In this case easy it’s too easy. There is a definitive big gap between easy and normal. Maybe the balance it better in a patch.
Does not follow since I found The Witcher on normal pretty easy with a couple of exceptions.
I played it on hard without much difficultly (other then those swamp plants).
The new poker dice game is worse than the original. The 2 of 3 system of W1 was better, it gave more emotion to the game, the new camera is too near of the ground, it affects visibility, and the dice itself while “cool” it’s hard to read.
Agreed. The simple poker dice game of the original was fun to play. In fact, I taught my kids how to play it using real dice and they spent a good few weeks challenging each other to random games.
I think it mostly depends on how much a person “gets” the new combat dynamics. I’ve heard reports from people stopping mid-game, going back to the Prologue, trying to fight and going “Hmm, it’s much easier now, wonder why I had problems with it when I started”.
Personally, I died only 2 times - once near the ballista (got careless), once fighting the young baron. And I didn’t use potions (I am always like that with consumables) but did use signs, traps and bombs. And I am not really that good with twitch based games, although IMO TW2 is not that much twitch based.
It’s a much more dynamic system than in the original and as a level 1 witcher you don’t have that many tools at your disposal, so you have to move and roll a lot. Using Alt to lock onto the target helps. Keep the “defense” sign on as much as possible - it allows you to ignore other opponents for a short while and finish off one of them quickly.
And remember that the combat chains are still there. Similar to the original, if you keep the tempo (by clicking not too fast, not too slow), you can kill a single target very easily, at least the regular grunts (the shield dudes and knights can block and interrupt your chain). Often all you need to kill a single enemy is to block his attack (just hold E before he attacks) and then keep left clicking him. Just watch Geralt’s animations and click at the end of the previous attack.
BTW at some point in the Prologue you find a halberd. It has some impressive damage (comparing to the starter sword) and reach. Thanks to the reach, fighting with it makes a lot of fights trivial but I didn’t use it that much as I think halberds are not approved by the witchers’ code. :)
After the prologue, things get more fun and managable as you get more stuff to work with - daggers, more bombs, more traps. All of that stuff also helps to deal with full inventory - just buy a diagram to craft the items you are planning to use often and convert all that heavy ore and timber into something lighter and more useful. :)
Another hint for the people they are finding the combat hard. Use magic signs! The energy meter refills much faster than in the first game, so use them. And also unlike the first game, Quen, Yrden and Axia are more useful. Axia convert an enemy into your ally, so one of these hard 1 vs 3 combats are transformed to 2 vs 2. Yrden damages and stops briefly enemy groups, nice to combo with Axia as Axia needs a few seconds charging, and Quen is very useful from the first moment as it protects you from a % of damage. Don’t hoard items, use those traps and bombs against the groups of enemies.
This so much. I LOVED dice game in TW1 EE. Played with everyone, took Foltest for some 5000 orens too.
But here it SUCKS. Only one round, weird controls, not as easily readable number, worse camera, and to top it off, it sucks even more on controller.
Shame, really. In grand scheme of things it is no big deal, but still.
Quen is 100% protection (at least on Hard), but every hit kills time on the duration meter. Otherwise it stays up for about 45 seconds or so. So if you get mugged in a corner it will still fall quickly. But on hard, if you haven’t used a Swallow to get battle regen, it’s difficult to last against multiple opponent battles when it only takes a few swipes to kill you.
Man, what? The dice game in TW1 was awful - completely rigged against the player.
Kurina
1591
Goodness, couldn’t put this down until 4 am this morning.
I have to agree, Quen is incredibly useful and should not be ignored. I was ripped to shreds consistently last night by one boss type creature in particular, and I was getting absolutely nowhere. I eventually tried only Quen, and it was saving me from those fatal blows and allowing me to do what I needed. I remember never using this in the first game, but last night I realized I should never be without it.
For me, I find the combat interesting. It is very difficult in the prologue and first chapter, but I believe much of it is simply having to learn to use resources better. It feels like it is teaching me to be a better Witcher, and it is clearly making a difference. My survivability is increasing as I go, and not due to skills as I only have the training tree completed and two into Swordsmanship that are fairly average (trying to get to the AoE skill!).
Frustrating as heck sometimes, but the payoff seems worth it.
My major complaint right now is I cannot seem to find an easier way to view creature information without going into meditation, where it is listed under character and then attributes. Looking at information through the journal menu (J) is nothing more than brief descriptions. Am I missing something?
Regarding the dice game, I keep randomly bouncing them out of the box :(
Nope. In the original version, it was the other way: the odds were fair, the AI was awful and you won easily most of the times.
In the enhanced version, the AI version was improved (same level as a human, almost), and the odds were fair. I know because i was playing it a few weeks ago.
Oh, and maybe the Witcher 2 is just a very decent, glossy 2011 version of the same old RPG tropes, but it really does seem to have the potential to be a peerless game of this generation. Even weirder is that it seems to capture the Half-Life-y/Mass Effect-y UI thing that Dragon Age 2 tried and failed at so badly by comparison. At this point at least (in the dungeon) everything in every way is superior in Witcher 2 compared to Dragon Age 2.
Not according to The Witcher Wiki:
This may be a ‘game of chance’ in theory, but in reality some players are inherently ‘luckier’ than others, including yourself. What this means is that as Geralt moves on to progressively more advanced players, the system that calculates the dice values is modified to favour the NPC, with the NPC having a greater probability of getting a better hand than the player. At higher levels this can be particularly frustrating, with Geralt’s opponent easily cranking out great hands with each throw when he himself has trouble getting three-of-a-kind.
There’s also the fact that Geralt’s at an inherent disadvantage having to always go first.
inkai
1595
If it’s still with book reading I’d suggest that, as that appeared in your journal as well if you’d read a book on certain enemies.
When I got my stuff back the armour upgrade was no longer attached to my jacket but it was in my inventory.
I’m just starting Chapter 1 but it’s fantastic so far, and I can’t get over how much stuff you get in the Premium edition box - it’s easily as good as any collector’s edition I’ve got in the last 10 years.
No, i also thought about that, so i searched on my inventory, but the armor parts weren’t in any category. Maybe the parts you saw were some you gained as loot without noticing?
Could be, but I wasn’t too loot-crazed when I was escaping the dungeon.
A question. Do you obtain a new quest entry for every paper in the board near the tavern? Or not?
Don’t forget to save often in this game. I’ve had to recalibrate my quicksave habit. In open world games I do it frequently without thinking, but in modern linear games I’m used to having an autosave before just about every significant failure point. That’s not always the case here.
