Witcher 2 is out

[rich_is_bored]

There is some skill and equipment management but your actions don't define who Geralt is. You're given lots of dialog choices but by in large the story marches forwards regardless. There is one point where a decision is forced on you that splits the story into two arcs but if you play through the game twice you'll notice that it isn't all that different. It's the combat and the art that make this game. It's not all that remarkable otherwise.

[stumpy]

there's also two paths through the game either roche or and elf way, so once you've done it one way, you can go back and do it the other way, the path choice is near the end of the flotsam quest area during the rose quest, and some quests have more than one solution.

[_Atti_]

i would very much compare this game to the better of the Gothic series..It just deals in a bit more streamlined fashion with choosing the 'camp'

[SneaksieDave]

Haven't read this thread before just now. Game looks pretty impressive and right up my alley. I'm already wanting to rebuild some areas from W2 in DarkRadiant for fun and challenge. I'm considering jumping in and buying The Witcher (1) on GoG.com. Anyone know any problems with using that site? I've read it's no DRM, but do I have to use any software from them for the download (other than the game of course )? I'm meaning like Steam. Does it have to validate my games every time I want to play? Does it download-as-installed, or download an ISO or an installer, and installation is separate? I ask because I'd like to download in a VM, but install on a separate machine.

 

One of these days I have to finish Gothic. And start Gothic 2. And finish STALKER. And finish Morrowind...

[_Atti_]

Just make sure to get the enchanced edition of the first.. I heard that originally the writing wasnt so good in it, but it got corrected and rewritten for the enchanced..It also nicer and better i guess..didnt play it too much however..The original put me off exactly because of its bad writing.. Also mind that the first game's combat is a rythclicking mess..at least of what i've played.

 

ps: you cant finish morrowind! I mean this in a good way

Edited July 13, 2011 by _Atti_

[SneaksieDave]

Yep they've got it for $10 Sounds good to me, just don't want to run into Unforeseen Circumstances. So the specific questions about gog.com service above still hold for anyone in-the-know.

 

I think in MW I am only up to the 4th(?) prophecy, or whatever they call it. I think it was getting allegiance of all the clans. Sounds a lot like Wheel of Time now that I think about it. Don't know if I'll ever be able to finish, and it makes me feel a bit bad to leave games behind while picking up new ones. Hell I still have >800 T2 missions to play.

[STiFU]

Finally, I had the time to play this long-wanted game. All in all, it felt a little unfinished and I am hoping for an enhanced edition, just like they did with W1. Nevertheless, I still had a blast along with some frustrations: The game often prevents one from finishing certain quests without any warning and since you can't rename saves as you wish and reloading takes a lot of time, you often just have to deal with missing out on some things.

 

Balancing wasn't so good too. I lost my W1-Save, so I started with a default Geralt. The first act was really tough and I had to use a lot of alchemy. But then, starting from the second act, I was so overpowered, that I never used alchemy again until the very end of the game. I even raised difficulty to "hard" through the options menu, but it was still way too easy. Swordsman + advanced Quen-Sign seems to be a really good combination (already was in W1). Also, I never used mutagens, as I never found the appropriate "great mutagens". I wanted those with higher criticals.

 

Story: What I loved about W1 was the dark and realistic scenario of the whole world, in which the player often has to make decisions, where it is very hard to decide what is right and what is wrong. In W2 there was only one moment where I really had the feeling that my choice could influence the whole world and that was in the very short and rather unsatisfying last act, when you decide whom you'll rescue. The story also felt disjointed some times and it was hard to detect the recurrent theme in some quests or cutscenes. It almost seemed like world-exploration breaks some quests and I also think I found some errors in the story-script. If you look at the whole image, the story is pretty ok though.

 

Conclusion:

-Story: W1 > W2, but still good. Strongly connected to the Prequel, which is nice. Suffered a lot from the poor finale. It just didn't have that epic feeling to it that W1 had.

-Graphics: Simply over the top

-Soundtrack: Good

-Balancing: Yikes!

-Quests: Few, but very good and long ones. Some frustrations due to game preventing the player from finishing quests.

 

-> A very good game that could have been excellent or even perfect if the devs had invested half a year longer. Still, the game is highly recommended to everyone who likes RPGs or adventures.

[Shadowhide]

just played W2

 

game is totally SUCK !!! i hate primitive movements ! for example i wanted to jump off from the cliff,but i cant !!11 to jump of from platform,i need to press stupid gay button,what the fuck ? i had free movement in my favourite RPG games like Gothic series since 2001 ! W2 is disappointing me ! Gothic 1/2/3 is MUCH better . W2 felt more like FPS game,not like RPG