Please don't make the game too easy.

[M4xw0lf.978]

Please don't make the game too easy.

After reading this article at Eurogamer, I'm surprised (amazed, flabbergasted, aghast) about the following section, where Konrad Tomaszkiewicz states the following about TW2's and TW3' combat:

Game director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz loves Dark Souls and Demon's Souls and has finished both a number of times. He likes how "you are stronger because you as the player learn how to control your character and how to play to kill these monsters". You stop thinking about how to do something and feel the fight instead. "And this is a really great thing," he believes.

"We tried in The Witcher 2 to make this high difficulty level but it was a mistake," he admitted, "because we tried to mix two different games." The Witcher fans wanted a traditional RPG with a story, not a challenge based on their dexterity.

"Dark Souls influenced me very much because I love games like this, but I understand after The Witcher 2 that we should less experiment on stuff like this but more focus on the things which people love in our games," he said.

The learning curve in The Witcher 3 will be "proper", then - not like the much lamented learning curve in The Witcher 2. There will be difficulty levels in The Witcher 3, but unlike The Witcher 2, Normal won't feel like Hard. "It wasn't a good decision," Tomaszkiewicz added. "Right now we're changing it and I believe that everyone will go in this world very smooth and we will not get problems like it was in The Witcher 2."

Right. As I stated above, I'm dumbfounded. Where did he get the notion that Witcher fans didn't like TW2's combat system and difficulty level? Don't get me wrong, I also liked the more indirect combat in TW1, where you just chained you attacks by clicking in time.
But TW2 offers so much more possibilities to get into the combat system, learn its intricacies and then kick some monster ass with the proper tactics. It's just more rewarding. Also the popularity of dark and insane difficulty levels indicates that a lot of players of TW2 enjoyed the challenge imposed by the more action-oriented combat.
So I hope I'm not overreacting or something, but I just hope that TW3's combat will not feel like a dumbed down / nerfed version of TW2, but still gives me a challenging combat experience. Your thoughts?

 

[eLeF1]

What proper tactics? Rolling around like an idiot are not proper tactics. This is an RPG it should be based around stats not twitch combat. TW1 was much better in this and I want they go back to their roots.

 

[colibrie]

I didn't have problem getting used to the tactics but I do think they're right about that "normal" could feel like "hard" for those who like story and are not good with dexterity.

 

[Sirnaq]

TW2 combat wasn't all that great, actually core gameplay in cdpr games isn't great, serviceable maybe, but there is huge room for improvement (that also doesn't mean it was bad or terrible, it was "ok"). Witcher games shine in other aspects like story, c&c, immersion and atmosphere. I hope that cdpr improve the combat as well as core gameplay by adding well designed systems that work together. "Monsterhunting" is one of those interesting systems, it looks good on the paper and we'll see how it turn out to be. What i agree with is difficulty. I hope the game will be hard at least on harder difficulty settings.

 

[nukeheal]

Yes I also had that impression after reading the article. I think these days everyone wants challanging and rewarding player experience.

Borderlands 2 was giving player points for everything. kill 50 enemies while jumping = +0,5% accuracy from hip fire.
Dark souls gameplay was difficult but player felt good after finally killing a boss after few hours of agony.

The trick is to mix both.

Just to add; both TW1 click, click rhythm game combat and rolling were a bit annoying.

 

[Senteria]

Let's just say I was glad I played TW2 on launch when it was difficult on normal and I liked it that way.

 

[Llyrnion]

I'll start by saying I liked TW2's combat better than TW1. I particularly liked the dodge. I've read some complaints about the "unrealistic" strategy of dodging to the back of your opponent, and I found those complaints strange, because that's as unrealistic as having to wait for an animation to end before Geralt reacts - e.g., I start a strong attack against an opponent and notice another is coming, and I better back off; however, until the animation finishes, Geralt is stuck, and as much as I press "WASD + space", nothing happens. So, yes, it's unrealistic, and that's how it's supposed to be. It's a game, after all.

So, what would I like to see changed in TW3?
- A way to bypass challenges like the Kayran, where you need to apply specific powers at specific points/places. I've spent a lot of time there, and it wasn't what I'd call "fun".
- When a cut-scene delivers you immediately in combat, I'd like a way to save before combat starts, but after the cut-scene ends. Taking again the Kayran as an example, I've reloaded that bit a lot. And I could only save before the cut-scene with S

 

[gregski]

I also don't know where exactly Konrad got that "our players want something else" feeling.

I mean, I feel like the game should be as much about story, choice & consequence etc. as it should be about Geralt - master of sword. Sapkowski put so much effort in his books to describe combat - and did it in a really exceptional way - that combat mechanics & feel should be in one of the top places on the priority list.

I hope they continue improving on TW2's twitch based combat system and never turn back into anything stat related. And also never give in to the whiners(mostly reviewers that got their asses kicked in TW2 vanilla) and make the game difficult enough.

Combat & difficulty definitely need improvements and refinements, but challenge should be there.

 

[tirim4]

I actually enjoyed the combat in TW2 (even if it was a little too hack 'n slashy). If you want a "true" RPG experience youi could just turn the difficulty down to easy, as far as I can tell that only changes combat. That said I allso enjoyed TW1 combat but it was a little stale. Hopefully the new sign functions will give us more combat options and perhaps we could get more options to talk our way out of fights? That combines with better animations and pirroute has me really excited for TW3 combat.

EDIT: As Gregski writes it seems that some people just found it too hard. I don't think they should make TW3 into Dark Souls but if they can make a more enjoyable combat system that would also mean they could motivate harder fights.

 

[Blothulfur]

Enjoyed Assassins of Kings combat, needed circling and backpedalling (and less rolling) but apart from that it was a nice combat system. Not the best, but certainly not the worst.

 

[Shavod]

Eh, and again you complain about something, which was already said in February. CDPR decided to change learning curve from "hard at the beginning and progressively easier" to "easy at the biginning and progressively harder", which makes sense and in my opinion it's good decision. I really like combat system in TW2 and the fact that, as oppose to The Witcher 1 combat system, you had to put some actual effort to win this fights, but everything about it in TW3 seems to be improvement. Little slower, yet more tactical approach, not scripted boss battles, more interactive environment, more fluent movements, no animations limitation, balancing dodging and blocking.

 

[Sam44]

What proper tactics? Rolling around like an idiot are not proper tactics. This is an RPG it should be based around stats not twitch combat. TW1 was much better in this and I want they go back to their roots.

Please, no. Fun combat should require skill and be challenging and enjoyable, in TW1 combat wasnt bad but it wasnt that good either. It felt rather as a neccesary thing I must go through.
TW2 combat with some tweaked things that would balance things and not make the hits so random will be just great.
And no rolling ofc .

 

[tommy5761]

I seem to remember when the game 1st released there were more than quite a few posts where even on easy the game was exceptionally hard for some people . While I enjoy the benefits of of hard combat there should be a setting for those users who enjoy the story more than fighting difficult enemies .

 

[jerf.674]

I agree with the OP's concerns and really hope that TW3 combat _will_ require a great deal of player skill to excel at, and won't be just stat-based, at least on some difficulty levels.

 

[Senteria]

I just hope CDPR is not trying to appease(sorry for generalisation)the American gamer by a lot of handholding and making the game too easy.

 

[Beestonian]

Trust. CDProjekt Red know what they're doing

 

[fchopin]

Combat in TW2 was not good.
Geralt is a swordsman so his movements have to be quick and decisive.
I want better combat in TW3 and difficulty has nothing to do with it.

 

[Villentretanmerth]

In my opinion, the difficulty debate is an easy problem to solve. CDPR has already said that there are going to be different difficulty levels again. For those that aren't looking for any challenge, they can simply put the game on the easiest difficulty setting.

I'm sure they also want to be able to satisfy the hardcore gamers like myself. I personally, loved the challenge in the Witcher 2 and I hope the game is even harder this time around.

The only thing in that article that concerns me is this statement:

The Witcher fans wanted a traditional RPG with a story, not a challenge based on their dexterity

I really, really, really, don't want the combat to be too stat based. That was one of the unique things that I loved about the Witcher 2 is that the combat was skill based; Having quicker reflexes and reactions and being able to dodge at the right time and counterattack, etc. That was all great. Leveling up and learning new abilities helped a lot, but skill (or dexterity as Konrad calls it) was always needed.

I don't want it to be like Final Fantasy or even like Skyrim, where all you have to do is make sure that you're a high level.

Maybe for the easiest difficulties, they can make combat stat-based, but for the harder difficulties, I really want it to be skill based.

I also agree that the roll needs to be used less in this game, but that's something we don't have to worry about, seeing as CDPR have stated that they're replacing it with pirouettes.

Btw, is anyone else hoping they bring back some cool difficulty based items that you can only get on the highest difficulty? (Like the 3 sets of dark armors and weapons in the Witcher 2)

 

[Zanderat]

I also don't know where exactly Konrad got that "our players want something else" feeling.

I mean, I feel like the game should be as much about story, choice & consequence etc. as it should be about Geralt - master of sword. Sapkowski put so much effort in his books to describe combat - and did it in a really exceptional way - that combat mechanics & feel should be in one of the top places on the priority list.

I hope they continue improving on TW2's twitch based combat system and never turn back into anything stat related. And also never give in to the whiners(mostly reviewers that got their asses kicked in TW2 vanilla) and make the game difficult enough.

Combat & difficulty definitely need improvements and refinements, but challenge should be there.

Disagree completely. TW games are RPGs. NOT shooters. In RPGs, it is about CHARACTER growth and ability, Not PLAYER ability. That is one reason that I prefer RPGs. I like story, atmosphere and chararcter driven stories/games. I admit that I suck at twitch games. It would be a real shame if TW turned into DS. (I did try the pc version and it was an abomination. Why do people like it?)

 

[Cs__sz__r]

Keep it challenging, improve the combat, and fix that backwards learning curve and everything should be groovy.