Game difficulty - what do YOU think?

[mcolan]

Game difficulty - what do YOU think?

I am an experienced gamer of medium ability. I have reasonable skill, and have played many games over many years, usually on Normal setting; I am not the grand master that some gamers claim to be (and some actually ARE).

For me, the Normal setting for Witcher2 is at times too difficult (e.g. for some bosses), and the easiest setting is way too easy.

Examples:

• The two wraiths in the small room of the hospital were impossible to defeat. They hit very hard; there is insufficient room to run around to buy time to heal. I tried for hours, gave in and read hints online, and eventually progressed only by switching to the easiest setting, the only one easier than Normal, which was entirely too easy.
• The Kayran was also too difficult. I managed to lop off two tentacles, but never the third. On several tries I found that getting hit once took 80% of my total vitality. I found a place to hide and heal, but they don't work after lopping the second tentacle. After about four hours of trying over three days, I read hints, discovered a Kayran trap, but found it only slightly better compared than the Yrden sign, because it only works for one tentacle. I doubt I would have found the Kayran trap without reading hints online, but again, I don't find it very useful. Eventually I gave up and switched back to the easiest mode, killed it, and went back to Normal. Again, it was much too easy on the easiest mode.

Everything else I have encountered seems about right, although the original Dragon sequence at the beginning (before a patch made it easier) seemed like a tough thing to throw at people new to the game.

I'd like to hear other opinions about the playing difficulty, politely if possible, thanks.

 

[227]

The two wraiths are killed much easier with Axii. In fact, the only real use for Axii in the entire game is against soldiers in the prologue and wraiths. You charm one, attack the other while it's distracted fighting its buddy, and then finish off the other one with quick attacks so it doesn't have time to hit you.

As for the Kayran... it's just best not to get hit. You can dodge the intermittent attacks by watching for when the tentacles go up and then dodging to the side, and once you chop off a tentacle you can just stay in place (since that tentacle is gone, that area becomes a safe area during its temper tantrum). A lot of people found it difficult, but I think the point of the fight was to get through without getting hit.

Not that I'll begrudge you for having trouble. A lot of the combat in the game requires a certain looseness in strategy that some people have difficulty with. That is, being able to switch up your approach each time until you find something that works definitely helps in this game. Personally, I enjoyed the difficulty, but that's just a matter of personal taste.

 

[eva02langley]

Except from the druz, the game is not that hard. Okay, I died a good couple of time at hard, but the battle where for the most back stabbing running monster surrounding me.

If you use a zerikanian sun or a Dancing Star, you will make your life easier.

That and always drink potions. The potion path is at the end maybe stronger than the other paths. With the new patch, you kill your opponent in one hit and you got 10 seconds of rampage.

 

[CostinRaz]

The normal setting is what it's meant to be, NORMAL. NOT Cakewalk ( thinks of Dragon Age 2, ME2, ME1, Dragon Age Origins ). It's challenging as it should be.

 

[Sandis]

Their is no time wasting, play on insane difficult real hard core game play...

Support pagan-metal.

 

[Gamewidow]

I still find it a bit unbalanced. I do just fine on normal, except the boss fights where i'm still forced to drop down to easy (sure, laugh if you like! but i'm sure i'm not alone in this).

Given that on normal mode (again except in boss fights) i'm tempted to even go to hard to make things a bit more challenging, i should not have to drop down to easy for every damned boss fight.

 

[CostinRaz]

I still find it a bit unbalanced. I do just fine on normal, except the boss fights where i'm still forced to drop down to easy (sure, laugh if you like! but i'm sure i'm not alone in this).

Given that on normal mode (again except in boss fights) i'm tempted to even go to hard to make things a bit more challenging, i should not have to drop down to easy for every damned boss fight.

And pray tell why not? If you don't care to have a challenge then as you said you can drop it to easy, but since you obviously don't want the challenge then why should the game make difficulty accessible to you. Those are boss fights, meaning they are tougher then your normal enemies. ( and those who want a challenge won't drop the difficulty, the'll go in there and spend hours even to find a way to beat it ).

 

[Fallen_Shard]

Besides enjoying games from their artistic aspect, I've always played them on hardest difficulty setting available right from the beginning, sort of a looked upon them as challenges. Most of them I passed through without problems, the others were harder etc., it depends on the game. After all, if there's that uber difficulty level, it doesn't mean it's impossible, you just have to take advantage of the system. That's my philosophy on that part.

I applied this to every RPG, most RTSs. Now as far as The Witcher 2 goes: it's all about getting used to it. The gameplay, interaction with enemies, how do blocks and parries work, which attacks are lethal/non-lethal, how do you make use of the space.

On my first playthrough on Hard (I still stayed away from Insane due to one life, after all it's my first playthrough), the game was reasonably hard right off the bat in the prologue. It did take me around 30 minutes or so to get accustomed to combat system etc. The most important move is most likely dodging. As long as there's space, you can dodge, fight back and rinse n' repeat.

As for the specific situations you mentioned, I only found fighting in tight spaces hard. That includes wraiths in the haunted asylum, but then again, analyze them: what exactly are they doing? They have a small range charging attack after which they stop for a short time. This seems like a good time to chain a few combo hits and then dodge back again. Rinse n' repeat. And use your signs, they play much higher role in combat then in the first game. If it's a fight in tight space use Axii to turn that into 2v1 etc, as others have said. There are a lot of ways to win, using your signs and occasional swordplay. I don't know how far you are into game but there's only one place where I reloaded more than twice:

Spoiler

fighting Henselt's guards inside Philippa's house in Act II, Roche's path.

The Kayran fight was probably the only properly designed boss fight of them all. It included encounter "phases" and you needed to know its abilities to be able to successfully counter them. It's really not a hard fight, it's more like one of those "if you screw up once, twice, you're dead - if you don't screw up, you'll get out with no scratches". As far as other bosses go, they are much more of a no-brainer fights. In the end, it's all about analyzing your opponent, what he does and what can you do to avoid that.

The overall tone of the difficulty of the game is actually nice to me. It's not too hard once you get used to it. Once again casual/easy is for the ones that pursue the story, normal is the difficulty for the average gamer who wants to play the game and use the standard arsenal to beat the game, and hard+ is for the ones seeking challenges as well.

Fallen_Shard

 

[mctrapper]

This game wasn't too hard for me, well of course at first it took a little while to get used to the combat system and such, but after the prologue almost everything went smoothly

Like always, I play games on normal difficulty first, and I never faced really anything too hard along the way, but when I started playing this game again, on hard difficulty, it actually provided a great challenge, and I was stuck in the second boss (The Draug or whatever it is) for a quite a long time. But nothing major really, and when I got to the chapter 3, things just got way too easy with the best gear in the game.

So after that I thought that hell, I could easily play this game trough on Insane difficulty, but it turned out that I couldn't Even the prologue was way too hard so I just stopped playing it and decided that if I'm going to play this game again, I wont touch this difficulty ever again

But yeah, the key is to drink potions, use bombs, etc.. and to find the right fighting style for every enemy. Although it is much easier said than done, especially after you've beaten the game few times

 

[digitalrurouni]

The wraiths were not hard to fight as long as you timed your dodges. I have not even tried the Axii way. I just used sufficient amounts of Ignii and added Specter oil to the blade, and had a Swallow potion. This is in Normal by the way. Right now I am about to fight Letho and I am sure he is going to be tough but at the same time he will have weaknesses too. That said I think the game is a little unbalanced. The Kayran fight was not very tough either. Just keep dodging

 

[Paul_cz]

I am playing on hard, my second playthrough. I died a few times, but overall the game is mostly easy.

The trick is in using all your tools. For example agains wraiths in hospital - use Axie to turn one against another.

Or use bombs + igni. Quen. Daggers. ETC.

 

[eva02langley]

I never used Axii. As for the wraith, just use a couple of bombs...

I usually rush on one with small hit and corner him before the other get in my back. Take them out one at a time.

In that case Yrden should be quite useful... but never used it >:/

 

[scree]

I am playing Witcher 2 on hard, it is good for me. I remember the time when i played Gothic 2, real hardcore...

 

[Babli.480]

meh, I am perfectly fine with hard. I find that difficulty to be just fine and wouldnt want to see next games getting dumbed down.

 

[chojrak]

i also enjoy playin on hard. and it is... hard - just the way it should be. but the fun and satisfaction it brings - priceless.

 

[eskiMoe]

Played the game with hard difficulty from start.

I thought it was the perfect difficulty setting for me since I've played the original game multiple times. I know what I was doing.

 

[VikingStudios]

I startet with hard, but it was a bit too difficult 'cause of the new Combatsystem but i think it was nice balanced. But at this time i hadn't much time spending on playing TW2 (because of studying) so i changed to normal and i think it was also nice balanced, fights were not to easy.

But as above mentioned the two Wraiths were really hard, also the Wraiths at the Quest vor the Medallion-ritual in the forest are really hard, it took me quite an hour to finish it.
Bossfights were a little bit harder than in TW1 but i think the were still to easy. Draug deals a lot of damage, but with the right strategy he is defeated quickly.

Only the fights with Leto were really challangeing. But thats only because of you weren't able to drink potions.

 

[Cyberfrog]

I died quite a bit, but still found Normal just fine. A bit rough in the beginning, but once you master the controls and stuff you feel pretty good about it.

 

[Charza]

I think the difficulty is fine as it is.
The combat system takes a bit of getting used to, but once you develop your skills, things will go a lot easier.

I recommend new player to just start of with easy, even if you have lots of experience with the first game.
The combat is totally different in this one, and it forces you to think and plan ahead, and it has a bit of a learning curve.
Easy allows you to experiment and find out what you like most.
Then switch to harder modes, but its totally up to you.

I do agree however that some things are a bit frustrating.
This combat system works well with single opponents, and at the start Geralt isn't really up to spec to deal with larger groups.
Things like groups of nekkers, or a group of drowners make the game unnecessarily hard.
On the other hand, it makes you fight for your survival, and I think thats what the devs wanted us to feel like, since the witcher profession isn't supposed to be an easy one.


I cranked up the difficulty later on, and will play on hard in a future run.
There is lots to do, and it definitely helps with the re-playability in general.

BTW the kayran was awesome, using potions, and dodging, it was like a real old fashioned boss battle, and we haven't seen those in a while. (At least I haven't )

 

[VikingStudios]

BTW the kayran was awesome, using potions, and dodging, it was like a real old fashioned boss battle, and we haven't seen those in a while. (At least I haven't )

On normal the Kayran was a little bit to easy, the fight was nice but he lost his arms to easily, but he did a lot of damage, i think some HP more an less damage would be better.