The Witcher 2: Assassin's of Kings

Yet none of this really matters, because of what The Witcher 2 manages to do overall. It creates a sinister, cogent, violent, colourful world that is routinely affected by your actions within it. The game comes to life as it is merged with your decisions and articulates a story that is at once overwhelming and engrossing. I’ve enjoyed this collision of combat and story more than I have with any RPG since Vampire Bloodlines. It dissolves my lack of interest in fantasy games with its intensity.
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*sigh of defeat*, I feel very compelled to purchase this now.
 
I'm glad that crafting/potion-making isn't something that is necessary to get through the game on Normal, though it does help.

Can't wait to start playing this later today.
 
Gargantou said:
I'm glad that crafting/potion-making isn't something that is necessary to get through the game on Normal, though it does help.

Can't wait to start playing this later today.
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As you can't buy any you'll definitely be making potions. You'll need them for sure. Crafting allows you make some cool unique items, weapons and armours so it's pretty worthwhile too.

Sunk a couple of days into this game now and so far I'm blown away. Can't believe how much of a step up this game is having finally finished the first one just a few weeks ago. Hands down the best looking game I've ever played, and the dialogue, VO and story stuff has been surprisingly great so far. Absolutely love the setting.

It does a horrendous job of teaching you all the combat systems though - I'd reccomend everyone should read the tutorial stuff in the journal because otherwise you're just given quick 5 second pop-ups explaining a ton of shit in the prologue where there's really no time to read it all. It wasn't until I was about four hours in until I realised why I couldn't block at times, I thought it was a bug. Once you get used to it though it's a lot of fun. It's brutal even on normal - really forces you to use all your signs and bombs/traps to survive at times. No point hoarding that stuff in this game. Devs said they'd been inspired by Demon's Souls and it definitely shows.

Anyhoo, here's a bunch of screens and a couple of quick combat videos I made:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrwoNR-yEmA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXK6VVF4DVM

Screens:
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This game is worth the 50 euro, just for all the swag that comes with it:

eQ82P.jpg


Installing now.
 
Almost at the end of chapter 2 (I think). I've put a lot of hours in so far too. There are a lot of annoying bugs, much like with the first game. Not game breaking, but some can definitely break the immersion. I'm hoping a few patches can fix most of it. Otherwise, it's been an excellent experience so far.
 
I have played through the prologue and a little bit of the first chapter, and I must say I quite like it so far. The game plays, looks and sounds absolutely fantastic. Some of the set pieces were really jaw dropping. CD Project clearly has the ambition to offer a triple A experience with this game. Which it has been for me so far, although I have to admit there is some wonkiness. The dialogue is cringe worthy at times, especially all the variations on 'ploughing' (is that even a verb in English?). The NPCs can get in the way of things, with unintentional humorous results (I've had a guard photo bomb a cut scene). Also the difficulty settings aren't really working for me, because 'easy' is way too easy, but on 'normal' I get my ass kicked.
 
This is one of these few moments when I'm proud to be Polish. The game absolutely shines in its mother tongue, as does the voice acting.
 
Just finished it:

There are a bunch of different endings, but I ended up siding with Roche instead of Iorveth, let Roche kill Henselt, let Sile die, saved Triss, Dethmold escaped, and I had a nice chat with Letho before killing him. My ending was walking out of the city with Triss, which was pretty yawn inducing after such an interesting game. None of the characters I sided with died, and the princess was saved by Roche. The way the game ended definitely sets it up as a trilogy, as there are way too many loose ends in the overall story, especially with the Southern Empire invading. Honestly though, this is one series where I wouldn't mind a new game every few years. Especially if they keep improving it and the writing stays top notch. I don't think I have the balls to play it on Insane, as I died quite a bit on hard, but I may try it with different choices and a different build.
 
Jimmeh, the RPS review said that crafting and alchemy isn't necessary to get through the game, though it'll help.

It was the same in TW1, I got through it fine without alchemy.
 
Is there a way to move around while facing your locked on enemy? Its pissing me off that Geralt just turns his back on the person i'm fighting when I try and put some distance between us.
 
I honestly am struggling to get through the prologue without wanting to delete the game.
 
TheOneFreeMan said:
I honestly am struggling to get through the prologue without wanting to delete the game.
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Drop difficulty down to easy if you must... seriously if you need it, just do it.

Also, Quen sign, try that first.
 
The game is brutal at first because they don't hold your hand and you haven't leveled up at all. It's worth it to tough it out though, just to see the stunning forest in Flotsam.
 
You seem to have misunderstood ... it's not because I'm finding it too hard that I want to delete the game. I don't need to drop the difficulty level, and I don't need my hand held; I'm a veteran gamer, I know the drill. The game's simply making me really want to delete it by being no fun whatsoever so far.

The combat system is, once again, a complete and utter abomination which devolves into mindless clicking whenever you're faced with more than one opponent, keeps changing the "locked-on" target ridiculously easily, and where the actions you attempt to perform occur seconds after you've pressed the button to make them happen. I felt more in control of the combat in Dragon Age 2 than I did with this ludicrous setup. They haven't learned a thing from the first game.

And then, aesthetically, it just seems to want to annoy me as much as possible. The unnecessarily bombastic music drowns out the character's speech worse than an episode of Doctor Who. The prologue is full of so much boring, badly written background story that it feels like someone's attempted to take one of The Witcher novels and verbally dictate it to me as a method of storytelling. And no character so far has seemed capable of pulling any kind of facial expression whatsoever ...

... including Triss at the beginning, and Geralt was getting it on with her for God's sake. As if the T&A being so gratuitous wasn't bad enough, the owner of said T&A has all the facial expression of the love doll she appears to be being used as; this is 2011 now, and there's absolutely no excuse for your characters looking that wooden. Half Life 2 had good looking facial expressions, and that was 7 years ago. And sorry, while we're in the spoilered section, when Geralt and Triss get stuck in the area because of the attack, and Geralt basically turns to Triss and says "Well, looks like we're stuck here. Wanna go to my tent and fuck?" ... there's no words for how cringeworthy that was.

And when we get onto the story, the game's fallen into exactly the same narrative hole that it did in its predecessor; I have no idea why I'm bothering. In the first game I was merely told to go track down some random group of men who took something that's supposedly meant to be very important. It's happening again in this game, I can feel it ... the motivation is pretty much summed up in "He's the King, so I'm going to fight for him and go through all this crap for him". I really don't care about what's going on, despite the game seemingly wanting me to; it's given me nothing to care about.

Just like the first game, people rush to say "try this and try that, get through to this bit, you'll love it then" ... that didn't happen with the first game, and I don't see it happening here, and I really came into this one with an open mind considering all the good things I heard about it. It's a very pretty game, environment wise (although it would be nicer if I was able to configure the graphics options from within the game; seriously, a game made primarily for the PC and there's no in-game graphical options?), but as a game ... I'm getting next to no enjoyment out of this so far. I'll be trying again, but phenomenal change has to happen to rescue this game from the horrible first impression its made.
 
One recommendation; craft a heap of bombs and just toss them out like candy. If you freeze a group with Samum you'll be able to wade right in and chop away. There should be a key you can bind to lock to a specific target matter what, but I'm not sure about its quirks as I just use the free look and I do not really having any specific trouble with it. Nor am I having trouble with the actions lagging... have you tried disabling vsynch?

It may just not be the game for you, but after a bit of practice I'm not having any real issues with the combat system, though I wouldn't mind a few changes here and there.
 
damnit I need this game now!!
screw paying the rent

any word on the first patch? has it hit steam yet?
 
B_MAN said:
damnit I need this game now!!
screw paying the rent

any word on the first patch? has it hit steam yet?
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About the patch:

1. Simpler and more reliable game installation and activation. Details to be revealed soon.

2. Fixed the free Troll Trouble DLC download. It is now included n the patch so there's no need to download and install it separately.

3. Fixed an issue that prevented some users from downloading other free DLCs (the ones given out with some pre-orders, special promotions, etc). The launcher now properly refreshes the list of available DLCs and allows for installation.

4. Performance improvements: approximately 5% to 30% better framerate and faster game loading for many users, depending on their individual systems and game versions. Owners of retail versions can expect the biggest improvements.

5. Fixed random crashes occurring on some systems, especially after saving and loading saves.

6. Key mapping – allows the arrow and number keys to be used for movement.

7. Added the option to invert the mouse.

8. nVidia surround vision now works properly.

9. More accurate assessment provided by the "auto-detect settings" option will help improve game performance.

10. Removed a bug that prevented completion of the “Blood Curse” quest.

11. Fixed a bug that prevented the additional link in "Extras" from being unlocked after winning the dice game against the GOG.com monk.

12. GOG.com credits now work properly.

The full list of all changes will be available upon the release of the patch.
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Destructo-Bot said:
Nor am I having trouble with the actions lagging... have you tried disabling vsynch?
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I'm not describing graphical lag, just a poorly made combat system. If I'm going to dodge, I need to be able to do it quickly ... instead dodges can only take place after your sword-attack animation/action has finished. At which point it's usually too late and you've already been hit. And don't get me started on the block function; it works when it wants to (and no, I don't mean because of the vigor system ... the switches from other actions into the block action just don't happen seemlessly, leading to situations where you're standing around like a pillock because you've pressed the block key and the game's said "No, you didn't press that the way I like. Go back and do that again.).

It's a ridiculous combat system, it really is; it's counter-intuitive, unresponsive and simply downright not fun to play. I want to be fighting with the enemy, not the controls.
 
TheOneFreeMan said:
It's a ridiculous combat system, it really is; it's counter-intuitive, unresponsive and simply downright not fun to play. I want to be fighting with the enemy, not the controls.
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Umh, you are describing the poor combat system in Witcher 1. I was hoping for something better in Witcher 2. Other opinions?
 
Paulaner said:
Umh, you are describing the poor combat system in Witcher 1. I was hoping for something better in Witcher 2. Other opinions?
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The combat system is better than the one used for the first Witcher, but it still isn't very good imo.
 
Shakermaker said:
The combat system is better than the one used for the first Witcher, but it still isn't very good imo.
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My impression as well. Its a completely different, new style of combat gameplay that has all the same problems as the first one with the added problem of not being able to stay facing your opponent.
 
Paulaner said:
Umh, you are describing the poor combat system in Witcher 1. I was hoping for something better in Witcher 2. Other opinions?
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I'm not. I'm describing the poor combat system in The Witcher 2. If it sounds exactly like all the problems which were present in The Witcher 1 ... that's the point.
 
Zxa8M.png


lol :p

That said, I think all the information you need is in your journal. Please read it.
 
Patch 1.1 Released

The Witcher 2 Becomes DRM-Free: Patch 1.1 Released
May 26, 2011, 10:57 p.m.

CD Projekt RED announces the release of Patch 1.1, which brings important improvements to The Witcher 2, the highly acclaimed game released a week ago. The most noticeable change is the removal of the DRM protection world-wide. This gives players the freedom to install and play the game on any number of computers, and no activation code is required.

Other notable improvements include frame rate increases of approximately up to 30%, especially noticeable on DRMed versions and low spec systems, better stability, and non-problematic installation of free DLCs (the first free DLC, the "Troll Trouble" quest, is incorporated into the patch), the possibility of inverting the mouse and re-mapping directional control on the keyboard, and more.

Adam Badowski, CD Projekt RED Development Director, commented, “Our goal is to make our fans and customers happy and to reward them for buying our game and DRM schemes does not support our philosophy as they might create obstacles for users of legally bought copies. Our approach to countering piracy is to incorporate superior value in the legal version. This means it has to be superior in every respect: less troublesome to use and install, with full support, and with access to additional content and services. So, we felt keeping the DRM would mainly hurt our legitimate users. This is completely in line with what we said before the release of The Witcher 2. We felt DRM was necessary to prevent the game being pirated and leaked before release. This purpose has been served, so we are pleased to let our users enjoy the full freedom of game usage they deserve.”

Badowski also explained CD Projekt RED’s stance on DRM from another perspective, "It’s important to remember that the PC platform is far more complex than consoles. DRM adds another layer of complication and potential problems. We saw this clearly in our game. Pre-release tests showed only small performance differences compared to the DRM-free (GOG.com) versions. We were unpleasantly surprised when some of our fans reported much larger differences, up to 30% lower framerates. This was another clear signal that we had to remove DRM as soon as possible – the quality of our users’ gameplay experience is absolutely our number one priority!"

Regarding the other fixes and improvements, Badowski further stated, "Patch 1.1 is also very important because it overcomes the major technical obstacles some of our customers encountered with installation and activation. We believe that after installing the patch, practically all users will be able to enjoy the game without flaws. At the same time, I would like to assure everyone that we will continue working on post- release support. Therefore, if there are things that still bother users with certain system configurations, they can expect them to be resolved soon as well. What is equally important, we are constantly reviewing feedback from our fans and looking through their requests and we will be adding new functionality and enhancements to the game to make sure gamers can enjoy the most out of the Witcher 2. We are also pleased to advise our fans who purchased the Russian-language edition that (contrary to what we communicated earlier) Patch 1.1 will function for them.”

The Witcher 2 users may download Patch 1.1 only via manual download from here (Patch 1.1 will not download through auto-patching system from the game Launcher).
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The patch is ****ing huge wtf. Steam started downloading it an hour ago, and I've probably been getting 1.5MB/s the whole time. I am now for sure, and I've still got 30 mins left.
 
taviow said:
Zxa8M.png


lol :p

That said, I think all the information you need is in your journal. Please read it.
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That's funny, I never had any problems with combat in Witcher 1, maybe that's because I read the manual while the game was installing, rather than expect a tutorial to hand hold me through the game. Witcher 2 is another matter entirely - I prefer 1's combat system.
 
I don't see how combat in TW1 could be considered too hard. Game didn't even really need a manual as it's tutorial was good enough, it taught you just about everything you needed to know.
 
TheOneFreeMan said:
I'm not. I'm describing the poor combat system in The Witcher 2. If it sounds exactly like all the problems which were present in The Witcher 1 ... that's the point.
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That was my point, too. I have yet to buy the game (waiting for a price drop), so I'm interested in opinions and criticisms.
 
the very beginning really is a pain in the ass... I died like 10 times before getting by on normal
once you get a hang of the controls though it's pretty fluid and satisfying; an improvement over TW1 imho
 
I don't like the combat much at all, even though I thought I would at first. It seems like they came up with a pretty cool and satisfying system, but all of the small mistakes they made add up to make something more bad than it is good. And it's so frustrating because it's really obvious what's wrong with it, and it wouldn't be hard to fix. If they made it so you could move away from enemies without turning your back to them, made the controls properly responsive, and had a reasonable difficulty balance, it wouldn't just be less annoying, it would probably be actually fun. Right now it feels like playing on Easy is the most fun for me, because it just turns all the fights into button mashers that are impossible to lose. I normally hate games like that, but here it just gets the game's shitty, unfair combat system out of my face so I can enjoy the things the game does brilliantly. Which is pretty much everything other than combat.
 
Yeah, I was describing the game to my cousin today and telling him about the combat. Basically I said exactly what you said MultiVaC, only I think the difficulty would be fine if they had better controls. For instance, I liked Demon's Souls. DS was hard for all the right reasons. I like that you can't take on a hoard of people, that you have to think out your attacks to do any real damage, and that just a few good hits on you means you are dead. TW2 has all that, making it hard for all the right reasons. But then you add in the shitty (though more fun than TW1) combat system which is like a multiplier for the difficulty, and all the satisfaction you could get from the combat gameplay is overwhelmed by the frustration with the controls.
 
anyone played around with patch 1.2 yet? still waiting on steam version . . .
 
So honestly, is it more enjoyable on Easy or Normal? I like a challenge, but it sounds to me like the challenge comes from clunky mechanics.
 
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