Topic: The Witcher 2

[Xessive]

Oh yeah, it's a work of art! It feels and looks like an epic adventure!

[Pugnate]

Well, the first game was a bit of a chore to complete. Can't believe I held on for so long. The second looks really nice though.

[Xessive]

Well, the first game was a bit of a chore to complete. Can't believe I held on for so long. The second looks really nice though.

Yeah, I went back to replay the TW1 Enhanced Edition and I slumped out in the second act. It is kinda on the tedious side.

Actually in general I'm beginning to feel that most RPGs are an exercise in bureaucracy than actual fun. Darksiders 2 just embellished that point; it's an awesome game just the quest lines can some get monotonous. The defining moment for me was:

Death: Bring out your champion so I can defeat him and get an audience with the Lord of Bones!
Voice: Our champion is not some cur you can call at will. You have to draw him out by bringing blah blah blah.
Me: Sonuvabiiii...

It's never simple, which humorously Death comments on as well "Follow Dust and get the key? It's never that simple is it?"

EDIT:
Sorry, had to cut my post in two due to time constraints.

Anyway, in The Witcher 2 most quests feel different. Sure there are some fetch quests and occasional contracts (from the notice boards) but they're things you can do while you're out there doing what it is you're doing anyway. It feels more natural as opposed to some other RPGs where you have to take the quest to make certain specific scripted enemies to appear exclusively for that scripted event.

[Quemaqua]

So now that I've finally, at long last, finished the original Witcher to my satisfaction, I immediately downloaded the copy of Witcher 2 I got on the cheap years and years ago. Had never so much as seen anything about it given that my PC couldn't run it and I always had the intention of finishing the first and going through the series again.

I'm beyond impressed. The game isn't perfect, but fuck me is it good. It's rather hard to believe this even came from the same developers, as the first almost feels like a great story shoehorned into a super impressive mod, just given all the rough edges. But this game ... other than some niggles like an unintuitive inventory system, occasional bits of dialogue that can be taken out of order, and too many typos that didn't get edited out of what is otherwise pretty quality writing, it's just wonderful. The characters, the dialogue, the story, the pacing, the amount of things to do (that never manages to get so big as to feel overwhelming), the amazing graphics (I actually had to drop settings from the highest on my brand-new beastly rig, and there are still occasional places where it gets a tad framey ... I would not ever have guessed that this is a game from 2011), the great sense of place and atmosphere, the attention to detail in every scene ... holy shit. I really wasn't expecting this to be as impressive and robust an upgrade as it ended up being. I knew it was supposed to be an infinitely better game than the first, but still.

Combat is great. I've heard some people complain about it, but I think it's fantastic. It's extremely deliberate, and button mashing is punished. I'm playing the game on the highest non-hardcore/ironman difficulty, "Dark", and it generally asks one to be cognizant of enemy abilities/strengths/weaknesses, to use signs reasonably well, and to make use of the various equipments available to you. That, or just play with a high level of skill and make few or no mistakes. I really haven't found it THAT difficult so far (I guess I'd call it a stiff challenge?), with a couple troublesome spots I had to retry a considerable number of times until I figured out how to effectively go about them.

Anyway, I'll say more once I've finished the game and moved on to Witcher 3, but for now, I'll say that this has me so excited to see how much bigger and better Witcher 3 is that I can't stand it. I'm loving this one, and am so glad that I went through the first game and imported my save. I'm not sure exactly how important that is in terms of what it brings over that gets referenced by the 2nd game, but having the first experience has made the emotional investment in these characters far greater than it would have been otherwise.

About 1/2 or maybe midway through chapter 2 now. We'll see how much ground I can cover by the end of the week.

[MysterD]

B/t W1 and W2 - I think Witcher 2 is the better game itself (combat's much better this time around), while W1 actually tells the better & more complete story. Sure, W2 definitely isn't perfect and all - namely b/c it falls apart in the final Chapter for me, which felt super-rushed & a major set-up for W3: Wild Hunt. W2 just in Chap 3 introduces bunch of story-threads and also leaves some other stuff hanging.

[Quemaqua]

That was a hell of a game. Much shorter and more compressed compared to the first game, but great stuff. Beautiful looking, fun to play, experiments with streamlining the systems in ways that at least indicated ideas at work on the dev team. Most importantly, it really added a depth of storytelling that the first game lacked almost entirely.

It does in some ways feel like sort of a preamble to Witcher 3, but at the same time, I think it tells a much more interesting, better paced, and coherent story. It's much more political, or at least the political implications are better expressed, and while it has some very memorable personal moments, its probably the less personal story of the two. Either way, it ups the ante on everything in the first game and propels it forward with the same kind of inertia the first game ended with. I was surprised with how short it turned out to be, but I didn't find anything at all objectionable about the final chapter. It delivers several a number of important choices, has some big moments, ties up most of the threads it needs to for that game, and answers a lot of questions about smaller mysteries that come up throughout while further exploring some of the larger mysteries of the series as whole.

The post-credits cinematic was really something, I felt that one in my guts. Knowing that this was the world I was about to head into with Witcher 3 was heady. I imagine the impact could have been slightly lessened if I had played it right off the bat and knew that the next game was several years away, but thankfully I didn't have to. It had immediate punch because I knew exactly what I was going to be heading into and that things would no longer be the same.

Anyway, great fucking game despite its relative brevity (not a short game ... I did a fair amount of the side stuff, but not everything, and probably got 45 hours out of it) and somewhat streamlined design. One I would consider going back to play again to try out some different stuff, or just to experience the story once I've gotten far enough away from it again.

[MysterD]

The post-credits cinematics that tells you what happened based on your decisions was NOT in the original W2 game. They added that later in a patch, due to complaints about the game ending....

(click to show/hide)

...right after Letho's battle (if you actually fought him) and Geralt walks away with nothing more to it than just that.

So those who already beat the game (like myself) - hopefully you kept the finished W2 game-save around (and saved it for W3 importing purposes).

After the W2 patch was released that added the post-credits slideshows - if you kept your final save from the actual finished game, you load that save in W2 and it straight-up gives you the after credits slideshow endings w/ how you impacted the game-world + certain NPC's in the game-world.

[Quemaqua]

I wouldn't have been dissatisfied even without that, but yeah, I was aware that they added some stuff due to complaints. And I think the stuff they added was really great, so the game certainly feels a bit more complete for having it.

[nickclone]

Am I playing the same game here? I've found the Witcher 2 to be a messy pile of shit. I've tried to play it again after a year and after 90 minutes I remember why I tossed this garbage in the back of my closet in the first place. Forget the combat, story, graphics, etc, the complete failure of basic game mechanics is what makes this game so frustrating that its almost unplayable. Quest trackers that either lead you in circles, don't lead you at all or lead you to absolutely nothing. A map that is completely useless, can't be labeled and doesn't even tell you what is up or down, quest info that doesn't give you any info at all. Combine that with no tracking, a shit map and no pieces to the puzzle and you will be spending a lot of time on youtube finding out where to go. To add insult to injury, I spent almost an hour trying to complete one quest only to find out it probably glitched out and I can't complete it.

The inventory system is nonsense, ( I shouldn't have to take pics or write down stuff in my inventory when crafting)...anyways. Obviously, I'm pissed off after wasting my time with this, even worse...everyone else seems to think its GOTY...and I'm playing the "Enhanced Edition". How much more shitty was the original then?

[Cobra951]

I tried twice to get through this game, and both times I gave up in the same place, some town with a tavern, I think.  There was no indication about what was up.  I felt completely lost, unable to decipher what to do, how to do it or even care about it.  Yeah, I was a bit miffed at myself too, having wasted the time leading up to this.  I'm glad it wasn't just me.

I can't explain why some of us connect so well to some games, and others can't.  I pride myself in finishing the vast majority of games I play.  But there are some that I just can't get through, and seldom because of difficulty.  I think it's more of a fun-frustration balance issue.  If I can't find a way to enjoy it, why do it?  It's not going to get me a better job, girlfriend or life, either way.  I'm aware many think highly of TW2.  Here's two of us who can't fathom that.  We must be wired differently.

[nickclone]

The part that really sucks is that I can see this game's potential and I really wanted to like it. I love an epic adventure game and I actually enjoyed the game up until chapter 2. If they've fixed these problems in the third game I'm willing to give it a go (I'll probably have no idea what the hell is going on). However, all of the problems I mentioned weren't mentioned in basically any review I came across except for one.

I don't know, sometimes I feel like a contrarian, good to know I'm not the only one who doesn't like this game. Guess its time to offcially give up on it now.

[Quemaqua]

I've noticed you guys are both very picky, especially where things like inventory management and control are concerned. I don't mean this negatively, just you have less tolerance for stuff you don't like. Which is entirely fair. You find it harder to get used to stuff that frustrates you and it will continue to bug you. It's certainly happened to me here or there too, but I have a fairly high tolerance for that kind of thing most of the time. Unless it's REALLY fucking broken (which this game isn't at all), I'll just get used to it and enjoy it without any real complaint. I even suffered through the original Witcher, which WAS a legitimately broken pile of shit in a lot of ways, and still managed to mostly enjoy it. We've all got different taste and different levels of tolerance for things. I loved Witcher 2, and while I can intellectually understand your arguments, I didn't experience anything like what you're describing. It certainly wasn't the best game I ever played, and it definitely had some rough spots, but the flaws weren't anything I couldn't get past, and the good stuff outshined it all by far.

It's also worth noting that I generally don't care if a game has a lot of map niceties and such. I'm old school, that stuff all still feels like needless hand-holding to me most of the time. I don't really remember if that was the case here. I don't think I felt lost much, but I don't really remember it well enough at this point.

I also played it on the hardest difficulty that didn't just delete your save on death, so I don't know if that might have affected my view somewhat. Same way I've been playing Witcher 3. I think these 2 games shine when you really have to learn the combat and actually understand potion use and such, not just be able to mash your way through it, whereas with the first game it's probably better to just crank it down and get through it as fast as you can because the combat is really awful. So that might have made me appreciate the combat more? I dunno.

Anyway, all that said, Witcher 3 is definitely a better game than 2 by a large margin. It's got all the great storytelling, but the combat and inventory management is better, the world is more open, and it's better about directing you. It does suck to miss the story stuff, but Witcher 3 also kind of thrusts the story in a new direction. If you just watch a YouTube synopsis or something you'd probably be fine.

[Cobra951]

That's the funny thing.  I loved TW3.  I also said it has the worst inventory system in the history of videogames--and I emphasized that by pointing out that I personally know the entire length of that history.  (Haha!)  To be fair, that's the console version, which was apt to slow down to a crawl when paging across it, and sometimes even corrupted its icon-sized item images.  Even without the tech hurdles, it's a grid-shaped nightmare.

Anyway, the point is that when I'm otherwise fully engaged in a game, I'll fight my way through its shortcomings, so I can continue to experience it.  TW2 just lost me.  I was OK with the intro sections, battling my way through, getting used to what's what.  Then suddenly, it completely changed into something else, dumped me in an unattractive, uninvolving place, said nothing of substance to me about it, then left me alone--with the crappy interface--to my own devices.  That's why I stopped playing, twice.  It could be that if I had managed to care enough, and work at it hard enough, I would have ended up loving the whole thing.  Maybe.  Can't tell for sure now.

[nickclone]

I'm kinda weird like that, some things I can tolerate in a game and some things I can't. I actually played the first game, the combat didn't impress me, but it didn't deter me either. The only reason why I didn't finish that game was because it crashed, I hadn't saved in a long time and I lost all of the tedious "shopping time" I did. I liked the game other than that, still had the same problems with the map and quests though.

I don't like hand holding either, but I don't feel like this game gives you all of the pieces to solve the puzzles presented to you. I played this on the 360, so it might be different than what others have experienced. However, I thought the tracking and map were obviously atrocious and I couldn't understand why no review mentioned that at all. As I said, I enjoyed the game until I got to Vergen, it could just be a crap part of the game, but I just have no interest into going back.

I'm thinking of getting an Xbox One soon, I'll definitely give number 3 a try though.

Edit: This guy in this video is having the same exact problems as I am, looks like he's playing on the 360 as well.

&list=WL&index=56

[Quemaqua]

Haha, some of that does come back to me. Vergen was particularly bad about the map stuff. Vergen was also the low point of the game in a lot of respects. And I kinda hated how things were divided into chapters by location, which made it feel sorta smaller and such. But I think I really just hit those speed bumps at top speed and flew over them, even when they were jarring. I had a lot of momentum with the game which probably helped too, as I never really stopped long enough to get that frustrated. I just sat down and plowed through it in a handful of longer sessions.

Regardless, do check out the story stuff on YouTube or something, then play 3. I legitimately feel like 3 is one of the best games of all time. Not because it isn't also rough in spots, or that it does any one particular thing better than any other game, but more that it does SO MUCH and despite the huge breadth of content, it still manages to do it all to a high degree of quality. Very few big games of that type manage to have an engaging story, engaging side stories, beautiful environments, rich fiction, believable characters, good combat, interesting systems, etc. Even if you don't come away as impressed as I did, it's still a damn fine video game.

[nickclone]

Yeah, I'll probably skip this one and go straight to three. As I said before, I really wanted to like this game.

[gpw11]

Hahahaha.  I def had rose tinted googles on when thinking about this game until recently.  Witcher 1 had a lot of issues but I remember at the time thinking that this was the weaker game because of the map, fucking inventory system requiring me to guess what to keep and what to hold on to, and weak side quests. Thinking about it now I remember kind of forcing my way through it, which I didn't do to the other games.

The Witcher 3, however is absolutely something you should get into.  The expansions are amazing as well.

[Cobra951]

Yes, TW3 is awesome, and the 2 story DLCs are terrific too.

Hey, man.  Long time no see.

[nickclone]

Ok, so I really wanted to play and RPG, so I tried this again. It took YouTube on my computer and Google on my phone, but I finally made progress. It seems that the one quest glitch isn't so much a glitch as it was sloppy development, its connected to another quest and you have to do certain things first. Anyways, I got some quests done and it now seems that I'm able to move forward without have to use a guide...for now.

[Quemaqua]

You're approaching the end. If you can suffer through it, there isn't a ton left, and then you can transfer that save into Witcher 3.

[nickclone]

Like I said, I see the potential in this game, the excution just isn't the greatest. I need to get an Xbox One to play the next one. I have over 30 Xbox 360 games that I haven't finished or played. I think I'm beyond the point of catching up. Should I just move on to the next system?

[Cobra951]

If you're going to do that, go for a good deal on the S model.  The PS4 is undeniably the better system now, though.  Sony has all the momentum and by far the best 3rd-party support and exclusives.  Microsoft have dropped the ball in the console space for about a year now.  They're leaning too heavily on the technology of the 6-teraFLOPS X.  Consoles aren't primarily about tech.  Never have been.  You're not heavily invested in the Xbox online community, are you?  Because that's the only way I'd recommend you stay with Microsoft at this point.

[nickclone]

If you're going to do that, go for a good deal on the S model.  The PS4 is undeniably the better system now, though.  Sony has all the momentum and by far the best 3rd-party support and exclusives.  Microsoft have dropped the ball in the console space for about a year now.  They're leaning too heavily on the technology of the 6-teraFLOPS X.  Consoles aren't primarily about tech.  Never have been.  You're not heavily invested in the Xbox online community, are you?  Because that's the only way I'd recommend you stay with Microsoft at this point.

No, I don't play online anymore, it isn't what it used to be back in my day. I'm kind of a homer, I usually stick to one system. I have nothing against Sony, but like you you said...I expect an Xbox One drop sometime soon. I don't play enough games to warrant spending too much money on a system.

[gpw11]

If you're going to do that, go for a good deal on the S model.  The PS4 is undeniably the better system now, though.  Sony has all the momentum and by far the best 3rd-party support and exclusives.  Microsoft have dropped the ball in the console space for about a year now.  They're leaning too heavily on the technology of the 6-teraFLOPS X.  Consoles aren't primarily about tech.  Never have been.  You're not heavily invested in the Xbox online community, are you?  Because that's the only way I'd recommend you stay with Microsoft at this point.

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing when I bought my PS4 Slim on sale a few weeks ago.  The main thing for me is that all the Microsoft Xbox exclusives are on PC now too.


And I'm doing good man, how about you?