The Witcher 2 - Insane Difficulty Revealed

Originally Posted by skavenhorde
Agreed. Space Rangers 2 also had difficulty sliders that let you customize exactly what you wanted to be more difficult or easy. I would make some options extremely difficult while making some others very easy. Like I'd make my luck the best, but make scientists extremely dumb and make the enemy very hard.

I think it's one thing Eschalon did well, aside from the killer soundtrack. The game was still challenging, but you didn't have to micromanage as much.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
It's hard to get more accessible than "click when you're told"

Which is the reason you can choose to play on "hard", where it doesn't do that.

Well we have had this discussion about a millions times by now. But clicking a button doesn't become much harder without a text telling you to do so.

I guess it's tough for some people to comprehend what "play it on 'hard'" means.

Originally Posted by countingdown7
And you've never heard of iron man play styles?

It sounds weird now, but I didn`t either. I got TOEE off GOG recently, installed the Circle Of Eight mods, fired it up and went for this IronHand thingy thinking "wow, fancy name for hard difficulty"

One hour later it was "Why the hell can I not save? Thought they got rid of all bugs"
(was not amused having to re-roll the whole party and start again)

I had always thought of 'Ironman" mode and "hardcore" mode as 2 different things. To me, ironman is where you play without buying anything. No health potions, no weapons nothing. You may only use what you find. "Hardcore" is you die, game over. It's not a big deal, I was just wondering if anybody else thought that as well.

And I think the idea of a resurrection scroll as DLC is lame. I like the idea of putting in an option where the death penalty can be anything from nothing (easy mode) to downright severe (Insane mode).

Originally Posted by JDR13
Which is the reason you can choose to play on "hard", where it doesn't do that.

Actually, it does - but it's harder to see

It's still all about timed clicking though - but I guess that's enough challenge for some people

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
Actually, it does - but it's harder to see

I'm not sure what you're referring to. There's no visual assistance with the timing on hard mode.

Originally Posted by JDR13
I'm not sure what you're referring to. There's no visual assistance with the timing on hard mode.

When I played on hard, the sword had a flaming trail that "lit up" when you needed to click - just like the icon does on normal difficulty.

But even if that wasn't there, the combat system would still be absolutely abysmal in my opinion. Not because it lacks a challenge, but because it's incredibly dull to just time your clicks without any further consideration except for what "mode" you're in. Maybe it gets better beyond chapter two?

Still need to finish it before the second one is released

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
When I played on hard, the sword had a flaming trail that "lit up" when you needed to click - just like the icon does on normal difficulty.

Strange, I can honestly say I don't recall that. Perhaps I was ignoring it without even realizing.

I wouldn't argue that combat was the strongest point for The Witcher anyways. The story and atmosphere was what made it great for me. I also really liked some of the supporting characters, which is a rarity for me.

Originally Posted by JDR13
Strange, I can honestly say I don't recall that. Perhaps I was ignoring it without even realizing.

I wouldn't argue that combat was the strongest point for The Witcher anyways. The story and atmosphere was what made it great for me. I also really liked some of the supporting characters, which is a rarity for me.

Yeah, that's why I have to get back to it

I should install it right now!

Yep, there´s a trail and also a swish sound.
Timed clicking is still better than mindless button mashing, at least player has to pay some attention when fighting, unlike in, say, Two Worlds 2.
And at least on hard, changing styles, weapon balms, potions, spells and sometimes positioning need to be given consideration.

Originally Posted by DeepO
Yep, there´s a trail and also a swish sound.
Timed clicking is still better than mindless button mashing, at least player has to pay some attention when fighting, unlike in, say, Two Worlds 2.
And at least on hard, changing styles, weapon balms, potions, spells and sometimes positioning need to be given consideration.

True, crap is better than bad crap

That said, I don't think Two Worlds 2 is about button mashing, but about building a character and then playing to his/her strenghts. I haven't played it much, so maybe it's not well balanced - but I was definitely entertained by the possibilities and the flexibility during combat.

In The Witcher - it doesn't really matter where you assign your points. At least, that's my experience with it. You just time your clicks well, and the enemies die.

However, I'm looking forward to the game evolving beyond chapter 2. Maybe I'll change my mind about it.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
That said, I don't think Two Worlds 2 is about button mashing,

It mostly is, if you´re playing a melee character.
Character development is a different beast, I certainly hope that in The Witcher 2 there´ll be more diversity.
The biggest flaw in the first Witcher was relative linearity forced on player via the way talent acquiring worked. Allowing player to get more of silver and gold talents earlier and adjusting the difficulty accordingly would be a good way to enforce more specialization even with the existing skill system.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
In The Witcher - it doesn't really matter where you assign your points. At least, that's my experience with it. You just time your clicks well, and the enemies die.

Well, ideally on hard, you´d need to take extensive advantage of the features I´ve mentioned in the post above (alchemy, etc), but the game just isn´t balanced to be challenging enough for that so, depending on your time-clicking skills, you may end up not needing to do that often. But the basis is there.

Imo, main strengths of The Witcher are storyline, characters, art direction and overall atmosphere and while its combat certainly isn´t state of art, at least it fits well with the theme and isn´t frustrating.

Regarding hard on the original The Witcher, that was the combat change that the hardest mode brought, it kept the audio cue but eliminated the video cue. I thought it was a nice if mild challenge.

Since some of you are reporting other behavior, though, maybe something changed along the way. I played the original UK version when it first came out. Perhaps a later patch or some mod altered that behavior (and perhaps some mods were installed by the mega patch). But, for me, I liked the combat on the hardest difficulty with audio cue only, even if it wasn't that hard.

Originally Posted by DeepO
Yep, there´s a trail and also a swish sound.

I'll third that. But combat was not its strong suit. Story, NPCs, and atmosphere (and music, for me) were.

Potions. I loved the potions. There is no other game I've played where potion making was a necessity.

Of course the story and all that, but I did like the combat as well (on hard) normal was way too boring.

Also there is a really good mod out for Witcher called, The Full Combat Rebalance mod. It changes so much that it almost feels like a new game. It changed it in a way that made sense and made it more difficult without just adding a ton of HP to the monsters.

The only problem I had with it is that it kept going to the first person POV instead of over-the-shoulder. I hated that first person mod and wish there was some way to disable that in the full rebalance mod. It was easy enough to get around though. Every time I entered a new area I just zoomed out. Not that hard, but annoying.

Why they will release a DLC to counter their choice ?

I will play it in "laughable easy" difficulty so i don't really care but i think that when they go for "do or die" they shouldn't revoke , i guess this ads some spice for the master gamers.