Bought Witcher 2 for dirt-cheap waaaaaaaay back when, and as part of my attempt to clear out my backlog I'm finally playing it. This is my first Witcher. I just got to the first city where you're supposed to watch a dwarf hang.
Does... does it get better? The combat is garbage, the inventory system is a nightmare, the game does an absolutely terrible job of getting you up to narrative speed (I still have no idea why I'm supposed to care about the random mage Geralt boinks), there's an irritating amount of Proper Names (just call it a fucking stun bomb, for fuck's sake!), none of the characters are really grabbing me and it's unpolished as all hell. Geralt's just some generic wandering badass so far. The entire thing just strikes me as Game of Thrones Lite so far. I mean, I dig me a good WRPG but so far I'm pretty baffled at the heaps of praise the game got. Or am I missing something?
You're missing something.
That being said, not every game is for everyone! And that's okay! But "I don't get why everyone likes this popular thing" is probably not going to do you much good.
These games are ultra heavy on continuity and lore, and the combat demands that you "git gud". Witcher 2 is also infamous for its reverse difficulty. The beginning of the game is far more difficult than the end.
I'm starting to enjoy it more now that the game has eased off on the poorly-explained continuity, and I'm getting used to the Proper Names and rough edges. And I switched to easy mode.
All that said, does Witcher III improve things a lot? I'm starting to get the impression there's good stuff in Witcher 2, but it's buried under a LOT of stuff you have to endure.
Witcher 3 combat is probably the easiest to understand. Also, you need to be high on your Witcher drugs and using your gear at all times for any game. You're not a Knight, so don't fight like one. Cheat like a bastard.
I never did get to follow that storyline all the way through.
I found the one guy who was torturing prostitutes with a hot poker and took him out. Then later there were hints that he was a red herring and the real culprit was still out there but it never seemed to go anywhere.
Bought Witcher 2 for dirt-cheap waaaaaaaay back when, and as part of my attempt to clear out my backlog I'm finally playing it. This is my first Witcher. I just got to the first city where you're supposed to watch a dwarf hang.
Does... does it get better? The combat is garbage, the inventory system is a nightmare, the game does an absolutely terrible job of getting you up to narrative speed (I still have no idea why I'm supposed to care about the random mage Geralt boinks), there's an irritating amount of Proper Names (just call it a fucking stun bomb, for fuck's sake!), none of the characters are really grabbing me and it's unpolished as all hell. Geralt's just some generic wandering badass so far. The entire thing just strikes me as Game of Thrones Lite so far. I mean, I dig me a good WRPG but so far I'm pretty baffled at the heaps of praise the game got. Or am I missing something?
You're missing something.
That being said, not every game is for everyone! And that's okay! But "I don't get why everyone likes this popular thing" is probably not going to do you much good.
These games are ultra heavy on continuity and lore, and the combat demands that you "git gud". Witcher 2 is also infamous for its reverse difficulty. The beginning of the game is far more difficult than the end.
I'm starting to enjoy it more now that the game has eased off on the poorly-explained continuity, and I'm getting used to the Proper Names and rough edges. And I switched to easy mode.
All that said, does Witcher III improve things a lot? I'm starting to get the impression there's good stuff in Witcher 2, but it's buried under a LOT of stuff you have to endure.
I could never get into Witcher 2 but absolutely and completely loved Witcher 3.
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Iron WeaselDillon!You son of a bitch!Registered Userregular
Bought Witcher 2 for dirt-cheap waaaaaaaay back when, and as part of my attempt to clear out my backlog I'm finally playing it. This is my first Witcher. I just got to the first city where you're supposed to watch a dwarf hang.
Does... does it get better? The combat is garbage, the inventory system is a nightmare, the game does an absolutely terrible job of getting you up to narrative speed (I still have no idea why I'm supposed to care about the random mage Geralt boinks), there's an irritating amount of Proper Names (just call it a fucking stun bomb, for fuck's sake!), none of the characters are really grabbing me and it's unpolished as all hell. Geralt's just some generic wandering badass so far. The entire thing just strikes me as Game of Thrones Lite so far. I mean, I dig me a good WRPG but so far I'm pretty baffled at the heaps of praise the game got. Or am I missing something?
You're missing something.
That being said, not every game is for everyone! And that's okay! But "I don't get why everyone likes this popular thing" is probably not going to do you much good.
These games are ultra heavy on continuity and lore, and the combat demands that you "git gud". Witcher 2 is also infamous for its reverse difficulty. The beginning of the game is far more difficult than the end.
I'm starting to enjoy it more now that the game has eased off on the poorly-explained continuity, and I'm getting used to the Proper Names and rough edges. And I switched to easy mode.
All that said, does Witcher III improve things a lot? I'm starting to get the impression there's good stuff in Witcher 2, but it's buried under a LOT of stuff you have to endure.
I could never get into Witcher 2 but absolutely and completely loved Witcher 3.
Similarly, I never played the first two games, but I gladly played 100+ hours of W3.
It ain't perfect, but it's damned good. I'm very excited for Blood & Wine.
Currently Playing:
The Division, Warframe (XB1)
GT: Tanith 6227
I never did get to follow that storyline all the way through.
I found the one guy who was torturing prostitutes with a hot poker and took him out. Then later there were hints that he was a red herring and the real culprit was still out there but it never seemed to go anywhere.
Yep, because you jumped the gun and killed the wrong guy. :P
I never did get to follow that storyline all the way through.
I found the one guy who was torturing prostitutes with a hot poker and took him out. Then later there were hints that he was a red herring and the real culprit was still out there but it never seemed to go anywhere.
Yep, because you jumped the gun and killed the wrong guy. :P
You know, actual consequences in story telling.
I still fucking killed that asshole though. Fuck that guy.
The mortician fellah who was going around pouring acid down people's throats.
Nah.
There's an order of vampires called higher vampires in the game's vernacular, which is basically all the vampires that are close to human intelligence
Genuine High Vampires are a particular species that are unbelievably rare, and Geralt would not stand a god damn chance against one of them in a fight, not even a little bit. He meets one in the books and there's an understanding between them that if the vampire ever got it in his mind to kill Geralt then Geralt would be a corpse
I know he doesn't align with the High Vampire we see in the books, but he is described as a higher vampire and then the Bestiality Entry for Higher Vampires opens with a quote from Emil Regis. Also there's the shapeshifting and the fact that Geralt's medallion doesn't jingle when he meets him. I think the designers intended him to be one, but nerfed them for the sake of the game.
Bought Witcher 2 for dirt-cheap waaaaaaaay back when, and as part of my attempt to clear out my backlog I'm finally playing it. This is my first Witcher. I just got to the first city where you're supposed to watch a dwarf hang.
Does... does it get better? The combat is garbage, the inventory system is a nightmare, the game does an absolutely terrible job of getting you up to narrative speed (I still have no idea why I'm supposed to care about the random mage Geralt boinks), there's an irritating amount of Proper Names (just call it a fucking stun bomb, for fuck's sake!), none of the characters are really grabbing me and it's unpolished as all hell. Geralt's just some generic wandering badass so far. The entire thing just strikes me as Game of Thrones Lite so far. I mean, I dig me a good WRPG but so far I'm pretty baffled at the heaps of praise the game got. Or am I missing something?
You're missing something.
That being said, not every game is for everyone! And that's okay! But "I don't get why everyone likes this popular thing" is probably not going to do you much good.
These games are ultra heavy on continuity and lore, and the combat demands that you "git gud". Witcher 2 is also infamous for its reverse difficulty. The beginning of the game is far more difficult than the end.
I'm starting to enjoy it more now that the game has eased off on the poorly-explained continuity, and I'm getting used to the Proper Names and rough edges. And I switched to easy mode.
All that said, does Witcher III improve things a lot? I'm starting to get the impression there's good stuff in Witcher 2, but it's buried under a LOT of stuff you have to endure.
I could never get into Witcher 2 but absolutely and completely loved Witcher 3.
Just dropping back to this discussion to say that yeah, I played through 2 but could not see what the fuss was about. I really was just forcing myself to play through it because I'd got 3 with my Xbox and didn't want that to go to waste, but so much about 2 didn't connect with me, and from the tutorial, I kind of got the impression that it felt the same about me, like it really didn't want me to be playing it anyway (spent half the game trying to figure out how to make the health potion you whip up in the tutorial, before realising you couldn't).
Then I started 3 and it's a completely different game! The combat feels fun. I use potions where I didn't before, because gathering ingredients and using them is so much less of a hassle, and potions replenish when you meditate (provided you have alcohol, so always have alcohol). Everything about it is an improvement over 2 in ways that addressed my complaints and improved in ways I wasn't expecting.
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KadokenGiving Ends to my Friends and it Feels StupendousRegistered Userregular
So I was going through NG+, made it to Velen, and for the first time ran into the Taxes Guy. Now I don't know if this can happen in any playthrough, but I never met him in my first playthrough. Yet somehow I got a perfect score... and the certificate. Is that normal?
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Zxerolfor the smaller pieces, my shovel wouldn't doso i took off my boot and used my shoeRegistered Userregular
So I was going through NG+, made it to Velen, and for the first time ran into the Taxes Guy. Now I don't know if this can happen in any playthrough, but I never met him in my first playthrough. Yet somehow I got a perfect score... and the certificate. Is that normal?
He was added in Hearts of Stone, IIRC. As long as you answer correctly, you can get the certificate. It's strictly honor system, like the section where you can declare illicit income on your IRS forms.
Easily the best game I've played in years. My only criticism would be that combat could be a little better and that the Skellige part of the main quest's pacing, writing and design feel kind of rushed.
I think the presentation of Skellige was hindered by the nature of its environment, such that a player is more likely to push through the "main quest" content and not let it "breathe" in a similar manner to how players treat Velen. Also, I really love all the quests pertaining to the heirs and the bears.
Agreed; the game also tempts you (or at least me) into hanging around Novigrad for far longer than is necessary for the main quests there. I got to Novigrad around lvl 12-13, just popped 24 and I'm STILL doing quests there. I forced myself to go to Skellige and at least initiate the MQ line there somewhere around lvl 19. I then promptly headed back to Novigrad for more treasure and sidequesting. Was about to leave for good (or for a while), but unknowingly initiated the Carnal Sins quest, which absolutely demands to be played now before I move on to anything else major...
I haven't even scratched the surface of Skellige, or even visited Kaer Morhen yet, and I'm in the mid 20s lvl-wise.
Easily the best game I've played in years. My only criticism would be that combat could be a little better and that the Skellige part of the main quest's pacing, writing and design feel kind of rushed.
I think the presentation of Skellige was hindered by the nature of its environment, such that a player is more likely to push through the "main quest" content and not let it "breathe" in a similar manner to how players treat Velen. Also, I really love all the quests pertaining to the heirs and the bears.
Agreed; the game also tempts you (or at least me) into hanging around Novigrad for far longer than is necessary for the main quests there. I got to Novigrad around lvl 12-13, just popped 24 and I'm STILL doing quests there. I forced myself to go to Skellige and at least initiate the MQ line there somewhere around lvl 19. I then promptly headed back to Novigrad for more treasure and sidequesting. Was about to leave for good (or for a while), but unknowingly initiated the Carnal Sins quest, which absolutely demands to be played now before I move on to anything else major...
I haven't even scratched the surface of Skellige, or even visited Kaer Morhen yet, and I'm in the mid 20s lvl-wise.
I'm finding a ton of stuff I missed in Skellige in a second playthrough. That was the last zone I played, and I rushed through it the first time, so I was shocked how much more reactive and deep some of the plots were.
That said, there are elements that feel rushed and truncated in the islands. The entire conflict between the jarls on the main island has a lot of sidequest hooks, but it never really gels plus the conclusion feels rushed.
Even saying that, I wonder if there are ways to develop it in a different way. There's certainly a feeling that some sort of different path could be available, but you never get a quest or dialogue that follows through on it.
Doing a replay to prep for the DLC, I'm still impressed by the amount of player freedom and the degree with which player choice matters.
This is the first time I managed to avoid conflict with the Baron's goons at the Inn at the Crossroads — I actually had thought that you were guaranteed to have to fight them.
Doing a replay to prep for the DLC, I'm still impressed by the amount of player freedom and the degree with which player choice matters.
This is the first time I managed to avoid conflict with the Baron's goons at the Inn at the Crossroads — I actually had thought that you were guaranteed to have to fight them.
There are a lot of surprising intersections between side quests that I didn't see in the first game. There are multiple points where, if you help one person, you get more options for completing a later quest that seems entirely unrelated on first glance.
I have a 2.5GB patch downloading. Possibly a delivery of some wine?
Blood and Wine unlocks in 10 hours, but the new patch is already out. I'm trying to decide how I feel about the new interface. They've definitely traded aesthetics for usability.
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GnomeTankWhat the what?Portland, OregonRegistered Userregular
I like the new interface. It's brighter and bolder, easier to read. That said, I can imagine a lot of PC players that don't play with a controller complaining it's more consoley.
Blood and Wine is unlocked on GoG and DL'ing now. I had to go in to Extra Downloads and select the 7.9 GB DLC installer and it started the update.
GnomeTankWhat the what?Portland, OregonRegistered Userregular
edited May 2016
About 10 hours in to Blood and Wine so far. I've built my Grandmaster set (Griffin) and opened Mutations (pretty decent quest, was fun). It's a neat upgrade path, I think it's a nice addition.
I won't say why, but I highly, highly, recommend you have Superior Golden Oriole built for this content.
About 10 hours in to Blood and Wine so far. I've built my Grandmaster set (Griffin) and opened Mutations (pretty decent quest, was fun). It's a neat upgrade path, I think it's a nice addition.
I won't say why, but I highly, highly, recommend you have Superior Golden Oriole built for this content.
And without even needing to explain why, I assume Superior Black Blood is pretty important too.
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GnomeTankWhat the what?Portland, OregonRegistered Userregular
About 10 hours in to Blood and Wine so far. I've built my Grandmaster set (Griffin) and opened Mutations (pretty decent quest, was fun). It's a neat upgrade path, I think it's a nice addition.
I won't say why, but I highly, highly, recommend you have Superior Golden Oriole built for this content.
And without even needing to explain why, I assume Superior Black Blood is pretty important too.
Wouldn't hurt, though I'd say so far it's been more situational than Golden Oriole, which has been a staple potion so far for me. Disclaimer: I've been doing a lot of the side content.
e: Also, Yrden. Yrden, especially with the 6 piece Griffin buff, greatly aids with a few of the more annoying new enemy types in B&W.
Zilla36021st Century. |She/Her|Trans* Woman In Aviators Firing A Bazooka. ⚛️Registered Userregular
edited June 2016
I've only just dipped my toes into the expansion, but it seems really good thus far. Love how much more colourful Toussaint is compared to Velen.
Surprised this thread isn't more active.
They really throw you back in the deep end with that fight with Golyat (the giant) to start with, I was struggling to remember the controls for throwing bombs/switching signs etc.
Posts
I'm starting to enjoy it more now that the game has eased off on the poorly-explained continuity, and I'm getting used to the Proper Names and rough edges. And I switched to easy mode.
All that said, does Witcher III improve things a lot? I'm starting to get the impression there's good stuff in Witcher 2, but it's buried under a LOT of stuff you have to endure.
"The specified promotion code can not be used on this order. The code may have expired, or the order may not match the promotion's requirements."
Forums and reddit gave more users with this error, but no word from CD Projekt Red yet.
Was disappointed there were no "high" vampires in the base game.
I could never get into Witcher 2 but absolutely and completely loved Witcher 3.
It ain't perfect, but it's damned good. I'm very excited for Blood & Wine.
The Division, Warframe (XB1)
GT: Tanith 6227
Yep, because you jumped the gun and killed the wrong guy. :P
You know, actual consequences in story telling.
I still fucking killed that asshole though. Fuck that guy.
At any rate it's telling that you have to make sure that you found the right murdering psychopath and not just a murdering psychopath.
Fucking Novigrad...
Just as an afterthought, that guy was an asshole, and he liked to torture, but there's no evidence of him killing.
Interrogation works MUCH different in the game's era.
Isn't he the culprit that Geralt chases at the Duchess Whoeverthefuck's?
Nah.
Genuine High Vampires are a particular species that are unbelievably rare, and Geralt would not stand a god damn chance against one of them in a fight, not even a little bit. He meets one in the books and there's an understanding between them that if the vampire ever got it in his mind to kill Geralt then Geralt would be a corpse
The Division, Warframe (XB1)
GT: Tanith 6227
Vampire, so Nosferatu claws.
Just dropping back to this discussion to say that yeah, I played through 2 but could not see what the fuss was about. I really was just forcing myself to play through it because I'd got 3 with my Xbox and didn't want that to go to waste, but so much about 2 didn't connect with me, and from the tutorial, I kind of got the impression that it felt the same about me, like it really didn't want me to be playing it anyway (spent half the game trying to figure out how to make the health potion you whip up in the tutorial, before realising you couldn't).
Then I started 3 and it's a completely different game! The combat feels fun. I use potions where I didn't before, because gathering ingredients and using them is so much less of a hassle, and potions replenish when you meditate (provided you have alcohol, so always have alcohol). Everything about it is an improvement over 2 in ways that addressed my complaints and improved in ways I wasn't expecting.
He was added in Hearts of Stone, IIRC. As long as you answer correctly, you can get the certificate. It's strictly honor system, like the section where you can declare illicit income on your IRS forms.
Agreed; the game also tempts you (or at least me) into hanging around Novigrad for far longer than is necessary for the main quests there. I got to Novigrad around lvl 12-13, just popped 24 and I'm STILL doing quests there. I forced myself to go to Skellige and at least initiate the MQ line there somewhere around lvl 19. I then promptly headed back to Novigrad for more treasure and sidequesting. Was about to leave for good (or for a while), but unknowingly initiated the Carnal Sins quest, which absolutely demands to be played now before I move on to anything else major...
I haven't even scratched the surface of Skellige, or even visited Kaer Morhen yet, and I'm in the mid 20s lvl-wise.
I'm finding a ton of stuff I missed in Skellige in a second playthrough. That was the last zone I played, and I rushed through it the first time, so I was shocked how much more reactive and deep some of the plots were.
That said, there are elements that feel rushed and truncated in the islands. The entire conflict between the jarls on the main island has a lot of sidequest hooks, but it never really gels plus the conclusion feels rushed.
Even saying that, I wonder if there are ways to develop it in a different way. There's certainly a feeling that some sort of different path could be available, but you never get a quest or dialogue that follows through on it.
This is the first time I managed to avoid conflict with the Baron's goons at the Inn at the Crossroads — I actually had thought that you were guaranteed to have to fight them.
There are a lot of surprising intersections between side quests that I didn't see in the first game. There are multiple points where, if you help one person, you get more options for completing a later quest that seems entirely unrelated on first glance.
Blood and Wine unlocks in 10 hours, but the new patch is already out. I'm trying to decide how I feel about the new interface. They've definitely traded aesthetics for usability.
Blood and Wine is unlocked on GoG and DL'ing now. I had to go in to Extra Downloads and select the 7.9 GB DLC installer and it started the update.
I won't say why, but I highly, highly, recommend you have Superior Golden Oriole built for this content.
And without even needing to explain why, I assume Superior Black Blood is pretty important too.
Wouldn't hurt, though I'd say so far it's been more situational than Golden Oriole, which has been a staple potion so far for me. Disclaimer: I've been doing a lot of the side content.
e: Also, Yrden. Yrden, especially with the 6 piece Griffin buff, greatly aids with a few of the more annoying new enemy types in B&W.
Surprised this thread isn't more active.
They really throw you back in the deep end with that fight with Golyat (the giant) to start with, I was struggling to remember the controls for throwing bombs/switching signs etc.