The Witcher 2 - Preview @ Eurogamer

There's a new preview of The Witcher 2 over at Eurogamer, penned by Alec Meer:

Right, enough doe-eyed blather about how the thing looks. What manner of RPG is it? It's action-orientated, but backed up by a confident line in grey-area moral decisions and multiple approaches to quest-solving.
To give specific examples would be to risk spoiling a game that, so far, excels even in the more minor details, but a trend appears to be the choice between a quicker, lazier route that likely involves increased brutality and a slower, more fiendish path more likely to soothe your conscience and potentially lead to greater long-term reward.
Or occasionally the opposite is true; in one quest where I let my determination to do the right thing lead the way, I was deceived by an NPC and almost got a bunch of guys killed as a result. Nice guys don't necessarily finish last, but they sure can look like simpering, gullible idiots.
Without having access to the entire game, the full scope and scale of possible consequence can't yet be determined, but so far I've had a good sense of building my own road through The Witcher 2, even if (as I suspect) that road will be broadly similar for most other players.

More information.

Still no jumping? I thought they'd sorted that out with the new engine?

Surprised with that too, it says in the unoffical FAQ it has jumping

"You can jump onto obstacles up to 2.8m and jump down up to 5m. You can also jump over obstacles up to 4m wide. You can jump over fences and walls up to 2.8m. You can't walk on the edge of wall, balance, etc. You can use ladders. Some additional possibilites appear only in quests (ex. you must use the chimney to give gifts to children, but you can’t enter every chimney). Obstacles up to certain height are jumped over automatically."

Very disapointing if they removed that, it'll be just as linear and "closed in" as the first game = no buy.

I would assume you can leap over small obstacles but can't freely jump, like in many other games. There's no real contradiction there, unless I am reading your comment wrong.

And that's a pretty silly thing to complain about from my perspective, but I'm sure you disagree.

Originally Posted by DoctorNarrative
And that's a pretty silly thing to complain about from my perspective

I was going to say the exact same thing.

The Witcher was not "closed in", unless you're comparing it to something like TES or Gothic, but it's not meant to be that kind of game regardless. The ability to jump (or lack thereof) has little to do with that anyways.

You can always keep Portal 2 handy if you suddenly feel a need to jump.

Originally Posted by JDR13
The ability to jump (or lack thereof) has little to do with that anyways.

It has everything to do with it. If you can climb / jump it means the devs have to design the world MUCH more careful and take that ability into account = a much less closed in world. I also don't get how anyone can immerse themselves with a super agile character than can do just about any kind of move, except for climbing / jumping.

His most fearsome enemy won't be any kind of monster, it'll be those 60 cm high fences that are just plain impossible to climb (and the awesome adventure of finding that one gate so he can pass through it). Nah, not for me.

The nitpick brigade is out in full force for the release of what will probably be the best rpg this year.

Hardly nit-picking, game breaking bad design imo. Dont care if the derp-bioware crowd disagree

Originally Posted by Melvil
The nitpick brigade is out in full force for the release of what will probably be the best rpg this year.

Yup…Not being able to jump (seriously?) is probably the most nit-picky reason I've ever heard as to why someone is going to completely pass on a game. To each his own I guess, but man…it's hard to shake the feeling that one should at least come up with a more substantive reason to not like a game than that.

It's a main feature, it completely changes how a game plays and how the world is designed. Nitpicking would be complaining about a minor feature, such as hair color.

I think it's been fully disclosed that you can only jump at certain locations, over obstacles and such in previews and gameplay videos. I would have preferred to be able to jump wherever but it's not a big deal I guess. Climbing would also have been nice but you can't always get what you want…

Originally Posted by vurt
Very disapointing if they removed that, it'll be just as linear and "closed in" as the first game = no buy.

I'm not buying it if Geralt can't use a hula hoop.

It won't stop me buying it, but it is a bit disappointing.

Interestingly, jumping is also a big thing in MMOs. Many modern MMOs don't include such interactive features, which helps create a more lifeless world with more unneeded barriers.

I still have fond memories of jumping… Don't look at me like that! I'm not weird!

Originally Posted by vurt
His most fearsome enemy won't be any kind of monster, it'll be those 60 cm high fences that are just plain impossible to climb (and the awesome adventure of finding that one gate so he can pass through it). Nah, not for me.

Yeah, because in reality we go around jumping over things to get where we want to go.

Originally Posted by Alistair
I'm not buying it if Geralt can't use a hula hoop.

They recently announced that Geralt will not be able to pick his nose. Can you believe that crap? Fuck this… I'm definitely not buying it now.

You guys have got vivid imaginations if you can explain away being stopped in your tracks by a knee high picket fence.

I loved the first Witcher but gave it up prematurely because of being glued to the ground - it made all that running back and forth twice as boring. Divinity II, for example, required lots of running around too but you could jump off things, etc, and it was a fun - as a computer game should be.

vurt - are you the guy who did all of those morrowind mods? Fantastic work if yes.

Originally Posted by JDR13
Yeah, because in reality we go around jumping over things to get where we want to go.

Happens all the time, I jumped over a trench just yesterday to take a shortcut. You sure you've been in reality lately, because that's what people do..

If i was as agile and strong as Geralt is supposed to be i'd use it to my advantage all the time, especially if i was on super important quests to save the world etc.

edit: badmofo, yes and thanks.

I too wish geralt could jump. Didn't ruin the first witcher for me though and won't ruin the 2nd. It did feel weird though jumping around like a ninja in combat then getting twarted by a small fence.

Hard to believe some people are complaining that you can't jump around like an ape in what should likely be a superb choice-driven RPG.

If you're serious about not buying TW2 because you can't jump, you're obviously not the target audience anyway.

Originally Posted by Drithius
Hard to believe some people are complaining that you can't jump around like an ape in what should likely be a superb choice-driven RPG.

Why is it hard to believe that people want to be able to jump in an action RPG? I can't believe that you can't believe that.

I've pre-ordered and am sure I'll enjoy it very much, but I want to be able to jump. That's reality for ya, full of trade offs and grey areas.