It does remain tight-lipped about a lot of stuff by modern standards, but considering what we used to put up with in terms of challenge and communication from games, The Witcher 2 is positively chatty. Anyone who could handle Demon’s Souls can handle this game, IMO.
It does remain tight-lipped about a lot of stuff by modern standards, but considering what we used to put up with in terms of challenge and communication from games, The Witcher 2 is positively chatty. Anyone who could handle Demon’s Souls can handle The Witcher 2, IMO.
Yeah you’re still right about the word “motivation.” I certainly didn’t care enough to go out for revenge or to move the story along. I just wanted Geralt to be able grab a beer with him, maybe get a tattoo, go whoring, etc.
Following the PA post / combat difficulty
It’s true, it does have the problem of “previous knowledge/experience doesn’t apply”. It doesn’t play like lots other popular action games (or rpgs). It’s an action system so the rpg gamers doesn’t have anything to fall back, and the action gamers, well, it’s action but it’s not an arcade button smasher, and it doesn’t use complex combos like DMC or other melee console games, it looks like it controls like Batman AA system at first but while the inspiration is there is like 10 times more difficult, it’s less “be awesome as Batman” and more “be awesome for yourself, if you want to live”. It’s maybe a bit like Ass Creed but with different controls and way different against groups of enemies.
To me the distinguishing element is that the enemies don’t take turns attacking you, they just come at you as a group. That in itself is enough to make it harder than nearly any other melee combat game on the market today.
That’s true, I also received the message when I defeated him with 2 pair.
"PC Games can be cantankerous, idiosyncratic, occasionally unrelenting, and unwilling to make concessions. I happen to like that kind of thing; that’s more or less my own philosophy. We are just… unreconstructed, is the word. If they’re serious about bringing this to consoles, the first hour of the game needs to go up on the lift. Those nines and tens it’s pulling now won’t survive contact with that audience. "
Umm concerning the difficulty curve and being well received by console gamers, Demon’s Souls and Super Meat Boy would like to have a word with you along with some old timers, Mega Man and Contra.
I would say a veteran gamer to pigheaded to turn the difficulty down to easy until he became more comfortable with the system.
-Tim
The missing extra for winning against gog monk will be fixed in patch. It is “just” a discount though, leads here
http://www.goodoldmonk.com/
Kalle
2029
I don’t mind the actual combat in the tutorial. Yes, it’s hard, but it’s not that bad. Where I was ready to punch a Polack in the face was the part where I had to run across the battlements with the dragon breathing fire on me. There was no indication on where I was safe from the fire and where I wasn’t, just a lot of trial and error and dying.
Sometimes it bugs me because it looks messy. The AI simply runs straight at you, sliding across each other without friction. In the few fighting games I’ve played, the enemies are arrayed in a nice group.
At least some (all?) enemies types stop swarming you after 3 or 4 guys. The extras sit in the back and wait. It’s fun to jump over and slash them.
That first dragon sequence would really have been a good time to very unsubtly point out the Quen sign.
They’ve got all the elements there to graft a real tutorial into the game for consoles. First make everyone play through the vignettes in order. Then cut out the big mixed groups in the first balista fight. Introduce enemy types one fight at a time – unarmored grunts, archers on the battlement, then a guy with a shield – with a paused tutorial window explaining each of them. They could suggest a different sign for each one.
The first difficult mixed battle should be the one after the dragon (I think) with the tall knight in the middle.
Yeah, that’s a good way to ease into it. Man, if I’d known about the uses of Axii the first time I hit a group with a shielded guy…
Easy/Normal could follow your template and then Hard/Insanity could be the original PC version template.
You know, I’m in chapter 2 and I still haven’t successfully used Axii. I tried it in the prologue but it didn’t seem to work. I should get back to that sign.
Lack of gameplay tutorials and/or a crap ton of unexplained abilities, features, enemy types, etc…available right out of the gate strikes me as typical European game design nowadays. It’s how things use to be. (It’s the difference between the start of Fallout 1 and Fallout 2) Basically the polar opposite of Japanese games where everything is explained in detail piecemeal and gradually introduced over time/multiple levels/etc…There is something refreshing about the trial by fire method. The STALKER series is the same way.
You have to hold the key until it takes. I think you need to make sure you’re close enough to an enemy that the normal targeting reticle is visible.
Jab
2037
I’m in chapter 1 and so far I’m not getting into the game. There are just a lot of little UI and design problems that are starting to add up. Such as not being able to see how many bombs you have on the quick menu, or how many potions or components you have on the alchemy screen.
Having to scroll Geralt’s item list at the same time I’m looking at the merchant’s to make sure I don’t have any duplicates seems arbitary to me.
I’ve also been having a strange bug that I lose all control over Geralt and cannot attack or use the quick menu, but I can move him around.
It’s refreshing but it doesn’t hurt me as a hardcore PC gamer for them to lead with a tutorial. I want other people to enjoy these games and find out what they’ve been missing. The other 98% of the game can be for me.
I thought of another thing that might have helped in the beginning: unlocking some of the early fights as separate challenges on the main menu like in Batman. I went straight to hard difficulty in Arkham Asylum and it was ten times as infuriating as TW2. But there I had limited options and just needed to practice. Geralt needs to make much more use of his tools (err, sorry Batman, that’s supposed to be your thing) so they should explain them first. It’s in the journal but they need to pause the game and spell it out. The initial fights are an exercise to try things out. Then people can do some homework outside of the game itself if they need more time.
Finished. The end was fine, not as good and satisfying as The Witcher 1 but few games reach that level. Lots of stuff promised for The Witcher 3, it’s less a standalone story and more “first part of a series”.
BTW, one more thought. The Witcher 1 was already a rpg a bit… strange, with few of the standard rpg conventions, it barely had any loot (weapons & armor), there was little in the way of exploration, the choice & consequence was interesting in the execution (delayed consequenses) but pretty sparse in quantity (few moments in the plot where you could chose and change the game, very few choices if any in most side quests), what i want to say, it was not a pure traditional rpg, or perhaps it was a reinvented rpg, it was kind of an action/adventure game within the structure of a rpg. The Witcher 2 continues that path, with a radically changed combat which could be confused as from an action game, and more cinematic feeling. So all together, i think genre wise, the game is an action/adventure/rpg thingie. A very good one, of course, it’s just an observation that even if it’s a loved series by the hardcore pc community, the games are not hardcore rpgs which can be enjoyed by few .
Which is funny, because thinking carefully, imo The Witcher 2 is the cinematic action/adventure/rpg mix game that Bioware wanted to make since Mass Effect 1 but still couldn’t get perfectly right. Somehow a newcomer beat them to the punch.
And the hardcore fans love Cd Projekt but when Bioware speaks of streamlining their games the fans shout about dumbing down the rpg, heh.
Yeah, it’s pretty clear that Dragon Age 2 was meant to be something like The Witcher 2, but fell incredibly short of the mark. CD Projekt RED really showed up the 800 pound gorillas with this one, I think.
