Witcher 2

[dragon]

Picked it up last night and while the game seems not to bad, only played 30 min into it, there are some issues with installation.

1. Half way through installing the first disk it errors out and quits, website soulution is to copy and paste everything into hard and install from there.

2. Trying to launch- file missing .exe to fix obtained from website.

3. Can't regrister as server is down, can't play if not regristered.

4. Can't input serial as size of windows was off, easy fix.

These are just some of the issues, but less than 5% of people were having issues guessI got lucky.

[Zixinus]

First impressions are mixed: there are still some technical issues and there is a day-one patch already. Performance is a bit wonky: there is the feel that animation isn't smooth.
I've turned off ubersampling from the start and gonna try with turning off SSOA.

What I haven't figured out yet completely.

You can play with an Xbox 360 controller. I'm doing so.

Oh, and it's worthwhile if you have the old save from the first game. I've got Raven's armour and the moon sword already in the prequel.

3. Can't regrister as server is down, can't play if not regristered.

That was temporary, it is fixed now.

[Zixinus]

Apologies for the double-post, but here is a post to help solve some issues a few people may be having, as well as tips to help you tweak the performance.

[Xon]

3. Can't regrister as server is down, can't play if not regristered.

That was temporary, it is fixed now.

The gog.com version doesn't. You only need to be registered to patch.

[Zixinus]

I don't know about the gog.com version, but supposedly there is a patch coming up next week.

It can't come soon enough. The performance issues are driving me nuts a bit.

[Vympel]

I'm playing Witcher EE before I play Witcher 2. I tried to reinstall Witcher (my original game) and upgrade it to EE with the old file, but it wouldn't work for shit (old registration issues and similar shit). So I just spent 4.99 on the gog.com version. Witcher 2 all ready to install though. I figure by the time I'm done with EE, Witcher 2 will be all patched up

[RazorOutlaw]

A couple of thoughts, as I've played the game for about two hours and finally made it to the beginning of Chapter 1.

1) The GUI is slick, and it looks like the developers were trying to emulate a console. Or perhaps a DVD menu. It's all very minimal and although my memory of the GUI for Witcher 1 is hazy, I think it's even more minimal.

2) Inventory has been revamped. It's a lot easier to navigate and sort between items.

3) The difference between combat between The Witcher 1 and The Witcher 2 is the same difference that exists between Mass Effect 1 and Mass Effect 2. In Witcher 2 you have light attacks, heavy attacks, blocks, and rolling which are all done with the keyboard during combat. Someone mentioned using an Xbox 360 controller to play the game, and I think that's about right. It plays like a console game.

You no longer chain attacks in the same way (click when the sword got a firey tip), although I think each successful hit allows for an eventual combo/finishing move. I don't think you can pause combat either.

4) Holy Christ this game is filled with cut scenes (which are very slick and add to the story). And there's several QTE events which I don't care for, but they add to the cinematic feel.

____

So, I'm still adjusting to the way the sequel plays versus the first game. I'll get the hang of it, I think, but I really miss pausing during combat to select signs or drink potions or just to breathe. So far, I wish I could poke around more instead of going from cutscene to cutscene. I miss sticking my nose where it didn't belong and running into random monster encounters. But the prologue to the Witcher did guide player's hands a bit, and Chapter 1 just started. I'll have to see how this all turns out.

EDIT:
Oh and I forgot to add that I think the decisions-you-make-that-affect-the-story begin in the prologue. I think that's pretty neat. And, as usual, the writers walk that fine-line between being obvious that it's going to have consequences and being ambiguous. I love it.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Combat is bitching harder in the 2nd game. And potions are not as useful as before.

This game will take a lot of my time. *mutters*

[Zixinus]

I'm still getting used to it.

If you are interested, there is far less cutscenes in the first chapter and you do finally get a grasp of being able to run freely around.

[RazorOutlaw]

Combat is bitching harder in the 2nd game. And potions are not as useful as before.

I took the fact that they couldn't be used during combat, say, in a pinch, to mean they were less useful. On the other hand they do last about 5-10 minutes per potion. I've found in my wanderings in the first chapter that it helped to take a few before I left town. The first Witcher game had its moments where you could take a potion before you left a safe area, it's just much more crucial to plan ahead.

I dislike the fact that the monsters strengths and weaknesses are no longer listed in the journal. I got the sense in the first game that at least a little bit of research had to be done on part of the player before they rushed into battle and getting no where. What would have worked against an Alp might not work against an Barghest. I have no idea what the developers were thinking when they got rid of that mechanic.

If you are interested, there is far less cutscenes in the first chapter and you do finally get a grasp of being able to run freely around.

Yes! I stuck with it and I was pleasantly surprised when the free-roaming picked up. My memory was really hazy, but now that I think about it the first Witcher game spared no expense with the cutscenes and huge-chunks of dialogue to set up the story.

Also one more thing of note: I initially hated way I had to walk right next to an item in order to select the option to pick it up as that made it easy to miss things and then I'd have to dance around to try and find it again. In the first game you could be some distance away and still see your icon change to a hand. So, again, this change to having to be right on top of something was jarring. But then I went back through the tutorial and you can press "Z" to send out, well, a kind of wave and it highlights anything on the ground that you can interact with.

[Zixinus]

Anybody have any idea where elemental stones can be found in the first chapter?

Also, regarding the ATI bit about disabling Catalyst AI and the like: I've set anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering to "use application settings" and disabled it in the game launcher. Does that do? Because even set to minimal spec, I'm still getting lagg as I enter a new area.

I took the fact that they couldn't be used during combat, say, in a pinch, to mean they were less useful.

Which in my opinion makes them far less useful. I find it silly that you can't drink potion while standing but only when you sit down to meditate.
White Riffald's Concoction, one of the more useful potions in the first game, now only increases vitality instead. Cat is also now useless: it may be my monitor, but I have yet to find even one genuinely dark area.
Oh, and to further move the disconnection: you can apply oils to swords even in mid-combat and you don't even need to pause as Geralt does it. It's there immediately.

Potions are thus less useful and the fact that over half of your potions diminish an important attribute in favour of another means that I consider far fewer potions useful. The one time I used it, it even has a limit to how far it will show enemies as red, so that's out as well.
It seems they really wanted the effect from last game's De Vers Extract (which was utterly useless due to the lack of invisible monsters).

I am also annoyed that alchemy now has far more ingredients and that secondary ingredients are no longer there. Alchemy now doesn't even need to take time.

In general, alchemcy is dumbed-down (yes, they sort of sucked how to explain how it works in the first game, but it wasn't THAT complicated).

I dislike the fact that the monsters strengths and weaknesses are no longer listed in the journal. I got the sense in the first game that at least a little bit of research had to be done on part of the player before they rushed into battle and getting no where. What would have worked against an Alp might not work against an Barghest. I have no idea what the developers were thinking when they got rid of that mechanic.

It's still there, in fact, as you develop knowledge you get more.

Instead of it being in the journal however, it's a bit out-of-sight: when you go to the character screen, select attributes and there is a knowledge bar where you can learn far more about monsters and tactics against them than from the journal.

Why? Fuck me if I know.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

To be put it flatly, the game is designed for console, made for console. Played on a PC, you are better off on a gamepad. The damn arm wrestling game is a bitch to play with a mouse. THe Fist fights... you call those fist fights? Makes me think some Wii games are harder.

And combat? Good Lord man, it's annoying as hell. The potions are near useless, and shielded foes are near impossible to kill beyond rolling rolling and hoping for an opening or sneak behind to strike them. Sorcery has limited utility to many an extent, beyond using them as delaying tactics.

This is for prologue. It might get better in the successive chapters, but hell this is a rude shock and a complete redesign from the last game. Alchemy? Yeah, dumb as hell. Just keep collecting and whatever not.

[Zac Naloen]

And combat? Good Lord man, it's annoying as hell. The potions are near useless, and shielded foes are near impossible to kill beyond rolling rolling and hoping for an opening or sneak behind to strike them.

Just block their attacks and hit them on the counter

[Zixinus]

Alchemy is not useless. It's the only reliable way to regain health mid-combat and there ARE potions that you are better off having than not.
However, it's a pain in the ass to use due to the necessity of having to mediate before each confrontation. Seeing as you most often wonder around the wilderness to find your pray rather than carefully stalk it, it makes it a pain in the ass.

Either way, the game NEEDS NEEDS NEEEEEDS the patch it has coming. Ati also promised to develop new video drivers to help performance.

Of course this is the same company that had mayor performance issues when they released their first game. I detect some sort of pattern here.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Alchemy is not useless. It's the only reliable way to regain health mid-combat and there ARE potions that you are better off having than not.
However, it's a pain in the ass to use due to the necessity of having to mediate before each confrontation. Seeing as you most often wonder around the wilderness to find your pray rather than carefully stalk it, it makes it a pain in the ass.

Either way, the game NEEDS NEEDS NEEEEEDS the patch it has coming. Ati also promised to develop new video drivers to help performance.

Of course this is the same company that had mayor performance issues when they released their first game. I detect some sort of pattern here.

I'm using an ATI HD 4870 card but having zero graphics issues.

Just block their attacks and hit them on the counter

Blocking would be great if not for the fact that likely they'd have others around him and I spend more time dodging their attacks.

[Zixinus]

I'm using an ATI HD 4870 card but having zero graphics issues.

I'm envious. I have tried lowering my graphics, degragging, uninstalling and reinstalling and I keep getting microshutters and the like. It's terribly annyoing.

Blocking would be great if not for the fact that likely they'd have others around him and I spend more time dodging their attacks.

Then take down the weaker ones first. Use traps and spells, the hex spell hasn't worked for me so far but it should wreck havoc with the crowd.
Yeah, shield spell is essential if you aim to survive long-term but this tactic seems to work mostly for me.

[RazorOutlaw]

The shield spell was invaluable to me during the prologue, but I did find myself a bit annoyed at being able to parry in one direction. However, as you gain levels you can select the skill to parry from multiple directions. I think in Witcher 1 this was automatic, I can't quite remember. Eitherway, the shield spell and parrying do alleviate some of the ache of from this combat.

[Karza]

The shield spell was invaluable to me during the prologue, but I did find myself a bit annoyed at being able to parry in one direction. However, as you gain levels you can select the skill to parry from multiple directions. I think in Witcher 1 this was automatic, I can't quite remember. Eitherway, the shield spell and parrying do alleviate some of the ache of from this combat.

Parrying and dodging were indeed automatic in Witcher 1. In 2, while the "parry from any direction" helps somewhat, against multiple opponents you're still up shit creek, since you only have enough vigor to block two attacks in a row at best. If you're using the shield spell, then you only have one vigor and no vigor regeneration which sort of sucks too. If I'm reading the talent trees right, this'll ease up later when you get extra vigor and assorted swordsmanship talents, but early in the game combat is a total bitch. At the moment combat against multiple opponents is basically shield - hack the weakest enemy down - roll around until vigor regenerates - repeat. Not particularly fun.

[Thanas]

Hooray for character import - except it turns out all your character decisions do not matter considering they are forcing your backstory into a specific event chain (like hooking up with Triss even if you ditched her in the first game, coincidently Shani does not even rate a single mention in the game) and all your weapons are nerfed into oblivion. Hey, look, your epic sword from the first part is worth less than what goons are carrying. Hooray?

[Zixinus]

The imported swords are still better than the ones you would otherwise start with.

Because a pickaxe is literally better that the standard (non-imported) sword.

Oh, and a hint about upgrading armour: don't use +1 armour enhancers. You can buy a +2 one from a guy in Chapter 1, using diamond dust.

[Thanas]

At this stage I am more pissed about the omission of Shani and the absolute non-effect your character route of game 1 has in this one, to be honest.

[Zixinus]

At this stage I am more pissed about the omission of Shani and the absolute non-effect your character route of game 1 has in this one, to be honest.

True. For one, saving Princess Ada only seems to make the king say a different line in the game.

[Thanas]

And that one is even in the prologue. Even more, it makes no sense why a married, legitimate princess that has the backing of a powerful husband would have less chances of becoming the heiress to the throne than an illegitimate child whose parentage is much more in question.

[Karza]

So, completed the game. I liked the story a lot, even if in some respects it's a little too obviously setting up the third game. The game is a bit on the short side, but the main problem is the gameplay.

The combat system could be good but it's crippled by sluggish and imprecise controls. It's not a complete clusterfuck, but not much of an improvement over the more common number-crunching RPG combat either.

The inventory system is just plain bad, and alchemy has also been fucked up. The crafting system isn't a bad idea in itself, but it really should be more "bring the ultra-rare ore/gem/monster part, pay the smith for mundane materials" and less "haul an assload of ore, cloth, leather and timber".

While the dev team could mostly disregard your choices from TW1 by having TW2 take place away from Vizima's surroundings, the same trick really won't work in the next part. The events and your choices regarding them in TW2 are too big to be ignored like that. Here's to hoping CDPR shapes up in this regard.

[Zixinus]

The design does feel somewhat schizophrenic, especially in regards to alchemy and stat-development.
The fact that you can't drink potions mid-combat like in the first game (not to mention your choice of potions now, which is a stat-balancing to one side or another mostly) makes alchemy near-useless as far as potions go. Bombs are neat somewhat, but I don't rely on them.

The most useful skills are in the swordsman tree, some of which are stuff that should have been with you from the start (even if a bit nerfed for balance). Riposte isn't all that cracked up to be though, due to how blocking rapidly drains vigor.

Perhaps I'm clumsy, but I find that Witcher continues the proud tradition of it's first game of having few spells useful among a few. Igni is nerfed heavily (it doesn't even set fire to things unless you level it up), Ard barely has a chance of stunning anyone (nor does it allow instant-kill or have a wide effect), the hex spell does not seem to work on anything (except for conversations but using it that way seems to level up on its self) and the trap spell is neat but becomes a bit redundant with all the other kinds of traps you can use that can do a lot of damage and don't require vigor. Exception of course is the shield spell which is essential.

The greatest head-scratcher are the mutagens though. There are very few skills that you can apply them to and most of them are rather weak, even the greater ones. What's more puzzling is that you don't find these in boss battles or are simply hard-acquired but are just random monster-drop items that you can barely use.

Thankfully, they ditched the first's habbit of allowing you to carry absolutely useless extra weapons (daggers and axes) in favour or having a wide, wide, wide selection of mostly samely-looking swords.

It's as if some aspects of the design were meant for a different game.