I LOVE IT vs I HATE IT

[Aes Sídhe]

Welcome to the board ! All valid points, many made before so you aren't alone, i'll try and remember some explanations, but for walkthroughs go to the wiki...

Group fights, much worse than tw1. Example: the operator fight on "From a Bygone Era". After a lot of tries i just gave up, those gargoyles were impossible.

The hardest fight in the game. A side quest not necessary to do, it really is designed as a challenge. It is very hard, I feel your pain, but it is possible. I've used Yrden & bombs, and beat it on hard and dark... but a lot of movement, and definitely some luck was involved. Potions & good gear essential, you & Geralt really need to be in the zone for this one. Group fights in general require crowd control, the game has always stated the need for tactical thinking here, whether by traps / bombs / signs or bottlenecking / splitting them up.

Interface (inventory, journal, etc) - HUGE step back from tw1, it's like you had to actually alt tab to access the inventory, and the organization was much easier on tw1. Even though I prefer the weight system to the slots one used on tw1, it would be much better if you could see all your items at once, instead of endless scrolling.

I don't know about this, they've added sorting recently and I can't remember ever really having a problem with it before. But I am used to cumbersome RPG inventorys... its kind of par for the course... don't you think? Certainly can be improved, but thats true of most games.

The character development trees were not very well balanced, if you leveled the swordsmanship tree the game was much easier, especially in Loc Muinne. A similar thing happens with the items, it's like in the last 2-3 hours of the game you get all the good items, when you have very few fights left.

You should read this article about the development of the game, a large part had to be cut, and we were lucky to get it at all. You are right that the balance isn't perfect, maxing any tree makes you pretty uber, although swords is easiest. Have you tried the Alchemy tree ? A lot of fun, but extremely difficult in places since you can't always prepare for a fight. Or a mix? I love messing about with the possibilities.

Geralt's figurine, especially from what i've seen of tw3. It's like you guys are transforming him into a ninja or something, reminds me a lot of Metal Gear, and that is a big fucking NO. Not even Assassins Creed, that is much more ninja style than The Witcher, does that. wtf guys?

The TW3 Geralt we have seen so far is not finished, we know this, don't worry.

In the end, when Vernon says that Letho's waiting for you at the Temerian camp... that was too much man. He spent the whole game looking for him and then just "hey, Letho wants to talk to you, tell him I said hi!". wtf?

Have you played the game a few times yet? It really needs to be played minimum twice to approach the full picture, Iorveth / Roche paths expound the story.

All I can really say about this is i've reached that part 8 times, everytime soft-rping my Geralt a little different, and even when I start the game thinking "This time I'm going to do it !".... I have not yet fought Letho... fact is everytime I get there I realise... "this is not my enemy."

Each to their own of course, but thats where the journey has always taken me so far. And tbh, I really appreciate this that sets TW2 so apart from the rest, you don't need to kill the "bad guy".

If you mean why didn't Roach attack Letho, he's not stupid enough to get stuck between 2 Witchers either of whom would annihilate him in a fight. All Letho would have to do is threaten Triss' life. I get the impression also that after everything he's lost, in the middle of all that death & destruction, even Roche is spent of anger.

Also I don't see why you can't save Triss from the Nilfgaardians AND do whatever Vernon or Iorveth wants you to do.

Choice & Consequences. The Witcher is not an experience everything in one playthrough and shelve game.The narrative is driven by the characters, not the protagonist. Just because you are not there doesn't mean time stands still until you arrive to make things happen, these people act on their own agendas.

 

[ljjr]

Well, kudos for beating the Operator, I must say
I guess some of my disappointment with the inventory/journal system was caused by the fact that I played tw1 with keyboard and mouse and tw2 with a xbox controller, so just to do a quick check on how many harpy feathers I had, for example, I needed to pause the game, open the inventory, and then scroll until I found the items, while on tw1 it would be just a button away. Maybe I'm just ranting, idk, but I still prefer tw1 on that matter.

Also, thanks for pointing that article out, very interesting. They had to cut THE VALLEY OF FLOWERS, man, I wanted so bad to get to know that region . Let's hope they put it on tw3, even though I don't think that's gonna happen.

I see your point about Letho, I mean, I didn't kill him either, even though I fought him once, just for fun. I just thought that Vernon would want to kill Letho on sight after spending the whole game looking for him, but I guess that he trusts Geralt to make that decision after all.

 

[dracolinch1]

Love it. It's the first game in years that make me proud of being a gamer!

 

[whiplash27]

What's so great about the Witcher games...

to me is the fact that the decisions aren't black and white. I think of other mainstream RPGs where you have the "good" choice and the "bad" choice and 99% of the time if you pick the "good" choice everything works out well. In The Witcher games, there isn't always a good choice or bad choice and even if there is, it still may not work out well. In fact, the "bad" choice may have been the better one in that instance. Even if you're trying to do the best thing for the greater good, someone else that you may like may get screwed over. It's a much more realistic form of decision making and makes you actually have to think before you do something rather than blindly picking the good guy responses every time. It's something I hope that CDPR keeps as a constant in all of their games.

 

[jerf.674]

You nailed it.

For instance, I like Mass Effect series very much for its characters and the epic (in a good way) story (of course, if you forget the ending), but I extremely hate the fact that if you decide from the start that you'll be a good guy, then that's it: you don't have any other choices in the game left for you, everyhting is decided by this one single decision. And the game stops being a real RPG at this moment. I f***ing hate whoever came up with the Paragon/Renegade/decision wheel system... :fury:

Other games which do not have this profoundly stupid system still tend to be mostly black and white, and the Witcher series is very refreshing in this sense, due to realistic morally grey decisions and story. This is one of the main reasons why I love the Witcher games.

 

[vivaxardas2015]

Wow, mod reaction time is simply extraordinary! The threads get moved and merged faster than we post.

Besides the main story, it is the world itself that is believable. I never took ME series seriously simply because the world and relationships in it are crap, worthy only pre-schoolers.
On a Citadel: we can start firefights, kill people left and right, and no police activity at all. Well-known assassin openly tells a local policeman in the middle of a local precinct that he is here to kill a guy, and they just tell him to get out. If he kills him, again, everything is cool, no questions asked. Total strangers unload mounds of their opinions and ask to solve their most personal problems. Why a hell everybody is armed? Is it Chicago in 1930x, or a center of galactic government? And I am not even talking about their legal procedures, evidence collecting, and presentation. It was so bad I could barely take it, and couldn't wait to stop talking and start shooting.
I mean, WTF? What planet the developers are from, really? Don't they have any knowledge how things work in RL, or they simply decided to make this juvenile pile of rubbish because they believed it was what people wanted? May be I am too old, but I am tired of such artificial crap. What value any choice have in the world like this?
But in TW1-2 things are presented in a meaningless way, the the world is not just a playground for a god-like protagonist. Add to it great stories (a Roche's path in TW2 is a frigging masterpiece in my eyes), and you get one hell of a game series. The rest - combat system, character progression, crafting, loot - is just an icing on a cake for me.

 

[vivaxardas2015]

DP Please remove

 

[jerf.674]

Wow, mod reaction time is simply extraordinary! The threads get moved and merged faster than we post.

Besides the main story, it is the world itself that is believable. I never took ME series seriously simply because the world and relationships in it are crap, worthy only pre-schoolers.
On a Citadel: we can start firefights, kill people left and right, and no police activity at all. Well-known assassin openly tells a local policeman in the middle of a local precinct that he is here to kill a guy, and they just tell him to get out. If he kills him, again, everything is cool, no questions asked. Total strangers unload mounds of their opinions and ask to solve their most personal problems. Why a hell everybody is armed? Is it Chicago in 1930x, or a center of galactic government? And I am not even talking about their legal procedures, evidence collecting, and presentation. It was so bad I could barely take it, and couldn't wait to stop talking and start shooting.
I mean, WTF? What planet the developers are from, really? Don't they have any knowledge how things work in RL, or they simply decided to make this juvenile pile of rubbish because they believed it was what people wanted? May be I am too old, but I am tired of such artificial crap. What value any choice have in the world like this?
But in TW1-2 things are presented in a meaningless way, the the world is not just a playground for a god-like protagonist. Add to it great stories (a Roche's path in TW2 is a frigging masterpiece in my eyes), and you get one hell of a game series. The rest - combat system, character progression, crafting, loot - is just an icing on a cake for me.

You're right that in ME there are lots of inconsistencies, and it takes some effort to try to ignore them, but still in the end I felt attached to the characters rather much, and caring about the war and so on, so, in spite of the inconsistencies, the games made me feel emotionally involved rather much.
But, of course, in the Witcher games the world is much more believable, and this is another reason why they are so great.

 

[Nexus-77]

ok, The only thing that I can say I really "hate" in The Witcher is the way the ladies walk
Seriously, women usually have larger hips while men usually have larger chests so of course we will walk a little different, but that thing with their hands... models from the 50's perhaps? Nah.
But that's the only thing I can say I "hate".
I'm in love with Geralt. And Roche. And Triss (especially in TW 1) and Shani. And the kings, and Cedrac and Letho and even Ves and many others. Even the birdman and the cannibal (that man was a surprise in TW1, lol).
Chapter 3 in TW2 is one of the best things I've played, maybe the best.

 

[Garrison72]

But, ok, The only thing that I can say I really "hate" in The Witcher is the way the ladies walk
Seriously, women usually have larger hips while men usually have larger chests so of course we will walk a little different, but that thing with their hands... models from the 50's perhaps? Nah.

I call it the starlet strut. And yeah, it needs to go.

 

[silz]

I love this game. Bought the Witcher EE, plays it until Act 1 but due to work schedule I didn't get to play for a while but still get Witcher 2 on released anyway. I didn't even pause to think when I hold the box. I just went straight to the counter and paid for the game. Something I never regret even today. I have finally completed Witcher 1 and I love it to the max.

To be honest, I have yet to open the shrink wrap of the Witcher 2. I have to let the first story sink in first. Allow me to open the box, when I'm really ready. What made it more special is this only a standard edition!

 

[ReptilePZ]

To be honest, I have yet to open the shrink wrap of the Witcher 2. I have to let the first story sink in first. Allow me to open the box, when I'm really ready. What made it more special is this only a standard edition!

Hey, glad you enjoyed the first game. As for the second one, I recommend using your product key to claim your free gog backup copy here: http://www.gog.com/witcher/backup

The reason being that you have the original retail version, so you'd have to download many updates, as well as the EE, and then you might also need to manually download and install some fixes to make it work. Probably easier to just use the fully updated gog version (might wanna get your Witcher 1 backup copy as well, while you're at it)

 

[Gr3aves]

Hey, glad you enjoyed the first game. As for the second one, I recommend using your product key to claim your free gog backup copy here: http://www.gog.com/witcher/backup

The reason being that you have the original retail version, so you'd have to download many updates, as well as the EE, and then you might also need to manually download and install some fixes to make it work. Probably easier to just use the fully updated gog version (might wanna get your Witcher 1 backup copy as well, while you're at it)

Nope, i have the original retail version, from when it came out. And when i start up the game, it asks me if i'll allow it to download the EE and all the patches. So no manual hassle needed.

 

[ReptilePZ]

Nope, i have the original retail version, from when it came out. And when i start up the game, it asks me if i'll allow it to download the EE and all the patches. So no manual hassle needed.

As I said, he might need some fixes (i.e. only needed under certain conditions) that he would have to download manually. And since he's already downloading the updates and the EE, might as well download the fully patched gog version instead, just to be sure everything goes smoothly, should take about the same time

 

[ONLY_ONCE]

If anyone cares I bought TW2 for my 360 three times already. The new silver box is cool cause the whole game is now on one disc.

 

[Wizigard]

I love the series.

Witcher 1 has enhanced my knowliedge in many ways, for example before I played it I was mostly indifferent so Germano Slavic mythology. EE I bought contained music inspired by Witcher which introduced me to several new bands. It also introduced me to sapkowski works, only few days ago have I realized that printed minibook containing witcher 1 back story that I read several years ago was Sapkowski work, not special construct for game, and that it was included in Sapkowski stories collection I'm reading now. I admit that in game nudity was one of things that attracted me to the game back then. Also level of gore and insulting was higher than in any rpg I have played before but It was funny. I have never ever played game that displayed these feautures openly, without censorship.

I had some problems with battle system in W1 but It was not that bad, during 2nd playthrough I had no problem with combat, even on hard difficulty. Combat in Witcher 2 was however indeed easier to handle although in Witcher 2 I disliked too large number of shortcuts and absence of mouse controlled interface. I also liked mouse controlled fist fights more and drinking contests were for some reason absent. Also food sold was unusable and thus pointless, perhaps if you could just throw it on someone to grab attention but no... Also inventory interface looked less cool than in Witcher 1 though It was not that bad, I just disliked that only 5 items were shown at times and It was harder to find things than in W1 inventory although in W1 I had to throw away things more often than in w2 and could'nt keep swords and armors. Also graphical timer/clock was much simplier in witcher 2 and I think that it was worse. I couldn't find out the time unless it was dusk or dawn or I used meditation option and even timer there was simplier but colorless and a bit harder to navigate and thus for me worse than the one in Witcher 1. Witcher 1 coloured timer with sun was much better. Overall witcher 2 interface was cleaner, simplier looking but less cool, It reminded me of fallout 3 or skyrim interfaces (but I have seen those only in screenshots). Other than that I believe that Witcher 2 was better than W1 in almost every aspect. Perhaps location music in W2 (in Vergen or Flotsam) was less noticeable for me than in witcher 1 (river of life, old manor, lakeside).

I hope that witcher 3 will take the best out of both earlier versions... I created account because I hoped I could influence a bit making process of witcher 3 but I guess I came too late

 

[BlackWolf500.298]

I liked both games very much and enjoyed them. A few things though.

1. The Witcher 1 had a very annoying and exhausting combat system, very old school. Liked the change in TW2.
2. In TW1 you often felt like walking on rails (in TW2 as well, but there you "felt" it less) due to no jumping and stuff like that
3. The Witcher 2 had the more dense story IMO while TW1 had a more stretched one which got boring at parts and exciting at others.
4. I liked the improvements in terms of quests, quest design, Conversations, areas and leveling (in terms of how strong monsters are, etc), but I disliked that TW2 had so little space to use it
5. The Boss fights in TW2 were a little bit to narrow in terms of areas. I had little room to move and you absolutely had to move since the bosses would destroy you otherwise. I often ended up running back and forth or in a circle and that was kind of annoying. With more room the combat might have looked a little bit more elegant
6. I was never informed (in TW2) that I had to HOLD DOWN the sign key to cast a successful Axii. I only found out half way through the game
7. I liked the preparations in TW2 in terms of taking potions before fights, really preparing, and also in terms of reading books before you fight monsters.
8. I really LOVED the new fluidity of the combat, but there were just a tad bit too many dodges/rolls in it, it often seemed like Geralt was just rolling around all the time. Later on - with better abilities and experience - that got significantly better. Still, a little bit less rolling, maybe a faster way to cast signs, a faster animation in terms of signs like Quen and a better system when blocking would be nice. Also, please keep the challenge and difficulty. Yes I WANT to die with 4 - 5 hits of an enemy. After all the game needs to be authentic, and I really liked that vulnerability of Geralt, it underlined that basically he is just a human being which is genetically enhanced, not more. He is still vulnerable and risks his life while hunting monsters. He is not superman, and that is good.
9. Craftsman => Do I REALLY need to go to someone in order to craft things? I mean seriously, that is just annoying.
10. Alchemy => Liked alchemy in TW2 better than in TW1, but the variety of potions could have been bigger. Also, if I am toxic/poisoned I want some side effects. Kind of that you have the ability to overdose (too many potions) and get temporary good side effects but negative ones after a short period of time (some kind of backlash, negative feedback, body is strengthened shortly but on a long run weakened because the body has to compensate for the enormous amount of poisoning).
11. Mutagens => I didn't necessarily liked Mutagens in TW1, but TW2 made it worse. The system made no sense and definitely needs/needed a complete overhaul. Hope in TW3 this will be better (also the lesser mutagens were basically nonesense, never used one of them)
12. Inventory => Actually liked the system
13. Alchemy again => When producing potions one-by-one I always had the problem that often the game would choose lesser or even basic mutagens as ingredients by default which forced me to change the ingredients manually EVERY TIME. Now think about doing 50 potions one-by-one, that is totally annoying and time consuming. (also ties into the mutagen problem, I think lesser mutagens should indeed be used as ingredients, but maybe if you use them in a potion they have a special effect, that would be cool and actually make them useful)


All in all great games. The games all have a few flaws and those I mentioned are not the only ones, but I have faith CDP will make an awesome game with TW3 and conclude the story in a successful and well received way.

 

[hardom]

I loved both of them, but I liked a bit more the first game, some things to point, as @BlackWolf500 has done but also my opinions about some things he stated:

1.I found the combat in the witcher 1 a bit old-school too, but I could control the character a bit better, in the sense that there was less dodge (but there was tons of irritating moments where you couldn't react for half an hour against your opponent), also I HATE the huge backstabb bonus damage in the second game
2.I thought the first witcher story a bit better, for being a bit more personal and with more suspense (but also the atmosphere influenced me of thinking so), but the choice influence on the second game it's leagues superior
3. In both games a lack of space was a bit boring sometimes, but in anothers moments, as in the first game, being trapped in a battle inside a house, where you have little space, a bad thing for witchers, wich needs space, was a good strategy
4.Also as black death, I had big problems with axii and the poor game's tutorial, I just discovered that in loc muinne lol (so I never used it)
5.I liked the sense of preparation in the witcher 2, even if I disliked the new alchemy sistem implemented in the third game for balance purposes, it's better than drinking while in combat of the first game
6.It's good to keep hard (I beated the second game on hard), the only problem is backstabb issue, keep it, but not so relevant. I also enjoyed that there was more strategy on the second game combat and how you should focus your targets
7.It's much better crafting with a blacksmith, I liked that they also added basic materials for craft in the second game, so you need steel, leather, etc. And geralt it's to busy killing monster and practice to keep fitness to learn the master forge abilities (like in skyrim, also another bad thing in skyrim is that the path of the blacksmith is achieved crafting iron daggers)
8.I liked more the alchemy on the first game, because of the need of a an alcoholic beverage as base to potions, also I liked the bonus effects but I don't want it implemented in the third game
9.I don't like mutagens
10.The inventory was better on the second game, because isn't a tetris sistem
11.They really needs to make potion crafting faster
also
12.Bombs were useless on the first game, and traps useless on the second one

 

[Justifized]

Optional gay "romance" would be nice,but i guess because Geralt is based on....well,Geralt lol,it won't happen..
And you know...,just to make religious people angry,always amusing lol. :animier:

 

[dragonbird]

Optional gay "romance" would be nice,but i guess because Geralt is based on....well,Geralt lol,it won't happen..
And you know...,just to make religious people angry,always amusing lol. :animier:

From past threads on that topic, the reason for rejecting the idea is usually because of lore, nothing else, so I think it's best if we keep religion out of this discussion please.