Witcher 2 witcher 2 is too short

Ashbery76 said:

The fetch quest and lots of running back and forth in the Witcher1 are not missed.

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They're not missed because they're also present in TW2.

DeepO said:

Speaking of the path(s) you mentioned:

Spoiler

On Roche route in chapter 3 you can influence the state of Temeria, where Roche ends up and (as on Iorveth path) sorcerers´ position in the world.

If you choose to help Roche:
If you give Anais to Temerians, Temeria retains sovereignty (at least if Henselt is dead) and Roche will serve Natalis, if you give Anais to Radovid, Temeria ends up as a protectorate of Redania and Roche changes uniform and will serve Radovid.
Dethmold is dead. Conclave and mages are fucked due to Shilard´s speech.

If you choose to go after Triss:
Temeria is divided between Kaedwen and Redania (at least if Henselt is alive). Roche ends up with Anais in some unknown location. Dethmold is alive.
Conclave and mages are ok since Triss´ speech tramples Nilfgaardians´ plans in this regard (Radovid merely attempts to arrest Síle instead of starting a full blown "witch-hunt").

There are some other nuances along the way.

Altogether that´s good enough for me, though I wonder how many of these changes will have influence in a potential sequel or an expansion.

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Yes, I know all this. I played Chapter 3 a total of three times to see all the consequences. I was just a little disappointed that none of it makes any tangible difference in the epilogue or ending. The political outcomes do nothing to affect Geralt or the gameplay in any way. It will be interesting to see what effects, if any, that have in The Witcher 3. Assuming we import our saves again.

JDR13 said:

Yes, I know all this. I played Chapter 3 a total of three times to see all the consequences. I was just a little disappointed that none of it makes any tangible difference in the epilogue or ending.

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Fair enough, though personally I count 3 different pre-endgame gameplay scenarios, different political outcomes and fates of some characters among "real" consequences.
I´d most likely prefer a more differentiated epilogue too, but I´ve just found it satisfying as is nevertheless.

DeepO said:

Fair enough, though personally I count 3 different pre-endgame gameplay scenarios, different political outcomes and fates of some characters among "real" consequences.
I´d most likely prefer a more differentiated epilogue too, but I´ve just found it satisfying as is nevertheless.

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I only experienced 1 pre-endgame gameplay scenario in Roche's path, with insignificant differences depending on whether or not you rescued Triss.

The different political outcomes are only speculated about at the summit. We don't actually get to experience any consequences from them, or see if they even happened that way at all. They're obviously meant as a setup for the next game, and hopefully CDP will use them to full effect.

I was expecting another animated cutscene (or at least a slide-show) before or after the credits, that showed what happened to certain individuals, or what they were doing immediately after those events.

As someone mentioned in another thread, TW2 was obviously just a stopgap in the overall story. I just hope they don't "forget" about some of those choices, like they did with Shani in TW1.

JDR13 said:

I only experienced 1 pre-endgame gameplay scenario in Roche's path, with insignificant differences depending on whether or not you rescued Triss.

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I don´t consider the differences between going after Triss or helping Roche insignificant. Different encounters, different areas, different dialogues and story bits. The third scenario occurs on Iorveth path and that one´s probably a bit more markedly different from the Triss one gameplay-wise (and can be started in 2 different ways which also affects gameplay).

JDR13 said:

The different political outcomes are only speculated about at the summit. We don't actually get to experience any consequences from them, or see if they even happened that way at all.

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We may not get to experience any consequences from them, but the different political outcomes are the consequences. For the time being, there´s not reason to assume they won´t happen the way they´re implied they will.
Whether The Witcher 3 will retcon them or not is a different story and it will certainly suck hard if retcons happen.

We´ll just have to agree to disagree I guess .

JDR13 said:

I was expecting another animated cutscene (or at least a slide-show) before or after the credits, that showed what happened to certain individuals, or what they were doing immediately after those events..

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I think pretty much all of this stuff got covered in journal (character entries).
Personally I view the cutscene concerning Kaedwen/Aedirn and the dialogue right in the beginning of epilogue as something akin to epilogue slides as well.

DeepO said:

I think pretty much all of this stuff got covered in journal (character entries).

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But not everybody checks character journal entries to see if the world around the main character has changed.
Anyway, I think that the influence of our choices will be insignificant, that is similar to that from the first part. The only exception might be:
Was there any word of explanation on the fate of Shani? Why is Geralt with Triss now? What happened to the other witchers who split after the attack on Kaer Morhen? With the questions unanswered and a few characters just missing, I don't expect significant impact of our choices on the next part. Though there was something mentioned about an additional DLC or expansion(?) covering the history between TW1 and TW2.
On the other hand, it's difficult to reconcile all those different fates of people with a single storyline in the next episode.

Hitting the limit of the big decision model.

Introducing Shani would mean a deeply different storyline. Could have given birth to TW2: Triss's version and TW2hani's version.

Way too costy to be supported.

ChienAboyeur said:

Introducing Shani would mean a deeply different storyline. Could have given birth to TW2: Triss's version and TW2hani's version.

Way too costy to be supported.

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Yes.

But the fact there´s no mention of her or any changes at all even when playing an import where Geralt was in love with her is inexcusable and it retrospectively rather hurts the first game in this regard too.
They should´ve at least made relationship with Triss play out a bit differently and explain where Shani ended up at.

Also, edited my previous post, Fridaily beerstorm and all .

DeepO said:

I don´t consider the differences between going after Triss or helping Roche insignificant. Different encounters, different areas, different dialogues and story bits. The third scenario occurs on Iorveth path and that one´s probably a bit more markedly different from the Triss one gameplay-wise (and can be started in 2 different ways which also affects gameplay). .

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Sure. Very small differences, and no consequences.

I'm talking about the Ch 3 path choices individually, not one path vs the other.

If you were satifisfied with them though then that's fine. Everyone has different levels of expectations. I found Chapter 3 slightly disappointing compared to earlier parts of the game, but that's just me.

DeepO said:

We may not get to experience any consequences from them, but the different political outcomes are the consequences. For the time being, there´s not reason to assume they won´t happen the way they´re implied they will.
Whether The Witcher 3 will retcon them or not is a different story and it will certainly suck hard if retcons happen.

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Nah… no reason at all to assume they won't happen that way. Kind of like the Shani-Triss choice from TW1.

Anyways, a few different lines of dialogue do not equal consequences in my book. So.. yeah, we'll agree to disagree. That's not to say the choices are meaningless though, because like I stated before, CDP has a chance to really do something with it in the next game.

just finished the game earlier and enjoyed it. in many ways better than the first and in others not so much. it definately wasn't as immersive and i really miss the large levels of the first game. this game was a step back in that regard. could we blame it on the wasted time on the first console fail, and the just announced 360 version? ah well. i followed the iorveth path as roche was really an ahole and upon reaching vergen and meeting saskia i was much more steadfast in that decision. only played through it once though i believe chapter 2 is entirely different and as i got the collectors edition which came with a guide which i have now skimmed i can tell you there is a shitload of differences in paths that i never took or had the option of taking so whether or not the prologue is different the journey or means is far different than the destination/ends. i imagine much like the scenario with the first game they will rule out alot of descision made as arbitrary so how about you just enjoy your different choices in the game now? personally i preferred shani in the first game and once again triss was wholely unappealing once again, voice, etc. only this time there was no real relationship cultivating going on with anyone. fine by me though saskia is a damn sweet heroine. hopefully she shows up in witcher 3 or any addon/expansion if that's the route they take. hate to wait another 4 years for more storyline.

i do think its kind of bad form though that over 50% of the game if you don't count the different paths probably occurs by the time act 1 is finished.

also a whole host of the games central characters fates/lives often hinge on the decisions you make in the game so i'm not really sure what kind of consequences you are talking about? this isn't a sandbox rpg where lives are taken by simply headshoting people as a choice...

DeepO said:

Yes.

But the fact there´s no mention of her or any changes at all even when playing an import where Geralt was in love with her is inexcusable and it retrospectively rather hurts the first game in this regard too.
They should´ve at least made relationship with Triss play out a bit differently and explain where Shani ended up at.

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Matter of taste, I prefer a story teller not to give what he/she has not than he/she tries to. The second option is always a disappointment.

Considering the specificities of the relationship to both Shani or Triss introduced in TW1, it looks impossible to come to an explanation close to be satisfactory.

TW2 starts a few months later and considering the importance of the choice made, every explanation would be fabricated.

Story writer had no explanation and understood coming up with one would be unsatisfactory. Suits me perfectly well.

This mistake, made in TW1, that is including a decision of that dimension for characters like Geralt, Triss and Shani, reveals miscalculations. In TW1, hints show they have a rather clear idea how the whole story was going to articulate (hint at the sorceresses conspiracy for example) but still they maintain decisions whose outcomes would exclude each other (if Geralt is with Shani, he can not be with Triss)

They might have thought on that moment they would be able to produce two significantly different versions of the game to suit the player's decision but in the end, the cost was too high for them to deliver on two versions, one based on Triss, the other on Shani.

I have played through the Witcher 2 for 2 times now.

The replay value is great. The Witcher 2 is really two games in one.

Two thumbs up, for this game - it is not too short and highly entertaining.

It was shorten with those "Monk like" deductions, where Geralt explains what it concluded it happened from the clues he gathered. If all those would have been translated in other quests - it could have been longer, probably more than 7 hours longer. Beyond that - it does feel like it's missing at least 2 or 3 more chapters - it has only 3 of them and the last one is kinda short. Witcher 1 had 6 chapters and all of them nicely done (didn't feel like they where made just for filling like it happens with other RPG at the middle of the story)...

Maybe they wanna add an expansion with 3 more chapters...