geggis
3261
I actually liked the rhythm combat, at least insofar as it gave me a sense of a witcher’s fighting prowess, but having to stare at the pointer in order to play properly was annoying. 2’s combat didn’t at all get that same feeling across; it just felt messy and cumbersome, at least early on.
The rythym combat grew on me in 1 and worked rather well given the constraints of the game.
Witcher 2’s combat is ok and might get more complex over time but mostly seems like use a magic sign then alternate light attacks with heavy attacks until your sign recharges. Just keep spamming 2-3 buttons. I am playing on one of the harder difficulties too.
Maybe it gets much more involved later in the game.
I probably wrote this elsewhere in this very topic, but I powered up magic in general and Igni specifically to deal with combat - turning Geralt into a walking flamethrower is kind of fun. That’s actually a viable tactic for getting through the Dark difficulty as well, I found.
What has to be grasped about Witcher 2 combat–and something they don’t explain/emphasize well enough is that in the game, any hits a badguy does to your back are +400% damage. Meaning, in combat if you jump in like it’s Assassin’s Creed or something and try to take on two or three at once, you’re probably going to die.
At least until you level up the skill that mitigates that flank/back damage, at least.
Ok so I pushed through my initial frustrations and I have really settled into a nice groove with this and fell in love again.
Installing a zero-weight mod for items helped tremendously and being more experimental in combat vastly improved my experience. I enjoy the combat now and love all the little narrative vignettes during side missions and how alive the world feels.
I do have a few nits that bother me. Looting everything not nailed down feels odd. Robbing every poor villager’s house blind is a big lump of ludonarrative dissonance. The QTEs haven’t aged well and too many of the female NPC models look like a 13 year old’s concept of a stripper.
They are minor though and easy to ignore. Overall I’m glad I pushed farther into this. The village of Flotsam has been quite a joy.
Wait, did it? I haven’t played the original in like 10 years but isn’t the beginning of that game several hours of an ugly swamp?
It’s a self contained episode that introduced you really well to the lore, style and mood of the game. I still think it’s the best chapter of that game.
Oh right, it starts at kaer morhen, didn’t it? I forgot about that.
I was thinking of the prologue section where Salamandra attacks the Witcher stronghold Kaer Morhen with some giant beast. That whole section was exhilarating and a fun way to learn the mechanics.
Witcher 2’s castle siege attemped the same thing but fell a little more flat for me with all of the QTEs and ballista training.
Witcher 2’s first village Flotsam is similar to the swamps from 1 in that they are backwoods rural spots.
Did you Google something that made you think you still needed to do this? I told you that it shouldn’t be required aside from some crafting options I don’t believe are important. I’m not 100% sure.
You should certainly investigate. Don’t continue doing it and then complain when there might not be any reason to aside from a compulsive disorder.
I remember Triss looking better in 2 than in 3 at least. It’s been a while.
Fair enough. There are some interesting things to find but the looting UI is fairly poor and not granular so I end up just grabbing everything since that is simpler. Unless I missed it I dont think I can grab just a book to read without taking everything else in the the container. Part my issue and part design.
Triss’ design is great and more realistic. At least she doesn’t look like she works at Ye Olde Hooters.
I’ve still continued to play this. I have a lot of thoughts, but I’ll save them for later.
The Eternal Battle in Chapter 2, while brilliant narrative-wise was a huge frustration mechanics-wise. The Draug boss at the end was a nightmare until I finally figured out a strategy (and got lucky) to tackle him.
I chose Iorveth’s (Iorweth’s) path in Chapter 2 and I am so glad that I did (despite the frustrations navigating Vergen) since Iorveth is single-handedly the most interesting and complicated character in the game (with an outstanding voice actor). I did some research and am quite depressed that he doesn’t really make an appearance in the Witcher 3. Iorveth is probably the reason that I have kept playing the Witcher 2 despite not being as absorbed or convinced as I was in Witcher 1.
The characters are just as good in The Witcher 3, but most of the favorites from 2 have very small roles. It’s unfortunate.
