Finished it (well, one of the 2 paths at any rate, plenty more hours to spend on it exploring the other branch(es) of the story) and … DAMN, it’s good
It just needs a little bit more polish (no pun) and a couple dubious design decisions to be reversed and it would be perfect IMHO. The following points are minor gripes by themselves which unfortunately have a disproportionate impact, since everything else is just so well done. To me, the rest of the game raises the bar so high, it makes those issues even more jarring.
Still, one hell of a good game, flaws and all and nothing a bit of further QA/polish could not solve easily.
In particular:
- give us a damn loot chest already. The most stupid, glaring design decision
Do yourself a favour and use the lower-weight for crafting items mod. Hell, if there’s a mod putting all weights at 0, I’d use it. I don’t want infinite inventory space on my character (or even in a chest) but fuck the current system.
- slow inventory tool-tips. Who the fuck thought waiting 5 seconds for the tool-tip of each and every single item was a good idea?
- in act 2, in the soldiers’ camp, half the time when you talk to somebody near a fire, the game moves you automatically INTO the fire. Fix that shit.
- you collect a lot of items marked as “junk” throughout the game, but there’s no “junk” filter. That, coupled with the weight limits means you end up having to go through your list of items every single goddam one by one to get rid of some stupid “ring” or “rope ladder” item you randomly collected.
- within a category (i.e. crafting, or armor or designs) the various items appear to be sorted at random. Going through a list of 20+ designs/recipes to see what you have/don’t have get tiresome really quickly. Give us sub-filters, or alphabetical sorting or something!
- your “quicklot” inventory doesn’t tell you how many items you have in the stack. You could have 10 bombs/traps or 1, and the only fucking way to find out is by dropping them back into your inventory
- In the English Gog version of the game the world map has got unreadeable names on it (i. non-latin alphabet). Do you want to try and place the ongoing narrative with the help of a map? Well, no. You can see the map but you cannot tell which country is which. However, the PDF map you get as a separate out of game item is just fine. Stuff like this scream “lack of polish/QA”
- finally, I get fairly regular BSOD events with my GTX460, might be solved with the beta nvidia drivers but they also BSOD my system. However, aware of how difficult it is to test every single possible harware configuration out there so I’ll just wait and hope it gets fixed driver/game-wise
And i wish people would stop being overly sensitive about spoilers that really aren’t.
“Geralt dies in the end” is a spoiler. There is a fight against something called Draug isn’t.
Fuck, it’s The Witcher. How can be a spoiler that Geralt fight a monster called Draug. Hell, how can be a spoiler that the protagonist fight against a monster in a fantasy action rpg. The name? It’s not important, it’s an invented name. It could be called Driog or Griod, or Drangir, it’s irrelevant.
Yep, multiple times from previous points earlier in the game.
Also, list of mods, some of them are the usual useless #### (Geralt with black hairs … whatever) but some should IMHO be considered essential (inventory, tool-tip and compass)
http://www.gog.com/en/forum/the_witcher_2/full_list_of_mods
HOLY SHIT chapter 2 is the most awesomesauce epic stuff I have played in forever…
I use them and have plenty of them even without making them
?? : )
It is so gloriously wonderful that I had to make some 1080p videos of the game:
It won’t look like that on consoles…
I know. That’s why I wouldn’t call them that. It’s just a pattern I’ve noticed in RPG threads:
“I got to [some section of the game] and finally met [some character you’ve been pursuing], but that battle with [character you didn’t know you’d be fighting yet] was really tough.”
…so what? It’s not a spoiler but it’s also pointless for a linear game. Everyone who’s past that part knows what you’ve been through and can automatically relate. Everyone who hasn’t made it there doesn’t know what you’re talking about. There’s no spoiler but there’s also no “discussion,” merely statements of how we all have played (or will play) the same part of a linear game.
I think I’ve ranted about this before. I just prefer to let the game play out on its own. I know I’m in the minority so now I’ll accept my beating quietly. :)
Pogo
1807
Tim’s right. Is the character someone that you encounter in a way that makes the possibility of future combat with them ambiguous? If so, name-dropping that character is a spoiler.
The game looks flat out amazing. Just the damn textures on the armor are jaw dropping.
In other news, my wife walked into the room during a sex cutscene. She made a wisecrack and forgot about it, but I have to admit I still feel awkward about goofy dialogue and cutscenes out of context (even if it has nothing to do with sex). I guess I still need to bring gaming out of the closet in my world.
The art direction and actual gfx are outstanding. I could take screenshots all day.
This is the first game where I enjoy drooling over people’s clothing : )
So much detail.
Name dropping about a fight with a specific character, who maybe is an ally and then in a surprising plot twist he is a traitor… then that name dropping is a spoiler, i agree. Because only saying that you fight random XYZ monster, that isn’t a spoiler. And specifically he was complaining that in that particular moment there isn’t an autosave, only that.
Razgon
1813
King Foltest (Hope it’s okay to mention him - he’s there within 2 seconds of the game) looks incredible… The armor he wears is insanely cool
Yeah, he might be the best NPC character model I’ve ever seen in an RPG.
(Because i am too lazy to do my own sshots, i took these ones from gaf)
http://h-3.abload.de/img/witcher22011-05-2119-5oezo.png
http://www.abload.de/img/witcher22011-05-2120-1teiu.jpg
http://www.abload.de/img/witcher22011-05-2121-3du4p.jpg
It looks even better in motion. The question is. Did they kill the god Sun and bind his spirit to the game or what?
Screw Zoltan and Dandelion, I’d love to have the bridge troll as a wandering buddy. Amazing model work on him. I absolutely love the Flotsam (or more accurately, Pontar Valley) forest.
Question: is there any way to “respec”? I think I made some mistakes…
Grrr, I’m getting the CRC error on this DLC. I installed it fine on my old PC but not this new one. I wonder if I can take the files and graft it into my game somehow.
They say we’ll have to wait for a patch to get it to download properly. I’m just about out of time for it, but I guess I can load an old save later.
AFAIK, there is no official and recurring way to respect.
There is an optional side-quest that lets you respec but it only kicks in close to the end and it has several non obvious twists which might invalidate it
rei
1819
It’s “only” DX9 too! This is the game DA2 wishes it would grow up to be.
You can download it from a torrent and drop it into the cooked pc folder and it’s ready to go, plus the DLC is completely free for game owners so there is nothing illegal about it.
