Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Mindmaker]

And being stuck in an animation for a game that makes sure you require reaction is really counterproductive. Which is why the blocking was horrible in this game.

Not quite.
The fast attacks allow you to roll/block pretty much instantly, while the strong attacks are better used with care and when you know you can get away with them.
I like this sort of tactical and realistic combat.

Well, I'll make sure to post in here, if I encounter anything unusual.

Also, that video that Kael(?) posted was great. It's fun how much you can rage at a game and blame the developers, when you fail to understand the game mechanics, don't use all the tools at your disposal and refuse to change your approach, if it's not working.
I managed this scene on my first try at hard difficulty.

[Mindmaker]

Actually had a lockup during the prologue.
The whole sneaking was a bit annoying and then my character automatically pushed himself against a wall, disallowing me any other movement other than walking straight.
Worked fine otherwise and it isn't a sneaking game anyway.

After seeing those cutscenes, I really want to read a witcher comic.

[kcwong]

And being stuck in an animation for a game that makes sure you require reaction is really counterproductive. Which is why the blocking was horrible in this game.

Actually I think it's fine. When your arms were dragged away by swinging your sword, it's realistic that you cannot put the sword back up for a block immediately.

There's one bug though, that if you were hit while you're throwing a dagger/bomb, you may get stuck until you get hit again. Before you get hit again you will not be able to attack at all, and may even unable to change your view angle. If you have Quen up you will have to wait for it to expire first.

The whole sneaking was a bit annoying and then my character automatically pushed himself against a wall, disallowing me any other movement other than walking straight.
Worked fine otherwise and it isn't a sneaking game anyway.

After seeing those cutscenes, I really want to read a witcher comic.

I don't like the sneaking game either... but there's only a few of them in the whole game, and you can either just kill everything in sight or fail without real consequences. If you want to walk straight you can pull out your weapon. That'll force you out of sneaking mode.

[Il Palazzo]

After seeing those cutscenes, I really want to read a witcher comic.

Are you aware that there already exists a comic book adaptation?(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_witcher#Comic_books)
It might dissapoint you, however, as the art by Polch(he also drew Funky Koval, among others) is kinda crude by today's standards. I still find it great, but did I grow up on these kind of old-school comic books, so I have to admit that I might be biased.

Spoiler: check out the hairdo (click to show/hide)

Also, the story, written by Sapkowski & Parowski while the books themselves were still unfinished, deviates at times from the later established canon.

[Yodamaster]

Actually had a lockup during the prologue.
The whole sneaking was a bit annoying and then my character automatically pushed himself against a wall, disallowing me any other movement other than walking straight.
Worked fine otherwise and it isn't a sneaking game anyway.

Oh I screwed up that impossible sneaking section anyway and just started beating the crap out of everyone.

[Mindmaker]

I don't like the sneaking game either... but there's only a few of them in the whole game, and you can either just kill everything in sight or fail without real consequences. If you want to walk straight you can pull out your weapon. That'll force you out of sneaking mode.

Yeah, I figured I could simply run around and beat everyone up, but I want to play it as intended and the way I see my character.
Thanks for the tip with the weapon though.

Are you aware that there already exists a comic book adaptation?(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_witcher#Comic_books)
It might dissapoint you, however, as the art by Polch(he also drew Funky Koval, among others) is kinda crude by today's standards. I still find it great, but did I grow up on these kind of old-school comic books, so I have to admit that I might be biased.

Spoiler: check out the hairdo (click to show/hide)

Also, the story, written by Sapkowski & Parowski while the books themselves were still unfinished, deviates at times from the later established canon.

It's less about the comics, but more about the style they used. A stylized cel shading look, in contrast to the cutscenes that looked like paintings in the first part.
Skip to minute 5 and you'll know what I mean. I'm a nut for this sort of thing.

[Soulwynd]

Not quite.
The fast attacks allow you to roll/block pretty much instantly

Nooooooooooooooot really... Not even close... Not even close by a second...

Unless they fixed it.

It you try to block while he's doing anything other than standing like a douche, he never blocks. He doesn't block after finishing whatever he was doing, he just never blocks... And he still never blocks if you try blocking 0.5-1 second after he's done what whatever he was doing. You have to stand there, for half a second, and then press block. Holding block before doesn't work. If you time it one tenth of a second wrong, it doesn't work, not even if you hold block, he wont block when he finally can block.

Actually I think it's fine. When your arms were dragged away by swinging your sword, it's realistic that you cannot put the sword back up for a block immediately.

You've never fought with a sword, have you? After 7 years of experience going to dojos, I can honestly tell you we don't get stuck in animations irl nor we go around spinning like douches who can't defend themselves after an attack.

Honestly, to be blunt and please don't be offended, but you guys are weird if you like it the way it is. It's purely my opinion, but it's not realistic, it's not gamey, it's simply broken controls. It could have been a lot better. It could have been enjoyable. It's actually fun at first but it's very very frustrating as you go on playing and things get very reaction-y, where you have to instantly switch from attack to defense back and forth and it simply doesn't work. I uninstalled this crappy game at the second chapter.

[Mindmaker]

Not quite.
The fast attacks allow you to roll/block pretty much instantly

Nooooooooooooooot really... Not even close... Not even close by a second...

Unless they fixed it.

It you try to block while he's doing anything other than standing like a douche, he never blocks. He doesn't block after finishing whatever he was doing, he just never blocks... And he still never blocks if you try blocking 0.5-1 second after he's done what whatever he was doing. You have to stand there, for half a second, and then press block. Holding block before doesn't work. If you time it one tenth of a second wrong, it doesn't work, not even if you hold block, he wont block when he finally can block.

I don't know what to say. It works for me.
But I usally only block when my attack gets parried. In most other situations I roll.

Actually I think it's fine. When your arms were dragged away by swinging your sword, it's realistic that you cannot put the sword back up for a block immediately.

You've never fought with a sword, have you? After 7 years of experience going to dojos, I can honestly tell you we don't get stuck in animations irl nor we go around spinning like douches who can't defend themselves after an attack.

Well, I assume you use a lighter/shorter sword.

[dogstile]

Actually, swords for the most part are pretty damn light. The dudes clearly not using a no-dachi so I see no reason why he wouldn't be able to block, especially seeing as he knows how to use a sword

[Mindmaker]

Biggest flaw in the game:
No storage system. I'm crestfallen, since I simply love hoarding stuff.

Also, I still have to figure out how to use Axii effectively. It really takes a long time to channel.

[Rakonas]

Actually, swords for the most part are pretty damn light. The dudes clearly not using a no-dachi so I see no reason why he wouldn't be able to block, especially seeing as he knows how to use a sword

Yeah, most swords are perfectly manageable and balanced exactly so that you can block with them. I'd expect a mutant using swords all his life to have no problem. Personally I find the witcher 2 to be a massive step backwards and can't stand it after a couple chapters.

[Ephemeriis]

I'm not sure if there's a problem with certain hardware, or if other people are just lucky, or playing differently, or what.

There seem to be two vastly differing opinions on every forum I've looked at for this game.  Either the controls work more-or-less flawlessly, or they're unresponsive.

My own experience was that they were very unresponsive.  I'd hit -block-, with plenty of endurance, and nothing would happen.  I'd hit -roll- to get out of the way, and nothing would happen.  I'd hit -attack- because there was a good opening, and Geralt would hesitate a moment before swinging, and I'd miss the opening.  I'd try to take a single step forward to loot something, and wind up taking several steps and walking right past the item.  I'd take a step towards a door to open it, and wind up pressing my face against it with the camera in such a position that I had to actually take several steps backwards and try it again.  I'd try to get close enough to a trap to disarm it, and wind up stepping on the thing instead.

It happened all the time.  Became very frustrating by the end of the game.  I just stopped trying to pick up loot after a while, and gave up on avoiding traps.  Stopped trying to be at all fancy in combat and just set the difficulty low enough that I couldn't die.  Very unsatisfying.

Other complaints:

Storage took a step backwards.  No stash of any kind, and the inventory was harder to work with than in the first game.

Having to meditate simply to drink a potion made no sense.  Nor did potions only lasting 10-15 minutes.  The section in Chapter 2 where you're going through those dark mines nearly drove me mad.  Had to constantly stop and drink another cat potion.  Over and over and over again.  Annoying as all hell.

Mutations were not clearly explained at any point.  You start seeing mutagens as loot almost instantly, but you can't actually use them for quite some time.  And then you don't really want to use them until after you've trained a specific talent - which is never explained either.

Recipes are never learned.  You have to carry that scrap of paper around with you forever, cluttering up an already-messy inventory.

Researching the local flora and fauna was no longer necessary.  You could go out and kill something new and loot alchemical ingredients from it right away - no point in buying books about the local plants or researching a monster's weakness.

The day/night cycle was basically gone.  All the assorted monsters were out in-force 24/7.  No waiting 'til dark to go hunting.

The storyline, for me, was very disappointing.  It felt like the original motivation - find the Kingslayer - was completely gone after Chapter 1.  It felt like I was rather arbitrarily forced to pick sides between the Scoia'tael and Roche, with no real good reason to go with either of them.  It felt like absolutely everybody was lying to me about pretty much everything, and by the end of the game I really didn't feel like I had any idea what was actually going on.  And it didn't feel like anything was actually accomplished or resolved by the time the credits rolled.

[kcwong]

My own experience was that they were very unresponsive.  I'd hit -block-, with plenty of endurance, and nothing would happen.  I'd hit -roll- to get out of the way, and nothing would happen.  I'd hit -attack- because there was a good opening, and Geralt would hesitate a moment before swinging, and I'd miss the opening.  I'd try to take a single step forward to loot something, and wind up taking several steps and walking right past the item.  I'd take a step towards a door to open it, and wind up pressing my face against it with the camera in such a position that I had to actually take several steps backwards and try it again.  I'd try to get close enough to a trap to disarm it, and wind up stepping on the thing instead.

That's definitely not the case in my computer (running at High settings with turning motion blurr off)... perhaps there really is a technical problem of some kind.

Storage took a step backwards.  No stash of any kind, and the inventory was harder to work with than in the first game.

True... but there're mods to help. Look for these:

http://modsreloaded.com/tooltip-mod (Makes tooltips taller and scrolls faster, esp. for crafting recipes)
http://www.witchernexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=17 (Makes crafting items 0.1 in weight)

I haven't checked if anyone is able to change that "all items" filter into "garbage items".

Having to meditate simply to drink a potion made no sense.  Nor did potions only lasting 10-15 minutes.  The section in Chapter 2 where you're going through those dark mines nearly drove me mad.  Had to constantly stop and drink another cat potion.  Over and over and over again.  Annoying as all hell.

It's kind of following the lore... it's like that in the books (or so I've heard), and you can see that as well in Witcher 1's intro. Geralt drank a potion in his little base, and then wait for sun down.

http://witchernexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=5 (Potion duration mod)

You can easily adjust potion/oil durations to your tastes with that mod. It's just a bunch of simple XML tags.

Mutations were not clearly explained at any point.  You start seeing mutagens as loot almost instantly, but you can't actually use them for quite some time.  And then you don't really want to use them until after you've trained a specific talent - which is never explained either.

It's in the manual...

4.4 Mutagens
Mutagens are powerful mutation-triggering agents. They allow you to raise your
abilities even further. Mutagens can be acquired in two ways: you can loot one from
a defeated enemy or you can create one as a byproduct of alchemy. To undergo mu-
tation, enter meditation, and then select the „Character” option and fnd an ability
that has a mutagen slot. The mutation cannot be reversed.

There's also a table of all available mutagens. It didn't tell you which skills have mutagen slots, but that may be the devs' intention.

Recipes are never learned.  You have to carry that scrap of paper around with you forever, cluttering up an already-messy inventory.

You don't really need a lot of the recipes though... on normal difficulty you don't really need potions to survive, and you don't really need all of them. With the crafting weight reduction mod, you can just keep a few crafting item upgrades (e.g. robust cloth), all the others you can sell after you craft the item.

Researching the local flora and fauna was no longer necessary.  You could go out and kill something new and loot alchemical ingredients from it right away - no point in buying books about the local plants or researching a monster's weakness.

Nope... without knowledge some of the alchemy ingredients won't drop. You can however choose to not spend orens on books and instead kill a lot of that monster to accumulate knowledge on them.

The day/night cycle was basically gone.  All the assorted monsters were out in-force 24/7.  No waiting 'til dark to go hunting.

That's not true. More monsters spawn at night, and there're a few spawn points that only trigger at night.

[Ephemeriis]

Having to meditate simply to drink a potion made no sense.  Nor did potions only lasting 10-15 minutes.  The section in Chapter 2 where you're going through those dark mines nearly drove me mad.  Had to constantly stop and drink another cat potion.  Over and over and over again.  Annoying as all hell.

It's kind of following the lore... it's like that in the books (or so I've heard), and you can see that as well in Witcher 1's intro. Geralt drank a potion in his little base, and then wait for sun down.

See, in the first game, that made sense.  I'd wait 'til sundown, because that's when the monsters came out.  Then I'd chug my potions - Cat, Swallow, maybe something else depending on what I was planning on hunting...  I'd oil up my weapons...  And then I'd go out hunting.

The potions would last most of the night.

In TW2, it just doesn't work that way.  You chug some potions...  And they wear off after 15 minutes.  So you have to chug some more, and some more, and some more...  You can't just prepare for a night of hunting.

Researching the local flora and fauna was no longer necessary.  You could go out and kill something new and loot alchemical ingredients from it right away - no point in buying books about the local plants or researching a monster's weakness.

Nope... without knowledge some of the alchemy ingredients won't drop. You can however choose to not spend orens on books and instead kill a lot of that monster to accumulate knowledge on them.

Fair enough - but none of those alchemy ingredients are necessary.  I know because I didn't bother to buy any books after the first chapter, and managed to finish the game just fine.

In TW1 there were numerous jobs that just plain could not be completed unless you did some research.

The day/night cycle was basically gone.  All the assorted monsters were out in-force 24/7.  No waiting 'til dark to go hunting.

That's not true. More monsters spawn at night, and there're a few spawn points that only trigger at night.

More monsters may very well spawn at night.  I don't remember any specific monster spawns that only happened at night, but I do remember some quests that required me to show up some place at a specific hour.

But, in TW1, the world was basically safe during the day, and downright unsafe at night.

The world this created felt like one that could actually exist.  Regular people going about their business during the day...  And huddling inside their homes at night.  Relying on traveling Witchers to keep the countryside safe from things that go bump in the night.

In TW2 there are swarms of enemies out in broad daylight - so how do the regular folks cope?  How do you go tend your crops (or whatever) when there's monsters everywhere, even at noon?

In TW1, you basically had to wait 'til nightfall to do your hunting.  In TW2, aside from a few specific quests, you can do everything at pretty much any time of day.


TW1 felt more like a fully-realized world to me.  Felt more internally-consistent.

I liked that you couldn't just wander out into the countryside and kill things indiscriminately.  You had to research your monsters to learn their weaknesses and what ingredients could be harvested from them...  You had to brew your potions, and dose yourself appropriately before going out hunting...  You had to wait 'til the right time of day to go looking for your prey...

There was a very real feeling that a Witcher was not actually superhuman - just well-prepared.

In TW2, you can skip pretty much all of that.  You don't have to research your monsters, you don't have to wait for night, and your potions run out so quickly that you can only really plan for scripted encounters.


As for the mods...  I guess I don't care too much right now.

It's good to know that there are mods out there to make it more playable.  And I'll probably give them a try eventually.  But right now I really don't have any interest in playing through the game again any time soon.

Even if I ignore all the assorted technical glitches I ran into, I was really disappointed with the storyline.

[Mindmaker]

Took some time until I found that last Nekker nest. But now I can go on and finish chapter 1.

Having to meditate simply to drink a potion made no sense.  Nor did potions only lasting 10-15 minutes.  The section in Chapter 2 where you're going through those dark mines nearly drove me mad.  Had to constantly stop and drink another cat potion.  Over and over and over again.  Annoying as all hell.

Toxicity. I didn't try to look at the animation when you breach the red threshold, but the other ones suggest that drinking them is putting some strain on your body.
Getting dizzy in combat from drinking a potion my not be the best course of action.

That's my explanation lore wise.

Potion crafting is a lot less annoying, now that there are no potion bases. You can basically craft them without much effort and keep them up all the time.
And since oils can be applied instantly, the "no preperation" nagging simply blows.

Mutations were not clearly explained at any point.  You start seeing mutagens as loot almost instantly, but you can't actually use them for quite some time.  And then you don't really want to use them until after you've trained a specific talent - which is never explained either.

You get a journal entry the first time you aquire one. Afterwards you just need to keep your eyes open.
So what? There's a talent that makes them more effective. You still can use them without it. I don't see why the game should slap you across the wrist, when trying to use them yelling "Get the talent first, you wimp!".

Researching the local flora and fauna was no longer necessary.  You could go out and kill something new and loot alchemical ingredients from it right away - no point in buying books about the local plants or researching a monster's weakness.

If you care about RP, you'll do it anyway, since you get some nice journal entries.
You also get a lore upgrade to your character screen, which provides you with some tactics. It most likely has an ingame effect, although I can't tell how it looks like.

The day/night cycle was basically gone.  All the assorted monsters were out in-force 24/7.  No waiting 'til dark to go hunting.

Drowners in chapter 1 spawn only after nightfall (exceptions are scripted encounters).
I don't see why 'regular' monsters shouldn't be active during daytime.

There was a very real feeling that a Witcher was not actually superhuman - just well-prepared.

Disagreeing with that.
In TW1 you simply ran into a group of enemies, switched to group style and watched everything die.
Try doing that in TW2 against wimpy drowners or half-naked bandits and they'll tear you apart.

I played both games on hard and that far only TW2 has provided me with a challenge and realism.