The Witcher Officialsky Witcherovda 2 Impressiovna Threadskaia

[Mrowak]

Not as satisfying as Vanilla run as master alchemist...heheh. I think the dragon finale fight was hilarious because I didn't cast quen and the dragon couldn't kill me at all. I kept regen back to full HP.

Installed your mod, Mrowak, let's see how my Alchemist - Spellcaster build fare in my Iorveth's run.

Edit:
Hm. Felt like Godmode in Chapter 2 Cave-Run with dwarf gang. I stood still next to an exploding Rotfiend and it didn't damage me with Swallow / Gad / Vigra combo.

I also bought myself the Dragonskin armor for additional 20% trap damage multiplier.

Ha... I didn't take care of alchemist build yet. Hmm, obviously that would require removing increased armour class from Virga and decreasing Gadwall's effect significantly.

Now, how to make rotfiends blow up more 'spectacularly'?

 

[Phelot]

I actually had moments where I stopped...look around...just to make sure there's no endrega gangbang squad waiting for me behind that bush.

It's almost impossible for you to get surprise ambushed and cornered in this game. Half the time when you aggro something Geralt will say 'damn, you're ugly' or 'looks like they'll never learn' and you'll have more than enough time to position yourself or run the heck away.

The next 25% is when the monsters announce themselves like harpies screeching or gargoyles slamming onto the ground and the final 25% when you're in an underground or crypt area already looking for trouble.

Not to mention the map turns all red and the music changes. No, I can't say that I was ever in suspense playing this game. I think at first I was tricked into thinking there was danger, but after running away from a few fights, I realized that there is nothing to fear. Except for the areas that require you to press LMB to jump up. During combat, it's magically not possible for some reason.



I'm in Act 3 and stopped playing for now. It just isn't that fun anymore. I love me some BROche, but otherwise it's just gotten boring. The ACT 3 area has been very disappointing.

 

[Mangoose]

Mrowak, you should just suck it up right now and start changing the talent trees so that they give active utility abilities instead of boring shit banal passive stat bonuses. Imagine if Swordsmanship actually gave you new tactical moves. But no. Putting points in your favorite tree makes your favorite gamestyle boring instead of the opposite. (Magic tree relatively less-so than the other two trees)

 

[Elwro]

Well, I'm a bit into Act 1, so I won't read this thread not to get any spoilers, and so perhaps 100 other people already said this, but: the more I play the game, the more I dislike it. I don't think there's a single aspect which has been improved since TW 1. Perhaps the case of graphics is debatable; the former game had some style, this one is gorgeous at times. But the dialogue? It's OK, but the best lines (and conversations) so far have been those I could overhear on the street. I also dislike the generic and unusable interface - it's a hassle to do anything with it.

 

[Admiral jimbob]

Holy fuck the Kayran fight was bad.

 

[Excidium]

The last boss is worse.

 

[Grunker]

But the dialogue?.

Critize the game all you want, but criticizing the dialogue makes me wonder whether you've ever played a game where you didn't hate the dialogue with the fury of a mad Codexer. The writing is right up there with the greatest when it comes to video games. I was surprised to play an RPG in which people act like, you know, people.

 

[Quilty]

But the dialogue?.

Critize the game all you want, but criticizing the dialogue makes me wonder whether you've ever played a game where you didn't hate the dialogue with the fury of a mad Codexer. The writing is right up there with the greatest when it comes to video games. I was surprised to play an RPG in which people act like, you know, people.

The dialogue's okay. Sadly, most of the game is spent either locked in terrible, terrible combat/inventory/minigames/QTEs or picking dialogue choices that often have absolutely nothing to do with what the protagonist actually says.

It's a definite decline over the first one, and the sound of so many codexers willingly suspending their disbelief, pretending that this is not a console games, is unbrolike at the least.

 

[Phelot]

But the dialogue?.

Critize the game all you want, but criticizing the dialogue makes me wonder whether you've ever played a game where you didn't hate the dialogue with the fury of a mad Codexer. The writing is right up there with the greatest when it comes to video games. I was surprised to play an RPG in which people act like, you know, people.

Yes, I am still consistently pleased with the dialogue, though the fact that the dialogue choices don't match what is actually being said can be very annoying.

 

[Elwro]

But the dialogue?.

Critize the game all you want, but criticizing the dialogue makes me wonder whether you've ever played a game where you didn't hate the dialogue with the fury of a mad Codexer. The writing is right up there with the greatest when it comes to video games. I was surprised to play an RPG in which people act like, you know, people.

Well, e.g. the lines of the "Young one" (don't know what his name is in English; the unexperienced soldier you can help / trick in the Prologue) were extremely kitschy. Of course you're right that the writing is above the usual standard, but I was comparing it to the first game's. I loved the dialogues there. Maybe I repressed the cringeworthy parts... but the fact is that in recent days I spent some time watching my girlfriend finish TW 1 and there, in the last act, almost all conversations, even not very important ones, were fantastically written. In TW 2 up to now I find too many cases of forced vulgarity, as if the writers felt obliged to put some curses every once in a while. And I the factor that you don't know what G. will actually say before you choose the option does not contribute to the experience... but OK, perhaps I was too harsh.

 

[Mrowak]

But the dialogue?.

Critize the game all you want, but criticizing the dialogue makes me wonder whether you've ever played a game where you didn't hate the dialogue with the fury of a mad Codexer. The writing is right up there with the greatest when it comes to video games. I was surprised to play an RPG in which people act like, you know, people.

He is probably playing Polish version of the game. English's better... I mean, some Polish actors can't act for shit. Zborowski (Geralt's VA) sometimes seems to have no idea what is the right context is for his lines. Also, while I find some bits in Polish version more funny and better rooted in Polish culture, the English ones do not fall that short. Furthermore, the English voicecast (excluding godawful Triss) simply delivers.

More importantly, the translation team deserves standing ovation. While they stumble in some places, the writing easily reaches the quality of the orignial. It actually is better than 90% of the writing in games. Amongst RPGs I can name only two titles with better writing: Planescape: Torment and Betrayal at Krondor.



... still, it is evident that Sapkowski had nothing to do with the script for this game :/

 

[MasPingon]

Dialogs between characters are better in TW in all possible ways, piss poor dialog trees is what TW 1 and TW 2 have in common

 

[Grunker]

I feel differently. TW2 is better written overall, the central characters are all pretty well drawn. TW1 had better "quotes." It had some very, very well-written dialogue pieces (especially with Foltest, Radovid, Vincent, and partying/drinking with Zoltan and Dandelion), but they were few and far between. Dialogue with Kalkstein was completely out of place and lul-lul wacky, and dialogue with most non-essential characters was mediocre in its blandness.

So my input would be that TW2's dialogue is better written overall, but TW1 had the best single dialogues.

All in all though, I see absolutely no reason to complain about the writing in TW2. Foltest, Iorveth, Roche, the witcher you are hunting, and many more feel like full-fledged and consistent characters. Especially the last bit is outstanding. Few games do "full" characters - even Mass Effect 2 which had quite the writing team had some scizophrenic characterization.

Add to this Mrowak's point: Translations are terrible when bad; the first game, unpatched, was almost destroyed by this. When translation is amazing, it isn't noticable. And I didn't notice anything in TW2 with regards to translation. That means it's superb (or that the team ignored the polish stuff and just re-wrote the whole thing, but I find that to be doubtful ). So kudos for that, CDR.

The Witcher's mark of pride continues to be its writing and it's attention to detail and atmosphere. I am a gigantic storyfag (though not to the exclusion of stat-based combat, which I love), which is why I can enjoy The Witcher so much. I have full understanding that people for whom the "dialogue-gameplay" is not enough will dislike or even hate this game.

 

[Gerrard]

Bullshit. I watched some videos of the English version from the prologue (since I didn't bother installing the voices) and Foltest's voice was so bad that I stopped.

Zborowski (Geralt's VA) sometimes seems to have no idea what is the right context is for his lines.

Geralt is played by Jacek Rozenek.

 

[Mrowak]

Zborowski (Geralt's VA) sometimes seems to have no idea what is the right context is for his lines.

Geralt is played by Jacek Rozenek.

Damn, you're right! He still falls flat, at times.

 

[Grunker]

Bullshit. I watched some videos of the English version from the prologue (since I didn't bother installing the voices) and Foltest's voice was so bad that I stopped.

Sounds rough mate.

 

[sgc_meltdown]

I like the english translations for the Witcher games the same way I like the ones for the new King's Bounty games. They started with a very sound script in the native language and then translated it with as little paraphrasing as possible with frequent phrase combinations or word choices that you probably never see in the same context with native english writers.

I'm aware that a lot of people might call this awkward or weird but I find it to be very charming. The easiest and most obvious example would be the singular usage of the word 'plough'.

 

[ever]

As a person who immigrated from Eastern Europe from an early age and learned the english language faster than his parents ( so I spent a lot of time correcting their speech or for my father I still sometimes correct his business emails at his request ) the only thing I can feel when I play The Witcher is an urge to correct everything. It is very frustrating and ruined the first game for me.

King's Bounty suffered less from this problem cause it didn't try to be "cool" all the time.

 

[Rivmusique]

the factor that you don't know what G. will actually say before you choose the option does not contribute to the experience...

Fucking paraphrased dialogue is so bad. I cannot even express how much I hate it in dialogue choices. Why do game dev's think this is better than giving us the full sentences the character will speak? Bah, I blame Mass Effect...

Edited to add:

Spoiler

Does anyone know why we seem to know that the dragon is Saskia (it's in the quest info and saskia's character bio) when we go on Roach's path? I don't recall anyone actually telling me, perhaps I missed something.

 

[Multiple Sarcasm]

I'm in Act 3 and stopped playing for now. It just isn't that fun anymore. I love me some BROche, but otherwise it's just gotten boring. The ACT 3 area has been very disappointing.

Bro, it picks up after the end credits. Premature renunciation is a sign of impotato.

Seriously, though, can't say I haven't given up at the same point.
The chest puzzles were probably what killed the last of momentum I was going on. Has anyone figured them out? Couldn't see any correlation between the verses and glyphs until my patience timer run out.

 

[Rivmusique]

I'm in Act 3 and stopped playing for now. It just isn't that fun anymore. I love me some BROche, but otherwise it's just gotten boring. The ACT 3 area has been very disappointing.

Bro, it picks up after the end credits. Premature renunciation is a sign of impotato.

Seriously, though, can't say I haven't given up at the same point.
The chest puzzles were probably what killed the last of momentum I was going on. Has anyone figured them out? Couldn't see any correlation between the verses and glyphs until my patience timer run out.

Yeah I didn't get it, just trial and error'd that part.

 

[RK47]

Well, they need to point the players to some books. It's obvious that Geralt had no idea what the symbols mean, and neither do the players. The quest journal kinda suck in this game.

Quest Solution:

Visit a bookseller and read up on runes and you understand what the runes actually means instead of trial and error, you can draw some relations with the verse and the meaning behind the runes.

 

[Gragt]

Visit the various merchants and you'll find that some of them sell books under the "quest item" category. Those happen to have "runes" in the title.

 

[Multiple Sarcasm]

Visit a bookseller and read up on runes and you understand what the runes actually means instead of trial and error, you can draw some relations with the verse and the meaning behind the runes.

Visit the various merchants and you'll find that some of them sell books under the "quest item" category. Those happen to have "runes" in the title.

Cool, thanks. I didn't make it that far into Ch3 to meet any merchants and notice the books, so I just assumed the puzzles were of the obscure cryptography kind.
Silly me, this is a game with a quest compass.


Hmm, on that note, why has no one here mentioned the absence of proper verbal directions to quests as a negative point? More importantly, has Oblivion become a legitimate topic for discussion, yet? When has it become the norm here to rely on Jack Sparrow's compass?
I don't know about you, scallywags, but it definitely does a good job of distancing me from the gameworld.

 

[MicoSelva]

TW1 had better "quotes." It had some very, very well-written dialogue pieces (especially with Foltest, Radovid, Vincent, and partying/drinking with Zoltan and Dandelion), but they were few and far between.

And all the good ones of these were taken directly from the books. Case closed.
Writing is one of the things improved over the first game and I can't understand how people can defend Twitcher 1 in this regard (not only here, I also mean some of my offline friends). I liked the plot* and the characters of the second game much more (except maybe Thaler - he was cool).

* the plot only until the ending

Spoiler

Invasion by Nilfgaard? Really? I thought we were done with recycling the plot from the book saga?

As for dialogues (if only they were proper dialogues, not "click once, watch cutscene"...) they were believeable and well-written enough to provide entertainment together with information. Not at Sapkowski's level, but still good enough - a little better than the first game.

Concerning dialogue wheel, which is present in Twitcher 2 in everything but visual form. I really don't get it. Seriously, I don't. What is the problem with presenting a summary of all dialogue option ina dialogue wheel (ME)/list (TW2) AND have a dialogue box which would present the more verbose version of currently highlighted option? Is it really that hard to implement or what?

BTW, complaining about the chest puzzles is retarded. You get a puzzle and don't see any immediate way of solving it = game design is bad? Are You fucking kidding me?