The Witcher 2

[Brannigan]

Oh, and one more thing. Does anyone else find it annoying that when you fight someone and then leave a certain range they will just leave you be. You can go back and forth on the border of that range and they'll just react with a binary switch: attack/fall back. I guess it makes sense that if you attack some bandits or monster, they won't follow you across the map and leave their 'nests', but the range seems way small and it should be a bit less binary than that.

I notice it most with the nekkers and rotfiends. Since they can burrow they go away really fast. As for the letho fight, yes that was hard as hell, it's actually why I ended up going back and finishing all the side quests. When I went back I had a much easier time with it, but not a walk in the park either. Stocking up on throwing knives and explosives helped alot too

[Moosferatu]

I didn't catch the blurb on mutagens when it flashed on the screen. When you use them on the character screen are they permanent upgrades?

[Brannigan]

I didn't catch the blurb on mutagens when it flashed on the screen. When you use them on the character screen are they permanent upgrades?

Think so, I couldn't use any till near the end of swordsman tree either.

[Gwardinen]

I should point out for anyone that isn't aware that most of the "helpful hints" that the Witcher 2 leaves on screen for all of half a second in a font so small that it's unreadable can be accessed later by way of the Tutorials tab in the Journal. I fully recommend everyone go read all the Tutorials, and then read them again when they actually have to use the systems involved. It doesn't seem like the game will actually teach you anything through gameplay, really, so you do just have to read up on it and then experiment.

This actually brings up another problem that the forced 16:9 ratio creates - it's really hard for me to read anything. If I use my 5:4 monitor, with the massive black bars the available screen space is so small (and the fonts already so small) that I can hardly read anything, and if I use my TV, it's not really suited for reading the (again, rather small) writing, particularly since I'm sitting further away. I actually think I'm starting to get eye strain from it, as my eyes have been hurting more than usual the past few days. I'm beginning to think that this game really just doesn't like me - which is a shame, because I really want to like it, so why must it make it so hard?

Edit: Also, Brannigan, you may have missed it because the little circles on the talents are also really small, but the last two talents in the Witcher Training tree are able to have mutagens put in them as well.

[Lu]

From the Witcher 2 forums on gog.com:

* No support for resolutions other than 16:9

- This WILL be resolved in one of future patches.

So that's good.

[K-bohls!]

So after playing through the first 15 hours of the Witcher 1, losing the save, starting over and playing the first 4-7hours before stopping again. I have finally picked it back up last week and blasted through a solid 25 more hours of great hilarious eastern European weirdness and a mesmerizing story.

The Witcher is an amazing game. But seeing as 2 clearly has a lot more polish behind it does any of the "so bad its good" parts of 1 come through?

[a purple future]

honestly witcher 2 is a prettier version of TW1 with sort of different combat. if you're a fan of the first one-for any reason- you'll like this one.

the reviews that say it ends abruptly are dead on though, unfortunately

it's awesome, awesome, awesome... and then it just stops.

[Erkki]

The Witcher is an amazing game. But seeing as 2 clearly has a lot more polish behind it does any of the "so bad its good" parts of 1 come through?

uh. what?

[brkl]

There's a bug that prevents some people, including me, from installing the DLC with the Troll, which is connected to another side quest, so now I need to wait for a patch before going further in the game because I want to do those quests...

Hurray for DLCs.

[Erkki]

Finished it. The third chapter and epilogue were a bit disappointing. Warning: somewhat spoils the ending.

Walking through those ruins, in the final "open" area I had this sense of urgency that I should join Triss in the talks, and expected that the meeting wouldn't lead to the endgame just yet and I could come back. It was nowhere hinted that I couldn't come back to do the quests in that area. And with that urgent tone set, that final area before the meeting seemed pointless anyway, I'm not sure why they even had those side quests there. Also, the loose threads left in the ending set the scene for a sequel in which an even bigger war will take place, which kind of makes me worried about the direction the series is heading. (I'm assuming there will be a 3rd game at least).

But on the whole, the game was awesome. It's a huge improvement over the original in production quality. The visuals are just gorgeous, at a level people don't even expect from RPGs, really. Sound is good, and writing, dialogue and voices are a huge improvement over the first game. I like the combat, but I think as the PC Gamer or Eurogamer reviews put it, the combat system has lots of potential, but it's execution in this game leaves something to be desired. I agree, I enjoyed it most of the time, but it could have been put to better and perhaps more tactical use. The amount of choices and different outcomes seems staggering. I'm not sure where the other choices would lead, but I think they would put you on the opposite side of .. ahem.. things in Chpater 2? Anyway, really good stuff.

There are still some flaws, though. The first being uneven difficulty. It's especially stupid to make the very beginning of the game so hard. Beyond that, I had to switch from Hard to Easy in many boss fights, otherwise they would have just become chores.

And then there were some problems with quests, such as some failing due to other quests with no or little warning, but that's forgivable since there are so many choices and room for replaying. I will definitely be playing through it the second time very soon.

The third flaw in my opinion is unwanted epicness and less focus on witchering. I'd prefer if we got a witcher game that took place at a time of peace, or at least one where Geralt wouldn't be involved in a war or high politics. Well, he'd probably always be involved in politics some way (haven't read the books though), but more of that medieval detective/monster hunter stuff, please. The politics could be a background theme, like they were for most of the first game.

And now, I'll probably go back to the Witcher 1 and finish those additional stories from the Enhanced Edition.

[Erkki]

Also, what's with the ploughing pop culture references? Don't think there were any in the first game. I think most of them are in the achievements, which i just looked at for the first time, but ... South Park, Fight Club, Lady Gaga, LOTR,... come on...

[a purple future]

yeah iorveth makes several LOTR jokes. one was funny. after that it was a little concerning...

oh yeah, and the random Kierkegaard reference which i thought was even weirder

[Lu]

I too finished it! The 3rd chapter and Epilogue did feel a bit, well... Short, really. Though I'm not too broken up about it, seeing the amount of hours I put into it. I thought that the environment for chapter 3 was also the least interesting, so I'm glad I didn't spend hours upon hours walking around there. Spoiler about some quests in ch3:

Also interesting that there's a quest where one of the items you need is Queen Endrega Pheromones, which you get in chapter 1... Which I didn't have... Because it automatically chooses what to make potions from. And that is why I missed out on the strongest steel sword in the game. Ah well, not that I really needed it at that point.

Something concerning imported saves: Witcher 1 endgame spoilers

I'm 100% certain I did not kill Siegfried at that nasty riot in Vizima at the end. Yet, in the Witcher 2, I came across a Flaming Rose knight who recognized me, then was like "You asshole, you killed Siegfried!" and then proceeded to attack me. That was disappointing.

On the plus side, Thaler sent me a message via spy, which was pretty cool. I would really appreciate it that when they let you import a save, you can see what choices you actually made.

Another thing I quite liked was that the entire journal is written from Dandelions perspective. Often giving hints what you're supposed to do, because he already wrote what you're going to do. Though, utterly pointless that they split up monster knowledge from the journal. Just minor gripes, really. The biggest one is the combat system; if they can improve on that, make it more responsive, that'd be great.

I hope Bioware is taking notes, because they can learn a thing or two... Namely that they should take their time and do sequels right, because Dragon Age 2 was fucking embarrassing. Especially if you go back after playing the Witcher 2.

[Erkki]

BTW. According to Steam, it took me almost 40 hours to finish it, though maybe it was more like 35 as I left the game running for a few hours. So it can be longer than 25, which was what some reviews said. And I left quite a few side quests for a second playthrough.

[Moosferatu]

I don't know why I got such a kick out of this, but I love how the characters don't hold doors open for each other. After I saved Zoltan and Dandelion, I stood back and watched in amusement as they, accompanied by Triss and Vernon Roche, filed one by one into the tavern each slamming the door in the other's face. How rude.

[Gwardinen]

All right, it seems like my persistence has paid off. The Witcher 2 is finally beginning to be a game I can enjoy. I don't know why it felt the need to be so cruel to me for the first few hours of the game, but we seem to be coming to an understanding now. I still think the combat system leaves a lot to be desired, especially considering how this game was basically billed as "the Witcher, but with amazing combat". I also think the whole resolution ratio thing was almost inexcusably stupid, even if they are intending to fix it in a patch.

However, the story is now beginning to pick up, I've gotten used to the ins and outs of fighting, I understand the crafting and alchemy well enough now to prepare properly and I've screwed around with the settings enough that I have a decent balance between framerate and visual quality. The game does look gorgeous, I only wish I had the computer to really let it shine, but at least the developers exposed a good number of settings so I was able to wrangle it to the extent I have.

I honestly still can't believe how unattractive this game makes itself to anyone that's not solidly committed to it already during its early game. I know there's a lot of complaining at the moment about games hand-holding too much but this goes a little too far in the other direction. Also, as much as the giant golden exclamation point breaks immersion over its knee, I wish there was some way to get at least a hint towards who is worth talking to for side quests. Having to walk into every building, including every bloody peasant hut, and speak to every person, just in case they might bust out a side quest out of nowhere, breaks my immersion just as much and wastes more of my time.

Oh yeah, and I apparently screwed myself out of a continuing quest with the "magic amulet" from the Prologue because I must have accidentally sold it to someone and now I can't figure out who to in order to buy it back. Not the game's fault per se, though I wish there were a little more warning when one is still getting used to all the systems that one might be selling a potentially important quest item. It's just a symptom of the fact that the Witcher 2 is comprised of a number of relatively complex systems that are all explained and streamlined just enough that I don't directly dislike them, but not enough that I didn't completely screw myself a bunch of times in a bunch of ways in the first few hours.

[Erkki]

Also, as much as the giant golden exclamation point breaks immersion over its knee, I wish there was some way to get at least a hint towards who is worth talking to for side quests. Having to walk into every building, including every bloody peasant hut, and speak to every person, just in case they might bust out a side quest out of nowhere, breaks my immersion just as much and wastes more of my time.

This may be a matter of preference, but I'd say you're doing it wrong. You can't play this game as a completionist anyway because by making choices you will close some doors and open others. Thus I'd never bother trying to find every side quest. Most of them seem to be the kind that pretty much find you, anyway. I quite enjoyed thinking that I could probably knock on all these doors and maybe some of those people have jobs for me, but I don't really want to or feel that other things take precedence.

[a purple future]

I don't know why I got such a kick out of this, but I love how the characters don't hold doors open for each other. After I saved Zoltan and Dandelion, I stood back and watched in amusement as they, accompanied by Triss and Vernon Roche, filed one by one into the tavern each slamming the door in the other's face. How rude.

there's also some genuinely poor design behind the doors too. anytime there's an enemy on the other side of a door or ladder, you're hopelessly stuck because it won't let you activate them in combat. it happened a lot and i got really mad at it

[Gwardinen]

This may be a matter of preference, but I'd say you're doing it wrong. You can't play this game as a completionist anyway because by making choices you will close some doors and open others. Thus I'd never bother trying to find every side quest. Most of them seem to be the kind that pretty much find you, anyway. I quite enjoyed thinking that I could probably knock on all these doors and maybe some of those people have jobs for me, but I don't really want to or feel that other things take precedence.

Sure, I could absolutely play it in a totally organic way, and miss a bunch of stuff but never feel that broken magic circle. The world does lend itself to that. But I can already think of things that I would never have experienced in the game if I did it that way, and some of them were genuinely enjoyable. Act 1 Spoiler:

For example, the Party and then Hang Over quests would never have come up if I hadn't known to look for them, and some parts of that were actually quite funny. Not to mention the incidental dialogue with Triss after that quest is well worth hearing, particularly as you then have a genuinely character-affecting choice to make - trying not to spoil even within spoiler tags as people may have missed that quest!

[Erkki]

Act 1 Spoiler:

For example, the Party and then Hang Over quests would never have come up if I hadn't known to look for them, and some parts of that were actually quite funny. Not to mention the incidental dialogue with Triss after that quest is well worth hearing, particularly as you then have a genuinely character-affecting choice to make - trying not to spoil even within spoiler tags as people may have missed that quest!

Damn, missed that. Well there you go. Ok, maybe a slight indication of questgivers, even just on the minimap would be ok.

[Lu]

Yea and when you think about it, they point out stores and such on the minimap too, so why not quest givers? Though my initial reaction was the same as yours, Erkki.

[Brannigan]

act 3 spoiler:

Anyone else think the saskia fight was just hungry hungry hippos, with a dragon?

[Korax]

So I'm really enjoying the game (just started Chapter 2), although I do agree with most of the comments regarding difficulty of the combat (especially at the beginning). But here's the real issue: nobody's talking about the papercrafts included in the bonus content. Has anyone made any of them yet? As soon as I get to work tomorrow, I'll have a papery Geralt staring me down from behind my monitor.

[Erkki]

act 3 spoiler:

Anyone else think the saskia fight was just hungry hungry hippos, with a dragon?

Hehe... didn't quite make that exact connection, but yes

though of course there was more variety to her moves, and the one where she swings the tail couldn't be dodged? at least only Quen helped me there.

[Gwardinen]

So I'm really enjoying the game (just started Chapter 2), although I do agree with most of the comments regarding difficulty of the combat (especially at the beginning). But here's the real issue: nobody's talking about the papercrafts included in the bonus content. Has anyone made any of them yet? As soon as I get to work tomorrow, I'll have a papery Geralt staring me down from behind my monitor.

No, I haven't printed those off yet. They'd probably actually work better with light card or something rather than straight paper, wouldn't they? I might give them a go anyway. Though they look fucking creepy in flat form. Triss' gaping mouth won't stop reminding me of a sex doll.