The Witcher 2 - Thread

[Destination]

I've barely got into the game and, am utterly hating it? Other than randomly on loading the game it quite frequently doesn't recognise my mouse buttons 1/2 so I can't fight and theres no remapping/options in general in game for no apparent reason.

Aside from that, combat is awful, I'm trying to focus on one guard to kill him and the game will randomly choose another guy to hit, so my guy ends up rolling/jumping into the middle of 6 guards and I get killed.

Combat so far is horrific, for a tutorial section as its being called, I played the Witcher 1 so long ago I can't remember what any of the powers do, theres no recap, theres very little in the way of on screen stuff, the pop up text is small, and randomly dissappears far to quickly in almost every circumstance.

Then theres basic things like the wheel system UI being great for a pad(i'd imagine) but a game dedicated for the PC, why on earth such a massive change from the last game.

As with so many other games lately why such a radical shift in style of the game in combat.
It looks not half bad, though vs other games for the performance it doesn't seem particularly good.

The speech options being up in the right hand side of the screen just feels wrong, clunky, stupid.

Maybe some of this stuff is covered in the manuals, but I can't think of the last game, or the first game in which I've had to read a manual to check what key does what, or where the missing options I can't find from the first game are, etc, etc.

It feels consolified, without the actual being put on a console part, and I can't for the life of me work out why.

In combat clicking alt will lokc you to one guy, allowing you to brutalise him sufficiently

 

[Podmonkey]

Combat was likely changed from the first because that was the first games biggest complaint. Many people didnt like it so they changed it to a more natural version (small/large hit and parry) as has been used in many other games. It does feel a little awkward for some reason (possibly because you are mostly fighting groups and its a bit hit and miss).

To drunkenmaster, press alt and it will lock onto your current target which should help a lot. (lame beaten already)

Edit: BTW anybody else hate the fact that they have a social/work life right now? been waiting ages and loving it so far but keep getting pulled away with work/training/teaching etc. I wish to stab pixel monsters all night!

 

[Damien.]

Combat was likely changed from the first because that was the first games biggest complaint. Many people didnt like it so they changed it to a more natural version (small/large hit and parry) as has been used in many other games. It does feel a little awkward for some reason (possibly because you are mostly fighting groups and its a bit hit and miss).

To drunkenmaster, press alt and it will lock onto your current target which should help a lot. (lame beaten)

Huh, the combat in the first worked very well, far better than this ?

It would have been nice to see a "darksiders" style combat system, if anything.

 

[sid488]

well either this games not optimized well or its a driver issue cos i only get 50% usage on both cards fps is ok 60s and higher but it should be using more of the gpu lots of people are complaining over performance with sli hopefully it gets fixed, games amazing though

 

[Podmonkey]

The combat was very marmite (phrase used twice in one thread - woot). a lot of people (check in the various witcher threads) didnt like it and couldnt get into it partly because of this. It was very uninvolving and different to what people are used to. I liked it but it was a bit 'special'. If parrying actually parried and would parry from multiple opponents rather than just who you are facing/targetting then this system would work much better.

 

[drunkenmaster]

Combat was likely changed from the first because that was the first games biggest complaint. Many people didnt like it so they changed it to a more natural version (small/large hit and parry) as has been used in many other games. It does feel a little awkward for some reason (possibly because you are mostly fighting groups and its a bit hit and miss).

To drunkenmaster, press alt and it will lock onto your current target which should help a lot. (lame beaten already)

yay, well alt isn't working, on the last load mouse 1/2 weren't working either.

Feels like a buggy pile of poop at the moment, basically so far theres only been combat and combat flat out won't work, had a look earlier but had the game very early today then couldn't play for a while.

Even with locking on, it has a seemingly ridiculous notion to target the worst possible person at any given time.

I just got bored and rage quited after dying again because it would not choose either of the two guys closest to me but would only give me a target on the guy in the middle who was also behind the other two.

I hope it is just some random bug because if combat is like this throughout with multiple fights plagued with horrible enemy selection I'll be insanely dissappointed.

Its also feeling very assasins creed style at the moment, hold the block key down all the time and counter attack and apparently later in the game we get a riposte skill?

Witcher 1 was fun, it wasn't the most dynamic combat, but it worked, if this ends up an assasins creed repetitive single counter attack move fighting game, well.........

 

[Paul_cz]

It is fascinating how with TW1 people bitched about combat.

So they change it to be more similar to other games, and guess what - people bitch about combat!

Personally I had no problems with combat in TW1 (finished it on hard, no problems) and I have no problems with combat in TW2 (playing on normal with x360pad).

But maybe I am superhuman or something.

Or maybe I use brain.

 

[Pighardia]

I would probably say that the combat in the first game is one of it's strongest points!

I am more hoping that the dialogue has been improved or translated better, as it was laughable at times. Does the dialogue work better?

Also, can someone tell me how conversations are done now? Is it the same as 1 where Geralt just stands there and so does the other person and there is no real interacton, or is it slightly more cinematic?

(i can't wait to play it. I need to know!)

 

[Damien.]

The combat was very marmite (phrase used twice in one thread - woot). a lot of people (check in the various witcher threads) didnt like it and couldnt get into it partly because of this. It was very uninvolving and different to what people are used to. I liked it but it was a bit 'special'. If parrying actually parried and would parry from multiple opponents rather than just who you are facing/targetting then this system would work much better.

I wouldn't mind the attack group stance to be implemented too.

That way you could deal with a crowd of people as aposed to attacking one guy and getting absolutely shafted by 3 others from behind.

It is fascinating how with TW1 people bitched about combat.

So they change it to be more similar to other games, and guess what - people bitch about combat!

Personally I had no problems with combat in TW1 (finished it on hard, no problems) and I have no problems with combat in TW2 (playing on normal with x360pad).

But maybe I am superhuman or something.

Or maybe I use brain.

Its definitely more playable with the 360 pad but still broken.

I would probably say that the combat in the first game is one of it's strongest points!

I am more hoping that the dialogue has been improved or translated better, as it was laughable at times. Does the dialogue work better?

Also, can someone tell me how conversations are done now? Is it the same as 1 where Geralt just stands there and so does the other person and there is no real interacton, or is it slightly more cinematic?

(i can't wait to play it. I need to know!)

More cinematic and translations are much better.

 

[Neil79]

I'm on chapter 1, best RPG for some years SO FAR as it's not just the characters, but the graphics, soundtrack and the storyline.

Only thing that sucks is the bloom and there is no ingame AF, so it looks a little blurry so i'll be using nvidia control panel to force 16X

 

[drunkenmaster]

The combat was very marmite (phrase used twice in one thread - woot). a lot of people (check in the various witcher threads) didnt like it and couldnt get into it partly because of this. It was very uninvolving and different to what people are used to. I liked it but it was a bit 'special'. If parrying actually parried and would parry from multiple opponents rather than just who you are facing/targetting then this system would work much better.

Yes, it would be nice if the guys who swing at an imaginary target to my side but still manage to cause me damage, would also be blocked when I wasn't directly facing them.

The whole system is incredibly single target, but I've yet to fight a single target, and movement is so clunky, targeting is horrific, responsiveness is non-existant. Honestly so far it feels like a joke, a really really bad joke.

AS you said, lots of people didn't like the first games combat, I didn't like it at all and didn't play it for a while because of it, but tried again, while it didn't become massively more involved, it did increase in complexity dramatically with more moves, more timing to get right, different timing in different styles, and more magic thrown in between sword play. It just worked.

Why is this targeted rather than "free aim" like the first game, well, I played it as 3rd person rather than point and click style.

 

[Podmonkey]

It does seem more involving(conversations that is - my replies are so so slow tonight) (obviosuly not random encounters - as you should expect) but the major conversations to seem to have more physical interaction going on with stuff happening around too. Only had maybe 4-5 plot driven convos so far though.

I am also hoping that it plays out like the first in that the first section is pretty much purely combat driven with a few introductions to key characters and the plot setup with the much much more open exploration based progression to follow.

 

[shroomz]

The combat is terrible. The first game had perfectly reasonable combat but here the parry never works for me, I have to mash E otherwise it just doesn't register and Geralt just stands there like a muppet, getting hit by three people -.-

 

[drunkenmaster]

Even more ridiculous, the manual(pdf, got it from GOG) doesn't even list Alt as a target lock on key, alt isn't mentioned at all. This is amatuer hour stuff, the tutorial hints seemed to come up as you walked past certain points, run past them and they'd pop up and dissappear before I could read a thing. Keys aren't listed, tutorial is a joke, assuming that everyone played the first game(most do, lots don't), and that everyone remembers a game from ages ago is a joke, I couldn't for the life of me remember what 3 of the powers did at all.

They've changed the entire feel of the game by so radically altering combat and I really don't know why, its massively massively worse.

 

[Neil79]

Serves you lot right that complained about a perfectly working combat system in witcher 1 now look what you got



Me I'm perfectly happy with both

 

[Cat_In_Pyjamas]

Ok I'm getting really annoyed now Been playing through act 3 (the witcher 1 still) and somehow managed to miss Siegfried and his quest but did complete the elven ruin in the sewers. The result? The bank is being held hostage but the quest doesn't trigger properly and Siegfried is nowhere to be seen...

 

[Podmonkey]

The key list (if you havnt seen it) is prior to starting. If you go into the settings (display settings etc) out of the game then theres the input options. You probly know but not sure based on your post so thought I would offer it up.

 

[Neil79]

10/10
http://www.gamereactor.no/grtv/?id=11164

 

[shroomz]

For the record, I don't mind the combat in either game, but not being able to parry is really ****ing me off. I've been stuck on the same 15 minutes of gameplay for the last 2 hours. On normal. Because I can't parry attacks. WTF.

 

[Cd0gz]

Top game loving it so far!!!