The Witcher Officialsky Witcherovda 2 Impressiovna Threadskaia

[Havoc]

I may feel inclined* to scribble a review even, but I don't have proper screenshots made at semi-decent settings.

Still have TW2 on the drive. I could help you with the screenshots.

 

[DraQ]

I may feel inclined* to scribble a review even, but I don't have proper screenshots made at semi-decent settings.

Still have TW2 on the drive. I could help you with the screenshots.

Maybe after* I muster myself to do the thing.


*) or if.


BTW:
What are your impressions of the game?
(Sorry, >70 pages of dicksuction, search only partly functional.)

 

[Havoc]

Graphics are beatiful.
Characters aren't 2D.
Politics are great and you can get revenge on those that played you.
Combat is fast, console like, but for me it isn't that important. So I can get to the story which is great.

It's sad that they didn't do more with the game (like C&C, social skills, more exploring etc). Expanded and made more choices matter in the long run.

For me it's the best RPG in 2011. One of the best stories in a game that I experienced. I'm glad that I bought the CE edition.

Overall: It's a great game. It's nowhere near perfect. If I had to give it a score... 4/5 or 8/10. Could very well be one of the classics* for me.

* And by that I mean that I will come back to the game on later date, to play it again and again.

(2:30 AM here, so sorry for lack of deph in my summary )

 

[DraQ]

Graphics are beatiful.
Characters aren't 2D.
Politics are great and you can get revenge on those that played you.
Combat is fast, console like, but for me it isn't that important. So I can get to the story which is great.

It's sad that they didn't do more with the game (like C&C, social skills, more exploring etc). Expanded and made more choices matter in the long run.

For me it's the best RPG in 2011. One of the best stories in a game that I experienced. I'm glad that I bought the CE edition.

Overall: It's a great game. It's nowhere near perfect. If I had to give it a score... 4/5 or 8/10. Could very well be one of the classics* for me.

* And by that I mean that I will come back to the game on later date, to play it again and again.

Pretty much the same here. There are numerous inexcusable flaws and derpy ideas, but thankfully they form the surface and don't reach the core. OTOH I liked the combat (when the controls didn't decide to have minute for themselves), since it required much more participation on part of the player than in TW1 and felt more like actual combat.

One thing puzzles me, though - controls were apparently designed to be easily adaptable to a gaypad - how the fuck are you going to play it with a gaypad when I almost ran out of easily accessible keys on my KB when configuring the controls? Is the idea here to mash the menu more often than the attack button?
Because playing TW2 without having separate keys for every sign is just awkward, as I've discovered.

(2:30 AM here, so sorry for lack of deph in my summary )

Same time zone here, man, same country.

Also, obligatory:

Spoiler

- convinced Aryan to surrender
- gave Triss a bath in the ruins
- gave Iorweth sword pissing off BROche
- sided with Iorweth
- let prince Penis live for pretty much the reasons spelled out in the cutscene
- helped Iorweth Saskia
- after lengthy consideration killed Letho, due to the bloody mess he made in the northern kingdoms and because I felt I owed BROche at least this

 

[Mrowak]

Graphics are beatiful.
Characters aren't 2D.
Politics are great and you can get revenge on those that played you.
Combat is fast, console like, but for me it isn't that important. So I can get to the story which is great.

It's sad that they didn't do more with the game (like C&C, social skills, more exploring etc). Expanded and made more choices matter in the long run.

For me it's the best RPG in 2011. One of the best stories in a game that I experienced. I'm glad that I bought the CE edition.

Overall: It's a great game. It's nowhere near perfect. If I had to give it a score... 4/5 or 8/10. Could very well be one of the classics* for me.

* And by that I mean that I will come back to the game on later date, to play it again and again.

I also liked the game, but after a couple of lengthy discussions here and 4 playthroughs (you've got to play it 7 times to declare it's shit after all ), I can't help but feel disappointed. My qualms with it are similar to yours plus:

* The fucking cutscenes in flash, man. I'm not talking about the art direction in them (which was shitty), but the fact that they spoonfed you with large chunks of the story that should have been gameplay. Instead of the player trying to figure out Geralt's past by doing some quests, asking people around and shit, we get some arbitrary, phrases which appear almost completely out of context (hydra's gorge, isle of apples) triggering almost totally disconected memories which explain just like that, the one thing that could have provided the game with a sense of mystery and awe. It's evident that none of the devs ever played Planescape.

* C&C. I succumbed to Vault Dweller's propaganda and say that C&C in TW2 aren't what I was hoping for. Sure, the story-fork in Ch 2 is pretty impressive but it's just that. 16 endings my arse! Goddamn, there have been pure console action adventure games (which had better gameplay than TW2) that done C&C better than this shit . I expressed my butthurt over this in more detail on TW2 boards, here:

http://en.thewitcher.com/forum/index.php?/topic/22927-on-the-fakeness-of-cc-in-tw2-in-the-end/

Pretty much the same here. There are numerous inexcusable flaws and derpy ideas, but thankfully they form the surface and don't reach the core. OTOH I liked the combat (when the controls didn't decide to have minute for themselves), since it required much more participation on part of the player than in TW1 and felt more like actual combat.

I would have liked the combat if it weren't about Quen spam and Roll-Playing. Also, playing with gamepad I didn't notice any major slow-ups

One thing puzzles me, though - controls were apparently designed to be easily adaptable to a gaypad - how the fuck are you going to play it with a gaypad when I almost ran out of easily accessible keys on my KB when configuring the controls? Is the idea here to mash the menu more often than the attack button?

Normally. I had all the keys mapped on my Microsoft pad (honestly, the only good thing Microsoft has added to ShitBox).

Because playing TW2 without having separate keys for every sign is just awkward, as I've discovered.

You don't really need to switch between spells that often - Quen and Aard are enough - and, once you get used to controls, you can swith the signs on the fly.

 

[DraQ]

* The fucking cutscenes in flash, man. I'm not talking about the art direction in them (which was shitty), but the fact that they spoonfed you with large chunks of the story that should have been gameplay. Instead of the player trying to figure out Geralt's past by doing some quests, asking people around and shit, we get some arbitrary, phrases which appear almost completely out of context (hydra's gorge, isle of apples) triggering almost totally disconected memories which explain just like that, the one thing that could have provided the game with a sense of mystery and awe. It's evident that none of the devs ever played Planescape.

Well, at least some of them are triggered by the events in game or dialogue mentioning stuff, so derpy art direction aside, flashbacks weren't bad.

* C&C. I succumbed to Vault Dweller's propaganda and say that C&C in TW2 aren't what I was hoping for. Sure, the story-fork in Ch 2 is pretty impressive but it's just that. 16 endings my arse! Goddamn, there have been pure console action adventure games (which had better gameplay than TW2) that done C&C better than this shit . I expressed my butthurt over this in more detail on TW2 boards, here:

http://en.thewitcher.com/forum/index.php?/topic/22927-on-the-fakeness-of-cc-in-tw2-in-the-end/

I don't exactly agree. While the third act was visibly rushed (thankfully in terms of content, not quality) and some more immediate consequences (meaning those manifesting in the endgame itself) would have been welcome, Triss non-consequence was caused by the limitations of storyfag design, more than anything else. It's evident that the devs have a sequel in mind and that it'll allow savegame import, so I guess they couldn't let a major character die or otherwise become unavailable like this without having to duplicate nearly the entirety of their next game. Meeting with Letho, OTOH was the culminating point whole plot was leading to so it was inevitable - we're speaking of storyfag game, not a sandbox one here.

The second act was definitely not fake in terms of C&C, so accusing the game of failing on C&C front isn't exactly justified.

I would have liked the combat if it weren't about Quen spam and Roll-Playing.

Well, quen is definitely overpowered compared to all the other signs (or other signs are nerfed) and should be more balanced, same with blocking being of little worth, but I liked that the game emphasized mobility in combat, with enemies actively trying to stab you in the kidneys.

Also, playing with gamepad I didn't notice any major slow-ups

Get out of here stalker.

You don't really need to switch between spells that often - Quen and Aard are enough - and, once you get used to controls, you can swith the signs on the fly.

Even if you're just switching between Quen and another sign all the time, you're still switching all the time.

Also, since there is no way to specialize exclusively in a single sign, the game really does benefit from mixing and matching, which is awkward without 5 different cast buttons.

 

[Monocause]

I'm currently in the middle of my first playthrough - II act, BRoche's path, just crossed the mist.

I call bullshit on the folks that said you can finish the game without spending talents and upgrading skills. Perhaps you could if you resorted to total cheese like spamming bombs or quen all the time, but seems to me that quen received a solid nerf in one of the patches and bombs ain't almighty either, especially since I already started lacking some of the ingredients (aether especially) even though I've been pretty thorough. Even if you would spam you'll still get surrounded sooner or later. Game's difficulty on hard gave me multiple pleasant FFFFUUUU moments like:

Spoiler

In the caves under Vergen where you're supposed to meet Zoltan I've encountered a Bullvore accompanied by a greater rotfiend. I killed two bullvores earlier (one during the little sisters quest that I botched). Bullvores aren't that tough, trouble was there was no space to outmaneuver it in that tunnel. Had a couple of really tense moments during which the bullvore&rotfiend duo took my 500+ health (I drank a Raffard's prior to entering the tunnels) to measly 50, meaning that a single hit would be my demise. I finally managed to kill the Bullvore and then wanted to quickly aard the rotfiend; the stress got to me however, and instead of pressing "q" i clicked the right mouse button, having Geralt slash the air like an idiot. What's even worse is that it meant I left my back exposed to the rotfiend. The monster happily om-nom-nom'd Geralt, game over.

OR:

The fight during the Conspiracy Theory quest in that cellar the whore opens for you. It was difficult even with maxed aard or reasonably liberal (ie. not cheesy) bomb usage as the fucker with the chainmail would always somehow get behind my back

And some pretty angry FFFUUU moments like:

Spoiler

the beginning of Roche's Act II when not only you can't drink a potion or make some specter oil but you can't even save the fucking game, forcing you to do some crazy leaping to conserve health since every hit lowers your chances of surviving the next bloody time the wraiths start holding Dethmold

OR:

The first Letho fight.

Still, hugely enjoying the game. I miss a large city to roam around like Vizima in TW1 but I like TW2's story more and the beautiful, beautiful environments do make up for it somewhat. I'll probably write a large review in Lolish in hopes to have it published once I finish my second playthrough, will translate the relevant parts (as it will mostly consist of philosoraptoring about modern games in general) of it for the Codex, with some fluff like design critique added.

One thing I can say now is that CDPR seems to be fucked in their game design department. And I mean - literally. The dev group obviously has very talented artists, writers, decent programmers - what they lack, it seems, is people who could design a decent game system in which all the numbers, skills, items and stuff like crafting would click together nicely. As it is now skills and skill trees are lacking balance (the alchemist one being pretty crap compared to the other two unless you like spamming bombs which is basically cheating), crafting is lacklustre (why provide the player with so much crafting material if there's only a couple of diagrams worth using). Armor enhancements are a joke (why would you use anything other than dwarven/diamond reinforcements?). One of the five runes available - the sun rune - is totally useless and a waste of a rune slot. Weapons, armor and trophies should give you a way to specialise your character further - as it is now they provide you with a pretty linear progression, with a notable exception of the three meteorite silver swords which I keep at all times and switch between them with specialised runes fit in (fe. the blue meteorite has two moon runes to increase the sign damage further, a sword for slashing adds +50 vit etc). Still, I get the feeling that I'll find a sword which will trump them all soon. Also, the "additional weapons" are absolutely useless in the game; please give me a reason to keep them and use them. Why not make blunt weapons useful by giving them a bonus towards heavily armored opponents? A chance to stun is nice but is far from making up for the significantly lessened damage output.

More once I'm done with the game. Props to CDPR anyway for making a game that I truly enjoy, multiple flaws notwithstanding.

BTW:

Spoiler

I absolutely loved the LSD trip during the Visionary quest ;D ;D

 

[Gerrard]

As it is now skills and skill trees are lacking balance (the alchemist one being pretty crap compared to the other two unless you like spamming bombs which is basically cheating)

Yeah, the whole problem is they made those 3 "paths". If they focused on sword fighting (like they should have, because this game is called The fucking Witcher, not Suicide Bomber on Drugs) and only have alchemy and sign skills as secondary extras, they could have made the combat better without the need to accommodate for completely different builds.

 

[Ulminati]

What are your impressions of the game?
(Sorry, >70 pages of dicksuction, search only partly functional.)

Boring, Banal, Shit. But polandtards seem to love it.

 

[el Supremo]

I liked how Witcher 2 didn't have the sex cards, I remember having some friends over and showing them the game, then for some insane reason I showed them the sex cards... one of them, a girl, said "That is really dodgy" and suddenly I felt ashamed. I still feel that way when I talk about that game, it makes it look really stupid.

Can anyone please explain it to me? Why sexcards are so much worse then sex cutscenes?
I'm not asking this in any kind of confrontational way; I'm genuiely curious about reasoning behind all that.
I used to joke about prudish Americans, but there must be more to it. I kind of understand why someone may be against any sex in video games. But if I was more prudish, I think I'd be much more offended by sex animations, then mere still images.
And, judging by internet's reaction, it is the other way around.
Maybe it is my blind spot. Maybe it is mild case of culture shock. But I cannot twist my mind enough to understand the reaction these quite innocent paintings have caused. Some people (not here) have literally been up in arms about it.
Is there any kind soul, wiling to shed some light on this mystery?

 

[DraQ]

I liked how Witcher 2 didn't have the sex cards, I remember having some friends over and showing them the game, then for some insane reason I showed them the sex cards... one of them, a girl, said "That is really dodgy" and suddenly I felt ashamed. I still feel that way when I talk about that game, it makes it look really stupid.

Can anyone please explain it to me? Why sexcards are so much worse then sex cutscenes?
I'm not asking this in any kind of confrontational way; I'm genuiely curious about reasoning behind all that.
I used to joke about prudish Americans, but there must be more to it. I kind of understand why someone may be against any sex in video games. But if I was more prudish, I think I'd be much more offended by sex animations, then mere still images.
And, judging by internet's reaction, it is the other way around.
Maybe it is my blind spot. Maybe it is mild case of culture shock. But I cannot twist my mind enough to understand the reaction these quite innocent paintings have caused. Some people (not here) have literally been up in arms about it.
Is there any kind soul, wiling to shed some light on this mystery?

Sure. Sex scenes, whether veiled or overt are integral part of the plot, sex cards are tacked on fap-fodder.

You can discuss whether the sex scenes in TW2 are an attempt to appeal to lowest common denominator and whether they would be better and more if they were more in the vein of sex scenes from TW1.

With sex cards there is simply no room for such discussion.

 

[Monocause]

Yeah, the whole problem is they made those 3 "paths". If they focused on sword fighting (like they should have, because this game is called The fucking Witcher, not Suicide Bomber on Drugs) and only have alchemy and sign skills as secondary extras, they could have made the combat better without the need to accommodate for completely different builds.

I disagree. The general idea along with the amount of talents you can get in-game was quite neat. In theory the three paths would cater to three different playstyles. The alchemist path is quite cool in concept - imagine making a character that can get insanely powerful through mixing the right potions, oils and throwing bombs but is quite weak without them.

As it is right now you can just get the three useful talents from the alchemist tree (bomb upgrade, vitality upgrade, potion duration upgrade) and forget about it. The adrenaline skill sucks dwarf cock when compared to heliotrope or group finishers and potions are generally unreliable as you can't just quaff them during the fight like in the first game.

The swordsman does play differently from a magician and many skills are rather interesting so I wouldn't call the character development a total disaster. It's just underwhelming and could be much, much better. If you want to see a character system truly botched just check out Divinity 2. As much as I liked the game the skill system was unequivocally crap.

Can anyone please explain it to me? Why sexcards are so much worse then sex cutscenes?

I never had anything agains sex cards or TW2 sex scenes - or any sort of unobtrusive sex-related stuff shown in the media (within reason, of course, guess I wouldn't appreciate if Daisy the duck suddenly started flashing tits). If it's done tastefully (unlike in, say, ME games where it resembles a finale of a really campy cheap romance flick) and in an aesthetically pleasing way (ie. nice models, not pornographic) then I can't really get why people get so worked up about them. I also never felt embarrassed in front of my GF or even my mother that there are sex scenes in the games I play, nor did I hear snarky comments or have been given any actual reason to feel embarrassed.
It also never occurred to me that the sex scenes might be seriously considered 'a marketing tactic'. Even as a teenager my interest in a movie or game didn't grow just because it had tits in it; if I wanted to jerk off I browsed some porn. Sex-related stuff was, and is, nice fluff - but fluff nevertheless. No pun intended.

I struggle even more to understand adult males who get jumpy when shown tits in-game. Someone should tell them that tits are cool. They make the world a better place.

So yeah, cultural differences probably. In these parts no one commented on tits in TW, and it's not because of a patriotic duty - we love biting each other in the arse. Not even the feminist circles bothered.

 

[DraQ]

As it is right now you can just get the three useful talents from the alchemist tree (bomb upgrade, vitality upgrade, potion duration upgrade) and forget about it. The adrenaline skill sucks dwarf cock when compared to heliotrope or group finishers and potions are generally unreliable as you can't just quaff them during the fight like in the first game.

The main problem with potions and oils is that they have hilariously short duration.
The ability to quaff them on the fly would also be nice (maybe with reduced effectiveness, increased penalties and shorter duration, since you'd drink them without preparation), as you can't always anticipate when the hell will break lose.

It's especially painful when you want to prepare before a decisive fight, then a lengthy cutscene occurs, then all your buffs have worn off and you have to fight a boss without potions making alchemy talents complete waste in many fights where you need them the most.

Problem, alchemyfags?


Also bombs are too versatile (since overpowered doesn't describe the actual problem - bombs should be powerful after all, especially compared to signs that don't require preparation nor resources).

I never had anything agains sex cards or TW2 sex scenes

Well, sex cards were pretty lame because they were such an obvious tack-on. Sex scenes might be arguably more classy if they were less overt, but I'm not a prude and don't have any problems staring at Triss' pubes or boobs.

 

[Monocause]

Well, sex cards were pretty lame because they were such an obvious tack-on.

That's true, and I agree. However I seriously do not understand why some people felt the cards are a reasonable target for critique as they were optional content that you could instantly skip. TW2 sex scenes taken together take more gameplay time than all of the TW1 sex cards combined.

I agree with the sentiment that they were meh. If someone writes dozens of paragraphs about them then I guess a certain Ziggy should talk to them about their mothers.


Anyway, one thing about sex-related stuff in TW2 is that I have to applaud CDPR for making all the female characters described as 'beautiful' in the narrative beautiful indeed without resorting to cheap tricks like huge boobs. Bioware should learn a thing or two here what makes an instantly nailable virtual character.

One can also presume (since TW2 throws heaps of hints) that TW3 will feature Yennefer. I wholeheartedly support the idea of basing Yen's model on Wolszczak. Criticise the TV series as you will, but when it comes to acting and casting it was top-notch most of the time. Still can't forgive them for making the pitiful dragon scene. Basing Yennefer on Wolszczak will add to the CDPR's astounding success of making every single sorceress in the game instantly nailable, as it should be according to Sapkowski's prose.

For all you western types who aren't necessarily convinced by the photo, check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUJOwe1UC64

Yen's appearing at about 2:30.

 

[DraQ]

Well, sex cards were pretty lame because they were such an obvious tack-on.

That's true, and I agree. However I seriously do not understand why some people felt the cards are a reasonable target for critique as they were optional content that you could instantly skip.

That's true but you could say the same if the game shipped with an optional furry replacer or gay Geralt mod.

Being optional doesn't mean being exempt from criticism.

TW2 sex scenes taken together take more gameplay time than all of the TW1 sex cards combined.

You can skip them as well if you wish. Witcher 2 sex scenes are at least less plentiful and tie-in with the story. Plus I lul'd heartily at that Scoia'tael dwarf hearing Geralt and Triss in the bath below.

Criticise the TV series as you will, but when it comes to acting and casting it was top-notch most of the time.

I won't.
I avoided the series like plague since the film made me really queasy.

Spoiler

"Geralt. Geralt."

Still can't forgive them for making the pitiful dragon scene.

Was it essentially the same as in the film?

I simultaneously laughed, facepalmed and raged when I saw the latter.

Basing Yennefer on Wolszczak will add to the CDPR's astounding success of making every single sorceress in the game instantly nailable, as it should be according to Sapkowski's prose.

 

[sgc_meltdown]

For all you western types who aren't necessarily convinced by the photo, check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUJOwe1UC64

ooooh it's a polish claudia black

with voice to match

 

[Monocause]

Being optional doesn't mean being exempt from criticism.

Not saying about exemption, my point is that the effort some of the West have put into criticising a really marginal aspect of the game is weird, to put it mildly.

I avoided the series like plague since the film made me really queasy.

I avoided the film like plague since it was made by cutting 13 50-minute long episodes of the series into a 2-hour long movie. You know that nothing good can come out when you've basically cut 9 hours out of film. The series weren't that bad and fortunately

Spoiler

"Geralt. Geralt."

Ciri was a relatively minor character in the series. Check them out, you can start with the fifth episode I linked earlier. One of the better ep's.

Was it essentially the same as in the film?

I simultaneously laughed, facepalmed and raged when I saw the latter.

Yeah, the same. Whomever thought that 10 years ago extremely low-cost CGI was the way to go should die painfully. Fortunately I think that's the only episode in which CGI was used extensively.

I still don't get how could they consider it a good idea. The whole series have a theatrical vibe as the monsters Geralt fights are basically never really shown and it works. I'd wager it was like this: they paid a 'studio' for making the dragon, the dragon turned out to be extreme crap so they cancelled the deal with the studio (hence no more digital monsters) but had the episode completed and had to use the dragon since otherwise the episode couldn't be salvaged even with extensive montage - all the scenes were directed with the dragon in mind.

 

[DraQ]

Was it essentially the same as in the film?

I simultaneously laughed, facepalmed and raged when I saw the latter.

Yeah, the same. Whomever thought that 10 years ago extremely low-cost CGI was the way to go should die painfully. Fortunately I think that's the only episode in which CGI was used extensively.

I still don't get how could they consider it a good idea. The whole series have a theatrical vibe as the monsters Geralt fights are basically never really shown and it works. I'd wager it was like this: they paid a 'studio' for making the dragon, the dragon turned out to be extreme crap so they cancelled the deal with the studio (hence no more digital monsters) but had the episode completed and had to use the dragon since otherwise the episode couldn't be salvaged even with extensive montage - all the scenes were directed with the dragon in mind.

What was really retarded was that dragon was also extremely derp from the art design point of view. Had they designed a good looking dragon, it might have withstood even being crappy and obviously low-tech CGI while still being cool, but looking the way it was, it simply had no chance.

 

[WhiskeyWolf]

http://steamcommunity.com/stats/TheWitc ... ievements/

Somebody actually managed to finish this game on Insane.

 

[sgc_meltdown]

I wouldn't rule out memory hacks

 

[WhiskeyWolf]

True.

 

[Admiral jimbob]

It kind of frightens me that less than 3/4 players complete the fucking prologue.

 

[sgc_meltdown]

It kind of frightens me that less than 3/4 players complete the fucking prologue.

http://steamcommunity.com/stats/Avadon/achievements

 

[Storyfag]

Was it essentially the same as in the film?

I simultaneously laughed, facepalmed and raged when I saw the latter.

Yeah, the same. Whomever thought that 10 years ago extremely low-cost CGI was the way to go should die painfully. Fortunately I think that's the only episode in which CGI was used extensively.

I still don't get how could they consider it a good idea. The whole series have a theatrical vibe as the monsters Geralt fights are basically never really shown and it works. I'd wager it was like this: they paid a 'studio' for making the dragon, the dragon turned out to be extreme crap so they cancelled the deal with the studio (hence no more digital monsters) but had the episode completed and had to use the dragon since otherwise the episode couldn't be salvaged even with extensive montage - all the scenes were directed with the dragon in mind.

What was really retarded was that dragon was also extremely derp from the art design point of view.

Behold their likely inspiration!

Basing Yennefer on Wolszczak will add to the CDPR's astounding success of making every single sorceress in the game instantly nailable, as it should be according to Sapkowski's prose.

The problem with Wolszczak is her height. She's quite tall, completely unlike Yennefer.

 

[DraQ]

Behold their likely inspiration!

Leave Wawelski alone!!!!1

The problem with Wolszczak is her height. She's quite tall, completely unlike Yennefer.

That's not a problem in an electronic medium.