One of their many writing achievements is this doesn’t feel cheap or exploitative. Contrast with the two unlikeable assholes in Far Cry 4, where some writer probably thought he was being edgy and dark to present a no-win situation. The characters in TW2 are merely real, complicated people, though I didn’t fully realize what CDPR was doing until TW3.
I don’t want to spoil a character reveal in The Witcher 3, but there’s a great line that puts the Scoia’tael conflict into perspective.
I think it helps that Geralt is such a well-defined character with his own philosophy. I’m reading the first novel (The Blood of Elves) right now, and at one point he explains to Ciri that neutrality isn’t about indifference, it’s about eliminating hatred from your heart. I think that’s a perfect encapsulation of where Geralt’s coming from in these games.
Incidentally, the games give you enough to go on, for sure, and Geralt’s amnesia is a helpful excuse for why he doesn’t know any more than you do, but I highly recommend reading the books if you’re enjoying the games because they are drawing from them wholesale. About half of the people I’m running into in Roche’s version of Chapter 2 are straight out of Blood of Elves and there’s dialogue that directly references events in that book. I imagine as I move into the second and third books (which were not translated or available in the US when I was playing the first game) it will become clear that they’ve referenced a lot of that stuff as well. And then I’ll have to decide if I’m willing to trust a fan translation for books 4 and 5…
tryte
3223
Interesting, I of course did this in Mass Effect as well, but not with any sort of condemnation about how others chose to play. I think because these experiences are so distilled from a role-playing perspective, you’re limited in expressing yourself in any capacity beyond the choices you make. MY Shepard is loyal to crew but takes no prisoners out in the field; my Geralt supports non-humans no matter the consequences.
Anyway, I logged back in and found myself where I had left off, sitting across from Roche at his desk, staring him down. While I very much empathize with Iorveth and the non-humans plight, from a story perspective I’m invested in the Kings and clearing my name, so I decided to trust Roche. Any doubt I had was quickly erased when he detailed his plan; I was quite pleased with his chosen direction.
Aside from running into the dragon-slaying woman Iorveth was intending to crown (that was her, wasn’t it?) I feel pretty good about this decision. If I had time I’d have accepted Iorveth’s offer just to see what happens next, but I’ll have to save that for another day.
Finished Chapter 2 (Roche version) a few minutes ago. There are some awesome things done with monsters and magic in that chapter, one easy to miss sidequest with an amazing payoff, a Wolfenstein reference of all things, and oof, if you thought the major choice of Chapter 1 was hard…
And that’s the game. 37 hours in, all told. Finished every sidequest except one where I’d missed a necessary ingredient and couldn’t go back. Also did a take two on the last few quests and epilogue to get a few easy achievements. (I definitely made the correct choice the first time around, as satisfying as the revenge that was obtained in the other branch was.) I will probably go back and see chapters 2 and 3 from the Iorveth side one of these days but that’d be too much replay too soon, I think. I did deliberately save right before that particular choice so I could at least skip the prologue and Chapter 1 again.
I really enjoyed the writing, most of the voice acting, the worldbuilding, and most of the quest design in this game. I do hope they got someone better to voice Triss for Witcher 3, but that, my initial difficulties with the combat system, and their use of an encumbrance system (which I just modded out entirely midway through Chapter 1) are my only real complaints. I’d also like to take a moment to appreciate it for being reasonably meaty (and having plenty of replay value) while not dragging on forever. If more RPGs were around this length I would have a lot more finished RPGs under my belt.
Of course, Witcher 3 is apparently a billion times longer. Oh well.
Midway through TW3, I have to say I agree with you about the length. Triss is the same voice actress but she sounded rougher this time around. Not sure why.
I highly recommend the alternate chapter 2 over most of the bland games out there you could be playing instead, but yeah, wait a few months at least.
I fired it up for the first time on Xbox One. It was a free game given through Gold, and now backwards compatible.
First impression: Oh my god, that intro was amazing. The assassin on the ship.
And then I started a tutorial. After teaching me the basics, I started real combat. I killed the first guy without using any traps or bombs, just spammed him with fast attacks. Then the arena spawns a second guy. He’s blocking all my fast attacks, so I start watching for the reposte icon, and do a couple of those. And then someone spawns in behind me and kills me in one blow.
Does the game let me try again? Since it’s a combat tutorial arena? No. It says, tutorial is over, we recommend Easy difficulty for you.
Facepalm. What a terrible setup for a tutorial.
And I have to say, the controls are a lot more unweildy compared to Witcher 3. You have to your left thumb on the right thumbstick to select your sign or bomb or trap or to meditate, because you need the right thumb to actually press A on the controller to select those things. Who thought that was a good way to setup a quick-menu? It’s so bonkers.
I’m really impressed by how good the game looks though. Obviously it’s not as good-looking as Witcher 3, but it’s not a huge downgrade either.
The tutorial was added after the release of the game, so before the start of the game was even rougher, you only had onscreen tutorial tips to know how to play.
habibi
3229
Hmm, I was just playing it for the first time on the PC yesterday and you are practically invincible in the tutorial. I was hit many times because I was playing on the Xbox 360 controller and was not good at aiming and moving around. I didn’t die at all in the arena. That’s pretty strange to read about your different experience in Xbox One.
As for your second comment - you just need to do a LT (Left button on the side of the controller) to bring up a radial menu to select your bomb of trap and then press B to release. Surely it can’t be any different?
Yeah, it’s the Left Button, LB, to bring up the radial menu. Then you have to select what you want to select using the right thumbstick, keep the thumbstick in that position as you press A. So if you move the right thumbstick using your right thumb (like usual), and then try to press A, the right thumbstick moves back to the center, and in the center of the radial menu is meditate. So if you want to select bombs or knives or traps, or Axii or Quen, etc. Anything but meditate, you have to hold the right thumbstick in the right position, and press A at the same time to select the thing you want to select. The only way I could figure out of doing that is to use my left thumb over on the right thumbstick, and then use my right thumb to press A. Basically, it’s almost impossible. So yeah, maybe I’m missing an easier way of doing it.
habibi
3231
Can’t you select using the Left Thumb stick? I seem to remember doing it that way but I’m not 100% sure. I’ll check it when I’m back to the PC, unfortunately in the next 2 days as I’m travelling. Hopefully some nice gent will be able to share how they do it.
Yes you can.
I tried it on XOne last weekend and oh boy did the controls feel clunky. I turned combat down to easy after getting killed x times in a row storming the castle in the prologue. But that still doesn’t fix the imprecise movement and controls (using a gamepad on the XOne here). Easy keeps me alive, but it doesn’t really improve the combat.
Maybe this played great on PC, but the console version does not feel good.
geggis
3233
What’s folks’ thoughts on the Full Combat Rebalance 2 mod? Thinking about starting TW2 or State of Decay and saw this mentioned on the PC Gaming Wiki along with a bunch of other mods. Any essential stuff?
I used it for my playthrough and it helped dramatically. FWIW. I do not care for Witcher 2’s default combat.
Daagar
3235
So, I want to get through this so I can finally dive in to W3. I know there is a plot choice between two characters. I’m 99% sure I don’t have the patience to play through both as the goal is to get to W3. Is there a non-spoilery way to determine which to play and which to read about later? Is one going to be the ‘right’ choice for continuity with W3? I have a slight completionist side of me, which directly conflicts with my slacker side, so I end up agonizing over crap like this rather than just playing.
I’d say take the Iorveth path. For me it was the most interesting, and there’s a character in that path that plays a big part in Witcher 3 - Philippa Eilhart - so I think that would be the best one as far as W3 is concerned.
TW3 is written in a way that is compatible with both paths, the differences between them are not really referenced. I would also go with Iorveth, eventhough Roche was fun, Iorveth has more interesting and also funny path.
Daagar
3238
Huzzah, two replies and both in agreement with each other! Done. Thanks!
Roche won’t mind if you leave him. He’ll be fine.
Thanks for bringing this up. You’ve inspired me to re-install Witcher 2 and give the tutorial another try.
Remember: Even though it looks like an arena and it looks like they’ll give you as many chances as you want, they only give you once shot at it. Once you get defeated, you have to go through the portal and start the main story. Or you can just stay in the empty arena and stare at it. I suppose you do have that choice.
