Posted May 17, 2011
Note to New Players
The difficulty setting is serious. The Witcher 1 had a very easy beginner's chapter, whereas The Witcher 2 does not. Setting difficulty to "easy" makes a big difference and is highly recommended when playing through the introduction your first time. Even at the very beginning the game tries to kill you on medium and up.
This will probably throw many new players off because difficulty levels in video games so often don't mean much. It caught me completely off guard. Unfortunate that The Witcher 2 would actually kind of suffer for doing this correctly.
---
First impressions
FIVE (5) animated logo screens before the title screen/menu. Not a severe gripe, just annoying. Makes the initial impression that the devs were full of themselves, willing to make something cool but unwilling to think of the player in the process. Not to say for sure that they are full of themselves, just that it gives the impression.
Beautiful. Graphics, music, and English voice acting are all good.
For me dialog is important in games like this since I end up having to deal with it so much. I'm so picky I cannot even stand to play Divine Divinity. I have no problems with the Witcher 2's dialog so far.
Clicking through dialog also works quite well, instantly moving animations to where they should be at the next line instead of making the player wait on them or such. Also has scene skip for non-interactive cutscene segments, which also works well.
The menus are a pain to use with the mouse, due to the options actually moving around a bit when trying to select them. Once again, the full-of-themselves-artists vibe is given.
I can find no way to change controls in-game. This also means I cannot use that feature as an easy in-game reference. That might be a reason to buy the boxed instead of digital version so you get a printed manual. The controls can be changed in the game's launcher, so this is not a huge deal.
The most unforgivable thing so far is the save system. You cannot overwrite saves. Selecting 'save' simply makes a new save, no other options it seems. This makes me very hesitant at best to pre-order their next game for fear they won't allow configuring controls or something. Like a wonderful pastry with a small piece of glass intentionally put in it, no amount of delicious cream fulling can stop that one thing from notably damaging trust and it blows the mind that they thought it was acceptable.
(IMO trying to argue that they would be willing to do that with the save system but not willing to leave out configurable controls or lord knows what else is like arguing that the pastry maker would sneak in a piece of glass but never a razor.)
I experimented with importing and not importing a save from The Witcher 1. It sometimes causes dialog differences, and the Witcher 2 by default does not always assume you took the best solutions to Witcher 1 problems. So far I've seen nothing that is a big deal.
Importing allowed me to start with my special armor and swords, though they were not as superior as they were in The Witcher 1. Geralt does get imprisoned and stripped early on. I don't know if I'll get my Witcher 1 stuff back, I have not escaped the prison yet and could see it happening either way.
Importing does not seem to carry over skills in any way, just some story bits and starting items. IMO that is a good thing. Different game, so I might want a different build.
Combat feels much more like an action-RPG than The Witcher 1's. No more timed clicking. By default left click is swift attack and right click is strong attack. There is also a block/parry button now. You can also lock onto enemies by holding a button. The aard sign no longer feels like the alpha and omega as far as signs go, but I cannot say much beyond that yet.
Summary
Though I have not played far, the only major mistake I've noticed is the poor save system. Everything else is in the range of acceptable to great. There are problems mapping some keys like the up/down arrows, but I assume this is a bug which will be fixed. It looks and sounds beautiful, and the combat will probably appeal to more people than The Witcher 1's did.
The difficulty setting is serious. The Witcher 1 had a very easy beginner's chapter, whereas The Witcher 2 does not. Setting difficulty to "easy" makes a big difference and is highly recommended when playing through the introduction your first time. Even at the very beginning the game tries to kill you on medium and up.
This will probably throw many new players off because difficulty levels in video games so often don't mean much. It caught me completely off guard. Unfortunate that The Witcher 2 would actually kind of suffer for doing this correctly.
---
First impressions
FIVE (5) animated logo screens before the title screen/menu. Not a severe gripe, just annoying. Makes the initial impression that the devs were full of themselves, willing to make something cool but unwilling to think of the player in the process. Not to say for sure that they are full of themselves, just that it gives the impression.
Beautiful. Graphics, music, and English voice acting are all good.
For me dialog is important in games like this since I end up having to deal with it so much. I'm so picky I cannot even stand to play Divine Divinity. I have no problems with the Witcher 2's dialog so far.
Clicking through dialog also works quite well, instantly moving animations to where they should be at the next line instead of making the player wait on them or such. Also has scene skip for non-interactive cutscene segments, which also works well.
The menus are a pain to use with the mouse, due to the options actually moving around a bit when trying to select them. Once again, the full-of-themselves-artists vibe is given.
I can find no way to change controls in-game. This also means I cannot use that feature as an easy in-game reference. That might be a reason to buy the boxed instead of digital version so you get a printed manual. The controls can be changed in the game's launcher, so this is not a huge deal.
The most unforgivable thing so far is the save system. You cannot overwrite saves. Selecting 'save' simply makes a new save, no other options it seems. This makes me very hesitant at best to pre-order their next game for fear they won't allow configuring controls or something. Like a wonderful pastry with a small piece of glass intentionally put in it, no amount of delicious cream fulling can stop that one thing from notably damaging trust and it blows the mind that they thought it was acceptable.
(IMO trying to argue that they would be willing to do that with the save system but not willing to leave out configurable controls or lord knows what else is like arguing that the pastry maker would sneak in a piece of glass but never a razor.)
I experimented with importing and not importing a save from The Witcher 1. It sometimes causes dialog differences, and the Witcher 2 by default does not always assume you took the best solutions to Witcher 1 problems. So far I've seen nothing that is a big deal.
Importing allowed me to start with my special armor and swords, though they were not as superior as they were in The Witcher 1. Geralt does get imprisoned and stripped early on. I don't know if I'll get my Witcher 1 stuff back, I have not escaped the prison yet and could see it happening either way.
Importing does not seem to carry over skills in any way, just some story bits and starting items. IMO that is a good thing. Different game, so I might want a different build.
Combat feels much more like an action-RPG than The Witcher 1's. No more timed clicking. By default left click is swift attack and right click is strong attack. There is also a block/parry button now. You can also lock onto enemies by holding a button. The aard sign no longer feels like the alpha and omega as far as signs go, but I cannot say much beyond that yet.
Summary
Though I have not played far, the only major mistake I've noticed is the poor save system. Everything else is in the range of acceptable to great. There are problems mapping some keys like the up/down arrows, but I assume this is a bug which will be fixed. It looks and sounds beautiful, and the combat will probably appeal to more people than The Witcher 1's did.
Post edited May 17, 2011 by Sfon
