and I suppose I'm also one of the few who preferred the first Witcher over the second.
I wouldn´t be so sure about the "few" quantifier.
At least among the people who liked the first game, I wouldn´t be surprised if there´s actually a bit more of those who consider it overall a better game than the sequel.
I really enjoyed the second game as well, but if I was forced to choose I´d go with the first one. Without going into specifics, the first game is a "classic" for me, whereas the second one, while certainly being a worthy successor of the first and whose continuation I´m looking forward to, is "just" a very good one.
Going more into specifics, part of the above may stem from the fact I didn´t mind and actually quite liked the combat in the original so its somewhat better iteration (at least on the action side) in the sequel didn´t make much of a difference to my enjoyment of both games. I honestly didn´t find much flaws in other game aspects of the original, while I was quite constantly stumbling upon flaws in the sequel - granted, most of these were fairly minor, but it adds up.
The original felt more open and more personal, while in the sequel, despite the C&C stuff, it felt more like you´re sorta taken on a ride without much time to breathe. I´ve also found the original´s atmosphere overall more engaging - the sequel has undoubtedly better graphics, but the art direction in the original is at least as good and it has much better soundtrack and music plays quite a major role in constituting atmosphere in a game for me.
The fourth chapter of the original was something really special.
Speaking of personal, I think the devs missed a major opportunity in this regard when they chose to make discovering Geralt´s past/identity completely non-interactive and independent on player´s choices. It didn´t work this way in the original and I´ve found it quite poignant/cool that the quest was never moved into completed ones in the journal. That it didn´t continue in a similar manner in the sequel and the concept wasn´t expanded upon was quite a big disappointment for me.
I love all the political intrigue in the sequel, branching in the story, visuals or the game´s down to earth ending and Roche just plain rulez, but at the end of the day, the first one was simply a more memorable experience for me overall.