You can't define what is short and what is long in one breath.Take a look at this side: The (side)quests you do impact the main story. So if you really want to play the whole story you'd have to replay it and make different decissions. Only then will you know how everything can turn out. I think it's weird that people don't care about side quest. Usually in games it allows you to battle more so you level more and become strong enough to face upcoming boss fights. Play the game how it's meant to be. The Witcher 1 was a game that was not gigantically long but still it took me quite a while to beat it. If the witcher 2 is about the same I can't complain.
I can take the lenght, let's assume 30+ hours for everything.But I'm very worried where the reviewer mentions the game is too easy in terms of boss fights.I can't stand games which offers little to no challenge (waste of my time), here's hoping W2 will give me a fair challenge.Games with a fair difficulty
emons SoulsNinja Gaiden 1&2 (master ninja player here)Baldurs Gate Series, Icewind daleOriginal Witcher with hardcore mod
emons SoulsNinja Gaiden 1&2 (master ninja player here)Baldurs Gate Series, Icewind daleOriginal Witcher with hardcore mod
My guess: if you speed through a game like the witcher without taking on sidequests, you can only do so on the easiest difficulty, because you not only miss out on XP for levelling, earning talents and thus learning your advanced skills, but also on all the little things that aid you like special armor, ingredients for powerful potions, mutagens. And if they used the QTE's for the boss fights (we have the choice here), they probably seem too easy and are for players that mostly care for the story, but not combat. I doubt that you breeze throught the game on normal difficulty without doing most of the quests. And after all, there's hard and insane difficulty, too.gohanwitcher said:
Do you also know if the location you go to depends soley on your previous decisions, or is there another fork, where you have a choice again?gohanwitcher said:
And Witcher 2... with hardcore modgohanwitcher said:
or insane level!Good interview with Konrad Tomaszkiewicz (RED)http://gry.polter.pl/Wywiad-z-Konradem-Tomaszkiewiczem-c22999My summary of the interview - Google Translator:Konrad said:- The main storyline, the quickly, no side quests, easy level - about 30 hours of gameplay- At higher levels the game will be longer- They wanted to avoid the quests in which players must run a lot. Because people complain that they must run a lot in the game.- Witcher 2 will not close the whole story! The story in TW2 develops and explains a lot, but does not end. The second Witcher does not close all the threads. However, Conrad did not announce officially.Sorry for my "google" englishMaybe someone else is better to translate.I think people are forgetting, that most of the reviewers didn't play on hard or insane. And because most of the people will buy TW2 initially for the main-story with it's combat and not the side-quests. I think for that reason they are only talking about ~ 30 hours of that gameplay. So it depends entirely on the way your are going to play the game (e.g. the difficulty, use of sidequests, crafting and exploration). And if that isn't enough the playability of this game will be better than most games, because of the differences in the consequences for your actions.ps: In the community section is already a topic about dragon age, just saying..
If I played TW1 on easy difficulty and only doing main quest, I could finish it pretty fast too. My guess is with TW2, playing on hard difficulty adds a whole new dynamic to the game...you cannot just hack your way through it. For the reviews to get done fast, I can see why they would go through it fast and easy. Fed ex quests + load screens also took up a lot of time in TW1, you have to think about that as well.
I can only add that according to the author the Flotsam forest is bigger that swamps in W1...And BTW looks like all the early reviews are based on easy level, skipping side-quests etc, no items descriptions reading, etc...nocny said:And Witcher 2... with hardcore modnocny said:
The lenght is always a hardly quantitative data in game. The diferent player styles easily determines x2 or even x3 differences in the total play time. There are obsesive completionists that search for quest or new equipment twice in the same location; some players are skillfull, some are clumsier; some take their time to build up strategies or attack combination, some win the battles as far and easy as they can; some buy the game to enjoy slowly the story, some to explore the word. In this case, without a previous reference (DA2? DAO? ME2? TES?) from the same reviwer, I dont fin too informative the 24 hours info.
I don't know about you guys, but I avoided a shitload of "running about" in TW1 by amassing a ton of quests, and doing as many of them as possible in one sitting. (I.E; One trip to an area.)Of course, it was only on my second playthrough I knew what to do, and what could be done in the same area, at the same time.If you play the witcher by taking ONE quest, finishing that, doing the next one, etc. etc. - you'll be sorely pressed to finish it within your lifetime. The review means NOTHING if they didn't do the sidequests, or at least explore the world beyond the main objectives. Sucky review, if that is truly the case. I'll hold off on judgment until I have played the game, I suggest the rest of you do the same!
The review means NOTHING if they didn't do the sidequests, or at least explore the world beyond the main objectives. Sucky review, if that is truly the case. I'll hold off on judgment until I have played the game, I suggest the rest of you do the same! 
I agree. I'm curious how long these same reviewers said TW1 would be, so then I could compare to get an idea of how long TW2 will take me.I plan to play TW2 on hard mode (but no way in hell will I try hardcore because I don't want to lose my entire game progress in a moment of idiocy). I thought the hard difficulty on TW1 was very fair and was about right for me (not too easy to be boring, but not too hard to be painfully frustrating). I also preferred that hard mode got rid of the "help" icons during combat because I found them to be very distracting and not helpful at all.If I'm really enjoying a game and I'm fully immersed in it (which I expect will be the case for TW2) then I tend to waste a lot of time randomly running around exploring or reading all of the books and things like that. I won't do that just to make a game seem longer of course, but if the game is good then I find myself doing that anyway :-DI also will do all side quests (or at least all side quests that I find). I will try to collect things to make my weapons and armor, and stuff like that. I tend to try to do all of these things in games, although if it's something stupid like collecting all flags in Assassin's Creed then I will not bother. So far it sounds like all of the collecting things in TW2 will make sense and serve a useful purpose so I'm sure I will try to do all of those quests.Based on that playing style, I think I will definitely take longer than 24 hours on the game. I'm not going to keep track of how long it takes me, but for a game like this I think whether it feels short will depend more on if the story is satisfying. For example, to me Mass Effect 2 felt very short because the story didn't really go anywhere (just run around finding all companions and doing their personal missions, but the overall plot with the Reapers didn't really advance) so I felt like more things should have happened in the game. (I also cringed when one of the reviewers praised TW2's story for being as good as Mass Effect 2 because I already think TW1 was much better than ME2).As for replay value, I honestly don't know right now if I will replay TW2 right away so I only considered what my first play-through will be like when I decided to pre-order the game. If I'm completely satisfied with the choices I make in the first play-through, then I will probably be happy with the game and will feel weird replaying it so soon because I wouldn't want to overwrite my memory of the first play-through. On the other hand if I'm too damned curious to find out what other choices would lead to, then I will replay it to see what happens. That's something that I'm not really concerned about right now because I'll have to decide it after I finish the game which I haven't even started yet, so right now I'm excited to focus on my first play-through (what a long week this will be, waiting for the 17th XD).DevilsAdvocate said:
Yes, I always do that in RPG's :-D I run around town getting as many quests as I can, then I spend a few minutes looking at the mini-map and planning out the most efficient route to complete all of the quests.DevilsAdvocate said:
Im just going to say this Reviewers have a dead line to meet and a lot of times there reviewing more then one game for there next deadline so they are going to skip a bunch of stuff in a game and when it comes to any game I am my own reviewer I will read what they have to say but thats about it
I agree Seeker. However, I can't help but have high standards after playing TW1. It is an undeniably long and epic game, almost to the point of being exhaustive - if you do everything. When I finished it, I felt like I'd completed an epic novel or something. It was like no other game I've played. It seemed like a journey because I kept at it for nearly a month before I finally completed it. There is no other story-based RPG I've played that matched the same feeling I had when I finished The Witcher. So folks, I'm sorry for fretting. Just remember my expectations are sky high because CD red set them.
I see your point slimgrin and I do agree I'm spoiled too with TW1 and when playing other rpg just dint do it for me as TW1 did Don't get me wrong here I did enjoy the other rpg I played in case some of you are wondering And even Tom stated that there biggest game they have to compete with is TW1
And even Tom stated that there biggest game they have to compete with is TW1You guys are right, playing TW1 is like a curse and a blessing. So far, I can't find new games today that can match the excitement, enjoyment and intrigued i experienced while playing TW1.Note: I don't believe the "24hrs" thing said by the reviewer. Players have different ways of doing things.