Game Design Issues
The Witcher 2 really isn't an RPG. It's a third person hack and slash with a level up system. A true RPG lets you choose your class, your name, set up your character's traits, appearance, clothing, etc. It lets you do this within the first 10 minutes of play. The Witcher isn't a true RPG in this sense.
Potion System
The potion system is a mess. This whole 'meditating' thing is just asinine. I know some game players are saying, "Well, that means you have to plan in advance". How can you plan to drink enough potions in advance? Seriously, plan to drink potions before a battle? You have no idea how many foes will be thrown at you. You can't 'plan' to drink enough potions for an upcoming battle. This just leads to trial and error gaming. Trial and error gaming is stupid and considered bad game design. If you have to go into a battle several times only to die just to 'get the lay of the land', that's a stupid waste of time. No, a proper potion system should let you not only stop and drink potions, but do it any time you like. Granted, you should have limited potions with you, so you do need to plan in advance to bring the correct number and type of potions with you, perhaps even creating them yourself. But, even in real life, you can drink something at any time, even in the middle of a battle. There's nothing realistic or useful about this potion system. In fact, it's so bad, you might as well just remove potions entirely.
Game Over Screen
This is not an arcade game where you're plopping quarters into the game. This is an at-home game played on a consumer device. Gone is the days where 'Game Over' screens are necessary. No, once again bad design prevails. If you die, the game should immediately pop up a requester to load the most recent save without any kind of 'Game Over' or death screens. Yet more wasted gaming time.
VATS
If you're going to intentionally limit how to heal the player character during battle, then you need to offset that with a system to target the enemies and, at the same time, avoid their attacks. This at least allows the player character to avoid being struck during battle.
Wasted Money
I had high hopes for this game, but my hopes were dashed by silly game design choices that make this game less than what it should have been. What makes a game fun is giving the players the things they want in a game and specifically within an RPG. Taking away things that, in someone developer's opinion, made the game too easy, but breaks RPG gaming conventions is just not the answer. This is why games like Skyrim win Game of the Year and why the Witcher 2 won't. The Witcher's game designers need to fully understand why Skyrim works to understand why The Witcher 2 doesn't. It's very simple. Make the right game design choices and your game succeeds. Make the wrong choices and you end up classified as a bad game.
For me, The Witcher 2 was not $60 well spent. In fact, it's a frustrating game to play and not all that compelling to boot. The best part of this game, so far, is the animated intro on board the ship which is, to say the least, quite impressive. The game play is, unfortunately, less than stellar. The lack of potions during battle is frustrating and the 'Game Over' screen is simply a waste of time each time it's shown. Yes, every game should be somewhat different from others, but not so far different from the expected RPG system norm that it tries to rewrite RPG gaming conventions. Unless what you're designing is a huge advance in gaming, it's never wise to 'mess with things that already work'.
The Witcher 2 really isn't an RPG. It's a third person hack and slash with a level up system. A true RPG lets you choose your class, your name, set up your character's traits, appearance, clothing, etc. It lets you do this within the first 10 minutes of play. The Witcher isn't a true RPG in this sense.
Potion System
The potion system is a mess. This whole 'meditating' thing is just asinine. I know some game players are saying, "Well, that means you have to plan in advance". How can you plan to drink enough potions in advance? Seriously, plan to drink potions before a battle? You have no idea how many foes will be thrown at you. You can't 'plan' to drink enough potions for an upcoming battle. This just leads to trial and error gaming. Trial and error gaming is stupid and considered bad game design. If you have to go into a battle several times only to die just to 'get the lay of the land', that's a stupid waste of time. No, a proper potion system should let you not only stop and drink potions, but do it any time you like. Granted, you should have limited potions with you, so you do need to plan in advance to bring the correct number and type of potions with you, perhaps even creating them yourself. But, even in real life, you can drink something at any time, even in the middle of a battle. There's nothing realistic or useful about this potion system. In fact, it's so bad, you might as well just remove potions entirely.
Game Over Screen
This is not an arcade game where you're plopping quarters into the game. This is an at-home game played on a consumer device. Gone is the days where 'Game Over' screens are necessary. No, once again bad design prevails. If you die, the game should immediately pop up a requester to load the most recent save without any kind of 'Game Over' or death screens. Yet more wasted gaming time.
VATS
If you're going to intentionally limit how to heal the player character during battle, then you need to offset that with a system to target the enemies and, at the same time, avoid their attacks. This at least allows the player character to avoid being struck during battle.
Wasted Money
I had high hopes for this game, but my hopes were dashed by silly game design choices that make this game less than what it should have been. What makes a game fun is giving the players the things they want in a game and specifically within an RPG. Taking away things that, in someone developer's opinion, made the game too easy, but breaks RPG gaming conventions is just not the answer. This is why games like Skyrim win Game of the Year and why the Witcher 2 won't. The Witcher's game designers need to fully understand why Skyrim works to understand why The Witcher 2 doesn't. It's very simple. Make the right game design choices and your game succeeds. Make the wrong choices and you end up classified as a bad game.
For me, The Witcher 2 was not $60 well spent. In fact, it's a frustrating game to play and not all that compelling to boot. The best part of this game, so far, is the animated intro on board the ship which is, to say the least, quite impressive. The game play is, unfortunately, less than stellar. The lack of potions during battle is frustrating and the 'Game Over' screen is simply a waste of time each time it's shown. Yes, every game should be somewhat different from others, but not so far different from the expected RPG system norm that it tries to rewrite RPG gaming conventions. Unless what you're designing is a huge advance in gaming, it's never wise to 'mess with things that already work'.