The Witcher 2 Enhanced Edition

[MoonlitKnight]

It's not love of the 3rd game (which has its own faults), it's the disjointed jankiness of the 2nd game.

If by jankiness you mean of the technical nature (i.e lack of polish) then there are very very few good games in which a general jankiness isn't an inherent part of them

Yes, I mean the technical nature. The combat in particular is very poorly implemented, and the alchemy has been butchered. The UI looks AND plays like a console port.

Not denying it. It's just hard to understand how in a forum in which Troika games are very often revered as masterpieces people can forgive an experience profoundly shallower than its predecessors like TW3 because it has a less bad combat and a 'good UI' (or something - as said I really dont get it)

The Codex should be a bit more broad minded. It's like saying if you're a £200 a bottle whiskey drinker then do you have to drink that exclusively to everything else? Of course not - you may enjoy a decent beer once in a while as well.

That is actually a very fair point

 

[Raskens]

It's not love of the 3rd game (which has its own faults), it's the disjointed jankiness of the 2nd game.

If by jankiness you mean of the technical nature (i.e lack of polish) then there are very very few good games in which a general jankiness isn't an inherent part of them

Yes, I mean the technical nature. The combat in particular is very poorly implemented, and the alchemy has been butchered. The UI looks AND plays like a console port.

Not denying it. It's just hard to understand how in a forum in which Troika games are very often revered as masterpieces people can forgive an experience profoundly shallower than its predecessors like TW3 because it has a less bad combat and a 'good UI' (or something - as said I really dont get it)

The Codex should be a bit more broad minded. It's like saying if you're a £200 a bottle whiskey drinker then do you have to drink that exclusively to everything else? Of course not - you may enjoy a decent beer once in a while as well.

W1 and W2 are better beers than W3

 

[Danikas]

 

[Chippy]

It's not love of the 3rd game (which has its own faults), it's the disjointed jankiness of the 2nd game.

If by jankiness you mean of the technical nature (i.e lack of polish) then there are very very few good games in which a general jankiness isn't an inherent part of them

Yes, I mean the technical nature. The combat in particular is very poorly implemented, and the alchemy has been butchered. The UI looks AND plays like a console port.

Not denying it. It's just hard to understand how in a forum in which Troika games are very often revered as masterpieces people can forgive an experience profoundly shallower than its predecessors like TW3 because it has a less bad combat and a 'good UI' (or something - as said I really dont get it)

The Codex should be a bit more broad minded. It's like saying if you're a £200 a bottle whiskey drinker then do you have to drink that exclusively to everything else? Of course not - you may enjoy a decent beer once in a while as well.

W1 and W2 are better beers than W3

I said a decent beer - W2 is piss water.

Here's a question and a point in one: what does 'Berserk' do in the alchemy tree? I can't find any description on the internet. IGN just says it does more damage, and going by the in-game description...well, there isn't one. The 'mutant' ability in the alchemy tree unlocks the ability to generate adreneline while poisoned (under the effects of a potion + hitting enemies) and all other alchemy abilities surrounding it relate to buffs on Geralt while poisoned.

So I use it once its charged and assume I'm doing more damage. Great. How much damage game?. Autists like me would like to know.

 

[MoonlitKnight]

I said a decent beer - W2 is piss water.

Here's a question and a point in one: what does 'Berserk' do in the alchemy tree? I can't find any description on the internet. IGN just says it does more damage, and going by the in-game description...well, there isn't one. The 'mutant' ability in the alchemy tree unlocks the ability to generate adreneline while poisoned (under the effects of a potion + hitting enemies) and all other alchemy abilities surrounding it relate to buffs on Geralt while poisoned.

So I use it once its charged and assume I'm doing more damage. Great. How much damage game?. Autists like me would like to know.

Yeah things in this game are often very obscure - This one you can probably find in the stats screen.
But this a similar kind of jankiness that the average player might argue makes VtMB shit - just gazing at its technical surface level and therefore unable to look and realize that underneath it's fucking genius.
TW3 on the other hand... underneath its polish and fancy facial animations there's hardly anything at all.

Which is fine and all but I wish I could cut through all the BS filler dialogue and cutscenes and just get to another round of gwent.

 

[Chippy]

MoonlitKnight I found a GOG discussion where a guy says "Geralt does supernatural amounts of damage" and quotes page 17 of the manual. For someone who has a fetish for manuals, I suppose I stand somewhat corrected.

Still, when you're planning your build (I'm just cheating) that vague description isn't something you can compare to the other two paths. So I'm just being autistic about this particular thing, but there's plenty in this game to make me irritated.

So I'd argue that W3 is superior just on the point that it doesn't have all these irritations in it from the start. Here's one example: apparently there's an ironman mode difficulty that locks you savegames if you die. So I chose Ieorveth's path and tried to save the brothel from burning. I didn't die this time (second time playing) but the first time round I found it almost impossible to click on the ladders to ascend the brothel. The one at the top was right next to the elven prostitute - so you'd descend the ladder and die from a miss-click

That sort of thing isn't entirely about skill. It's a limitation of the game that makes it harder on the player because they chose to lock the mouse cursor out of the game even though you can use it for inventory. So one click could fuck up your entire game. But you have to guesstimate where the centre screen cursor is.

So any Codexer that has played this game on that difficulty deserves some kind of award. A very special, unique award. Because I believe they've a very special, unique person.

 

[Gerrard]

I think W1 and W2 comparison is a perfect example of the Soul vs Soulless meme.

 

[Semper]

Here's a question and a point in one: what does 'Berserk' do in the alchemy tree? I can't find any description on the internet.

https://witcher.fandom.com/wiki/Adrenaline_rush
https://witcher.fandom.com/wiki/Adrenaline_rush

Specifically, Berserk Mode adds the following buffs:

Regen +3

Combat Regen +2

Min +20%, Max +70%
Instant Kill Chance +10%

 

[Semiurge]

So any Codexer that has played this game on that difficulty deserves some kind of award. A very special, unique award. Because I believe they've a very special, unique person.

A masochist award.

 

[Chippy]

Here's a question and a point in one: what does 'Berserk' do in the alchemy tree? I can't find any description on the internet.

https://witcher.fandom.com/wiki/Adrenaline_rush

Specifically, Berserk Mode adds the following buffs:

Regen +3

Combat Regen +2

Min +20%, Max +70%
Instant Kill Chance +10%

Hah! Right under my nose. I'm gonna double down and go full retard and say it should have still been in the character screen for the game though.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

I think it's important to reiterate at every opportunity that W1 felt the most authentic, W3 was probably the most fun, and W2 (which I am currently suffering through again) is worse than DA2 was to DA:O.

A bit harsh, I would say. It definitely is the worst of the three, with a lot of mistakes. Very much a grand experiment, as per the vid linked above. But not completely bad.

The story is all over the place.

What? No. The story is the game's one solid point. Not to mention its impeccable English translation. Lots of the other elements you mention are indeed wanting. But not the story.

And finally, the game's true saving grace is its reactivity to player choices. Of course the most significant of those is the case of two different versions of Act II, but there are loads of minor instances too.

Act III also changes quite substantially based on player choice.

 

[Chippy]

Finished W2. Second time now. If I ever play the series again, I've left myself notes regarding why I shouldn't play it again. I'll just jump from 1 to 3 and use my current savegame. I don't want to waste any more of my time thinking or writing about this game, so I'll just try to summarize it in one go: it was like playing a game that had been developed by a bullied, nerdy dungeon master at school, and this game was his revenge on anyone who played it in the world. It was all of his bad ideas and gotcha! moments that made his Dnd session not fun, and he had all of these ideas in a little black book that he just got out and implemented in this game reagardless.

And by some mirical (and past notes) I managed to play from start to finish without Geralt dying. This is actually a moment of incline, because the last time (every time he died) I wanted to be the one that killed him in an even more painful manner.

 

[MoonlitKnight]

Finished W2. Second time now. If I ever play the series again, I've left myself notes regarding why I shouldn't play it again. I'll just jump from 1 to 3 and use my current savegame. I don't want to waste any more of my time thinking or writing about this game, so I'll just try to summarize it in one go: it was like playing a game that had been developed by a bullied, nerdy dungeon master at school, and this game was his revenge on anyone who played it in the world. It was all of his bad ideas and gotcha! moments that made his Dnd session not fun, and he had all of these ideas in a little black book that he just got out and implemented in this game reagardless.

And by some mirical (and past notes) I managed to play from start to finish without Geralt dying. This is actually a moment of incline, because the last time (every time he died) I wanted to be the one that killed him in an even more painful manner.

Wait you actually played the perma death mode?

 

[Chippy]

Nah. I could have. That's one of the reasons I hate the game - I had the game difficulty on hard, and could survive the fights, but on my first playthough was dying every 5 mins because I missed the QTEs, or couldn't find the prompt (invisible cursor) for the ladder in the burning brothel, or accidently used Igni to light a brazer in the dragon fight instead of swinging a sword at it.

Stuff like that. Ironman mode works only for games that are well put together, and not put together by developers who get a kick out of pissing the gamer off.

 

[JDR13]

Which is fine and all but I wish I could cut through all the BS filler dialogue and cutscenes and just get to another round of gwent.

You can. It's called the space bar.

 

[JDR13]

Nah. I could have. That's one of the reasons I hate the game - I had the game difficulty on hard, and could survive the fights, but on my first playthough was dying every 5 mins because I missed the QTEs, or couldn't find the prompt (invisible cursor) for the ladder in the burning brothel, or accidently used Igni to light a brazer in the dragon fight instead of swinging a sword at it.

Stuff like that. Ironman mode works only for games that are well put together, and not put together by developers who get a kick out of pissing the gamer off.

I always love the "I hate this terrible game so much I played through it twice!" posts.

 

[Chippy]

Nah. I could have. That's one of the reasons I hate the game - I had the game difficulty on hard, and could survive the fights, but on my first playthough was dying every 5 mins because I missed the QTEs, or couldn't find the prompt (invisible cursor) for the ladder in the burning brothel, or accidently used Igni to light a brazer in the dragon fight instead of swinging a sword at it.

Stuff like that. Ironman mode works only for games that are well put together, and not put together by developers who get a kick out of pissing the gamer off.

I always love the "I hate this terrible game so much I played through it twice!" posts.

I had to know that I could counter the sucker punches the game threw at me with a rematch. Autism and all that.

 

[MoonlitKnight]

Which is fine and all but I wish I could cut through all the BS filler dialogue and cutscenes and just get to another round of gwent.

You can. It's called the space bar.

Yeah, go ahead and try that in witcher 3 without searching for a new keyboard on amazon immediately after

 

[Manjuice Nutella]

I just played it 2 weeks ago for the first time. Good writing and story, even if people who didn't read books have to basically read up half of some obscure Witcher Wiki to fully grasp everything. Although it's strange that Iorveth path is all around better in every aspect, including interesting quests unlike relic hunting. It's even better for everyone involved in the story including Roche smh. Or maybe it's only to show that "Politics > friends" is an all-around shitty decision lmao.

Oh, the game, you ask? It sucks elephant dick. Vanilla TW3 plays like Metal Gear Solid V in comparison to that.

 

[Manjuice Nutella]

Oh, the game, you ask? It sucks elephant dick. Vanilla TW3 plays like Metal Gear Solid V in comparison to that.

Edgy x1, Disgusting x1

I don't know where to start, so I'll do it by saying that the game feels like some Mass Effect ripoff (no coincidence in 2011), and ME is easily the one of the most annoying and boring games I had the displeasure of playing. Due to that, the basic gameplay of navigating through the world, at first promising due to graphics (which actually hold up extremely well in 2021, credit where credit's due), shows its stark reality the moment rail-roaded Prologue sequence ends and you leave Flotsam's gates.

Starting from here until the end, all 3 Acts and their level design consist not of those wide open spaces of TW1's countryside, swamps, and wide streets; but extremely claustrophobic terrains you have to navigate in a "winding road" manner only in one proper manner. Maybe there's less backtracking than in TW1, but it sure doesn't feel any better. In 1 you (mostly) could just freely run around said spaces, and that atmospheric Vizima Cloister district, which admittedly added to its charm of finding new things in the old places as the Chapters went by. Here you'll bump into an invisible wall every 5 meters, starting from "dense" forest where between 2 trees there are bushes you absolutely cannot cross, all the way to Loc Muinne, having to find a way around that fallen slim pillar because you absolutely cannot jump.

It's further hindered by the main mechanics, which are just bizarre. I just finished mentioning how you cannot jump through a 50cm ledge unless p r o m p t e d, and you have no excuse of Aurora engine because they have their own RED Engine now. Starting in Flotsam, in order to navigate around the forest, you have to "press LMB to climb ledge" in a passive 5 second animation, which gets frustrating already the second time you do it. And you have to do it all the time. For some strange reason it's almost completely abandoned after Act 1, as if testers realized it was utter shit, but it was too late to edit the entire level or something. Some mechanics are inoffensive, but puzzling in their inclusion, like sneaking sequences - nice basic minigame to mix things up those 3? times it's used, I guess, but wouldn't that time be better spent on, iono, implementing jumping on ledges? And then you have other fine additions, like QTE, which just screams "dated" like a finely aged milk, with a mold so old those bacterias easily invented the wheel already.

Potions are, save for maybe 2, totally useless. First of all they're extremely annoying to use, as you specifically have to sit down, meditate, watch every time the same animation of Geralt slowly drinking it, throwing it away, wiping sweat from his face... even though in 1 & 3 you could just drink it normally. Secondly, they last for 10 minutes or so (after animations 09:50) with the annoying clock ticking, so you better well time when you do it, or else half of it will be lost during "exploration", but why would you do that? There's just no incentive to even drink it, the effects are minuscule or straight up negative, with the retarded "trade-offs" like +10% extra damage, but -30% to total vitality. Why would you even gimp yourself for that, when already most enemies die in 4 hits? Ok, maybe it's better if you invest in Alchemy tree, but why would you do that too? The OP tree is Signs as usual (or sure feels like it), and Combat provides tangible benefits from the get go. Maybe the final "Berserk" adrenaline perks are something insane, but the game doesn't even explain what it does (and neither does it explain the Heliotrope sign, which feels good but is basically just a gimmick).

In order to highlight anything you need to press Z to pay respects with your medallion which has a few seconds cooldown for some strange reason. The game encourages you to do that to find "Places of Power", which were useful in TW1 & 3, but here I didn't even know what the buffs really did because they last 5 minutes, so by the time you encounter an enemy amidst all those winding roads you have to traverse, while jogging reeeally slow, half of that had already passed.

Said enemy will 99% be some useless fodder, buffs or not. Which brings me to the last point, of what I felt were bizarre difficulty spikes. Most of the time the enemies die in 3 hits and you can fight them blind, but occasionally you can encounter some tougher ones, like Endriagas swarming you if you're not paying attention. Fair enough. Then you have your first fight with Letho, which is something out of Dark Souls. Not extremely hard, but definitely feels out of place where you just spammed LPM like in some hack'n'slash. Then you more or less trudge along scripted sequences like with Vergen battlefield, or steamroll through countless harpies... until you fight what is, I believe, one of 2 mandatory fights in Act 3, that is, Saskia. If Letho was something Dark Souls-esque, then this is like one of TW3: Enhanced Edition's bullshit bosses, but twice as long. And if you invested in Combat, you're fucked. ~10 Minute fight of trial and error with tactics and learning all the patterns, with Saskia's head tracking you at all times so you do fuck-all damage up front, and have fun slurping those elixirs on every attempt.

I get pissed off just by thinking about that, and the answer is already quite long, so let's just leave it at that, even though those are not the only problems.

EDIT: Of course, you only know it's Saskia if you did the Iorveth path, or else you miss out on half the things relevant in this game, and the next one, like Filippa Eilhart, her owl form, and why is the dragon attacking in the first place - because otherwise you get no explanation. Like I said before, Vergen path is superior to Henselt path in almost every aspect. Quests are far more interesting, like succubus or lynching of Stennis, in contrast to that fucking relic hunting. Character selection is far more interesting, as exclusively in this path, you meet important ones like, once again, Eilhart, but also Saskia or Stennis you couldn't in Henselt path, but not vice versa, as you learn all you need about Sabrina Glevissig, Detmold, or Henselt anyway. You also hang out with your bros, bring Scoia'tael to its conclusion, and help good people, instead of working with repulsive degenerates like Detmold and helping that fat fuck with his curse and to win the battle, which just leaves bad taste in your mouth (arguably, this may be objectively more interesting). Maybe you miss out on Natalis and those 2 Temerian nobles investigation, and on Odrin, I guess? Even Roche is still your bro, in 2 & 3, and is better off if you joined Iorveth because Detmold is guaranteed to die that way.

 

[Semiurge]

Oh, the game, you ask? It sucks elephant dick. Vanilla TW3 plays like Metal Gear Solid V in comparison to that.

Edgy x1, Disgusting x1

I don't know where to start, so I'll do it by saying that the game feels like some Mass Effect ripoff (no coincidence in 2011), and ME is easily the one of the most annoying and boring games I had the displeasure of playing. Due to that, the basic gameplay of navigating through the world, at first promising due to graphics (which actually hold up extremely well in 2021, credit where credit's due), shows its stark reality the moment rail-roaded Prologue sequence ends and you leave Flotsam's gates.

Starting from here until the end, all 3 Acts and their level design consist not of those wide open spaces of TW1's countryside, swamps, and wide streets; but extremely claustrophobic terrains you have to navigate in a "winding road" manner only in one proper manner. Maybe there's less backtracking than in TW1, but it sure doesn't feel any better. In 1 you (mostly) could just freely run around said spaces, and that atmospheric Vizima Cloister district, which admittedly added to its charm of finding new things in the old places as the Chapters went by. Here you'll bump into an invisible wall every 5 meters, starting from "dense" forest where between 2 trees there are bushes you absolutely cannot cross, all the way to Loc Muinne, having to find a way around that fallen slim pillar because you absolutely cannot jump.

It's further hindered by the main mechanics, which are just bizarre. I just finished mentioning how you cannot jump through a 50cm ledge unless p r o m p t e d, and you have no excuse of Aurora engine because they have their own RED Engine now. Starting in Flotsam, in order to navigate around the forest, you have to "press LMB to climb ledge" in a passive 5 second animation, which gets frustrating already the second time you do it. And you have to do it all the time. For some strange reason it's almost completely abandoned after Act 1, as if testers realized it was utter shit, but it was too late to edit the entire level or something. Some mechanics are inoffensive, but puzzling in their inclusion, like sneaking sequences - nice basic minigame to mix things up those 3? times it's used, I guess, but wouldn't that time be better spent on, iono, implementing jumping on ledges? And then you have other fine additions, like QTE, which just screams "dated" like a finely aged milk, with a mold so old those bacterias easily invented the wheel already.

The sneaking was very awkward in 3rd person because of Geralt's delayed movements. I actually liked the boxing QTEs.

Potions are, save for maybe 2, totally useless. First of all they're extremely annoying to use, as you specifically have to sit down, meditate, watch every time the same animation of Geralt slowly drinking it, throwing it away, wiping sweat from his face... even though in 1 & 3 you could just drink it normally. Secondly, they last for 10 minutes or so (after animations 09:50) with the annoying clock ticking, so you better well time when you do it, or else half of it will be lost during "exploration", but why would you do that? There's just no incentive to even drink it, the effects are minuscule or straight up negative, with the retarded "trade-offs" like +10% extra damage, but -30% to total vitality. Why would you even gimp yourself for that, when already most enemies die in 4 hits? Ok, maybe it's better if you invest in Alchemy tree, but why would you do that too? The OP tree is Signs as usual (or sure feels like it), and Combat provides tangible benefits from the get go. Maybe the final "Berserk" adrenaline perks are something insane, but the game doesn't even explain what it does (and neither does it explain the Heliotrope sign, which feels good but is basically just a gimmick).

Nah, I'm sure the potions only lasted for about 2 minutes by default, the most useful of them (swallow) anyway.

EDIT: Of course, you only know it's Saskia if you did the Iorveth path, or else you miss out on half the things relevant in this game, and the next one, like Filippa Eilhart, her owl form, and why is the dragon attacking in the first place - because otherwise you get no explanation. Like I said before, Vergen path is superior to Henselt path in almost every aspect. Quests are far more interesting, like succubus or lynching of Stennis, in contrast to that fucking relic hunting. Character selection is far more interesting, as exclusively in this path, you meet important ones like, once again, Eilhart, but also Saskia or Stennis you couldn't in Henselt path, but not vice versa, as you learn all you need about Sabrina Glevissig, Detmold, or Henselt anyway. You also hang out with your bros, bring Scoia'tael to its conclusion, and help good people, instead of working with repulsive degenerates like Detmold and helping that fat fuck with his curse and to win the battle, which just leaves bad taste in your mouth (arguably, this may be objectively more interesting). Maybe you miss out on Natalis and those 2 Temerian nobles investigation, and on Odrin, I guess? Even Roche is still your bro, in 2 & 3, and is better off if you joined Iorveth because Detmold is guaranteed to die that way.

There's literally no reason to pick Roche's path since he behaves like an old friend in W3 anyway, but on the other hand you can't be party to the castration of Dethmold in act 3. Which bugged me with Witcher 2 in fact, that you had to choose which endgame mission to do - to save Triss (which does make sense if you've been close to her earlier) or help Roche/Iorveth

 

[cvv]

Replayed after like 6 years. Only confirmed it's the weakest Witcher game out there.

It does a few things better than TW1 - the overal story and fleshing out the wider world context is far superior, featuring probably the most mature and complex look into geopolitics and royal scheming ever made for a videogame. I think it ever beats TW3 in that respect.

The reactivity to player's choices remains one of the best ever. The variability of Chapter 2 has never been surpassed to this day.

The combat is janky af, especially compared to the best aRPGs out there (your Souls, Niohs etc.), but it's still leagues better than the abomination from the first game. I remember liking the combat back in the day, mainly because I really, REALLY hated TW1 combat, but it has aged very poorly. I also played on the Dark difficulty, which proved to be a mistake due to the terrible lack of tightness and responsivity, janky enemy animations and hitboxes from hell. The only reasonable way forward is to go with a heavy alchemy build and be constantly drugged which dramatically boosts your damage and arrmor so you don't get one-shotted all the time.

TW2 has also way better chardev and itemization than both TW1 and TW3. You can actually feel substantial improvement as you level up (instead of all the shitty +3% damage or armor increases in TW3, altho a handful of abilities like those are still there in TW2).

In general tho TW2 is the least memorable. It's been heavily americanized and the typical dark folk idiosyncratic Slavic vibe from TW1 is almost completely gone. The music, such an enormous part of TW1 and TW3 atmosphere, is also way less remarkable. Altho TW3 retained some of this hollywoodization it did a way better job of mixing it with the original Slavic vibe.

All that said it's still one of the best written and enjoyable RPG-lite adventures ever made. Still very worth playing today.

 

[Starwars]

The Witcher 2 is one of those games that I can get a craving to replay. But then once I play it, I have this feeling of waiting for that awesome part of the game... that never comes. It just stays a rather boring slog throughout the entire game, despite the story and writing being quite good.

The Act 2 split is impressive, but neither of the paths are very fun to play through. No part of the game is unfortunately.

And the whole time-travel battlefield thing in Act 2... uuuuuugh, fuck I hated that part.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

Bathing with Triss is the best bit of the entire game.... but I also think the last chapter improved so much in the patches, with all the politicking, blink-and-you'll-miss-them sidequests, that the game is also at its best there.

Superb game, well worth replaying every few years.

 

[Danikas]

The Witcher 2 is one of those games that I can get a craving to replay. But then once I play it, I have this feeling of waiting for that awesome part of the game... that never comes. It just stays a rather boring slog throughout the entire game, despite the story and writing being quite good.

The Act 2 split is impressive, but neither of the paths are very fun to play through. No part of the game is unfortunately.

And the whole time-travel battlefield thing in Act 2... uuuuuugh, fuck I hated that part.

Secrets of Loc Muinne is a very good quest and well worth a playthrough on the Iorweth path.