So What Exactly Is Different in Dark Mode?

[Zanderat]

So What Exactly Is Different in Dark Mode?

...besides armor and difficulty? Is the atmosphere or dialogue any different? Is the weather gloomier? etc.

Thanks.

 

[ksin070]

Well I am up to Flotsam and I haven't noticed anything different.. Except that it is harder.. Man that ballista in the prologue was a challenge..

 

[Garrison72]

I smell sarcasm.

 

[prx1]

I smell sarcasm.

u mean balista with 1.5 degrees can be done ... i get always 3 degrees and fail ....

 

[secondchildren]

...besides armor and difficulty? Is the atmosphere or dialogue any different? Is the weather gloomier? etc.

Thanks.

Dark Mode is an additional level of difficult. Some say harder than hard.. basically a ix of hard+insane. Plus there are additional items, armors and weapons... but still we have to figure out what they are and where to find them.

 

[Zanderat]

Thanks, SC. But what I was getting at is that it was implied in the trailer that DM would have a darker atmosphere and themes. So, far I am not seeing it. Dark items are neat. But they are just items. I am somewhat disappointed in DM so far.

 

[secondchildren]

This is what most of the people started to say about the Dark Mode (as soon as they watched the trailer) never confirmed by the RED team. You're not the only one who said this. Btw I din't get anything about this "dark atmosphere" from the trailer. On the contrary I've found in game colors even brighter than before.

 

[Annihilus]

With the Dark Set, the difficulty is considerably discreased. The weapons steals life, so, you can regen what you just lost very fast.

 

[username_3236367]

...On the contrary I've found in game colors even brighter than before.

I thought my eyes were playing a trick on me, but I had the exact same impression as well. Has the colour intensity been adjusted? Maybe it's just the new drivers? In any event, it's looking nice and vibrant, but not cartoonish or abstract. I approve. As for the dark mode, I also never had the impression that it was going to be an alteration of the game atmosphere, in fact, CDP was clear about what it was going to be.

 

[Dona.794]

I thought my eyes were playing a trick on me, but I had the exact same impression as well. Has the colour intensity been adjusted? Maybe it's just the new drivers? In any event, it's looking nice and vibrant, but not cartoonish or abstract. I approve. As for the dark mode, I also never had the impression that it was going to be an alteration of the game atmosphere, in fact, CDP was clear about what it was going to be.

They tweaked the graphics. The game is not necessarily brighter, but they improved depth of field effect and adjusted lighting in many areas. Here are a few examples (top - v1.0 screenshots, bottom - 2.0 screenshots). That gives the illusion of a brighter, but more realistic game. As you can see, they made Flotsam forest a bit darker than before :]

 

[scree]

Very interesting, thank you Dona. Now i see what they have changed in game graphics.

 

[Kaldurenik]

Blur *sigh* oh how i wish for settings that allow you to scale bloom and blur to what you like

 

[Vatt_ghern]

So they made it more blurry? I actually liked the fact that the DOF effect was rather subtle compared to other games. Time to turn it off I guess.

 

[siklara]

Very nice comparison screenshots, thanks a bunch, Dona!

In the prologue I had a few very small graphical glitches I've never seen before, like part of some textures are twitching/flickering (maybe I should update my VGA driver). Another thing I noticed is that one of Foltest's lines got slightly changed at the very end: he says to Geralt about Triss "Are you blind? She's enamored with you" instead of the old "Are you blind? She's madly in love with you".
Small find, but if there are some other slight changes in convos, I'd be happy to hunt for them.

(like Saskia's famous, hotly debated cheesy line about dwarves, maybe that got changed too! )

 

[jonesy1138]

Ive also noticed additional (and bloodier) finisher animations, some of them from TW1.

 

[Sirnaq]

Dark aura, also Gerald does have more scars or is this just my imagination?