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The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings |OT| Plough 'Em All
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VisanidethDM
Banned
Solo said:
You're gonna break Dennis' heart now.
Refreshment.01
Member
Understand your point so its a matter of taste i guess.Jintor said:
Im in the very small minority that likes how the Witcher is not an overwhelming character that exist to empower the user. I even like how unresponsive the combat feels at times in the game, so the theme and the gameplay match which is something i began to like more and more as games reach a higher visual fidelity.
What do you propose for combat then, how should cdprjeckt approach it?
VisanidethDM
Banned
Refreshment.01 said:
Turn based, party based, on a J-SRPG-like grid. Geralt is a damage dealer, Triss as the wizard, Dandelion is the bard healer, Zoltan as a tank. The rest of the party can be filled with the girls Geralt is currently ploughing.
VisanidethDM
Banned
Jintor said:
I forgot to mention the M-rated cross attacks.
Edit: now just imagine it with anime graphics, and Tales-like skits, between Geralt, Triss and the current ploughable. Tales of Ploughing. That's why Namco took over the distribution of TW2. It's starting to come together.
In Chapter 2
What do I do?
Edit: Nevermind. The stupid map was sending me to the wrong place. Great waypoint.
Where you have the necromancer visions from dethmold and find out the location of the kingslayers hideout. I go to where it says it is but it just says the door is locked. I could have sworn they said the dead witcher assassin had a key but I don't have it. How do I get in?
Edit: Nevermind. The stupid map was sending me to the wrong place. Great waypoint.
VisanidethDM
Banned
Kyaw said:
It's the crux of the game.
The Witcher 2: the Digital Entertainment Product is a jawdropping masterpiece.
The Witcher 2: the Game is... so so.
Lostconfused
Member
Am I late to this? Apparently the same ass hole who decided to write a PR piece for DA2 and call it a review gave Assassin's of Kings a 7. I honestly don't know where to direct this hate anymore, my self for looking at metacritic, metacritic for making me aware of this jerk's existence or the wanker that wrote copied the marketing piece he got in the first place.
Refreshment.01
Member
That would be the lesser evil man. Some guys want to turn The Witcher into medieval Shin San Goku Mussou.VisanidethDM said:
Was wondering the exact same thing yesterday. Just killed the executioner and its partner, the other guys were stunned. Roach said the same thing still.ThoseDeafMutes said:
Without any spoilers, how many ways there are to complete the prision segment?
But why do you even care man? Look at my story with the Witcher 2. Coming from playing part one i just saw the teaser with Letho and Iovert, then i didn't need to know everything else, knew the game was going to be equal or better than the first one. Didn't care for previews, reviews or whatever.Lostconfused said:
Most of the game's design is good. Especially how the plot plays out differently through each path and the mission designs are all good. The environments are also well laid out and designed.
Just the dodgy yet satisfying combat, lacklustre ending and terrible boss fights were disappointing.
Two main ways i believe.
Just the dodgy yet satisfying combat, lacklustre ending and terrible boss fights were disappointing.
Without any spoilers, how many ways there are to complete the prision segment?
Two main ways i believe.
I sometimes do as well. Kinda reminds me of when GoW = God of War and Gears of War before people started using GeOW for Gears.DennisK4 said:
As far as combat goes for The Witcher 2, Id say the only thing I dont like about it is the kiting. Its odd because in TW1, you were nearly invincible when surrounded by enemies. Group Style and no one would lay a finger on you...theyd be dead in a flash.
In TW2, group fighting feels like it was handled in a sloppy way. Some actioney games will make the enemies stand still and watch while you beat up their teammates but thats not the case here. Youre surrounded, youre fucked so you have to roll away, turn your back, run, and hope the enemies start to separate so you can jump back in for some one on one time before they group up again. Its pretty stupid that Geralt goes from group style dropping fools in a matter of seconds to being completely unable to hit more than 1 enemy at a time until you upgrade. It almost feels like that and multi direction parry should be unlocked from the start. Once you have those, you can kinda of hold your own against groups and stray away from kiting.
Im not sure what type of combat system Id like for this game though. The Arkham Asylum system works but just needs some extra tweaking in the accuracy department and just something to help us better when we are surrounded by 7 nekkers. Roll dodging and kiting at those moments felt so dumb.
Outside of that, I really enjoy the combat. Its not the best it can be but its not terrible either. Im actually appreciating it more on my 2nd play through now that I grasp how things work.
Is anyone else having game crash issues that they didnt have before? I played for 10 days without a single crash and now since Im patch 1.1, Ive had 2 crashes in 3 days.
VisanidethDM
Banned
Kyaw said:
I ascribe that under the "digital entertainment product" part.
That part of games has little to do with expertise or the capability to deliver gameplay and polished mechanics, and more with writing skills and imagination.
I NEED SCISSORS
Banned
Had to laugh when
she threw coke in the witcher's face. It was one of the most ghetto fights in gaming.
Refreshment.01
Member
Speacking of missions, Cdprojekt did a bad thing by removing Troll Trouble from the game to passed it of as a DLC, becuase some of the problems to donwload it, some of us ended missing that quest in the first playthrough. And its a really good one, chapter 1 feels a lot more complete now.Kyaw said:
So 2 ways with the slight variation of "that character with the lucky charm".
Maleficence
Member
Just ordered the game, currently reinstalling the original in preparation.
Somebody should make a simple combat mod that would make game a lot better by few minor adjustment.
- Remove 'Parry from all directions' skill from talent tree and make it base ability
- Remove 'Whirl' skill from talent tree and make it base ability
- +Vigor talent to replace Parry skill from first talent branch
- Parry should work even if you are out of vigor, just make it less effective.
- Decrease the effectiveness of Quen sign from three absorbed strikes to one or two.
There. Most of the combat woes fixed.
- Remove 'Parry from all directions' skill from talent tree and make it base ability
- Remove 'Whirl' skill from talent tree and make it base ability
- +Vigor talent to replace Parry skill from first talent branch
- Parry should work even if you are out of vigor, just make it less effective.
- Decrease the effectiveness of Quen sign from three absorbed strikes to one or two.
There. Most of the combat woes fixed.
I'm seeing people bring Demon's Souls into this, and I don't think that Witcher 2's combat even remotely touches Demon's Souls. I think that it should certainly aspire to be like Demon's Souls, but for whatever reason it simply cannot.
Here's my reasoning:
When I died in Demon's Souls, it was my fault. Every time. I beat the game, I got through, I beat it a few more times and I was much better AT the game as time went by. I actually became skilled at the fighting system.
When I die in the Witcher 2, it's often not my fault. Something didn't work, or I wasn't perfectly stationary when I tried to block, or I couldn't get the sword out in time, I suddenly had the wrong guy targeted, or Geralt for no good reason took a leaping jump sword out-stretched into freaking nothing behind him.
Here's my reasoning:
When I died in Demon's Souls, it was my fault. Every time. I beat the game, I got through, I beat it a few more times and I was much better AT the game as time went by. I actually became skilled at the fighting system.
When I die in the Witcher 2, it's often not my fault. Something didn't work, or I wasn't perfectly stationary when I tried to block, or I couldn't get the sword out in time, I suddenly had the wrong guy targeted, or Geralt for no good reason took a leaping jump sword out-stretched into freaking nothing behind him.
EatChildren
Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
My copy finally arrived.
The end.
The end.
VisanidethDM
Banned
EatChildren said:
Get a towel. For the drool.
toastyToast
Member
is it just me or do the controls become completely unresponsive at times during combat? it isnt momenary, i get locked out of everything but run.
i started noticing this towards the end of chapter 2. not sure whether to blame my keyboard (its wireless)
i started noticing this towards the end of chapter 2. not sure whether to blame my keyboard (its wireless)
VisanidethDM
Banned
Solo said:
Don't misunderstand, I think 2W2 is honestly crap, but I remember Dennis saying "Game of the Forever". It looked nice tho on a good rig, and he's very fond of that.
Lostconfused
Member
Its definitely a lot more like the combat in Arkham Asylum more than anything else. The difference is that not every attack is guaranteed to hit, the counter timing is a lot more strict and you can't always perform it, the rolls without any kind of upgrades are a lot shorter, only one enemy attacks at any given time in AA. And a few other things that I am not remembering. If anything to make the combat easier, flow better and faster they would have to try bring it closer to what it was in AA.Mercutio said:
I am not saying they should copy AA but there are reasons that the combat system works and they haven't gotten all of them right in this game.
toastyToast
Member
one fix i wouldnt mind is potions not draining during cutscenes. its bad enough that the timer was heavily reduced but its especially a pita for alchemy users since all the later abilities require you to be poisoned (on something).
it isnt all bad though since adrenaline charges for free and beserk + thunderbolt + heavy attack does stupid high damage.
it isnt all bad though since adrenaline charges for free and beserk + thunderbolt + heavy attack does stupid high damage.
Confidence Man
Member
Some random thoughts, mostly complaints (after one and 3/4 playtroughs):
Skill trees are poorly designed. The trees aren't really "trees"; skills are sort of haphazardly organized in a path-like structure converging on certain, seemingly random skills forcing you to take them whether you want them or not to proceed. Why not have a branch for oils and oil related skills in the Alchemy tree for example, instead of forcing you to take Specialization: Oils (directly after forcing you to take Harvesting, I might add.) Some of the skills don't seem logically placed either, e.g. skills like upgraded dodge rolling or reduced backstab damage are virtually must-haves and don't make sense as swordsman-specific abilities (whereas something like arrow deflection seems like it would fit better.)
Parts where it plops you in the body of some other character isn't fun, especially when you have to fight. You don't have any of Geralt's evasive moves, signs, bombs, etc.. all you can do is block but you're still restricted by Geralt's vigor meter, so if you haven't been relying on it as Geralt and upgrading it, you're at a handicap. How could they have thought these sequences were a good idea? Not a huge deal as they're pretty short, but then why bother at all when a simple cutscene would suffice?
Combat is a mixed bag for me. While it can be fun, there are some seriously imbalanced aspects to it. Swordplay is clearly designed around fighting one opponent at a time, with everything else (bombs, traps, signs) designed around mitigating the difficulty of dealing with mobs. On one hand it can be frustratingly challenging when you're dealing with large groups of enemies using your sword, having to constantly roll around and recast signs trying to separate single enemies to finish off. On the other it's very easy to abuse the tools you've got to cheese your way through just about any fight in the game. My first time through an upgraded Quen with Venting was the turning point where it went from tough to watching enemies die when they touch me, second time through going the Alchemy route and I'm finding bombs almost break the game. You can set mobs on fire with Dancing Star while not getting close enough for them to aggro, so they just sit there burning. Or just throw it in front of you and watch as enemies continuously walk right into the fire and get incinerated because the AI isn't programmed to be aware of it. It's like there's a sweet spot in the combat where the right number of enemies, the right skill upgrades, along with using the right signs and equipment enough to make a difference but not too much to where it becomes too easy, all come together for just the right amount of challenge and flexibility. Any one of those gets out of whack, though, and the combat follows suit.
And I've said it before - the cinematic finishers suck. They pull you out of the combat just to play some canned, repetitive cutscene that often doesn't even accurately depict the fight you're in or show the correct location. I don't need or want a drawn-out animation, just have a stunned enemy be an instant kill when I hit.
If I pull my sword out in town the guards will get pissed. If I walk into someone's house and clean it out with the owner sitting right there... no reaction. Why didn't they make it so we could only steal when people are out of their house or asleep? To that end they could have had the sneaking mode be usable anywhere - it's already there in the game, after all - so we could sneak around houses without waking people up.
I wanted more monster contracts. Yeah I know, Geralt has more important things to worry about, but come on. There are only, what, four monster contracts in the game? Five if you count getting a different one depending on who you side with in chapter 2.
Skill trees are poorly designed. The trees aren't really "trees"; skills are sort of haphazardly organized in a path-like structure converging on certain, seemingly random skills forcing you to take them whether you want them or not to proceed. Why not have a branch for oils and oil related skills in the Alchemy tree for example, instead of forcing you to take Specialization: Oils (directly after forcing you to take Harvesting, I might add.) Some of the skills don't seem logically placed either, e.g. skills like upgraded dodge rolling or reduced backstab damage are virtually must-haves and don't make sense as swordsman-specific abilities (whereas something like arrow deflection seems like it would fit better.)
Parts where it plops you in the body of some other character isn't fun, especially when you have to fight. You don't have any of Geralt's evasive moves, signs, bombs, etc.. all you can do is block but you're still restricted by Geralt's vigor meter, so if you haven't been relying on it as Geralt and upgrading it, you're at a handicap. How could they have thought these sequences were a good idea? Not a huge deal as they're pretty short, but then why bother at all when a simple cutscene would suffice?
Combat is a mixed bag for me. While it can be fun, there are some seriously imbalanced aspects to it. Swordplay is clearly designed around fighting one opponent at a time, with everything else (bombs, traps, signs) designed around mitigating the difficulty of dealing with mobs. On one hand it can be frustratingly challenging when you're dealing with large groups of enemies using your sword, having to constantly roll around and recast signs trying to separate single enemies to finish off. On the other it's very easy to abuse the tools you've got to cheese your way through just about any fight in the game. My first time through an upgraded Quen with Venting was the turning point where it went from tough to watching enemies die when they touch me, second time through going the Alchemy route and I'm finding bombs almost break the game. You can set mobs on fire with Dancing Star while not getting close enough for them to aggro, so they just sit there burning. Or just throw it in front of you and watch as enemies continuously walk right into the fire and get incinerated because the AI isn't programmed to be aware of it. It's like there's a sweet spot in the combat where the right number of enemies, the right skill upgrades, along with using the right signs and equipment enough to make a difference but not too much to where it becomes too easy, all come together for just the right amount of challenge and flexibility. Any one of those gets out of whack, though, and the combat follows suit.
And I've said it before - the cinematic finishers suck. They pull you out of the combat just to play some canned, repetitive cutscene that often doesn't even accurately depict the fight you're in or show the correct location. I don't need or want a drawn-out animation, just have a stunned enemy be an instant kill when I hit.
If I pull my sword out in town the guards will get pissed. If I walk into someone's house and clean it out with the owner sitting right there... no reaction. Why didn't they make it so we could only steal when people are out of their house or asleep? To that end they could have had the sneaking mode be usable anywhere - it's already there in the game, after all - so we could sneak around houses without waking people up.
I wanted more monster contracts. Yeah I know, Geralt has more important things to worry about, but come on. There are only, what, four monster contracts in the game? Five if you count getting a different one depending on who you side with in chapter 2.
VisanidethDM said:
The combat system does have some flaws but to simply say that it doesn't work is exaggerating it. It works for the large part, for me. I played a pure swordsman build. True, at times, Geralt does something I don't intend to do (mostly jumping on enemies I didn't intend to). I think that's probably the flaw of its auto targeting system. In any of those console games, there isn't a target lock on system (not sure about Darksider though). But that's ok. The combat here is not as unforgiving as in action games like Ninja Gaiden where as any mistake I made would be dangerous.
Even though Zelda's combat works for what it is, I wouldn't perfer W2's combat be as simple as that (I know that's not what you are suggesting). Even with its flaws in the combat system, I still manage to have lots of great fun fighting enemies.
I also think that the game's responsiveness is maybe how they do their animation. It just seems like the game doesn't take any control input til an animation is done. This is unrelated, but I also don't like that you have to wait seconds after killing enemies before you are allowed to loot.
I liked the combat, it fits the game perfectly. I almost never target anyone I just point to their direction with the controller and rip them apart. Some talents in the sword tree are a must to enjoy it! damaging multiple foes, blocking from all directions etc.
And I have no words for the people who called Demon's Souls combat shallow/not deep enough. My god, each weapon type has a different use for a certain situation and they all have different animations and their own "special attack". you can even choose to hold the weapon with one hand or with both hands and it'll change its use drastically. What the fuck do you want more ? you even have weapons to troll your opponent by destroying their gear while hiding behind your shield !
And I have no words for the people who called Demon's Souls combat shallow/not deep enough. My god, each weapon type has a different use for a certain situation and they all have different animations and their own "special attack". you can even choose to hold the weapon with one hand or with both hands and it'll change its use drastically. What the fuck do you want more ? you even have weapons to troll your opponent by destroying their gear while hiding behind your shield !
ThoseDeafMutes said:
I thought some of these were bugs on my game due to video card driver and the game cache files failing. The sword disappearing is minor but yea I don't know why that even exists as I think it would be a simple thing to fix. In Flotsam the game always loaded lights and shadow in between the main gates. I thought that was caused by using the GoG executable but yea that bug bugged me.
Automatisch
Member
Just beat it finally. Some thoughts/minor bitching:
-I love the way the game handles morality and the fact that key enemies could even be spared
-the combat gets a looooot better when you spec into that tree towards the middle of the game on easy, at least for me; normal still felt incredibly tedious and I didn't feel much like a badass Witcher when knights can take more hits than I can
-the QTEs were kind of dumb and I turned them off half way, and I really hope games move away from that shit instead of just doing a good ol' fashioned cut-scene without button mashing
-the potion draining during cut-scenes should be patched
-I'll never forget the Visonary's potion quest...incredibly bizarre
-wish there was a new game + or some way to just take my existing character with all my stats and run through the game again on a higher difficulty so that I can finally see how some of the other trees work
-good gear felt few and far between until way later on in the game
-skill trees should be re-designed IMO because there's too much fluff that gets in the way of actually useful stuff, and to be honest I don't feel like you level up enough to really put enough points to get anything really worthwhile outside of Training and one other
-rolling @ 150% or 200% should almost be fucking stock because of how much rolling you do in that game
-knockdowns are broken and there were times where I almost got infinitely knocked down because I was against a wall, and mashing roll or using parry didn't help
-sort of minor but I wish it autosaved more because I hated having to mash F5 and hope I was allowed to save in that area
-for the times when you play as another character: your HUD should reflect it
-kind of wish you used other characters in battle more
Still a very good game and I loved playing it most of the way through. I just think right now it's a hard 8 and could be a much better game with some changes, much like the original game. I have no doubt in my mind CDProjekt will release a bigger, badder version with more content and fixes in the future.
-I love the way the game handles morality and the fact that key enemies could even be spared
-the combat gets a looooot better when you spec into that tree towards the middle of the game on easy, at least for me; normal still felt incredibly tedious and I didn't feel much like a badass Witcher when knights can take more hits than I can
-the QTEs were kind of dumb and I turned them off half way, and I really hope games move away from that shit instead of just doing a good ol' fashioned cut-scene without button mashing
-the potion draining during cut-scenes should be patched
-I'll never forget the Visonary's potion quest...incredibly bizarre
-wish there was a new game + or some way to just take my existing character with all my stats and run through the game again on a higher difficulty so that I can finally see how some of the other trees work
-good gear felt few and far between until way later on in the game
-skill trees should be re-designed IMO because there's too much fluff that gets in the way of actually useful stuff, and to be honest I don't feel like you level up enough to really put enough points to get anything really worthwhile outside of Training and one other
-rolling @ 150% or 200% should almost be fucking stock because of how much rolling you do in that game
-knockdowns are broken and there were times where I almost got infinitely knocked down because I was against a wall, and mashing roll or using parry didn't help
-sort of minor but I wish it autosaved more because I hated having to mash F5 and hope I was allowed to save in that area
-for the times when you play as another character: your HUD should reflect it
-kind of wish you used other characters in battle more
Still a very good game and I loved playing it most of the way through. I just think right now it's a hard 8 and could be a much better game with some changes, much like the original game. I have no doubt in my mind CDProjekt will release a bigger, badder version with more content and fixes in the future.
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