The Witcher 2 first impressions

One complaint: They definitely need to make the "Take All" option keyboard-mappable. It would make looting a lot more streamlined.

EDIT: I just read Dartgan's post previous to mine. So it's SPACEBAR for loot all, then?

Originally Posted by elkston
One complaint: They definitely need to make the "Take All" option keyboard-mappable. It would make looting a lot more streamlined.

EDIT: I just read Dartgan's post previous to mine. So it's SPACEBAR for loot all, then?

Yep - you left-click to loot, and then spacebar for loot all.

Given how "fake" this aspect feels, I think they should have just made spacebar the loot-all WITHOUT having to left-click first.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
Yep - you left-click to loot, and then spacebar for loot all.

OK, thank you.

Given how "fake" this aspect feels, I think they should have just made spacebar the loot-all WITHOUT having to left-click first.

True, but they need to set up the looting stage initially so that people can pick and choose the items they want in the rare cases when they don't want everything. (Like probably when you're reaching your weight limit).

Originally Posted by elkston
True, but they need to set up the looting stage initially so that people can pick and choose the items they want in the rare cases when they don't want everything. (Like probably when you're reaching your weight limit).

True, but they could have left-click for "selective looting" and spacebar for "loot all".

In any case, this is very minor

Originally Posted by crpgnut
Did anybody have any luck sneaking? The guards would see me no matter how dark it was and I never got a single sneak attack in. I ended up meleeing groups of guards.

I managed to knock out (not kill) all the patrolling guards in the dungeons (on Normal difficulty). Took a few tries, mostly because the spotting works really randomly, but it wasn't that difficult in the end. However, sneaking isn't the strong point of TW2, that's for sure.

I forgot this from my previous list of things bothering me about TW2. It's the age old "steal anything, anywhere, even under the owner's nose" theme. Not a biggie, but I'd really prefer a game world where you couldn't just take anything not nailed down with impunity.

Originally Posted by JDR13
Yeah..I've spent a lot of time using hit and run tactics so far. I really had to use everything at my disposal in some of the early battles as well. Like against that group of guards in the courtyard where you had to lower the gate for King Foltest and his men.

That was the point in the Prologue I had most trouble with. The big, heavily armored guy with a two-hander could drop Geralt's HP from nearly full to nearly gone in one or two hits. To top it off, he himself can take a ton a damage before dropping. To say nothing of the five other enemies out for your blood. It's a nasty fight and involved a lot of rolling and running around, throwing bombs and spells, and cursing a lot. A lot! Good stuff!! (How you managed to win that on Hard, I don't know, but I salute your virtual sword skillz.)

For big armored dudes: Yrden sign.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
For big armored dudes: Yrden sign.

Yes, that works. Also the use of those fire traps Geralt has in his inventory proved to be very effective. Very satisfying to see 3-4 of the enemies on fire. *evil grin*

WOW, this is sounding really super………… I can't play it until after my china trip though…. so please don't post too many spoilers

Played about 10 hours so far, nearly level 10 now. I have a few impressions and questions.

First of all: It's a lot better than TW1 in my opinion, mainly due to how the world flows and how combat works. There is very little loading now - it seems they've used a similar trick to Mass Effect where some of the loading happens during something of an event. It works out better than in ME though, so it ends up being really smooth.

The combat is also a vast improvement, being a lot of fun. There are some issues with combat though: The target lock sometimes gets me killed in group fights because it sometimes switches to the guy behind him the one I'm aiming at, and I start swinging at air and jumping in all the wrong directions.

Also, there is sometimes a slight "lag" in combat, which seems to be the result of certain animations or some such thing. Anyway, it sometimes causes Geralt to simply stop dead in his tracks, and no amount of button spamming will get him to move for a short while.

The world itself is much better crafted than the world in TW1. Currently running around in the swamp, and it's pretty big with quite a lot of stuff to do. By the way, is there any sort of teleport or quick travel? The swamp can be quite a maze at times, which means backtracking can take quite a lot of time.

Anyway, all in all it seems like a great game. So far, so good!

PS. A somewhat funny thing I noticed: People were complaining about how "good" the mother of Hawke looked in DA2 (she didn't really look like an old lady). Just wait until you see the mother of Aryan! She looks significantly younger than Aryan. In fact, she looks like a 19 year old model.

I think the "lag" could in fact be a stun effect - if what you are describing is the same thing I noticed in the ballista fight yesterday.

Originally Posted by JDR13
I had the same experience as you.. the sneaking was pretty much useless. It didn't matter for me since I had to kill the guards to proceed anyways.

What really annoyed me were the torches in that area. They interfered with picking up loot, and in some cases, attacking guards. I couldn't highlight loot if it was dropped too close to a torch. Definitely a little buggy in places.

Sneaking was hit and miss for me. I killed some guards but did managed to stun 4 or 5. I hide behind a wall and stunned them when they walked pass.

However I don't see why you have to kill them to proceed…you can loot the keys from stunned guards.

Originally Posted by lostforever
Sneaking was hit and miss for me. I killed some guards but did managed to stun 4 or 5. I hide behind a wall and stunned them when they walked pass.

However I don't see why you have to kill them to proceed…you can loot the keys from stunned guards.

I think what he means is: You end up in a fight no matter what. I think there might be a slightly different result if you somehow manage to knock all the guards down instead of killing them. Still, the stealth "minigame" definitely leaves a lot to be desired.

Something I forgot to mention: Creatures that are killed near walls sometimes drop their loot too far "inside" the wall, meaning you can actually lose out on loot. Normally not a problem, but it might be a problem if the creature had a quest item.

I didn't really try sneaking too hard, but I managed to knock out most guards. I think it's supposed to be rather difficult - which would match the overall difficulty level of the game.

But there's definitely a dialogue/quest attached to it - because the Baron dude mentioned he wasn't happy about me killing some of them.

Originally Posted by GothicGothicness
WOW, this is sounding really super………… I can't play it until after my china trip though…. so please don't post too many spoilers

Ok, no posting. But here's a suggestion for you all. Let's in stead pm GG with all the spoilers you can think of.

Evil Pibbur

Originally Posted by Maylander
I think what he means is: You end up in a fight no matter what. I think there might be a slightly different result if you somehow manage to knock all the guards down instead of killing them. Still, the stealth "minigame" definitely leaves a lot to be desired.

Something I forgot to mention: Creatures that are killed near walls sometimes drop their loot too far "inside" the wall, meaning you can actually lose out on loot. Normally not a problem, but it might be a problem if the creature had a quest item.

Ah understand better now

I did run into the looting problem. I stunned a guard who had a key (quest item) but he got stuck in the roof and no way to loot him! So had to restart.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
I didn't really try sneaking too hard, but I managed to knock out most guards. I think it's supposed to be rather difficult - which would match the overall difficulty level of the game.

But there's definitely a dialogue/quest attached to it - because the Baron dude mentioned he wasn't happy about me killing some of them.

Even though I didn't managed to knock down all the guards, I didn't think it was difficult once I got the hang of it. The 4 or 5 guards I did managed to stun were all towards the end. I found that once I got the timing right, I can get very close to them without them seeing me. However I was playing on normal difficulty setting.

Fish I had the same problem and all I had to do was right click witcher icon and change to minimize-run the game and put in your key and it will patch normally

Originally Posted by GhanBuriGhan
I think the "lag" could in fact be a stun effect - if what you are describing is the same thing I noticed in the ballista fight yesterday.

I think this "lag" is indeed a stun effect. I've noticed it when your attack is blocked by a shield, maybe not always, but often you're stunned for a short while after the shield block.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
But there's definitely a dialogue/quest attached to it - because the Baron dude mentioned he wasn't happy about me killing some of them.

Yeah. I don´t know whether some further consequence or quest is attached to it but the game definitely reacts to what approach was taken -
Moreover, there seem to be quite a lot of ways how the actual sequence can play out, based on
The stealth system seems somewhat unreliable and is slightly on a gimmick-y side since it´s usable only in designated places, but it´s a good addition nevertheless - multiple quest solutions + possible consequences ftw.

Just got to chapter 1 where the game finally opened, can´t wait to explore the area.
Prologue was pretty spectacular, but it was very linear for most of the time and filled with scripted sequences and QTEs, hopefully from now on there´ll be a lot more space to breathe.
That some parts of it are skippable might come in handy on replays, though I wonder how the game will handle choices in skipped parts then.

Playing the game on hard and so far so good. I´m glad to see bombs and signs being quite crucial right from the start.

Anyway, I´ll rather come up with more comprehensive set of opinions later .