it's not a pure RPG, more interactive movie/action/rpg hybrid like Mass Effect, but it feels much better.

I've finished the game on easy for the same reasons. I can say the combat is pretty unbalanced. Some common fights are really hard even on easy and you have to prepare for them even on easy. Though others which should have been harder felt like piece of cake.
Combat feelt quite out of control. I really really mised the cursor for choosing targets. Alt didn't work for me at all.
At higher levels the combat started to turn into a cheatfest with finishing/heliotrop sign.

Despite the console feel and some minor issues, I liked the game and would recommend it to those who like deep and non-linear storytelling. This is the best part of the game.
 
Finished it today on normal and will give it a second go for sure.
Like others here i have some minor rants to get off my chest. The controls are too consoley for my liking and sometimes too unresponsive. I hated the QTE, i really dont see the point of them. And the bossfight against mr. tentacle was not really amusing.

Apart from these points i think its a great game. I guess i got my ass handed to me in this single playthrough more often than in the last 3 years playing games. And its hard in a really well done way, not just adding a million hp and damagereduction. The shielded dudes that you have to flank, the claymoreswinging bastards you have to dodge when they get their whirlwind going and there is always some dammn archer in your back interrupting your signcasting. And if you get surrounded your fucked. Quen helps but in act3 it gets depleted pretty fast so i think its good but not overpowered.

The story is good, just like in witcher 1 there is always more going on behind the scenes and choices have consequences. Im also glad they toned down the whole shagging thing from witcher 1. Its there but does not feel pasted on or like a minigame or a 14 year olds wet dreams. Blood and gore too, its there but in the right dosage, not overdone or ridiculous. Worldspaces, locations and leveldesign is very good too (though the dwarven architecture was a little bit too generic for my tastes). Dialogue is great. There is a bit too much swearing or at least swearing by the wrong kind of people and i could have done without some Lord of the rings remarks but those are really minor gripes and have more to do with tastes than incompetence. Wish such problems were the only ones with a lot of games.

Oh and, no steam, no GFWL, fast skippable introscreens, fast reload... its the small things that make me happy
So money well spent. Hats off to CD Project Red and i hope other developers will realise that mature does not mean adding a million tits, some metric ton of entrails and jokes about farting.
 
I noticed the lack of gratuitous sex too. I am in Act 3 and yet the only love scene was a bath with ol' Triss. Admittedly I didn't try very hard to find some (there are whores, and I suspect you can get Sile if you insist, didn't try), but that's the difference, in the first game they were hard to actually ignore. And those damn bouncing-tits Dryads...

Anyhow, quite a difficulty spike between Act 2 and 3. I breezed through the final moments of 2, but the very first fight in 3 killed me two times. Also, very nice to see a reference to the first game's finale (set to Neutral as a default if I understood it right).
 
I hated the QTE, i really dont see the point of them. And the bossfight against mr. tentacle was not really amusing.
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I don't get the QTE hate, those were some of the easiest QTEs I've ever seen, and they weren't very prevalent either. The "point" is to keep the game cinematic without making the player sit through too many cutscenes without being involved.

I noticed the lack of gratuitous sex too. I am in Act 3 and yet the only love scene was a bath with ol' Triss. Admittedly I didn't try very hard to find some (there are whores, and I suspect you can get Sile if you insist, didn't try), but that's the difference, in the first game they were hard to actually ignore. And those damn bouncing-tits Dryads...
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Well, it's less than TW1, but the game's also smaller/shorter. There's the whores in Act 1 and 2 (expensive though), and there's Ves (I'm assuming only if you side with Roche) that I've seen thus far.

What I'm wondering is, what happens if you import a save where you courted Shani instead of Triss; then half the stuff going on between Geralt and Triss in TW2 would be making zero sense.

Also, very nice to see a reference to the first game's finale (set to Neutral as a default if I understood it right).
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So, despite the expectations, no option to manually set the TW1 states at the beginning of the game? A shame, I wish I still had my saves from the game where I sided with the nonhumans.
 
I found most of the QTEs to be unneeded. Good that you can deactivate nearly all of them- bad that still some remain (and I don't mean fist fighting, etc).
 
Ausdoerrt said:
I noticed the lack of gratuitous sex too. I am in Act 3 and yet the only love scene was a bath with ol' Triss. Admittedly I didn't try very hard to find some (there are whores, and I suspect you can get Sile if you insist, didn't try), but that's the difference, in the first game they were hard to actually ignore. And those damn bouncing-tits Dryads...
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Well, it's less than TW1, but the game's also smaller/shorter. There's the whores in Act 1 and 2 (expensive though), and there's Ves (I'm assuming only if you side with Roche) that I've seen thus far.
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From my walkthrough I can say there's also an elven girl if you side with Iorveth and [spoiler:d1c3b975fd]Succubus if you do the appropriate quest and find out who is the real murderer.[/spoiler:d1c3b975fd]

Though I should say I liked the subtle cutscenes + cards better than quite explicit ones in TW2. I'm talking about common sex scenes, not story-based ones. The one in the bath is nicely turned into funny one.
 
I downloaded a save game from the internets that pretty much fitted the way I finished TW1, you can too, I wager.

As for QTE, I found them engaging without being a chore (unlike other minigames like the accursed lockpicking and hacking in Fallout 3/New Vegas). A nice touch and an option to see some nice animations.

Unfortunatly, due to lack of time I am still in Chapter 1, trying to find possibly every quest and curiosity. By the way, has anyone had problems with the poker dice? I can't win with those two starter guys in tavern, which are required to finish the challenge.

Lastly, the women. This time around you need to work a bit to get laid, aside from Triss. As far as I can tell, in chapter 1 there's Sheala de Tancerville and Ves. ATM, I managed to smooth-talk Sheala, but she said that I need to kill the tentacle dude first and Ves is pretty touchy about Geralt and Triss and flatly refuses to be seduced.
 
Ravager69 said:
By the way, has anyone had problems with the poker dice? I can't win with those two starter guys in tavern, which are required to finish the challenge.
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Hmm, those should be easy. Just play like normal five card draw and keep playing until you win. Don't throw the dice too hard or some will fly out of the game and you won't be able to get them back until you start another game. In fact, the whole minigame seems so easy and luck based. Pointless.
 
I dont know why they have not done it like in TW1. Sure it was as well very easy. But the way it was used there made a lot more sense. You would do 3 games and you had to win 2 times.
 
Well, it's sort of the same here too. If you lose a game you then need to win two to "beat" the opponent, for example. But yeah, the whole game's still fully luck-based like TW1, so the only way to win easily is to keep reloading until you get a good roll.
 
Yay for rainy days (not), so I finished it.

Gotta say, Act 3 was pretty short, even if the final two confrontations are pretty nice. But the ending was pretty underwhelming. You just talk, maybe fight, then that's it. No ending slides (and this is one game that just screamed for said slides given all that happens), no narration, nope, credits roll, one last look at Geralt, and back to the title screen you are. It's not as bad as DA2's ending (the sequel hook is just as obvious however), but I didn't have much of a sense of completion. Worse ; your choices determined most of the game, yet are all but forgotten come the final battle.

Also, started a save romancing Shani (thanks Internet) and so far Geralt is still in bed with a naked Triss and all, doesn't seem to have changed the relationship at all. Weird...
 
Ausdoerrt said:
Well, it's sort of the same here too. If you lose a game you then need to win two to "beat" the opponent, for example. But yeah, the whole game's still fully luck-based like TW1, so the only way to win easily is to keep reloading until you get a good roll.
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yeah but people said you always have to get in a "dialogue" again with the players. No clue if that is what people mean. But in TW1 you had 3 games in a row. Except the enemy won 2 times in a row I think.
 
The end of "Eternal Battle" quest is fucking ridiculous. "I know, let's strip the player of ALL skills and make him fight a hard battle. Oh, and no rolling." And what if I didn't develop the sword-fighting branch? Did you fucking think about that?

These moments of idiocy in game design really make me mad.

And why the hell can't I save during these hard bits?

EDIT: Well, somehow made through that. Now I'm at the boss fight. Well guess what, there's no save before the boss fight. Whoever designed this encounter needs to be murdered. Painfully.
 
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