I am still in Chapter 1 but I think I am finally getting my groove with the way combat works. It’s quite a fluid system once you understand blocking, rolls, and when to use the signs. Really enjoying this game. Every bit as good if not better than The Witcher 1.
rei
1742
As much as I loved the characters and voice acting of DA2, I’m utterly amazed at how Witcher 2 is everything that DA2 could not be…nuanced story, characters, super detailed non-recycled dungeons, the town/city etc.
Another nitpicking: they could have put at least a general place to search for the eggs/nests of the critters you have to kill in chapter 1. I needed a good amount of searching in the entire forest to find them (and more whet at first you don’t know what the nest and the egg looks like).
I liked that, actually. Makes you go hunt for them yourself, without having some NPC spell it out for you in precise detail.
Argh! I completed the Endregas quest and was deep in the Claws of Madness when I died. The game offered to reload the last save… which was in town an hour before. sad face
Be warned, this game does not autosave much at all out in the wild (I thought it had autosaved when I entered the Claws of Madness location). I think I’ve gotten too used to savepoints.
Now I need to go find those Endregas again. When I get more time to play… Le sigh.
Wendelius
I think it saves after you complete a quest or in special, scripted moments.
While i hate games holding my hand too much, i think something in the middle would be the correct choice. I don’t want to follow a magical arrow to my objective, but at least they could have mentioned the general area (for example “northwest of forest” or “in the swamp at the SE”) and a drawing of the objects to search for would be a nice idea, because the forest is very lush and it’s hard to search for objects.
In other news, i just completed the Karyan boss. I needed 9 tries. The problem with this type of fights are they are basically all about trial and error. Once you know what to do it isn’t very hard, but you need to die at least once in each “phase” of the fight to know what is the correct choice in each one.
I finally got the time to get around the first town a bit and really enjoying everything so far. Got some nice cash from arm wrestling and fist fighting so could craft some swords, then just wandered a bit getting my bearings and enjoying the atmosphere.
Minor nitpicks aside, I’m really having a great time and wish I had more time to play it.
Is this a section where the regular saves don’t work? I’ve gotten so used to saving every few minutes in every game that allows it and don’t recall a time when I relied on autosaves. “Save often” is sort of a staple slogan for any game, let alone just RPGs.
It might save on quest completion. But while I got the quest step complete notice, I hadn’t gone back to the village for the reward. I simply went on to the Claws of Madness location.
Oh they do. And I’ve been playing games since the early 80ies. I still remember Al Lowe telling me to Save Often in the first Larry game.
This is a case of me getting caught up in the game and forgetting to hit F5 once every 15 minutes. And then, when I died, I realised the game hadn’t autosaved a single time for an hour.
So yes, it’s a lesson I knew already and forgot because the game is too good (I kinda like that I was so involved I didn’t think about saving). I wasn’t blaming the game. But I thought I would pass on a warning.
Wendelius
Lethoooooo!!!
Sigh, i need tactics for his fight.
Razgon
1752
A bit annoying that the launcher never can connect, and that the thewitcher.com website constantly is down.
edit: and now, of course both works :-D
Kalle
1753
Potions before you get to the fight. Quen should be up all the time. Toss throwing knives if you have them, otherwise just dodge his strikes and chip away at his health. It’s going to take a while but quen and a swallow potion should let you survive it.
Are you guys playing with mouse smoothness on or off? And what about bloom? The bloom question is 'cause although I don’t notice any real fps drop on having it enabled it seems a bit excessive at times and the games becomes too bright.
I really wish there was a “jogging” speed for Geralt, my game runs smoothly but for some reason if I keep running enabled I seem to stumble into every possible object/npc/whatever and walking everywhere takes forever. Not that the scenery isn’t pleasant, it’s one of the few games I spend lots of time just gazing at the scenery.
I did it with 3 potions + sharpening stone for sword + yrden when he had the quen shield up.
Mouse smoothness off, like in other games, and bloom on. About bloom, i usually put it of in other videogames but in this one i kind of like it, it goes well with the colorful renaissance fantasy style.
One more thought. I just finished Act I, and overall, there isn’t a lot of combat in the game. Doing a gross estimation, about three times less than in The Witcher 1, which i played a few weeks ago. In particular, there isn’t a lot of random of combat encounters in the wild, the forest is mostly empty and the spawn of new critters is slow, the combat comes mainly in specific quests and specific scripted moments. In other words, when it’s related to the plot and it’s needed as a climax of the quest.
It’s a interesting change of combat heavy rpg games like The Witcher I and Dragon Age, with a great duration but full of random encounters, quests padded in length with combat at every step, etc.
It also makes sense given the new lethality of combat. It also emphasizes the need of preparation for the fight, as if you were fighting every 2 minutes it would be too tiring to do the preparations (bombs, traps, oils, potions).
Also, it partially explains the much shorter length of The Witcher 2. For what i am reading, the length is about 26-30 hours, and yes it’s clearly shorter but if we take in account the lack of generic fedex quests, the reduced backtracking in comparison with W1, the lack of loading screens and the general sparseness with combat, it’s not shorter by as much as apppears at first.
There is just no filler in this game. I liked Dragon Age 1 but there was so much combat filler I had to switch to easy just to get through it how boring it became…
here, the balance seems perfect so far (halfway through second act).
Good catch. That is what makes the Witcher series so unique for me. The hero’s strength does not depend on the player’s lightning reflex nor number-crunching character build, but rather preparation and planning. The knowledge of enemy through investigation, the execution through proper crafting/gathering. Witcher is essentially Batman in the RPG gerne.
And in this regard, I think Witcher 2 is actually a step backward. The new combat system tries too hard to be actiony and ends up being very mediocre, shallow and repetitive. The encounters tries too hard to be God of War alike, they end up being gimmick fights (Chapter 1 bosses) or button-smashing fights (Chapter 2/3 bosses). And most of them also do not give the player opportunity to potion up.
Still, Witcher 2 is still head and shoulder above other games.
I agree the game have problems with difficulty balance and gimmicky fight in bosses and qtes in general, but i don’t agree it’s a step backward. It as great leap forwards, better than other more pure action games i tried.
