Another Russian preview, with some (new ?) details on combat system. I think that
Google Translate does a somewhat decent job with this article.
Anyway, some points from this article:
- The reporter liked the AI, opponents used flanking very well (in her opinion), and once an opponent even feigned retreat to sneak at her from the back.
- If Geralt is too far to reach the enemy with a swing of the sword, he won't leap at the enemy TW2-style, but will just cut the air.
- Active Quen is not visualized in any way (at least in the build she played), so it's hard to figure out when it stops protecting you. And anyway, it was quite weak (with a low-level Geralt), and helped with only 1-2 hits.
- She liked the fistfights, they were not one-on-one, but group fights, and Geralt retained all the options he has with swords (i.e. block, pirouette, roll and "riposte"). No QTEs.
- It was hard to fight on the horseback, since Roach cannot turn too sharply, and can become frightened and throw Geralt off; moreover most of the signs are not available while on the horseback, but she wasn't sure whether it was intended or a bug.
- Monsters are territorial: they'll stop following you once you leave their home area.
- Potions are indeed automatically rebrewed at each meditation after you gather the components once, but the trick is that potions now require many more components (considerably more than 5 different components for any potion) than they used to in TW1 and TW2, and it's hard to find all those components.
- After 3 hours of gameplay in Prologue she was Level 2.
- She liked gwent.
- You need to be careful not to fall from a height. She died couple of times accidentally this way.
- Difficulty setting affects the number of enemies, and doesn't affect their hitpoints (at least from her experience).
- The game contains much more humour than previous titles in the series.
- Food/drinks are back, offer minor health restoration.
- The reporter liked High graphics setting on the PC (in this January build). She particularly liked the detail on characters in cutscenes. For instance, she could really feel that Yennefer's skin is that of a 16-year-old, as described in the books.
- There was no Assassin's Creed-style wall climbing, but she could jump onto a roof of a house from a nearby hill.
- Performing a block or a riposte doesn't cost anything (e.g. vigour) (as far as she remembers).
- Fisstech is in. (thanks,
@TemerianGirl , for pointing this out!)
EDIT: (correction, thanks,
@TemerianGirl !)
A photo made by the reporter at this preview event, showing three REDs:
Radek Grabowski, Valentina Zlobina (head of Marketing/PR for Russia and CIS at CDPR) and Jakub Szamałek
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