Witcher 2 Opinions

The Witcher 2

Konjad

Keeper of the Watch
Joined
June 16, 2008
Messages
730
The first Wiedzmin was great and was along with Fallout New Vegas, Risen and Mask of the Betrayer my favourite cRPG since Bloodlines. It had many flaws but was very enjoyable overall, although the last part of the game sucked with all the useless combat, especially because combat in that game was terrible.

Wiedzmin 2 is, along with MotB, definitely the best cRPG made since bloodlines, but also surpasses both the first Wiedzmin and Risen. Wiedzmin 2 is just awesome like Wiedzmin and Risen, but without their flaws and much better made. It is not one of the best in the genre - there were many better cRPGs, for example Fallouts, Planescape Torment or VtM: Bloodlines. However since 2004, after Bloodlines was released, there was nothing excellent as Wiedzmin 2 with the exception of expansion to NWN2 - MotB. All the flaws of the first game were fixed and there is actually nothing to complain about this game except some very minor issues and that it's pretty short game (although many modern cRPGs are that short as well, for example DA2). Great C&C, dialogues, characters, quests (no fed ex or simple 'go to x and kill y'), graphic… nearly everything is great, there are even three different classes - while one of them is standard warrior and the other standard combat-sorcerer, the alchemy path is something new and there's much fun playing with it. Combat is finally decent, unlike in the first The Witcher, where it was shit, all you had to do was click&wait, click&wait… now it's more like in hack'n slashes, although the difficulty is well put - it is challenging while not impossibly frustrating. Does this game has any flaws? As I said - yes, although not many. The music is pretty bad this time, which kinda surprises me, because in the first Wiedzmin it was well made. The combat seems sometimes a bit unresponsive or Geralt aims not at the enemies you try to hit. Also there are two boss fights in the game that feels like stolen from Sonic or another arcade games and are pretty boring and unnecessary. Some little graphical glitches from time to time and the game crashed for me three or four times during my playthrough… and that is all! The Witcher 2 beats it's competitor - DA2 - miles ahead, and there is just nothing that's better made in DA2. I could say only the music in both titles is on the same low level. The only cRPG game after Bloodlines that had better atmosphere than TW2 was Mask of the Betrayer, at least if you love gloomy and unsettling settings as I do. And some NPCs from MotB were better than any in TW2 as well, especially One of Many and Khaelyn the Dove.

After Mask of the Betrayer there was nothing as great as The Witcher 2. However if you haven't played the prequel you should do it before playing this title.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Jun 16, 2008
Messages
730
The music is pretty bad this time, which kinda surprises me, because in the first Wiedzmin it was well made.
...
I could say only the music in both titles is on the same low level.
Hmmm, a contradiction?

Music in TW2 is not on the same level as in TW1, but that could be intended. I actually don't notice the music nor it distracts me during the gameplay, just like a good movie music. I don't stop or pause the game just to listen to music. :)

Dunno honestly would I like better if those were symphonies like in Gothic 3 or orchestrated Sea Dogs themes, but in my case, current system works fine.
 
Joined
Apr 12, 2009
Messages
23,459
I really enjoyed the first Witcher's music. And you're right, joxer, Gothic 3 indeed has lovely music, yet it's not intrusive in the game.

I find Witcher 2's music neither here nor there - not particularly nice or horrible.

I do have a problem with the disparate volume levels, (some guys shout and others (especially Geralt, whisper) . I often cannot hear Geralt speak above the ambient sounds, and it really irritates me that there are no separate settings for voice, music and ambient. Even 2005 games have that. :(
 
Joined
Nov 23, 2007
Messages
744
I'm not sure if it's really that much better than TW1, and it's definitely far from flawless. For instance, I liked alchemy better in TW1, and the first game also had a superior soundtrack, which you already mentioned. Also, the devs really screwed up with inventory storage in TW2.

There's also some other things that annoyed me about TW2. The weapons and crafting reeked of designer laziness if you ask me. There just wasn't enough variety. A lot of the items were simply named normal, robust, and superb, which I thought was kind of lame. They also removed some things that were present in TW1 for no apparent reason, like liquor and food. There's vendors that sell food items in the game, but it's actually "junk" and you can't do anything with it. I also didn't like how the alchemy process was dumbed down a bit from the first game.

Also, the progression of weapons and armor was kind of wonky.
For instance, the swords carried by regular Nilfgaardian soldiers in Chapter 3 are more powerful than a lot of the unique weapons.

Don't get me wrong, I still think the positives outweigh the negatives by far. Swordplay is definitely more fun in TW2, and it has the best visuals and animations in any crpg to date, imo. I also think it has the most profound C&C of any game I've ever played.

I agree that TW2 is a great game, and I think it'll end up being labeled as one of the "classics".
 
Joined
Oct 21, 2006
Messages
39,129
Location
Florida, US
Without quoting…
I also have a feeling that the volume of Geralt's voice is too low. I thought it was me, but seems it's not just me. But with subtitles active, it's still ok.

Inventory cap and nonexisting storage is actually not a bad idea. You'll learn not to be a pack mule and that's it.
The variety of items is not what's bothering me. There is something else bothering me and that's waiting on scrolling of item properties and requirements for diagrams.
It's true that food became junk, but who knows, maybe it'll be needed in some DLC later? ;)
I've just started ch3 and I know what you mean by those soldiers, tough pack but not impossible to kill. However, get to Roche as soon as possible and then check weapons/diagrams offered at nearby smith. O-M-G.

In any case I got… um… kinda stuck:
I didn't give the necromantic scroll to the mage in chapter 2. Talked about it with the smith in chapter 3 and he told me how to open a secret portal - it's near Roche's spot, in fact just go through the door near Numa's spot (armwrestler). I get teleported to an area with a puzzle and then an entity called Operator. This entity can reset my skills but I don't want that - I want to kill it (yea, saw on google it drops something veeeery nice;)).

I cannot kill it. I really really really cannot kill it. Maybe I'll drop the difficulty from normal to easy later, but this is the hardest fight I've had in the game so far. I use my standard magic path combo: level 3 Quen, then level 3 Aard, hit, hit and hit as much as possible and then cast 4th sign when available. Drinking swallow and tawny owl prior to the fight doesn't make it easier, seriously. Block doesn't help against this magician, I do endure for a minute or two, and then he summons gargoyles and I'm history. :(

And since I've brought up gothic 3 music… I've never seen game soundtrack rewards… But if I did made my top10 soundtracks from games ever, Gothic3 music would be in it. Gothic 3 may be an overall debacle as someone said here on the forum a few days ago, but not in every game aspect. There is
 
Joined
Apr 12, 2009
Messages
23,459
i turn music volume all the way down. It's always seemed weird to me to hear music playing where ever I go. I like to hear ambient sounds and npc conversations better.
 
In any case I got… um… kinda stuck:
I didn't give the necromantic scroll to the mage in chapter 2. Talked about it with the smith in chapter 3 and he told me how to open a secret portal - it's near Roche's spot, in fact just go through the door near Numa's spot (armwrestler). I get teleported to an area with a puzzle and then an entity called Operator. This entity can reset my skills but I don't want that - I want to kill it (yea, saw on google it drops something veeeery nice;)).

I cannot kill it. I really really really cannot kill it. Maybe I'll drop the difficulty from normal to easy later, but this is the hardest fight I've had in the game so far. I use my standard magic path combo: level 3 Quen, then level 3 Aard, hit, hit and hit as much as possible and then cast 4th sign when available. Drinking swallow and tawny owl prior to the fight doesn't make it easier, seriously. Block doesn't help against this magician, I do endure for a minute or two, and then he summons gargoyles and I'm history. :(



If you really want to know…

His health and shield are connected to the gargoyles. You have to kill both, and then you can damage him… until he summons two more.:)

It's one of the most ridiculously hard battles I've ever seen in a crpg. I played the entire game on hard, but I finally gave up and put the difficulty down to easy just for that fight, and it was still a bitch.

I'll be honest though.. it's not really worth it. In fact, after I finally beat him, I decided to reload and chose not to fight him. That just felt like the more proper decision to me.
 
Joined
Oct 21, 2006
Messages
39,129
Location
Florida, US
Hmm, I'm a few hours into Chap 1. so my opinion may change as I complete more of the game.

Right now I'd give it about a 6/10 on a real scale ( yes, that would mean a 11/10 on the gamespot/ign scale ).
It looks great, great attention to world detail, I love that flotsom actually looks like a muddy village along the river. I'm mostly enjoying the story and characters, though it feels a tad disjointed for me, though no worse than TW1 at this point into the story.

My biggest question about the story right now is the very beginning of the prologue, why is Geralt guarding the king to begin with? Isn't that directly against his witcher code? Helping a human king storm a castle of human dissidents, where's the monster in that? His tag line at the end of the trailer he says, "I'm no avenger of orphans, no executioner for hire." Yet he's slaughtering people for political reasons??

I've had my share of CTDs but not too many bugs otherwise.

The music has been entirely forgettable so far. But the ambient and speech I'm happy with, except for the too quiet Geralt that's been mentioned, I'm assuming they can turn that up a little in a patch though.

I wish….
You could cast while moving (except perhaps Yrden).
You could drink potions outside of meditating. Go ahead and make him a sitting duck if you drink during combat and toxicity already prevents potion spamming. It's just takes too long with all the animations & menus.
Group style back, it was beautiful to watch in TW1 and groups are a major pain right now.
When I swing my sword, I want to hit what it hits, not just the targeted enemy. Worse, target switching takes a moment after you kill something, really slowing down the chaining of kills.
The out of combat -> loot enabling takes too long. I can understand the design decision of not allowing looting during combat but the cooldown after combat should be about half the time.

And then the bad parts…
No half stepping, you press forward and Geralt takes 2 full steps. Too many times I've tried to nudge forward to pick up a trap only to walk right into it. ( I guess "walking" would help but this hasn't been a problem in any other game )
The UI has been neutered for controllers.
The camera is too close to the character, it needs to be adjustable to zoom out further.
I don't like the auto-targeting system or the mouse & keyboard controls. A Risen styled implementation would have worked much better ( strafing, mouse look, centered targeting ).
The QTEs are just horrible.
I never want my camera controls taken from me, not for combat finishers, not for showing me something's happening during a boss fight, never.
 
Joined
Mar 2, 2009
Messages
426
Location
Wisconsin
You think the camera is too close? I beg to differ… I actually wanted it a bit closer. Those issues would be solved for everyone if they had just included a zoom control.


My biggest question about the story right now is the very beginning of the prologue, why is Geralt guarding the king to begin with? Isn't that directly against his witcher code? Helping a human king storm a castle of human dissidents, where's the monster in that? His tag line at the end of the trailer he says, "I'm no avenger of orphans, no executioner for hire." Yet he's slaughtering people for political reasons?


I don't get what you're confused about. It's explained in the game why Geralt is with the king.
 
Joined
Oct 21, 2006
Messages
39,129
Location
Florida, US
You think the camera is too close? I beg to differ… I actually wanted it a bit closer. Those issues would be solved for everyone if they had just included a zoom control.
.

I would love to have zoom as well. I wonder why they did not allow it. In fact I prefer if the camera controls were bit like WoW or EQ2 style.
 
Joined
Oct 8, 2009
Messages
4,425
Location
UK
I don't get what you're confused about. It's explained in the game why Geralt is with the king.

It was? I've done the prologue twice now, and I somehow totally missed it both times I guess.

JDR, did you mean this? Taken from the wiki:
Having survived one assassination attempt at the hand of a mysterious killer thanks to the timely intervention of Geralt of Rivia, the king keeps Geralt nearby as he regards Geralt as a sort of 'good luck charm'.

That might explain why he's in the camp but being paid to be a good luck charm wouldn't include killing political enemies. I thought even the explanation of being a body guard was a bit thin since you can't call bodyguarding someone who throws themselves into battle a moral negator for killing humans.
 
Joined
Mar 2, 2009
Messages
426
Location
Wisconsin
It was? I've done the prologue twice now, and I somehow totally missed it both times I guess.

Well, did you play the first Witcher game? The answer should be at the end of the first game.

One noted in the first game already that the assassin was a witcher. I would think that that would give Geralt a special interest in the whole thing, besides that he had saved Foltest the first time around.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Nov 23, 2007
Messages
744
Well, did you play the first Witcher game? The answer should be at the end of the first game.
One noted in the first game already that the assassin was a witcher. I would think that that would give a special interest in the whole thing, besides that he had saved Foltest the first time around.

Yeah, I've just been reading The Last Wish at the same time and I've been trying to reconcile Geralt's witcher code in the book with his actions in the game. Reflecting on it though, his code really seems to be made up to prevent nobles from hiring him as an assassin, not that he has any qualms about killing people just because if he feels like it. His ethical deliberations on who and what he kills seem to be pretty conflicted with his actions even in the book.
 
Joined
Mar 2, 2009
Messages
426
Location
Wisconsin
I have to agree regarding the music, it's honestly somewhat lacking. Literally - in a lot of places there simply is no music.

Generally, I prefer to have a good soundtrack in the background. In fact, I often turn up the music volume compared to voices/sound effects just to hear it more clearly.

Ah well, I can live without it, but it is something of a drawback.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
7,583
Location
Bergen
Regarding Geralt's presence in the war camp… There are two things to notice:
1. The king ordered him to come and can he really say "no" to the king?
2. There was a cockatrice nearby and who was tasked to kill it? Geralt, ofc

Regarding a question if Geralt switched from a witcher to a soldier, no he did not. At one point he tells Triss "once this is over, we're outta here". Not only that but he suggests Triss in the middle of things to go back to (now empty) camp and have some fun. In the bed ofc. She refuses.

And as RivianWitch said there is a subplot emerging, while you talked to Triss she told you something about the autopsy. And unlike other things mentioned, it's a spoiler you shouldn't see before playing the game. ;)
 
Joined
Apr 12, 2009
Messages
23,459
Back
Top Bottom