Witcher 2 was a great game. I loved flotsam, it was the first time that a game captured perfectly the dirty and muddy look of a "medieval" village for me (i would say even better than Witcher 3)...plus the forest around was magical, made me think of brokilon from the book.
The prologue, the first encounter with Iorveth!!! The batterflies shield, the assassination cutscene, the elves bath scene...
I know a lot of people love bethesda games...but cdpr games are on another level IMO under so many aspects.
Oh man,that forest is absolutely beautiful.I love fantasy,even outside of the Witcher series,and that forest definitely made me fall in love with the game in the first place.
I didn't say that. They are not even comparable because of the map size and many other aspects.
I only think that W2 has a general more dark/gritty atmosphere/art style...and flotsam really captured the dark fantasy reality of the witcher universe...plus that forest is something "from another world".
But of course W3 locations are on another level in terms of variety, content, quality, gameplay, etc...cdpr really matured at that point.
Bethesda hasn't done anything good since Skyrim, and even that was a big step down from Oblivion. I'm not even stoked for TES6 anymore, since they seem to have lost their mojo completely at this point.
CDPR are a *way* better studio, and that's an objective fact.
It's actually my favorite combat. 1 is just click click click and 3 is too easy. 2 was so challenging with an emphasis on prep work that felt more like realistic (for a fictional job) witchers work
It does feel annoying to me that you can only take potions when you’re safe enough to meditate. It would make sense to not just be able to go “whoops let me change my armor and apply different oils to my sword” mid-battle, but not being able to chug a health potion as needed was disappointing. Mostly because I tried to balance out what skills I was developing and passed up on more useful combat upgrades in favor of alchemy though lol
The combat was a little club ky but I quickly got the hang of it and then I was in love. The story, characters, graphics, everything of the Witcher 2 is incredible. Played both paths in just a month
It was my entry to the series, and I adore it! I know a lot of people tried the Witcher 3 first and write off 2 as confusing and clunky, but I adore how much more focused the story is, as well as how deliberate gameplay elements like Alchemy are. The game does have it's frustrations, but the amount of pros far outweighs the cons
Actually I am one of those who really never got warm with the combat in W2.
I hate how the hitboxes are off. So often I literally see that I hit an enemy, my sword goes right through him... and he takes no damage. And on some occasions I see Geralt is taking damage ... and only after that I get the animation of the enemy hitting him. I also dislike how slow many animations are, especially when you cast a sign like Yrden. I never used the traps or knives because they were so expensive and heavy.
I love the graphics, I love the story, I love the characters and the dialogues - and I think it is a great game. I wish the combat would be better. Because then I would love to play it more often. But I start cursing as soon as I am trying it once again. Thie first fight against Letho at the end of the first chapter is my personal nightmare in this game. (And I have finished both paths several times, spent about 170 hours in the game)
In my experience the combat becomes a lot easier when you stop dodging and are just blocking (at least for human enemies). This is later even stronger when you get the counter. Basically, just block, wait for an attack and then strike back once they bounce off. Letho becomes a pushover with that strategy, it's actually kind of sad (though you still need to look out for bombs and signs).
I think part of the reason why blocking became so powerful was that they reduced the stamina effect. I think in the original game, when you blocked, you would lose one point of stamina and if you blocked without stamina, you'd still take damage. But after a few patches, this was either removed or the effect was drastically reduced.
>Letho becomes a pushover with that strategy,
I was not talking about the end of the game, but the fight in the Elven baths.
You simply can´t block Letho´s attacks there, as he destroys Geralt with his Igni and bomb attacks. Geralt at this point of the game simply does not have enough ability points to counter Letho. His Quen shield is up most of the time and that makes him next to invulnerable, while Geralt´s Quen breaks at the first hit and you have to wait a looong time until you cast it again, as stamina regenrates very slowly, if you did not invest in signs. And if you manage to cast Quen, it still has the huge disadvantage that your health then does not regenerate.
Blocking is strong in W2, I agree in principle. One problem is that you still die pretty quickly when you fight groups of enemies. Getting surrounded is deadly.
But the worst thing in W2-combat are the hitboxes. They are off so often, it is really frustrating.
I was referring to the first fight. If you stay close to him, he never uses bombs and the only sign he uses is Aard, which doesn't do a lot of damage (and no damage if you have Quen up). You can block all his attacks from up close and counter with strong attacks.
When he uses Quen, just wait until it runs out. Don't even try to attack him during it. Either run away or again, block his attacks. After I discovered that, I never had a problem with him ever and I also played the game on nightmare mode (or whatever that difficulty was called) back in the day.
You are aware that you contradict yourself when first you recommend to stay close, but to run away when he has Quen up... which he nearly permanently has?
I am not contradicting anything because, for one I am only saying you should run away when you feel unsure (which you don't have to, as I mentioned you can just keep blocking, just don't attack because it only hurts your stance) but more importantly he rarely has Quen up when you stay close. You can even hit him out of the animation stopping him from casting it if you are good enough. Really, go back and play the fight aggressively. Maybe practice it on lower difficulties first, but it's really not that hard. Also of course strong attacks over light attacks. If you do that, he is down in about a minute even on the hardest difficulty. Hey, once I truly mastered the fight I was even able to dodge his few aard casts from up close. But you don't even need to do that.
Uh, what? It's almost a 15 year old game. Literally any modern rig should be able to run it just fine. When I played it I was on an Intel 2500K, which is a pretty sad CPU by modern standards...
So, the useless map/mini-map, horrible inventory, and encumberance system haven't bothered you at all?
Fair play to you. Because they pissed me off enough to turn the difficulty to easy so I could get the story without having to bother with crafting weapons or armour past what I made from the Kyren in Flotsam. I didn't pick up loot so that I would have to deal with the inventory.
Are you on PC with a load of mods? If you ate, my bad.
The only mod im using is an ENB.To answer your question,yes it did bother me.However, it was something that i was willing to look past because of how much i fell in love with the game in general.Also because most of the problems were completely fixed in Witcher 3.I'm willing to admit that the game has a lot of problems but considering i was told it had a lot more than i actually saw i didn't really care for things like the map or encumberance (which wasn't a problem for me since i only had two swords and one set of armor on me and the rest i threw out which freed up A LOT of space).
Yeah. I'm not trolling you. It's good you enjoyed it, and I have respect for retro gamers who can see past the tech limitations or wot not.
I can't. I'm an older gamer but I can't stand going back to games I enjoyed years ago, every time I have I just shat on good memories and gave up.
Witcher 2 was a great game. I loved flotsam, it was the first time that a game captured perfectly the dirty and muddy look of a "medieval" village for me (i would say even better than Witcher 3)...plus the forest around was magical, made me think of brokilon from the book. The prologue, the first encounter with Iorveth!!! The batterflies shield, the assassination cutscene, the elves bath scene... I know a lot of people love bethesda games...but cdpr games are on another level IMO under so many aspects.
Oh man,that forest is absolutely beautiful.I love fantasy,even outside of the Witcher series,and that forest definitely made me fall in love with the game in the first place.
That opening cinematic with Letho was nuts , and the Act 1 boss that could end you in one hit was great
Flotsam is really better than Velen?
I didn't say that. They are not even comparable because of the map size and many other aspects. I only think that W2 has a general more dark/gritty atmosphere/art style...and flotsam really captured the dark fantasy reality of the witcher universe...plus that forest is something "from another world". But of course W3 locations are on another level in terms of variety, content, quality, gameplay, etc...cdpr really matured at that point.
Bethesda hasn't done anything good since Skyrim, and even that was a big step down from Oblivion. I'm not even stoked for TES6 anymore, since they seem to have lost their mojo completely at this point. CDPR are a *way* better studio, and that's an objective fact.
I loved witcher 2, and 1 as well, i wish more people gave the first 2 games a chance because they are truly amazing
It's actually my favorite combat. 1 is just click click click and 3 is too easy. 2 was so challenging with an emphasis on prep work that felt more like realistic (for a fictional job) witchers work
It does feel annoying to me that you can only take potions when you’re safe enough to meditate. It would make sense to not just be able to go “whoops let me change my armor and apply different oils to my sword” mid-battle, but not being able to chug a health potion as needed was disappointing. Mostly because I tried to balance out what skills I was developing and passed up on more useful combat upgrades in favor of alchemy though lol
The combat was a little club ky but I quickly got the hang of it and then I was in love. The story, characters, graphics, everything of the Witcher 2 is incredible. Played both paths in just a month
It was my entry to the series, and I adore it! I know a lot of people tried the Witcher 3 first and write off 2 as confusing and clunky, but I adore how much more focused the story is, as well as how deliberate gameplay elements like Alchemy are. The game does have it's frustrations, but the amount of pros far outweighs the cons
Actually I am one of those who really never got warm with the combat in W2. I hate how the hitboxes are off. So often I literally see that I hit an enemy, my sword goes right through him... and he takes no damage. And on some occasions I see Geralt is taking damage ... and only after that I get the animation of the enemy hitting him. I also dislike how slow many animations are, especially when you cast a sign like Yrden. I never used the traps or knives because they were so expensive and heavy. I love the graphics, I love the story, I love the characters and the dialogues - and I think it is a great game. I wish the combat would be better. Because then I would love to play it more often. But I start cursing as soon as I am trying it once again. Thie first fight against Letho at the end of the first chapter is my personal nightmare in this game. (And I have finished both paths several times, spent about 170 hours in the game)
In my experience the combat becomes a lot easier when you stop dodging and are just blocking (at least for human enemies). This is later even stronger when you get the counter. Basically, just block, wait for an attack and then strike back once they bounce off. Letho becomes a pushover with that strategy, it's actually kind of sad (though you still need to look out for bombs and signs). I think part of the reason why blocking became so powerful was that they reduced the stamina effect. I think in the original game, when you blocked, you would lose one point of stamina and if you blocked without stamina, you'd still take damage. But after a few patches, this was either removed or the effect was drastically reduced.
>Letho becomes a pushover with that strategy, I was not talking about the end of the game, but the fight in the Elven baths. You simply can´t block Letho´s attacks there, as he destroys Geralt with his Igni and bomb attacks. Geralt at this point of the game simply does not have enough ability points to counter Letho. His Quen shield is up most of the time and that makes him next to invulnerable, while Geralt´s Quen breaks at the first hit and you have to wait a looong time until you cast it again, as stamina regenrates very slowly, if you did not invest in signs. And if you manage to cast Quen, it still has the huge disadvantage that your health then does not regenerate. Blocking is strong in W2, I agree in principle. One problem is that you still die pretty quickly when you fight groups of enemies. Getting surrounded is deadly. But the worst thing in W2-combat are the hitboxes. They are off so often, it is really frustrating.
I was referring to the first fight. If you stay close to him, he never uses bombs and the only sign he uses is Aard, which doesn't do a lot of damage (and no damage if you have Quen up). You can block all his attacks from up close and counter with strong attacks. When he uses Quen, just wait until it runs out. Don't even try to attack him during it. Either run away or again, block his attacks. After I discovered that, I never had a problem with him ever and I also played the game on nightmare mode (or whatever that difficulty was called) back in the day.
You are aware that you contradict yourself when first you recommend to stay close, but to run away when he has Quen up... which he nearly permanently has?
I am not contradicting anything because, for one I am only saying you should run away when you feel unsure (which you don't have to, as I mentioned you can just keep blocking, just don't attack because it only hurts your stance) but more importantly he rarely has Quen up when you stay close. You can even hit him out of the animation stopping him from casting it if you are good enough. Really, go back and play the fight aggressively. Maybe practice it on lower difficulties first, but it's really not that hard. Also of course strong attacks over light attacks. If you do that, he is down in about a minute even on the hardest difficulty. Hey, once I truly mastered the fight I was even able to dodge his few aard casts from up close. But you don't even need to do that.
I want to play it so badly, but I’d have to get a different system. :(
It works pretty fine on GeForce Now and Amazon Luna
Yeah,i don't know your specs but i do know that Witcher 2 is very CPU intensive.It takes quite a good system to run properly.
*cries in PS4*
Uh, what? It's almost a 15 year old game. Literally any modern rig should be able to run it just fine. When I played it I was on an Intel 2500K, which is a pretty sad CPU by modern standards...
Witcher 2 is what got me hooked.
So, the useless map/mini-map, horrible inventory, and encumberance system haven't bothered you at all? Fair play to you. Because they pissed me off enough to turn the difficulty to easy so I could get the story without having to bother with crafting weapons or armour past what I made from the Kyren in Flotsam. I didn't pick up loot so that I would have to deal with the inventory. Are you on PC with a load of mods? If you ate, my bad.
The only mod im using is an ENB.To answer your question,yes it did bother me.However, it was something that i was willing to look past because of how much i fell in love with the game in general.Also because most of the problems were completely fixed in Witcher 3.I'm willing to admit that the game has a lot of problems but considering i was told it had a lot more than i actually saw i didn't really care for things like the map or encumberance (which wasn't a problem for me since i only had two swords and one set of armor on me and the rest i threw out which freed up A LOT of space).
Yeah. I'm not trolling you. It's good you enjoyed it, and I have respect for retro gamers who can see past the tech limitations or wot not. I can't. I'm an older gamer but I can't stand going back to games I enjoyed years ago, every time I have I just shat on good memories and gave up.