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[StarlordDial]

sheesh...i don't know.....

i love The Witcher 1 ....the combat...dated maybe..was unique on it's own...
just installed TW2 a month ago after the summer sale..tried the training arena that they put you in

i think at the start what the people are saying now is very true....just roll,put traps,roll ,attacks ..cast QUEN

haven't came back ever since..but i just wanna continue the story that i finished in TW1 since it hooked me very well

but college starts soon

 

[Gurthang]

Quen
That's all you need. Make sure you ugrade it completely

 

[calder]

The combat in Witcher 2 is so bad I never could play the game. Combined with the fact the opening area is painfully hard/obtuse on it's own, the combat just killed it for me. You can only target one enemy, unlike the fun stances of the original, but you always fight 3 enemies at a time? Come the fuck on.

Block is useless, you simply can't be aggressive against enemies because you can only hit one at a time, and rolling around for 30 seconds at a time waiting to shoot magic again is just dumb. The animations seem much worse and you often can't tell what enemies are going to miss you because of it so good luck trying to narrowly avoid a hit in order to counter attack faster because odds are you got hit by the blade that visibly missed your head by a foot.

A few days ago I said fuck it, I'll try Witcher 2 for the 3rd or 4th time now, maybe using an Xbox controller will help. Lol, nope, got frustrated half way through the introduction again and quit. I've only played a hour into the Flotsam area hoping fighting creatures would be more fun.


If nothing else it really makes me want to see how combat works in detail in 3 before I commit. The combat in 1 wasn't great or anything, but it was a bit different and you could at least play the game in a couple of ways. 2 forces you into the least interesting dodge, spam 1 magic attack only playstyle if you don't want to die constantly.

 

[Sentenza]

I really can't take people who talk with disgusted tone about the combat in TW2 and then somehow try to defend the one in TW1 seriously, at this point.
It immediately makes me think that they don't know what they are talking about.

 

[AcademicSaucer]

Op , just Keep Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'

 

[Azure Wolf]

Well, that's a curious complaint and not one I see very often. I mean, virtually every quest has a marker (except when there are obvious reasons why it can't) and really none of the critical path quests have any even remotely challenging gameplay mechanics/riddles/puzzles. Out of curiosity, did you go with Roche's path or Iorveth's path?

I explain a lot in my other post, but in terms of the quests I'd actuallly welcome some challenging puzzles etc, I went with Roche's path and did still enjoy a lot of aspects to the game.

What annoyed me was that the design and gameflow of the quests were often just simple talk, fetch and fight quests needlessly impeded by meandering and disjointed level designs. Once out of the usually well designed main areas environments would become curious twisted mountain or city corridors requiring backtracking and double backing to get anywhere.

The irony is they cite Dark Souls as an influence, that game is a masterpiece of level design to me, despite being a harder game I found it to be incredibly intuitive in terms of environment and pacing. Witcher 2 felt somewhat disjointed and inconsistent, despite having some incredible environments visually, they had nowhere near the gameplay flow or pacing qualities of Dark Souls.

To be fair I resumed mid game after 2 years, forgetting stuff and encountered glitches too, so my complaints are from that less than ideal viewpoint. I still enjoyed a lot of aspects to the game and can't fault anyone's positive opinion of it, I just hope for improvements in Witcher 3.

 

[Sentenza]

I would absolutely agree that there are issues with level design in TW2 (namely: the almost complete lack of it).
What is weird to me is that you are not limiting your critic to saying that, but you are claiming to identify the issue with maps being confused and disjointed.

I don't see it. What I noticed were maps probably even too much straight forward and simple.
Most of the game's scenarios are essentially "bits of landscape with short corridors connecting them".
I have a hard time understanding how someone could find them confusing, when they are more or less at Mass Effect-levels of dullness.

 

[gdt]

It's pretty hard at first yeah, once you get some upgrades you'll breeze by.

 

[BokehKing]

I'm really hoping Witcher 3 is not as difficult to play, because that game looks amazing.
I don't like the mixing potion section before a fight, I just made random potions and hoped they worked.

 

[gdt]

I'm really hoping Witcher 3 is not as difficult to play, because that game looks amazing.
I don't like the mixing potion section before a fight, I just made random potions and hoped they worked.

Errr...

 

[Sentenza]

I'm really hoping Witcher 3 is not as difficult to play, because that game looks amazing.
I don't like the mixing potion section before a fight, I just made random potions and hoped they worked.

 

[Quotient]

Op , just Keep Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'

I don't know how the designers thought this was a good idea, in my opinion it doesn't fit in with the character. All fights turn into roll and attack, and repeat. For me it kills the immersion. Geralt is suppose to be this strong and powerful Witcher, instead Geralt looks like a circus clown.

 

[Quotient]

I'm really hoping Witcher 3 is not as difficult to play, because that game looks amazing.
I don't like the mixing potion section before a fight, I just made random potions and hoped they worked.

They changed the potion drinking in Witcher 2. In Witcher 1 you could drink a potion during a fight, in Witcher 2 you could not. you had to drink the potion before a fight - problem with this is you don't always know when a fight is coming up and i personally had to load a previous save and prepare for the battle. I had to do this for the fight with Letho in Chapter 1.

 

[Lord of Castamere]

I'm really hoping Witcher 3 is not as difficult to play, because that game looks amazing.
I don't like the mixing potion section before a fight, I just made random potions and hoped they worked.

At least you used them. Either I'm repressed all memories of potions, except the quest related ones, or I didn't use any at all during my Dark playthrough on Xbox. It's seriously bugging me I can't remember potions at all.

 

[red731]

As the rest said - You must be..."On a roll."

I'm really hoping Witcher 3 is not as difficult to play, because that game looks amazing.
I don't like the mixing potion section before a fight, I just made random potions and hoped they worked.

Don't hope for anything and just select the lowest difficulty. The preparation is part of the battle. Witcher as a man, is as good, as is his preparation and know how.
Derp, this silver sword is doing nothing to human enemies herp.

 

[Moaradin]

I didn't think the game was very challenging. More tedious than anything. Like others have said a bunch already, the combat consisted of 90% rolling. I really hope that's one area that Witcher 3 improves upon.

 

[AJLma]

The combat made me quit TW2, not worth it even if the world and story were intriguing.

I just watched gameplay of TW3 and it didn't inspire much hope for a major change...

 

[Sentenza]

I didn't think the game was very challenging. More tedious than anything. Like others have said a bunch already, the combat consisted of 90% rolling. I really hope that's one area that Witcher 3 improves upon.

No, it really doesn't, but people somehow seem to think that repeating this obsessively make them sound very clever.
In reality "roll roll roll" is a completely pointless tactic, which may allow to survive if you are panicking but surely not to play more effectively.
What's a lot better than "rolling rolling rolling", in reality, is to keep calm, plan and aim your attacks and then make ONE roll when it's actually needed to avoid something.

 

[gogosox82]

The combat system isn't reall that great honestly which makes the first couple of hours rough. Just roll, use quen, use bombs and traps and try to hit them in the back for bonus damage. After that the game gets much easier.

 

[alekth]

I started this game twice and combat, aside from being way too much to take in the beginning, was annoying. Or I just can't bring myself to care about traps and bombs all the time.
Started it again after the new combat mode version, luckily did the (now broken when it comes to adding a skill point) tutorial to remind myself what the system felt like, and finally went with playing on Easy.
Easy is too easy, but at this point I'm about going through the story and being done with it.

 

[nOoblet16]

I don't like the combat in Witcher 2. Mostly because it's just about hit and run, even the way Geralt swings his sword doesn't makes him look like a master swords man. It just looks like how a man with no sword training would swing a sword.

 

[Leb]

No, it really doesn't, but people somehow seem to think that repeating this obsessively make them sound very clever.
In reality "roll roll roll" is a completely pointless tactic, which may allow to survive if you are panicking but surely not to play more effectively.
What's a lot better than "rolling rolling rolling", in reality, is to keep calm, plan and aim your attacks and then make ONE roll when it's actually needed to avoid something.

The real problem with "rolling" shows up in those encounters in which you are never given sufficient space to roll in the first place and so you are eternally getting snagged on level geometry and taking 200% damage from behind because you just clipped the corner of a bench.

I'm looking at you, Vinson Traut fight in the basement and you, Thorak fight in Baltimore's workshop. Fortunately, this is why Melitele gave the witchers lots and lots of bombs.

 

[NinjaBoiX]

The map killed it for me, just useless. I gave up after searching for where to go in Flotsam for about an hour or two.

It's so vague.

 

[Turin Turambar]

The parry system should have been faster, that way maybe people wouldn't abuse so much the rolling.

 

[justsomeguy]

I got so bored with the quen/roll combo that I put the game to easy, as I wanted to finish it ASAP to find out the story.

 

[daniels]

In terms of combat, enemys, enemy numbers, damage and difficult curve i dont think the game was playtested at all... and it doesnt really help that the combat is clunky.

 

[Sentenza]

I got so bored with the quen/roll combo that I put the game to easy, as I wanted to finish it ASAP to find out the story.

I keep reading stuff like this, but it doesn't make sense in the slightest.
"I was so bored with it that I did my part to turn it in something even more boring".

 

[Tacitus_]

I got so bored with the quen/roll combo that I put the game to easy, as I wanted to finish it ASAP to find out the story.

"I didn't bother to learn the game mechanics so I just played it on easy".

 

[milena87]

I didn't have many problems with it. I played on Hard at release and on Dark both on Xbox and later on PC.

The path that most reflected my playstyle was probably the mage one, but I explored the swordmanship path on my first playthrough.
Alchemist didn't reflect my playstyle at all, though. I tend to not rely much on potions and bombs.

 

[Almighty]

As others have said because the first one becomes a cake walk after the first chapter if not even during the first chapter. I remember slaughtering people/monsters with group stance like they were made of paper. Not that the Witcher 2 was much better. Once I figured stuff out that game also became a walk in the park. Not that the easy combat ever really bothered me that much. Mostly because as far as I remember neither of the Witchers suffered from just throwing wave after wave of enemies at you like some RPG do.

 

[RulkezX]

"I didn't bother to learn the game mechanics so I just played it on easy".

The game mechanics are so shitty they aren't worth learning.

I'm also in the ' can't get hyped for W3 unless they fix the awful combat' camp.

 

[Tacitus_]

I didn't have many problems with it. I played on Hard at release and on Dark both on Xbox and later on PC.

The path that most reflected my playstyle was probably the mage one, but I explored the swordmanship path on my first playthrough.
Alchemist didn't reflect my playstyle at all, though. I tend to not rely much on potions and bombs.

Bombs are fun as hell!

 

[BouncyFrag]

Needing to drink potions before combat could be quite frustrating when you often go straight into combat from a dialogue section. I played TW2 twice with a sword focused build and then a sign focused build. The second playthrough was much more enjoyable than the first which was very tedious. IIRC you will be able to take potions in combat in TW3.

 

[misho8723]

So much bitching about this game in here, but i still think this game together with Witcher 1 and now with Divinity Original Sin are the best RPG games from the last 10 years.. W1 & W2 are one of the easiest games that i have played on Hard, i did die maybe 20 - 30 times in W2 pre-patch and i just can't understand how somebody can have problems with the game difficulty.. I suck at Souls games, but Witcher series? Very easy games - if you use commom sense and brain to work

 

[Sentenza]

The game mechanics are so shitty they aren't worth learning.

That's a bullshit excuse.
Also, being too easy is precisely the thing that bothered me most about TW2, I never felt actually in danger. And that's playing it at Hard and Dark Mode.
Which is why the proposition to turn everything at easy "just to be done with it" sounds absolutely ridiculous to me.
Like if it was any hard to "be done with it" at higher difficulty settings, in the first place.
it's not even one of those scenarios where the combat is particularly slow, in general.
You are usually dispatching enemies in very few hits.

I'm also in the ' can't get hyped for W3 unless they fix the awful combat' camp.

Eh, my main concern for the game, in the sense it's more or less the only area where I'm not confident they can do well, but not strictly a deal breaker.
If it isn't worse than TW2 and the world is that big and detailed as they suggest, it would already be a sure purchase.
Of course a decent combat, for a change, would make it god tier.

Then again I'm fairly sure people are vastly overstating the "shittiness" of TW2 combat just because at this point is socially accepted, and then probably many of them enjoy games where the combat is even more shitty... like, say, any Assassin's Creed or Skyrim (which borrows his combat system from Minecraft).

 

[BouncyFrag]

Bombs are fun as hell!

Very true.

 

[Braag]

TW2 was very unforgiving at launch but the Enhanced Edition made it little easier.
I finished the game at Dark difficulty last year and it's hard only until you get certain important skills which make it instantly easier. Skills like being able to block from all sides, riposte and Geralt taking normal amount of damage when attacked from behind instead of 200% dmg.

 

[milena87]

Bombs are fun as hell!

I'll try to use more potions and bombs for my Insane playthrough

But first I need to finish the game on Dark again or I'll be destroyed, trying to remember how to play properly

 

[Sentenza]

I played only the EE, so maybe is for this I didn't find it difficult.

No, it just wasn't.

 

[Baron Aloha]

This thread is timely, since I just started playing Witcher 1. Man, it does not hold up well. Heck, I don't think it stands up well against other games from the time either. I just started chapter 1 and I don't know if I can do it. I might just skip to Witcher 2.

 

[scoobs]

The combat in this game is frustratingly punishing and honestly IMHO its super terrible. I just quit after about an hour of trying to deal with a pack of enemies pretty early on. Hoping TW3 will have wayyyyyyyyyyyy better combat design

 

[Joey Ravn]

This thread is timely, since I just started playing Witcher 1. Man, it does not hold up well. Heck, I don't think it stands up well against other games from the time either. I just started chapter 1 and I don't know if I can do it. I might just skip to Witcher 2.

I'm on the same boat. I managed to get to Chapter 3, and, man, oh man! I want to finish the game, but I don't know if I'll be able to bear 20 more hours of this.

 

[Alpende]

Don't think it was that hard, beat the game on the hardest difficulty without too much problems.

 

[misho8723]

This thread is timely, since I just started playing Witcher 1. Man, it does not hold up well. Heck, I don't think it stands up well against other games from the time either. I just started chapter 1 and I don't know if I can do it. I might just skip to Witcher 2.

Hold on man... i personally like the first W1 a lot more than W2 or any other RPG from the last 10 years.. W2 is still fantastic, but the atmosphere and music are far better than in W1.. and well, W1 is more a PC RPG game - W2 is more a traditional modern third-person RPG from west

 

[danm999]

Having read the novels, I must say I had a bit of an easier time with it since I tried to role play around how Geralt fights in them.

Basically, he's extremely quick and almost dances around his foes, slicing them to ribbons while they can't get a hit in him. He tends to wear lighter leather armour, as opposed to knights and men at arms who might wear heavier plate or mail and fight foes by slowly bashing them down and enduring.

You really shouldn't be trying to beat them at their own game, but the game kind of fails to communicate this to you, and even sort of misleads you into thinking you should be fighting in this way by showing you blocking and such as mechanics.

Or maybe that style of blocking and more static melee gets viable later in the game in certain builds, IDK, all I know is rolling around, using Quen and potions is a good strategy.

 

[Daverid]

I played the game probably 2-3 times before the Enhanced Edition and had no issues.

One piece of advice I can give to people: Don't listen to anyone that tells you to just, "Quen & Roll, Roll, Roll". I did my first playthrough pretty much exclusively abusing Quen and it definitely ended up being a playthrough purely for the Story.
However then my second playthrough I actually started to delve deeper into the system. Bombs, Traps, Daggers, Sign variety and rolling less all led me to really enjoy the combat.

Run into a group of 3 enemeies: Throw a Dragon's Dream, Aard one, Parry/Counter another, Slash the other, roll to get a hit or two on the one who was Aard'ed and then run/roll out and pop a Igni to explode the Dragon's Dream and they'd all blow up.
Nothing quite so satisfying, and the more I delved into the different Bombs, Traps, Signs and interesting ways of using and combining them, I would discover more & more of these fun ways to approach combat.

It's definitely not an amazing combat system, but it's still decent but it's a system that requires a lot of effort on the player's behalf. It requires you to discover how abilities work and how you can use the variety of the system to create your own ways of enjoying the combat. You really can't approach TW2's Combat like you would games like BamHam or AssCreed or even Dark Souls, it requires a much higher player-brain-investment ratio (Probably too high for what it actually is).

 

[Tacitus_]

Quen is a trap, don't rely on it too much. You can't regen stamina when it's on so you can't use any other signs.

 

[Sentenza]

Quen is a trap, don't rely on it too much. You can't regen stamina when it's on so you can't use any other signs.

A typical example is the fight against Letho.
People who relied on "rolling and quen" had a hard time with him, sometime eve ncalling the fight "impossible, unfair, bullshit", when it's actually a lot more effective to face him with some well placed Aard and sword fight.

 

[dawid]

The tricks is that you need to use Quen. Quen + patience = invincibility.

 

[Koobion]

I had a strange adoration for the combat in the first game. I was well aware from the get go that it wasn't traditionally "good" I guess you'd say, but I thought it was really fun - especially when you got some of the highest end combos.

My problems with the 2nd game mirror others'; I thought it was a pain in the ass and not fun like the first one, so I stopped.