Witcher 2 CDPR Defends Difficulty

Actually I am bit dissapointed by difficulty. As I find the game laughably easy even on Hard difficulty

Twotricks said:

Actually I am bit dissapointed by difficulty. As I find the game laughably easy even on Hard difficulty

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Yeah… ok

Actually I am bit dissapointed by difficulty. As I find the game laughably easy even on Hard difficulty

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Hope you were being ironic...........

Some people consider games easy AFTER they've died constantly, as they were learning the game.

It's another common human response

(awaiting the claim that Twotricks died maybe 1-2 times during his first playthrough)

NotR is one of very few RPGs I can think of where a first-time player will die more frequently than in TW2. However, unlike NotR, TW2 has difficulty settings. Easy is pretty straight forward, even in the start. Normal is a bit spikey in chapter 1, but evens out in chapter 2. Hard is only easy after you get adrenaline moves.

Its tough but you know its beatable ( the Prologue). Forces some RTFMing in your journal and sign (ab)useage. At least you can manouver as much as you like - no big deal. Kind of a trial by fire. Its good. Games used to be this tough and its good to go back there again without having 4 levels of "this is how you crouch" etc.
No problem with QTEs I think they were ok.
Chap 1 boss was stupid though, made me curse a bit.

DArtagnan said:

Some people consider games easy AFTER they've died constantly, as they were learning the game.

It's another common human response

(awaiting the claim that Twotricks died maybe 1-2 times during his first playthrough)

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No. I died lots of times. There were some fights that i had to retry for up to 40 minutes. But. All in all I expected hard to be : "Oh my god this is insane" - like Super Meat Boy style

Now the next difficulty is "Insane" That is actually Hard, but you can die only once.

I am not much on prema death games. I usually play really tired from work , and I often fall asleep at keyboard , and than i die. So its not good for me

Twotricks said:

No. I died lots of times. There were some fights that i had to retry for up to 40 minutes. But. All in all I expected hard to be : "Oh my god this is insane" - like Super Meat Boy style

Now the next difficulty is "Insane" That is actually Hard, but you can die only once.

I am not much on prema death games. I usually play really tired from work , and I often fall asleep at keyboard , and than i die. So its not good for me

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That makes a lot more sense than saying it's laughably easy, you know

LuckyCarbon said:

So…we're in a agreement then, the game does a poor job of explaining the combat to you,

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What were your expectations on the witcher style of combat? You suggest that the game misrepresents what could be witcher style of combat and therefore has to explain it to you.

Just like TW1, I found that the combat style is what could be expected from somebody in light armor, wielding a two handed sword. Nothing surprising in it. If you play it like that, it goes.

After finishing TW1, I started TW2 on hard and died for the first time during the first reptilian appearance.

Your expectations on the witcher style of combat must be different as you expect the game to explain it to you. What were they?

Drithius said:

The only thing they should change is the Kayran fight. The mechanics of that are beyond irritating when you go into the fight blind. There's so many different parts to the fight you have to learn without any hints beforehand… one screwup and you have to repeat everything over, only to get to the next "trick".

It's easy if you follow some internet walkthrough of the mechanics, but I'd like to think that's not a requisite to enjoy a battle, rather than curse at it for a couple hours.

The rest of the game is balanced fairly well; I look forward to meeting Letho again

Spoiler

(in Chapter 1)

knowing what I know now about combat after beating the game the first time.

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I've actually found this fight so aggravating I'm quitting the game for a while. I'm 55 and my reflexes aren't what they used to be. I need to at least be able to save during the fight. If they fix this for us old folks I'll come back otherwise forget it. Don't want to play an arcade game.

Respawning monsters are a bit annoying. For example you try to kill the endrega queen and if you fail smaller minions respawn after a reload. A few ain't that bad but 4-5 is a bit bothersome. I guess it's punishment for sucking and not killing the queen on the first try.

It probably shouldn't have been my first monster hunting quest in Flotsam, while playing on hard. Haven't even spent any points on the actual main skill paths yet.

lumiapina said:

Respawning monsters are a bit annoying. For example you try to kill the endrega queen and if you fail smaller minions respawn after a reload. A few ain't that bad but 4-5 is a bit bothersome. I guess it's punishment for sucking and not killing the queen on the first try.

It probably shouldn't have been my first monster hunting quest in Flotsam, while playing on hard. Haven't even spent any points on the actual main skill paths yet.

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This was actually a fight i spent most time on (that and kayran)

Every time you reload, every minion respawns. And there are nekkers around too.
Also Queen kills you in one or two hits.

On the end i killed her with daggers.

Actually at hard difficulty - daggers are answer for everything

The Endrega Queen made really easy:

DArtagnan said:

The Endrega Queen made really easy:

Spoiler

Just use Aard and Quen. After Aard, use 1 quick attack and 1-2 slow attacks depending on timing. Then roll away as per usual, to avoid retaliation. I died minimally after learning this, even on hard. It really pays to read up on monsters in the Attributes screen - as I picked up the Aard trick that way.

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That works on first queen easily. Because you have a lot maneuvering space.
Second one is more tricky.
No place to jump around. And if you run back too much it returns to its spawn point and regenerates (at least it was so for me)

Twotricks said:

That works on first queen easily. Because you have a lot maneuvering space.
Second one is more tricky.
No place to jump around. And if you run back too much it returns to its spawn point and regenerates (at least it was so for me)

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There is a way to dispose of one of the queens with a bit of external help and without engaging in fight. Actually, it was even funny. I combined two quests in one.

Twotricks said:

That works on first queen easily. Because you have a lot maneuvering space.
Second one is more tricky.
No place to jump around. And if you run back too much it returns to its spawn point and regenerates (at least it was so for me)

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I did it like that with both fights. Really didn't have much trouble. Used the trees to avoid retaliation.

I think the difficulty is perfect. The easy isn't too hard, but easy enough not to present much of a challenge; the normal is just-just a challenge, and I haven't tried the hard yet, but assuming from the complaints, it's hard enough.

So there should be something in this game for everybody, from casual to hard-core RPG'ers.

And like posters above said, it just takes a bit of a learning curve and then you're there.

As for QTE's, I died a few times during my first fistfight (in prison), but after a while I was begging for more. Same with the other minigames, - armwrestling becomes a joke once you get the hang of it.

Sure, the Kayran was a bit unfair, but so was the Kikimore Queen…
This kind of boss fight with a "trick" to it, seems to be becoming a Witcher trademark. A Witcher game has to have at least one of those.

What is the trick in Kayran's fight?

ChienAboyeur said:

What is the trick in Kayran's fight?

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Just a sequence and timing of his moves.
Once you figure it out , its cakewalk.

The Kayran fight was pretty easy, even on hard. I think I died 2-3 times or so.

Sadly, they chose to litter the game with trivial enemies later on - so the fantastic challenge and balance of the first chapter is all but ruined as the game progresses.

To be sure, there are still challenging fights in the last two chapters - but the "trash" is pointless and doesn't even reward XP after a certain stage. At least, not for me - but I reached level cap before the end.

Also, they messed up on XP division between side quests and main quests. Main quests give WAY too many XP, and side quests give WAY too few. There should have been a better balance there - to further motivate the player to explore and take in the sights. I got 1-3 levels after each main quest - which really ruined the flow of progression. You always want to give players the chance to enjoy powers - one at a time.

What they should have done instead, is to let mobs and sidequests yield - say - a fourth of main quest XP and adjust accordingly. There needs to be an incentive for side quests - beyond simply doing them for the hell of it. Loot balance would have helped as well. There ARE a few sidequests that give pretty worthwhile loot (like Melitele's Heart) - but most of them are relatively trivial in terms of reward. I'd have enjoyed the reward of being more of a bad-ass for doing all the sidestuff.

The loot balance is also totally messed up - especially with the DLC stuff available.

These relatively minor things add up to a bit of a mess in terms of overall balance. I'm sure they'll be modded - but the "first experience" is all important.