This is what I've been searching. Didn't really look anywhere else to avoid spoilers. But also I was eager to finish the game
I read the entries back then and all of them were meaningless. Now I understand all Thanks 
I read the entries back then and all of them were meaningless. Now I understand all Thanks Let me put it this way. You always can check youtube for recaps of first 2 games. If you want more you can read the books. After 300+ hours in TW3 I personally went back and replayed TW & TW2. Those are good games, TW requiters a little bit patience ones you get pass the combat mech and graphics you start to realize that the game is simply awesome. THe story , intrigues and romances can beat TW3.
Of course you will find some things better in Witcher 2
the forests look more dense and mysterious, there is more Triss in it, the cat potion makes the internal organs and the blood circular system of enemys visible (you have no idea how much I miss that feature in Witcher 3!!!!)The inventory and menu looks way more beautyful and mysterious because everything looks like organic and alive and almost like an embryo would see the world around it in the womb, and the graphics is still nice and beautyful.
The bad thing is it`s too much political and aristocratic story stuff and no creepy monster hunt and CSI-like eerie quests where Geralt needs to inspect dead bodys killed by monsters of all kind and follow blood trails to caves or abandoned houses with strange monsters in it for example, no really weird monsters like the Muhmen (I guess they are called the crones in english) or the Allgod and others.
Less talking, less exploration... but I haven`t finished Witcher 2 yet and so I cannot give you a detailled overview on both games.
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It runs well enough on PCs that are fairly cheap now, and it is regularly on sale for $3.
Of course you will find some things better in Witcher 2
Not sure if that is really true quantity wise, it just does not feel incomplete and rushed in the second half of the game.
The politics in TW2 can be confusing on a first playthrough, but it is better than in the third game, where it was really dumbed down. I see fewer "follow the trail with your witcher senses" quests as an advantage.
There is at least one "weird" monster, the kayran. And the talking is actually not that much less, relative to the size of the game, TW2 may in fact have more dialogue.Facial animations and and combat responsiveness are better in TW3. Pretty much anything else is better in TW2...
You actually liked that?
Of course that`s the best part in Witcher 3 - the monster hunts, saving villages from Undead, the foggy lighthouse, the drunken Vampire, both the two serial killer quests (Junior and this religious serial killer with this Dr. Gratz).
I don`t care about all this politics and high-ranked people making war for might and money stuff, and endless stupid battlefield scenes against hordes of tinman knights and loud noisy battlefield constant action trash like the beginning of Witcher 2 was, but the rest of Witcher 2 is awesome when this "playable intro" is over.
An interesting fact is that I haven`t played Witcher 2 for years because I played this boring intro in 2011 with this endless battles and Call of Duty nonstop-action endless politics and war shit and I was done with Witcher afterwards, because I thought that`s all this game has to offer. A "Call of Duty medival edition."
Thank god I was wrong - after the annoying intro, the complete Witcher 2 game and mood and atmosphere completely changes
- Witcher 2 is such a fine and interesting game with intense thick jungle like woods and exploring wonderful fantasy worlds with atmospheric small villages and interesting creepy monster hunts and the trolls looks even more awesome and strange than the Witcher 3 trolls. Aaaaw that`s all a fantasy game is about - exploring mysterious scenery like Tomb Raider and meeting fascinating creatures/people and slashing creepy monsters and helping NPC`s with their quests and wandering around from village to village meeting (or slaying) creepy monsters listen to people about their ghost or monster problems just like a real Witcher does and that was Witcher 3 was all about. You can also find that in W2.
I have even found an abandoned madhouse in Witcher 2 with a revenge seeking Nilfgaardian ghost inside and the supernatural emanations in Witcher 2 are as good as in Witcher 3, and there are living flowers in the jungle with endriagen nests with endriage-embryos inside, so and much more.
I wonder how many mysterious things Geralt will encounter in this game.....
When you play Witcher 2 after Witcher 3 you will notice some beautyful details in this game. Of course the overall graphics of Witcher 3 is better but Witcher 2 can offer so many lovely details!
For example this belt holding Geralts swords is so much more detailed and has even own leather stripes holding the scabbards in W2:
Geralt has a fanny pack in Witcher 2 with an Alchemy book or a necromonicon or some other mysterious book and carrys cute little alchemy potion bottles on this superb detailed belt...
The cat potion has some predator thermal vision seeing the blood circulating system inside other people`s bodies and Geralt even drinks the potions in an drinking animation during meditation and the menus are THAT good looking. Pulsating and organic looking just as if you were inside Geralts body and see the mutagens and XP point tree living and pulsating and working.
The graphics is not old or bad in W2 just sometimes some textures are little bit older than W3. But mods can easy get rid of few less detailed textures you may encounter in the game.
You will never be disappointed when playing Witcher 2 after Witcher 3 but positive surprised when you see how many beautyful things this older but in some occasions even better game has to offer. (menu, alchemy, drinking potions, menu and skill tree design, meditating, jungle-like forests with ancient aztek or maya atmosphere like Tomb Raider, extreme unique cat potion Predator vision even more better than any Predator would see Schwarzenegger, and so much more).
Maybe you will encounter some more of this boring political and aristocratic war stuff in Witcher 2 than in Witcher 3 and there is no bloody Baron and no marshland swamps with crownes nor any CSI-quests and pathology and crime-solving stuff you will only find in W1 and W3, but W2 has awesome creepy atmosphere and dense jungle and all important characters you will meet in W3 (Zoltan, Dandylion, Triss etc. - of course no Yen and no Ciri).
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Of course that`s the best part in Witcher 3 - the monster hunts, saving villages from Undead, the foggy lighthouse, the drunken Vampire, both the two serial killer quests (Junior and this religious serial killer with this Dr. Gratz).
I don`t care about all this politics and high-ranked people making war for might and money stuff, and endless stupid battlefield scenes against hordes of tinman knights and loud noisy battlefield constant action trash like the beginning of Witcher 2 was, but the rest of Witcher 2 is awesome when this "playable intro" is over.
An interesting fact is that I haven`t played Witcher 2 for years because I played this boring intro in 2011 with this endless battles and Call of Duty nonstop-action endless politics and war shit and I was done with Witcher afterwards, because I thought that`s all this game has to offer. A "Call of Duty medival edition."
Thank god I was wrong - after the annoying intro, the complete Witcher 2 game and mood and atmosphere completely changes
Aaaaw that`s all a fantasy game is about - exploring mysterious scenery like Tomb Raider and meeting fascinating creatures/people and slashing creepy monsters and helping NPC`s with their quests and wandering around from village to village meeting (or slaying) creepy monsters listen to people about their ghost or monster problems just like a real Witcher does and that was Witcher 3 was all about. You can also find that in W2.
I have even found an abandoned madhouse in Witcher 2 with a revenge seeking Nilfgaardian ghost inside and the supernatural emanations in Witcher 2 are as good as in Witcher 3, and there are living flowers in the jungle with endriagen nests with endriage-embryos inside, so and much more.
I wonder how many mysterious things Geralt will encounter in this game.....
When you play Witcher 2 after Witcher 3 you will notice some beautyful details in this game. Of course the overall graphics of Witcher 3 is better but Witcher 2 can offer so many lovely details!
For example this belt holding Geralts swords is so much more detailed and has even own leather stripes holding the scabbards in W2:
Geralt has a fanny pack in Witcher 2 with an Alchemy book or a necromonicon or some other mysterious book and carrys cute little alchemy potion bottles on this superb detailed belt...
The cat potion has some predator thermal vision seeing the blood circulating system inside other people`s bodies and Geralt even drinks the potions in an drinking animation during meditation and the menus are THAT good looking. Pulsating and organic looking just as if you were inside Geralts body and see the mutagens and XP point tree living and pulsating and working.
The graphics is not old or bad in W2 just sometimes some textures are little bit older than W3. But mods can easy get rid of few less detailed textures you may encounter in the game.
You will never be disappointed when playing Witcher 2 after Witcher 3 but positive surprised when you see how many beautyful things this older but in some occasions even better game has to offer. (menu, alchemy, drinking potions, menu and skill tree design, meditating, jungle-like forests with ancient aztek or maya atmosphere like Tomb Raider, extreme unique cat potion Predator vision even more better than any Predator would see Schwarzenegger, and so much more).
Maybe you will encounter some more of this boring political and aristocratic war stuff in Witcher 2 than in Witcher 3 and there is no bloody Baron and no marshland swamps with crownes nor any CSI-quests and pathology and crime-solving stuff you will only find in W1 and W3, but W2 has awesome creepy atmosphere and dense jungle and all important characters you will meet in W3 (Zoltan, Dandylion, Triss etc. - of course no Yen and no Ciri).
Damn, I wasn't expecting that long of a reply.
Any case, to the matter of quests: In The Witcher 3 quests are practically a repetitive routine of talking to someone, using The Detective Mode/Eagle Vision/whatever and follow a conveniently placed trail of breadcrumbs, kill a monster/an evil dude and perhaps make a contrived moral choice. I'm not even exaggerating here, quests in The Witcher 3 are the dictionary definition of uninspired. Compare that to the previous games when quests were either interconnected, reactive and/or required some sort of exploration and riddle solving. You can say TW3 were more Witchery (me I never knew Witcher are Sherlock Holmes) but I'm not looking for a Witcher Simulator, rather a solid RPG where play as Geralt.
not all quests are like this... main quest is different, but yes, most of witcher contracts are similar, yet, as contracts go, they are the way they should be... there were not contracts in W2 or W1 besides some standard bring me 10 drowner brains kinda quests which are not present it W3 in any form..
I think people are forgetting those secondary quests were not intended to be all completed in single playthrough.. CDPR placed them as a filler for multiple playthroughts. Yet i think it would be better if they for example removed all question marks from map that are not somehow directly related to the village that uncovers them.. like bandit camps, or guarded treasures.. these would be better if were not shown, so player would only randomly discover them, which would increase reward for roaming around the map instead of running towards questionmarks..
I think people are forgetting those secondary quests were not intended to be all completed in single playthrough.. CDPR placed them as a filler for multiple playthroughts. Yet i think it would be better if they for example removed all question marks from map that are not somehow directly related to the village that uncovers them.. like bandit camps, or guarded treasures.. these would be better if were not shown, so player would only randomly discover them, which would increase reward for roaming around the map instead of running towards questionmarks..
I wish it was the case
No, the amount of quests aside, they are simply not nearly as varied, reactive and require thinking as TW1&2 quests
First, you need to realize W3 is much different game than W1 or W2.. Its open world game, and as such requires different approach.. you cannot limit player with the surroundings for each quest, like you could in W2/W1.. that greatly limits your options.. plus, there were no actual Witcher contracts in previous games, all such quests were practically some part of the main or secondary quests.. here you have one or two such contract in almost every village in the game... and you are not bound to complete them.. they are just a bonus for you.. and some are quite interesting and hard, as every single one ends up with a boss fight.
Regarding politics and story in previous games, W3 is not a political story.. it is Geralt's story... and as such, it is much closer to novels than W1 or W2. Sapkowski never made Geralt meddle in politics, it was quite against his character to make W2 story about politics which he would never actually dwell in in the first place. Plus, W2 story was shown in W3 for what all such political intrigues are for - all those made no difference in the end, because Nilfgaardian invasion made all those things pointless... (and its not W3 that brought that up... invasion was shown in the W2 ending already) Yet, there is plenty of politics in W3... whole Novigrad storyline is full of politics... you could side with Djikstra, or Radovid, or Roche. outcome creates whole different world, yet that is not what Geralt cares.. his primary goal was always to save Ciri...
I understand well enough that compromises had to made it's only that first, if they had to dumb down one (or rather some) of their best elements in previous game because 'huge open world' then the desicion to make TW3 open world is bad game design and second, games like Fallout New Vegas have proven very well that you can make huge amount of content in huge open world without sacrificing quest design quality.
Oh, and there were side contracts in TW2 just not as many as TW3 (but far better)
About the story, I don't really understand what my previous comment had to do with it, but for the record, I don't think TW3 story is shit because there is less amount of politicing, rather because it's terribly written.
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ok, again - Open world requires different approach than world where you can close the quest within single area, bordered by space you cannot enter... it has nothing to do with game design, you just cant place quest items into open world, otherwise you risk player to find them while not being involved with the quest itself... (and btw, such thing can happen in W3 sometimes)
New Vegas is done totally differently that W3 - it has ALL QUESTS SCRIPTED - which means, enemies are triggered once you get to a certain place... no such thing is happening in W3, while in NV, after few playthroughts, i knew precisely moment when enemies SPAWN around, and where... so no, please don't mention NV, it is nowhere near W3 in game quality...
Witcher 3 has open world that is done quite well.. you can wander around, and and find quests and interesting places, while if you want a witcher contracts, you go to a village, talk to village elder... exactly what Witchers did in books... and while some quests might seem similar - guess what - Geralt, as 150years old witcher dealt with almost all those beasts in the past, you really think every single contract would be different??? NO, in Witcher world,villages would end up having very similar problems, be it necrophages or specters or some wooden beasts..
I played W2 for 270 hours up to date, W1 for 300 hours.... Witcher 3, i have 710 hours today... and i must say, i dont remember single witcher contract in W2... not a single one got into my memory.... that says something about their quality over W3...
and must add - from my perspective, W2 is the weakest part of the trilogy - W1 had great story and benefited from perfect alchemy mechanics, with overall world economy set very tight, while W3 lacks in both of those, but wins with the open world and variability ( you have Velen, Novigrad, Skellige, Oxenfurt and lands linked with Heart of Stone..) Yet, W2 had nothing like that... alchemy was tonned down, weapons were tonned down (and severally limited with clear difference in quality between act 1, act 2 and act 3, so legendary weapons you could have were useless in next act)
W3 is closest to the perfect game. A lot of its problems can be fixed by mods, but you cannot mod in open world into W2 or W1...
New Vegas is done totally differently that W3 - it has ALL QUESTS SCRIPTED - which means, enemies are triggered once you get to a certain place... no such thing is happening in W3, while in NV, after few playthroughts, i knew precisely moment when enemies SPAWN around, and where... so no, please don't mention NV, it is nowhere near W3 in game quality...
Witcher 3 has open world that is done quite well.. you can wander around, and and find quests and interesting places, while if you want a witcher contracts, you go to a village, talk to village elder... exactly what Witchers did in books... and while some quests might seem similar - guess what - Geralt, as 150years old witcher dealt with almost all those beasts in the past, you really think every single contract would be different??? NO, in Witcher world,villages would end up having very similar problems, be it necrophages or specters or some wooden beasts..
I played W2 for 270 hours up to date, W1 for 300 hours.... Witcher 3, i have 710 hours today... and i must say, i dont remember single witcher contract in W2... not a single one got into my memory.... that says something about their quality over W3...
and must add - from my perspective, W2 is the weakest part of the trilogy - W1 had great story and benefited from perfect alchemy mechanics, with overall world economy set very tight, while W3 lacks in both of those, but wins with the open world and variability ( you have Velen, Novigrad, Skellige, Oxenfurt and lands linked with Heart of Stone..) Yet, W2 had nothing like that... alchemy was tonned down, weapons were tonned down (and severally limited with clear difference in quality between act 1, act 2 and act 3, so legendary weapons you could have were useless in next act)
W3 is closest to the perfect game. A lot of its problems can be fixed by mods, but you cannot mod in open world into W2 or W1...
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When I think 'quest design' I think 'entire quest' not just encounters which by the way TW3 has plenty scripted.
I think I understand, we just have very different opinions of what makes a good quest (or a game).
You like more interesting, complex, reactive, challenging and choice-heavy quests while you like greater amount of quests which are set in open world
And accordingly I like a games with better story and quest design while your looking more for a Witchering-Simulator with huge open world that you can spend a lot of time exploring (opening 5000 doors or something IDK). It's okay.
These are just different audiences CDPR tried to approach in TW1&2 and TW3.
I'm not a clairvoyant. I don't know you. I'm not able to answer this question. But hey! Why don't you try it for yourself? Don't you like exploration and a thrill of trying something new? You prefer spoilers? Seriously though - you have the game, run it and try it for yourself.
Of course it is! Why is this even a question? You should try The Witcher 1 too. On PC that is.
Personally i felt quite restricted in W1 and W2... it was all closed, you couldnt go back to previously completed areas - no such thing is in W3.. sometimes, you even find new things when you return back in W3 - like for example if you return to White Orchard in the middle of game, you will have different dialogues with some characters, like for example, you will warn the dwarwen armorer to leave with Nilfgaardians if they leave because people will not forgive him he had that boy hang...
and one important thing not to forget - there will be new content added via Blood and Wine.. so W3 will be further improved in the future.. if anything can be said about CDPR, it is that they are listening to Fans oppinions and ideas... so let wait a bit to see before making any final judgements.
and one important thing not to forget - there will be new content added via Blood and Wine.. so W3 will be further improved in the future.. if anything can be said about CDPR, it is that they are listening to Fans oppinions and ideas... so let wait a bit to see before making any final judgements.
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