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Why is The Witcher 2 10x more difficult than the first one?

Mman235

Member
They both have reverse difficulty curves; the first chapter or so in both is pretty brutal but past that you're practically on godmode outside one or two difficulty spikes. Witcher 2 is comparatively harder in the sense that as it has action combat there's more room to mess up, but the difficulty still drops rapidly somewhere towards the end of the first main chapter.
 

Watevaman

Member
As soon as I got to Letho in the launch version I reduced the difficulty. Even with that I still think I only beat him with some glitch.

Upped the difficulty later though and found the game very rewarding. Each battle had me on edge.
 

Perkel

Banned
They wanted to make Dark Souls combat and connect it with Batman auto combo.

What they got is kind of batman combat (but way worse) with Dark Souls mobs hit hard without proper flexible fighting system that Dark Souls has.

Imo they should choose one and try to make it fun. From Geralts point of view and according to lore Batman like combat would be best since Geralt combat style is ultrafast in books not suitable for DS slow combat
 

Zafir

Member
The game has a weird reverse difficulty curve. It's actually a lot easier now than it was near launch.

Make sure to properly use your signs and bombs
This. It gets way easier as you progress.

I think part of the problem is, you start out with very little, and some aspects are locked behind the skill tree. Like improved block, improved rolling etc.
 
This dog was broken, man. More so than letho.

Bestiary_Hellhound_full.png
 
The Witcher 1 combat was laughably easy. Witcher 2 started off kind of tough but once you got the hang of it I thought it also became pretty easy as well. I don't think I had any real difficulties with TW2 post-Flotsam.
 

Number_6

Member
How important are potions in this one? I noticed that, unlike the first game, here you have to drink potions before entering combat.
 

Skelter

Banned
Outside one boss fight was I the only person who had no qualms with the Witcher 2's challenge?

And I played it when it first came out.

The only boss that gave me a problem was The Observer other then that I found the game very easy.
 

tokkun

Member
Your memory is failing you.
For how easy TW2 could be, from half of the second chapter going on you could *literally* beat any fight in TW1 with group style selected and just clicking on your mouse every three seconds without even looking at the screen.

Yeah, yeah, from the second chapter. But the boss of Chapter 1 was harder than anything in TW2. Especially if you are trying to save the witch.
 
Yeah TW2 starts frustrating and rapidly gets VASTLY easier as you progress to the point that only the rare boss fights have any challenge (and often not in a very good way). One of the many things that make it a bad game.
 

erawsd

Member
I'm really hoping they overhaul the entire combat engine in Witcher 3.

I was able to stomach Witcher 2's combat in 2011, but having gone back recently its really bad, even with the FCR.
 
I think the Witcher 1 is a lot more difficult due to its more limited combat system. I also found the Witcher 2 difficult when starting out, but it gets much easier once you really learn how to play it and start leveling up and using your potions correctly and all that. You're pretty much a Jedi by the end of the game.
 

Vaporak

Member
One mystery I will never understand is why the entirety of the internet sucks at The Witcher 2. I just don't get it. Are you just standing still and button-mashing? The game is pretty easy, really. And you don't have to roll around as much as some make it out either. Just use common sense, make sure enemies don't corner you, be wise about your talent points, make sure to drink potions and don't let yourself get surrounded. I never parry either; no point really. Just dodge and counter-attack from behind. Geralt is fragile, yes, but so are the enemies. Most enemies can be defeated in just a few hits; some in just one hit.

It's sad how many people are so bad at TW2.
 

Brandon F

Well congratulations! You got yourself caught!
This dog was broken, man. More so than letho.

Bestiary_Hellhound_full.png

Only difficult spot of the first game. Awful mostly given that the fight commences without warning immediately after a long cutscene after emerging from a dungeon. You are given no opportunity to heal up, buff with potions, etc... Just suddenly thrown into the fight. Death means potentially restarting from a save long before the encounter(though I think it autosaves at start of long cutscene still not giving any chance to prepare).

Fight isn't too bad if you had at least buffed up Aard, but this was a really shoddy moment in W1. Rest of the game was insanely simple to the point of feeling god mode is turned on, even on hardest difficulty, just given how brutally OP you can get working up the tech tree. (Witcher 2 is identical, working down any of the trees just makes you so OP for the mid/late game even on "Dark" diff).

I LOVE the games, but the combat in both is dreadful. Severely imbalanced in favor of the player, leaving the eventual feeling of being just tedious to deal with. The narrative, choices, structure, and relationships make the two games worth visiting, but they are rather poor "games".
 

RoadHazard

Gold Member
Speaking of which, does the PC version have controller support?

Yeah, that's what I'm using. Doesn't feel all that great, because there's no actual full analog movement. Geralt still just either walks or runs, and he can't turn smoothly. And the menus are an absolute chore to use, including the quick menu where you choose signs and other stuff. You'd think they would make it so you could just point the analog stick to the sign/thing you want (the menu is shaped like a circle, after all), but no, you have to move the selection over to what you want to select using the D-pad. Really slow and clunky. So not a great experience.
 

A.Romero

Member
I remember I had a really hard time at the beginning of the game
The attack on the tower
. Later, I had a hard time with the bugs in the forest due to not having a silver sword and thinking I would get it for free somehow from the dwarf blacksmith.

I got stuck in a couple of places later on but nothing too difficult to stomach. Plus, I enjoyed the game a lot.

I remember starting it again later on and feeling the game was much easier than the first time. I think it just has to "click".

BTW, I didn't fall onto the roll roll roll scenario most people talk about except for a couple of fights.

My advice: Use your arsenal: potions, bombs, traps, signs and weapons and you should be fine.

It does feel way easier towards the end with all the stuff you have by then,

The weight system sucks though. I hate that shit in any game,
 

Dibbz

Member
I thought it was meant to be hard, since I never played the first game. Managed to finish it though and thought it was fun. There were sections that I had to repeat endlessly though mainly because a slight touch on your back and you're gone. On my second play through I got up to a part where I had to steal some guys clothes or something and you are in a tiny room trying to fight like 6 or 7 guys. Like fuck that I don't even remember how to play anymore it's been so long. Guess I should just youtube it to see the alternate story.
 
It's all about that Letho fight man. Took me forever to beat that dude but once I did the combat kinda fell in place. For the impatient I can see why the combat would bother you but for me I'm waiting for that sweet sweet backstab.
 

aeolist

Banned
people keep saying the updates make the game explain a lot more about its systems

i guess at first it actively deceived you or something because it was still totally opaque to me. also the spell names didn't make any sense and i never played enough to get used to them because i just kept dying.

loved everything else about the game but after a couple hours of beating my head against it with no feedback or results i gave up. really hope wild hunt is better about this.
 
10 Steps to Success in The Witcher 2

1. Roll
2. Roll
3. Sign
4. Roll
5. Roll
6. Roll
7. Roll
8. Swing sword
9. Roll
10. Roll

This is pretty much how I played the game as well. You have to run circles around the battlefield avoiding enemies while your health and stamina regenerate. Roll when they attack. Quen will protect you from any attack, but you will not regenerate stamina while it's active.
 

RoadHazard

Gold Member
I'm doing a bit better now that I've got a bit better feeling for what works and what doesn't, what the signs are useful for, how absolutely essential it is to buff yourself up with potions and stuff before most fights, etc. Also, rolling around a lot. I can manage small to medium groups of enemies decently now, but larger ones are still really hard.
 

spekkeh

Banned
Iknowthatfeelbro

Same here. Hated the difficulty setting in Witcher 2. It's not that it was impossible, you just died too often, with that last hit from the last enemy and then you had to start all over again. Fricking annoying. After some time I put it on easy and then the game is just taking the piss, there's no strategy involved at all anymore. Just mash and get it over with. Then I read that CDPR did this on purpose because they want players who put it on easy to feel like noobs.

Well fuck you CDPR, I'm not buying W3.
 

RoadHazard

Gold Member
I've also had to relearn the importance of manually saving often, since this game doesn't behave like most modern games. It does autosave, but I'm having some trouble understanding exactly when that happens. I thought it was every time you complete a quest phase, but I just found out that's not always true. Had completed a quest of which the last phase took a fair amount of time, then moved on to do other things. Got jumped, died, had to restart from before the quest phase I had just completed. Luckily it wasn't a difficult quest, so I easily got through it again, but still pretty annoying. Please, game, autosave every time I've accomplished something quest-wise.
 

Mman235

Member
This dog was broken, man. More so than letho.

Bestiary_Hellhound_full.png

While both Witcher games become extremely easy after a certain point this asshole and Letho (although at least you can actually dodge and use strategy to beat him, unlike the Hellhound that can just stun-lock you to death on a whim) definitely make sure you earn your godhood.
 
Combat definitely isn't the strong suit of either game, with weird difficult spikes at launch (much better with patches/mods)
 

BraXzy

Member
Is it worth getting the combat mod that one of the devs downloaded? I'm gonna play through this for the first time soon and I'm wondering whether to do vanilla or grab it.
 

eot

Banned
I found TW1 harder because I completely missed that there was a potion you could use as a high quality potion base, so I had very few good potions.
 

HeelPower

Member
Because Witcher 1 is laughably easy outside of two fights.

I don't know...the fucking ghosts destroyed me witcher 1.

Stun lasts like 30 seconds....attack, attack ,attack while i couldn't do anything...then another stun to kill me...

It was purely luck based and frustrating as hell..The worst fight in the game is absolutely the one in chapter 4 where you had to use a certain herb to stop the king of the wild hunt....Nightmares thinking of that one.

I don't know WHAT were they thinking with that stun attack.
Bestiary_Wraith_full.png


10 Steps to Success in The Witcher 2

1. Roll
2. Roll
3. Sign
4. Roll
5. Roll
6. Roll
7. Roll
8. Swing sword
9. Roll
10. Roll

I know people hated roll for whatever reason but at least gave you quick movement out of harm's way.

In TW3 they decided to remove rolls and use "pirouettes"...I have no clue how this will turn...I was hoping they would go for some souls-like combat but its seems they are regressing to TW1 style T_T
 
I too was a bit off-put by the combat in this game after coming to it from the first one, which I felt once you kind of played with enough was too easy but made sense for playing with a mouse and keyboard. I agree that TW2 also isn't very gamepad friendly for certain things but...

Is it worth getting the combat mod that one of the devs downloaded? I'm gonna play through this for the first time soon and I'm wondering whether to do vanilla or grab it.
I think you mean is it worth downloading the combat re balance mod that one of the developers made in his free time? It doesn't cost anything, aside from a moment of your time to sign up/in to the redkit site and then downloading it. EDIT - http://redkit.cdprojektred.com/index.php?c=mod&m=show&p=77

I'm doing my second play-through with this and very much enjoy it now that I've got the hang of it. I'm actually getting more into the alchemy side of things this time and relying more on deliberate combat choices than just mashing attack. If you'd like, I could perhaps make a few videos of how it handles compared to the normal combat, or you could look at videos that are available online.

Highly suggested for those of you who want a better experience with the combat throughout the game and even the normal difficulties benefit from it (though playing it with the higher difficulties is very rewarding in a Demon/Dark Souls kind of way).
 
hated those plants that poison you in witcher 2.


witcher 2 wasn't bad at launch. just max that magic armor spell and your golden.


kraken boss was a bitch though. game over if you fail the QTE's and i didn't play with a 360 pad much for games back then.

was super frustrating!
 

puzl

Banned
When it was originally released, The Witcher 2 was criticized for its combat mechanics, as it felt a bit ‘awkward’ and Geralt could not react as fast as gamers had expected him to. Therefore, CD Projekt RED had to release a patch that addressed most of the game’s combat issues. But why was the combat of The Witcher 2 so unforgiving? Well, according to game director Konrad Tomaskiewicz, the game was inspired by Dark Souls.

In a length interview with Eurogamer, Konrad Tomaskiewicz said that CD Projekt RED tried in The Witcher 2 to make this high difficulty level that Dark Souls is best known for. However, Konrad claimed that it was a mistake as The Witcher fans wanted ‘a traditional RPG with a story, not a challenge based on their dexterity.’

“Dark Souls influenced me very much because I love games like this, but I understand after The Witcher 2 that we should less experiment on stuff like this but more focus on the things which people love in our games.”

So, what about The Witcher 3? According to Konrad, the game will be easier than its predecessor on normal difficulty. Still, this does not mean that the team will dumb down the game and make it easier for everyone. The Witcher 3 will sport various difficulty levels but unlike The Witcher 2, Normal won’t feel like Hard.

Konrad concluded:

“Right now we’re changing it and I believe that everyone will go in this world very smooth and we will not get problems like it was in The Witcher 2.”

http://www.dsogaming.com/news/the-w...d-by-dark-souls-the-witcher-3-will-be-easier/
 

antitrop

Member
I bought The Witcher 2 day 1 on PC.

I remember dying like 30 times in the first sections of the game, I just said "Fuck this shit, I'll wait for patches".

It was like Dark Souls, if Dark Souls was unfair and didn't really rely on skill.
 

TheAssist

Member
Other than the optional fight with the Operator I don't remember the game being all that difficult. Witcher 1 was a lot more challenging (and less fun) for me.

This and the time were you have to protect that woman. You fight 6 guys, 3 ranged and 3 melee, both unit types stand several meters away from another and the woman pulls agro when you dont attack them. So if you attack the melees she gets killed by the ranged guys and vice versa. Also the Operator fight itself wasnt hard, but the level design was crappy as hell (most difficulty of the game comes from level design imho.

During the operator fight, you are in a small room with pillars and debris. Most of the time when you try to roll, you hit the debris hit box and stop. The operator summons two monsters which one or two hit you. Also they are very fast. And to make it even more complicated the operator summons a shield that damages you when you come near it.

So you are fighting in small room, you can hardly use your roll, you dont have time to cast spells because the monster thingies will run at you before you have casted anything (but if they clip in the geometry you can mindcontrol them, which is nice) and one quarter of the rooms is blocked because of the shield the operator has ...

Would the room be twice as big, it would be an easy fight (though you can get out of fight during phase changes if you hide behind a pillar). This way you need traps, some good timing or stun/insta kill luck.


In general I find the game to be the most fun when you use signs and fight in open terrain.
 

Cheech

Member
Your not alone, I tried twice to get into it, put at least 7-8 hours in the second time. I cant pinpoint it, but it just felt too much like work. I wasn't having any fun.

Kind of a shame cos Witcher 3 looks amazing but I cant get excited for it

Same. I loved the hell out of Witcher 1, and basically gave up on Witcher 2 after the starter castle assault area. It was unnecessarily difficult and not fun at all. I will not be buying the third game.

I usually play games on the hardest difficulty level and finished Demon's Souls (one of my favorite games of last gen). Witcher 2 just screamed poor gameplay design. I tried the game again after the huge update they did, and it still sucked.

It wasn't just the difficulty either. Making the gameplay as complicated as possible with the signs and weird crafting, and making it necessary to win encounters (give me a choice, dammit!) was stupidly punitive and felt more like work than a game I was playing for fun.

Seriously, fuck Witcher 2. Less than zero interest in the third game.
 
Your not alone, I tried twice to get into it, put at least 7-8 hours in the second time. I cant pinpoint it, but it just felt too much like work. I wasn't having any fun.

Kind of a shame cos Witcher 3 looks amazing but I cant get excited for it

theres no shame in lowering the difficulty. Thats what i did and i had a blast with the game. Of course i tried using all my abilities to fight to keep the combat fun and different everytime.
 

Serrato

Member
Outside one boss fight was I the only person who had no qualms with the Witcher 2's challenge?

And I played it when it first came out.

Yup me too. Hardest boss? Letho.

In Witcher 1? The hellhound at hard can be easy if you know what to do, though I admit the first time he was a bad motherfucker for killing me so fast. I found the Golem harder because i only found the trick to kill when he was at low low health.
 
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