Did anyone else find the "Siege" of Vergen disappointing?

[blackrock]

Did anyone else find the "Siege" of Vergen disappointing?

Contains slight spoilers about the two games!!!

How does The Witcher 2 start out? With an impressive, realistic assault on the besieged La Valette Castle. The men battling each other in the field; the cramped, brimming with knights siege tower; the pitched battles on the walls, not to mention the siege engines and all that jazz. I'll stop with the description, I'm sure you all remember what it was like.

I took on Iorveth's path and for the good part of the next chapter, went through this build-up which would, in the end, lead to the defense of Vergen. The motley collection of peasants, lords, elves and dwarves which would have to hold off Henselt's army. Not to mention the political repercussions of a potential victory or, even, defeat. Even though I hadn't tasted the battle yet, I knew it was going to be pretty grand. And when it actually came to it....everyone who saw that part of the game will probably know what I mean when I say that I was less than impressed.

Now, sorry for the long-winded, descriptive style I used in the last two paragraphs. I just wanted to provide the point of view which I had assumed until that point. The quiet excitement brimming inside me, as I felt the siege drawing closer and closer. Only to find out what? A fistful of NPC's along with Geralt battling the occasional soldier that came up one of three ladders. In comparison to the other siege I have to say, this one fell quite flat on its face.

Was that the best that could be done? Where is the sense of scale and importance, it felt more like a tavern-brawl rather than a "siege". There was no scope or illusion of it, just a few characters battling each other in a static environment. You'd think that for besieging such a heavily-fortified town, they would bring something more than a ladder or two. It just didn't live up to the rest of the game, I would say.

I think the problem stems from the fact that the only other siege - as I mentioned before - was so much more, giving us a sterling example of what to compare it with. If this was the only such event in the game, maybe I would let if fly and not pay much attention, I'd just tell myself "well, they didn't have the resources to make it better". But they obviously do, La Valette Castle is an example of that. So why was this then? Would it be too expensive to code in? Was time constraint a problem?

Fact of the matter is, that it could be any of these (or a mix)....but then another question comes to my mind. Well, if such was the case - why is it in the game at all? In the first Witcher, we were always conveniently placed away from the large battles and only witnessed the results of the outcome. We never saw the confrontation between the Scoia'tael and the Order in the swamp, we weren't present for the big battles in Old Vizima...and so on. And you know, that was fine - realistically, a Witcher isn't even meant for such things.

Do you think that the devs could have pulled off a similar illusion of a grand battle, by having Geralt being somewhere else? In fact, when he went to the tunnels with Saskia I thought: "Well now, this is such a perfect place to trap/divert Geralt so he wouldn't participate in the siege." And the more I think about it, the more I think it would have been a perfect way to go about it. It just seems like a wiser choice, instead of giving us a, seemingly, half-assed battle.

More importantly, do you forum dwellers think that this should be the norm in the future installments? Should the big battles be left to cutscenes (hopefully more in the spirit of the first game), dialogue and visual representation of the aftermath - corpses, ruins, fires, etc.? Or do you hope that, with a finished engine, the devs will have more time to work on such things?

 

[3DMaster]

I thought the Siege was damn impressive.

Do notice that Vergen being in the mountains, there's not way for large siege engines to be brought to Vergen, nor are there enough trees on Henselt's side, to build them on site. So, I never expected any siege engines, which were also rather new if you listen too Roache and Geralt's conversation/interrogation.

 

[yayodeanno.831]

In general the Prologue and Act 1 feel much more "grand" and ambitious than Act 2 and 3. In this sense the game doesn't have good balance, it sort of reminds me of tv serials where they put a lot of effort and money into the pilot episodes and then tone everything down once a viewers base is achieved. There are ecellent moments in the last two chapters but they're sparse, in general it's mostly running errands and dungeon crawling. The initial cinematic feel of the game is pretty much gone once you arrive in Vergen. And it's true, you never get the feeling there's this big decisive battle between two armies going on. On the other hand the quest where you revive the battle that took place three years earlier is spectacular, just pity the Draugir is such an easy opponent.

Anyways,for me TW1 EE remains a far superior game

 

[godkingofdivineroad]

I enjoyed fighting on the wall and blowing away the soldiers with Aard(lol) but yeah, it wasn't really much of a siege. Geralt and co were only defending the town from one direction, and there were no siege weapons(just Dethmold blasting the gates).

I'd have liked it better if Geralt had to use his experience from past battles to manage the logistics of the town, find materials to equip soldiers, prepare its defences etc. Like in Dragon Age: Awakening where you have to prepare and later defend Vigil's Keep.

 

[electrocide]

I'd have liked it better if Geralt had to use his experience from past battles to manage the logistics of the town, find materials to equip soldiers, prepare its defences etc. Like in Dragon Age: Awakening where you have to prepare and later defend Vigil's Keep.

Can't agree more. We need Geralt's knowledge either about monsters or his general experience more in use. Like in Ch2 on roches path.
Also yea, the battle was a little disappointing. A small area, few ladder and just taking of waves of soldiers. There should be more complications, more things that go wrong so Geralt can turn the tide of the already lost battle. It would be more EPIC. After all they were fighting for an ideal, and it was a fight not for Victory or Defeat, but for life or death. I also didn't expect siege equipment cause of the nature where Vergen was built and the terrain itself. I was thinking about an epic battle of using the terrain to drove off 5000 brave soldiers. Like Spartans in the 300 movie

 

[Lurtz_Of_Orthanc]

You have to play the Roche path to understand why Henselt's attacking force is so small compared to the '5000 Kaedweni': On the Roche path, Henselt gets uber paranoid about the conspiracy and a massive chunk of his lords abandon him right before the assault. This would still happen on the Iorveth path because it happens regardless of Geralt's actions on either side - so Henselt is taking a gamble that he can defeat the weak elf-less Vergen with his personal troops. Then Iorveth arrives and he is screwed. Yeah, I would not have minded a cinematic of ton of Kaedweni marching forth or being cut down - or at least some catapults letting fly, maybe a bunch of smoke in the air to add to the confusion - but whatever, the rest of the game is brilliant so I'm going to let it slide.