Witcher Difficulty curve

Question for those of you who have played through -- or are further in than I am (Act 3, just arrived at Lakeside): how does the difficulty of the game evolve from here on out?

The reason I'm asking is that most of Act 3 until now has felt a bit too easy -- I hardly ever have to use alchemy (other than the Swallow potion) anymore, and pretty handily dispatch mobs of toughest enemies the game's throwing at me (Bruxas, those dual-wielding assassins, Royal Wyverns). The balance felt "just right" all through Chapter 2, but upgrading my swords and armor seems to have made me a wee bit overpowered, and I miss the adrenalin rush.

IOW, is this a temporary lull, or should I do what I've been toying with -- start over at Hard difficulty? I'm currently playing at Medium.

I found the game a little too easy on medium as well (I'm early in act three) and would love having to prepare before fights, but I don't think I could stand having to reload a bunch of times after dying with these horrible load and save times. 'course, it doesn't help that I'm playing on a laptop computer which means 5.4k rpm harddrive (I do have 2 GB RAM though).

I think once you get settled in the game combat mechanics, whatever the level of difficulty you use, it's going to get easier.

I just started a new game (same difficulty as the one first try) and everything is easier.

I've found the combat more intuitive on hard, but you die more often if you get surprised by multiple enemies. The combat feels more natural though, as you listen for the queue and react rather than reacting to a visual queue (though you can do it that way too on hard). Just my opinion, but my second play through is enjoyable, still finding things I missed, I didn't use drinking properly my first time through among other things.

Play on hard if you want a more satisfying game play experience, medium if you want to enjoy the story w/ combat as a rite of passage rather than a trial. IMO

What exactly are the differences from medium to hard difficulties?

Right now I'm playing on medium, and so far has felt a bit too easy. I'm only barely into Chapter 1 though... but still, I'm used to the punishing Gothic games. Would starting over on 'hard' be more enjoyable do you think?

Your enemies are "significantly more powerful", your mouse cursor doesn't change into a flaming sword when it's time to click (the "click interval" is also shorter) and you gain experience more slowly.

Walp, I'm a bit further in, and it did get more interesting again (challenge-wise). I still sorta wish I was playing at hard, but not so much I'll start over. But there will be another play-through at some point, with some rather different choices...

I play it on Hard and am enjoying it a lot. On hard you get:
- no flaming sword - you have to hear the swing sound of the sword at the end of a move, the sword itself leaves an afterglow as well, but the time to click correctly is rather short, so even now, in the middle of Act III I often loose the pace
- enemies and monsters are tougher - lets get one thing straight, Geralt is still a witcher, when he gets surrounded by drowners, shouldn't have problems, but one have to be very careful during combat, over-the-shoulder often is not enough, without proper view of the situation you are as good as dead, pausing to plan next moves occurs a lot as well
- experience is gathered slower
- alchemist is your second profession - without it you won't live till next morning, and by alchemy I mean it all, potions, oils and, hell yes, explosives, later on it's almost impossible to win a fight against humans without some Zerrikhan's inventions

CDProjekt was advertising The Witcher as an action-RPG game, which, thankfully, is quite opposite. The story, dialogs (in their original-as-intended Polish-version-without-Atari-ideas ), questing, characters' relations are so intense and enjoyable yet exhausting sometimes, that some hard difficulty fighting in between is a nice relaxing, tactical, fun, demanding relief .

I strongly recommend Hard, it's not Aliens vs Predator Marine campaign Director's Cut type of Hard...

I find hard thoroughly enjoyable and I agree with those saying it feels more
natural. Its challenging without ever becoming frustratingly difficult imo (you do
die a couple of times ofcourse if you are not careful).

You just have to keep your wits about you. You can't stroll through fights and
you do rely on alchemy for survival (the devs description on the difficulty choise
screen is spot on here). Thats also part of the attraction for me because it makes
alchemy an absolutely essential part of the game which feels more in character
for a witcher (not to mention that I love the way the alchemy/ingredient
research is implemented) .

Ok, JonNik, your avatar looks just like Zigfrid

Not too odd that . This is a medieval knight too (Max von Sidow as Block from
Ingmar Bergman's the 7th seal)

Man, you guys are tempting me to re-start. I've noticed I'm so focused on the flaming sword cue to win battles that as a result I miss all the pretty sword-swinging action!
I like the idea that alchemy means something too..

Try ditching silver/gold melee skills and go all out magic. That should make it challenging, since most magic is only useful as support. I find that the really powerful stuff is Strength and the forms I use the most (strong/group silver is what I personally use the most).

...More power to ya... I'm just not a mage type of character. Let us know how that turns out!

Okay, so I just started a new game set to 'hard' difficulty. Would you believe that I just got better at combat on that setting? Somehow I'm doing better without the mouse cursor cues than I did with them. And my health is actually down 1/4 after the first half of the prelude as opposed to nary a scratch the first time through. This is more like it!!

I'm definitely going back and replay at Hard, but I'm too hooked atm to restart. I can see how combat would actually be better by relying on the actual combat visuals than the cursor thing--not to mention have a better feel to it.

AFA the magic--it's a refreshing take for me as of course you can probably tell by my sig I am a magic user wherever possible. Alchemy is proving one of the most fun implementations of that skill I've encountered, and it's very intuitive once you get into it a bit--I imagine you'll find yourself using it at hard difficulty. Still, you can probably buy your potions if collecting herbs and brewing up batches of goodies isn't your thing.

Anyway, what I meant to say Jabberwocky, is I think using the signs will be a big change from traditional spellcasting and might be profitable for any play style. Even at a low level, they're effective, and all it takes is a rightclick, so you don't have to spend tedious hours squandering valuable combat time pondering which spell to cast. Plus the combat animations for the coups de grace moves after you've stunned an opponent with the Aard sign are quite bloodthirsty and satisfying, which you've probably already noticed.

About alchemy: it pays to pay attention to the secondary component in ingredients.

(1) You get way better potions, and
(2) You don't clutter up your inventory.

In more detail:

(1) Decide what you're harvesting today (=after clearing your inventory at an inn): rubedo, nigredo, or albedo. Ignore everything that doesn't have what you need (or sell it quickly, to keep your inventory clear).
(2) Decide which potions you're brewing with which secondary ingredient. My favorites:
* Swallow + nigredo -> regenerates both health and endurance
* Blizzard + albedo -> much lower toxicity; you can use several in a role
* Tawny owl + rubedo -> regenerates both health and endurance
* Any extra buff + albedo -> (Wolf, Thunderbolt, Wolverine etc. less toxicity, meaning you can use that plus Blizzard with no ill effects

Yes, that's the only drawback to the diversity of the ingredients and their specialized usages--the inventory is too small and too cluttered to collect everything randomly.

Ah, but is that supposed to be good or bad? People are always complaining about "dumbed-down" features in games. Isn't an unlimited, auto-sorted inventory the very essence of dumbed-down?

Perhaps, in the same way that some consider a cross-referenced and self-updating journal "dumbing down," or an in-game mini- map instead of having to grab a pencil and graph paper. It's a hard term to define absolutely, because it's very subjective, but I think an auto-sort ability is just a handy feature and removes a bit of time from my anal micro-managing episodes. (Obviously, it hurts me when I have to pick between various plants--all plants are good, and I want them.)

Side note: as a horticulturist I derive great satisfaction from the use of botanical names--everything I've come across so far is an actual plant, though of course, the lore is not necassarily from the RW--though echinops is a thistle-like plant, and very unfriendly to the touch, and hellebore, or lentan rose and sweet myrtle have medicinal as well as ornamental usages.