Aw blerg. I still have starting armor but I think I sold off the swords when I found better ones.
hepcat
2704
I was hoping there was some limitation on the effectiveness of mounted combat. Last night I realized there was very little I couldn’t kill in one stroke while on my trusty steed. However, I’m only in the starting area still.
Dude, the Souls games exist. Not everything is Assassin’s Creed. I’ve said over and over this doesn’t have to be as good as Souls, but it’s undeniably janky. Yes, there is strategy and it’s good that you die to packs of monsters. The smiley was because “can’t design for shit” is a bit of hyperbole. It just sticks out when their writing and characters are so brilliant.
I don’t want Roach to be scared.
Yes, this is part of the Kotaku tips everyone should probably read. Seems to be the only major gotcha. I might just leave it at the shopkeeper for now if he’s already jacked the price up. Damn Nilfgaard-loving dwarves.
The other gotcha is that Witcher 2 save option, but who would mess that up??
One thing that I can certainly say about combat in the Witcher games is that CDPR always tried to make it unique. And I learned to appreciate it for that.
One side effect of that is the way I tend to suck at combat in Witcher games when I start playing. I’m not strange to combat in games - I can get some Platinums in Bayonetta and A’s in DmC, I could certainly hold my own in Darksiders 1 and 2, and it didn’t take long for me to get “in the flow” of Batman Arkham and Shadow of Mordor and get multipliers in the several dozens. But in Witcher 2, it took me hours to get a hold on its combat (enough to appreciate it despite its flaws), and I think it’s true of Witcher 1 as well.
Witcher 3 (much like other Witcher games) has its own rhythm, its own flow. It has very noticeable influences from other games (Souls games in the way backstep/dodge works, Darksiders in the tempo of combat, Batman Arkham in the way you go from one enemy to another) but it is its own thing. It takes a good while to get into this flow because it’s quite different from everything else out there, but once you get into it, you tend to have a great time.
Still in Witcher 2, the breakthrough moment I had with it, combat wise, was
Witcher 2 spoiler
by the end of Iorveth’s path, when you’re helping to defend Vergen from Henselt’s invading army.
That’s the moment where it clicked for me, and I truly enjoyed it. I can see the same thing happening with Witcher 3 - though, coming from a recent playthrough of Witcher 2, I already like Witcher 3 combat a whole lot more than I did Witcher 1 or 2. I can definitely see it growing on me, and I’ll try my best to appreciate it for what it is, rather than by what it is not.
Yeah, it sucks. That kind of thing should really have a warning like Geralt muttering to himself (you) that he may want to keep it for later or something before selling it.
The good news is that if you sold it, it should still be in the merchant’s store. The bad news is that if you broke it down, you’re SOL.
hepcat
2709
Can’t you just craft another? Or does the game not include crafting recipes for starting equipment?
OMG. “Repair All” repairs everything in your inventory that can be repaired - not just the stuff you have equipped.
Unless you really want EVERYTHING repaired, don’t Repair All. It’s a waste of money.
I’ve sunk hours into the game and still picking up flowers and anything else I find/kill in the forest. Am I doing something wrong?
I rode into a pack of ghouls and Roach threw me. That horse is a jerk.
To be fair, the sign Geralt uses the most in the books is Axii, and in nearly all of them, he uses it to calm Roach, so the game is accurate. ;)
I’m pretty sure you can use Axii on Roach while mounted in game. Left trigger.
Yes you can, with right trigger, I think. I haven’t tried much yet, as I prefer to fight on foot, though. :-)
I would love a first person pov option either via a mod or update. I’d love to use that perspective while wandering and walking through towns - really add to the immersion. In combat, I’d switch back to 3rd person. Maybe when drawing a weapon, the camera could automatically switch to 3rd person, but otherwise I’d most likely stick to 1st person. Hopefully something like this will come along…
Probably not, unfortunately. They made it so you only need materials to craft potions the first time. So you don’t need 99 of every herb. But you will continue to acquire recipes throughout the game, and those might need common flowers. It’s enough to make me vacuum everything up.
Someone on reddit suggested knocking out some of the recipes at the herbalist that you are close to achieving by buying the last few materials needed, then getting rid of some of those herbs. I’m going to look into this tonight.
I really wish they had streamlined the looting. We don’t need 17 types of food. This is fundamentally TW2 in an open world though, so we inherit some of its flaws.
Same damn innards blob of loot from every enemy too. That has been there since NWN.
This feels like a dumb question, but is there a way to cook meat? I’m running around like a (literally) bloody savage, noshing on raw meat and liver. It’s no wonder the peasants won’t talk to me.
That’s the end of chapter 2! You’re asking a lot from new players. Even if it has a rhythm you can get used to, it’s still clunky.
I think the enjoyment curve should be easier in TW3. They did a good job with the starting area too. I suspect for a lot of people the combat will start to click by the end of that area.
I might be wrong. At the very least, they don’t have to get past that dragon fire or the backstab damage modifier from TW2.
I’m not asking anything from new players - I’m just saying what my experience was like. It could be that someone else there feels the same way, and uses that similarity as an incentive to stick with the game, or to appreciate its combat more, or to see it under a new light. That’s all.
Also, I agree it’s clunky. Part of that comes from its uniqueness, and part of that comes from flaws in the implementation. There are plenty of flaws in Witcher 2, and I could list most of them, and say why they’re flaws, but it’s not the point here. It doesn’t help me to enjoy the game, and since I’m not a critic or developer, it gives little (if any) benefit.
The thing is, I found that there’s much more enjoyment to be had when you accept games for what they are - warts and all - than when you judge them for what they’re not, or what they failed to be. Because of that, I enjoyed many games that had huge flaws, and there are games I truly love despite their many flaws. I’m not blind to them, but I take them in context. That’s all.
I understand. I just like having a discussion. It doesn’t affect my enjoyment.
I also think it’s nice to stay in tune with things that new players will struggle with. I like to preach about my favorite games, but I think it’s best to set players’ expectations about the challenges they will face.
