The Witcher 2 Enhanced Edition

[DalekFlay]

Replaying this due to Witcher 3 hype. Finally did Iorveth's path and am I crazy or does it suck? Very simplistic "free the elves!" storyline and it's hard to act like a neutral Garret should when half the quests are about helping defeat the king and free the town. I'm at chapter three now and thinking of loading back to Roache's path and finishing that way for my Witcher 3 save file.

 

[Ninjerk]

I didn't go down Iorveth's path, but the game is mostly disappointing in general.

 

[Excidium]

I went yorverth's, didn't find it so bad actually. But to be honest there's not a single moment in Witcher 2 where I actually understand what is going on

 

[DalekFlay]

I went yorverth's, didn't find it so bad actually. But to be honest there's not a single moment in Witcher 2 where I actually understand what is going on

You have to read the journal information if you haven't read the books. Then everything makes sense, more or less. The issue I have is that Iorveth's path makes it extremely hard to play a neutral Witcher out to get the Kingslayer and clear his name. You pretty much are forced to play a freedom fighter for the elves and dwarves.

 

[ZagorTeNej]

Replaying this due to Witcher 3 hype. Finally did Iorveth's path and am I crazy or does it suck? Very simplistic "free the elves!" storyline and it's hard to act like a neutral Garret should when half the quests are about helping defeat the king and free the town. I'm at chapter three now and thinking of loading back to Roache's path and finishing that way for my Witcher 3 save file.

The only quest about helping defeat the king and free the town is the actual battle (which granted is a big deal, especially if one wants to play neutral Geralt, it really felt ouf of place), other than that it's the same as Roche's path more or less in regards to neutrality. Don't see much difference between cutting off Henselt from the curse Vs curing Saskia from the poison, both acts are supposedly done to get the items (Henselt's amulet and Saskia's sword) that will help Geralt lift the eternal battle curse and help him regain memory.

I liked Iorveth path (though I prefer Roche's overall for its war camp atmosphere and great chars like Deathmold, Henselt and Zyvik), Vergen had a decent atmosphere to it (love that Vergen at night track), clearing out the mines with your dwarven bros was fun, prince Stennis "trial" was well done IMO, harpy dream crystals and two murder mysteries I also found to be decent etc.

 

[DalekFlay]

The only quest about helping defeat the king and free the town is the actual battle (which granted is a big deal, especially if one wants to play neutral Geralt, it really felt ouf of place), other than that it's the same as Roche's path more or less in regards to neutrality. Don't see much difference between cutting off Henselt from the curse Vs curing Saskia from the poison, both acts are supposedly done to get the items (Henselt's amulet and Saskia's sword) that will help Geralt lift the eternal battle curse and help him regain memory.

I liked Iorveth path (though I prefer Roche's overall for its war camp atmosphere and great chars like Deathmold, Henselt and Zyvik), Vergen had a decent atmosphere to it (love that Vergen at night track), clearing out the mines with your dwarven bros was fun, prince Stennis "trial" was well done IMO, harpy dream crystals and two murder mysteries I also found to be decent etc.

I shouldn't say it sucked, it didn't, I just don't like the choices involved. Iorveth is the worst kind of civilian-targeting terrorist and I don't see Geralt stopping his quest for Triss and the Kingslayer to dick around in Aedirn politics. I can predict Act 3 will end with you choosing Triss or Saskia's cause, and I would choose Triss to be neutral, and yet that wouldn't make much sense story-wise since Geralt just risked everything for Saskia's cause. It just rubs me the wrong way. And if this save file is going into Witcher 3 I would rather it was the other path.

Iorveth path was definitely worth playing though, Vergen has a lot going for it.

 

[RK47]

Lesbomancy

 

[ZagorTeNej]

I shouldn't say it sucked, it didn't, I just don't like the choices involved. Iorveth is the worst kind of civilian-targeting terrorist and I don't see Geralt stopping his quest for Triss and the Kingslayer to dick around in Aedirn politics. I can predict Act 3 will end with you choosing Triss or Saskia's cause, and I would choose Triss to be neutral, and yet that wouldn't make much sense story-wise since Geralt just risked everything for Saskia's cause. It just rubs me the wrong way. And if this save file is going into Witcher 3 I would rather it was the other path.

Iorveth path was definitely worth playing though, Vergen has a lot going for it.

True, someone like Iorveth is too much of an extremist (although most characters in the game are murdering scumbags, Iorveth has just beeng doing it for a longer time and is arguably even more ruthless) for Geralt to ally himself with but I always saw "Iorveth path" as Geralt choosing to help Zoltan more than anything (remember, he's the one that asks you to help nonhumans held captive on the prison barge). Also it's nice to play the game where elves are not being presented as tree hugging faggots/hippies for once but rather the sort of IRA/guerilla fighter types (credit goes to Sapkowski for that obviously) so Iorveth gets points from me for that atleast, I think he's a well written character and I like his (english) voice actor as well.

I mean, sure I get what you mean overall but worrying about which save file are you gonna transfer to Witcher 3 is kinda pointless as we both know that the choices you make in the previous game are gonna mean dick, maybe a few extra lines of dialogue at best.

 

[DalekFlay]

Lesbomancy

That was a great line. There's great lines on both sides though, just got to Helselt's camp and Geralt tells the smithy "people say smiths are all strong, but I say they're fat pussies." Love that shit.

I mean, sure I get what you mean overall but worrying about which save file are you gonna transfer to Witcher 3 is kinda pointless as we both know that the choices you make in the previous game are gonna mean dick, maybe a few extra lines of dialogue at best.

It probably doesn't matter much, you're right. And I'm sure I'm forgetting the stuff I really liked about Act 2 due to disappointment at the end of it. I just know going into Act 3 (and Witcher 3 eventually) I would rather be the guy who tagged along with Roache to find the Kinglsayer and clear his name, who got dragged into a local squabble he didn't care about and then at the end saved Triss and ran off after the Wild Hunt. That's just how I want the story to end to set up the next game.

 

[Excidium]

Lesbomancy

 

[Murk]

Yeah, I'm exaggerating,, but it took like half an hour to install from the DVDs, it's ridiculous.
And now you'd also have the patching added.

I remember posting on facebook that the hardest boss was setup.exe

 

[Cadmus]

Yeah, I'm exaggerating,, but it took like half an hour to install from the DVDs, it's ridiculous.
And now you'd also have the patching added.

Go fuck yourself, my download speed is max 380 KB/s so I don't want to be downloading anything ever. Not everybody lives in 'murica or where the fuck and the internet connection in my village is just slow and expensive. Fuck you, fuck you, I hate faggots like yourself who proclaim "OMG IT'Z 2014 EVERYONE IS ALWAYS ONLINE STOP COMPLAINING"

So with that out of the way,
guys did you notice the game performing worse with the EE installed? And maybe even looking worse, I don't know. And it became stupidly easier as well from what I remember. And Iorveth always seemed like such a whiny bitch to me that I never tried his path.

I really think that the portrayal of the royalty in this game deserves so much respect. Every king you meet is such a fucking badass and I enjoyed curbstomping that peasant girl as Henselt.

 

[Gerrard]

Murrica has pretty shitty internet as far as I know.

And yeah, the game definitely runs worse with all the patches than the first no-securom version. I was going to make a comparison and bitch about it on their tech support forum, but reinstalling the old one again is way too much work.

 

[DalekFlay]

Murrica has pretty shitty internet as far as I know.

On average, because of the vast rural areas. If you live in a big city/suburb you have excellent internet options, and no bandwidth cap.

 

[Gerrard]

If you live in a big city/suburb you have excellent internet options.

Like Time Warner Cable or Comcast

And by options you you mean you either take the one operator that is there or you have no internet.

 

[DalekFlay]

And by options you you mean you either take the one operator that is there or you have no internet.

You always have options, and for as much as people bitch about companies like Comcast they give you rock solid performance with high speeds, so... whatever. I care extremely little about the topic.

 

[adddeed]

Started playing this. I like it, i dont mind all the changes.

But the graphics. So busy, saturated, colourful. Its a visual overload for me, and a bit of a mess. Details and stuff everywhere, I cant differentiate things properly, and it strains my eyes. I dont think they designed the graphics very well. Yes its packed with detail, but it looks too damn busy.

Witcher 1 was much more clean, and easy on the eyes. It actually looks more real than Witcher 2.

 

[polo]

I think the problem its not the amount of detail, but the extreme color saturation.

 

[Akratus]

Indeed. Looked around, but no mod or enb to turn that shit down. If I hadn't replayed the Witcher 1, I wouldn't say this, but that one's definitely the better looking game. Art design is better in 2 though.

 

[Gord]

So, checked out that FCR mod when a sudden mood caught me.

Anyone else here ever tried it?
I've played up to Flotsam and, well, if anything it seems to make the game easier?
You don't excessively roll around now, you excessively do pirouettes.
Instead of spamming Quen, you now spam Aard (but Aard is feeling better).
You get an "active" Quen that basically keeps Quen active as longs as you press "E". If an enemy hits you during that time, he's hit by the effect and you loose on energy point.
All in all it makes combat a bit more dynamic, since you depend more on Aard and separating enemies a bit, but you still spam sword hits (probably more so than before) and roll pirouette around.

Didn't notice the auto-parry thing yet, except for enemy arrows being deflected.

All skills now have only one level, but you don't need to re-learn all the witcher skills (you start with all basic skills).

So far I'm not sure what to think about it. It certainly doesn't transform the combat into something entirely different.
Can't say either that it feels like a definite improvement. Maybe a little bit less of a clusterfuck when there are several enemies around, but that might be because it feels much easier.

 

[Alfons]

I've played up to Flotsam and, well, if anything it seems to make the game easier?

I started playing it a while back,it's been too long for me to say anything technical but I definitely remember it makes the game easier.
Whoever said it makes the game harder is fuckin retarded.

 

[Gord]

Yeah, played a bit more (still in Flotsam though) and while you can end up dead if you get too careless, all in all it's more like easy mode.
I'm playing on normal since at least one "review" of the FCR mod said it's more difficult on normal, but I really should have played on hard.

Most enemies go down quickly from spamming fast attacks (you really don't need the slower strong attacks).
As long as you do some pirouettes and move around a bit so you don't get surrounded, enemies will hardly scratch you.
Even supposedly more difficult mini-bosses can be disposed of within a few seconds.

Probably earlier versions of the mode were difficult/required some tactics, but 1.2 isn't.
Might be that it all changes later on, but so far it doesn't look like it.

Other changes include longer durations of oils/potions (up to an hour realtime), removal of most armours and weapons from quest rewards (you still can find some and have to buy the rest) and adjustments to pretty much all the skills. Unfortunately not everything is documented/appears in tooltips. E.g. trophies don't seem to have an effect now - apparently I need some skill to use them, but as far as I can tell none of them says anything about it in the descriptions...

 

[Alfons]

I played vanilla and fcr on either hard or dark,and as I've said it's definitely easier.I can see how some people who relied on quen might have a hard time with the mod but I never used it anyway.Now that I think about it the reason it's easier is because of the pirouettes,don't they give you invincibility frames?

 

[Gord]

Don't know. I'll try to pay some attention to it next time I play.
Quen's definitely not very important now. You just need to keep mobile and spam attacks with most enemies to stay alive.

Edit: At least I just found a solution for my documentation/tooltip problem. Apparently I needed an additional file with the strings for my language.

 

[Humppaleka]

I replayed Witcher 2 with some mod that changed solely items. It made the game suitably harder by nerfing pretty much everything or making them more unique. I only read pretty bad things about the FCR for 2, for Witcher 1 it was okay except for the retarded difficulty spikes (finished the game only by installing the easier package on top of the harder one).