Witcher AoK

[Wh1tE_Dw4rF]

So how's ya'll finding the new Witcher?

I just finished it today, to my suprise, as I thought it would be longer than the hours I put into it. Though I should do another play trough and go roche way instead of iorvath.

The game was great but I felt the combat was really clunky. Not as fluent as lets say Assassins Creed. At time I had to spammage my buttons before Gerralt would do something. Most of the time he just stood still pondering about.

What were/are your thoughts?

[Zedblade]

game was okay. opening was terrible, the difficulty in the game was poorly balanced. The prologue was frustratingly hard and badly designed, but by chapter 2 the game was ridiculously easy. Combat was fun overall though, though all you had to do was spam quin and roll everywhere. Hated that they shoe horned in shitty ass quick time events, QTEs need to stay away from fucking rpgs, in fact they need to die from all games entirely, qtes are fucking stupid. The game was super fucking short, I beat it in about 25 hours, while the first one took me nearly 40. Overall it's a good game but the first one was better. 8/10

[DreadStunLock]

I actually really want to buy it, IGN gave it 9.0/10.0 is it really that bad?

[Wh1tE_Dw4rF]

It's not bad but it doesn't give a lot since it's so short. But then again, I did only 1 playthrough so choosing a different allegiance might end up in a different town and different quests. Personally I rather wished they didn't let you pick sides and make it one story for the sake of gameplay duration.

Some reviews say you have great choices that effect the story line but I never felt anything I said made a huge difference.

Oh and I agree with Zed, to top it off the game is somewhat badly optimized. I had to install a beta driver that didn't even install properly just to play it. And tweaking with graphics is a bitch as you can only do it outside of the game and it takes 2 minutes to load up, due to the DRM protection, even with crack.

[Cronky]

game was okay. opening was terrible, the difficulty in the game was poorly balanced. The prologue was frustratingly hard and badly designed, but by chapter 2 the game was ridiculously easy. Combat was fun overall though, though all you had to do was spam quin and roll everywhere. Hated that they shoe horned in shitty ass quick time events, QTEs need to stay away from fucking rpgs, in fact they need to die from all games entirely, qtes are fucking stupid. The game was super fucking short, I beat it in about 25 hours, while the first one took me nearly 40. Overall it's a good game but the first one was better. 8/10

Oh mah gawd. You made the game sound a LOT worse than an 8/10 (above average).

I found the game great.

...lot of text incoming.


The Good Parts:

-I thought the story was great. I'm all for the Witcher universe, based only on playing the first Witcher (haven't read the books).

-The choices were good, though sometimes the outcomes were lackluster. I had to actually stop and really think about what I wanted to do at least once during the game. Unlike Mass Effect and like the first Witcher, some choices don't have a clear Good or Bad route. Just two routes that are good and bad for different reasons. As mentioned before, some choices change certain parts of the game in a bigger way than you'd expect.

-They included Sneaking portions (Geralt = Medieval Sam Fisher). While limited to only a few times throughout the course of the game, it was a lot of fun for me. Perhaps a little simple, but a surprise coming from a Action RPG game.

-Have you seen how good it looks?? The graphics whore inside of me was pleased.

-Quests were a little more varied, though perhaps because there were less. Contracts not just being fetch quests made the game a little more fun (Gargoyle Contract has me scratching my head for a bit).

-On top of how good it looks, the people in the game actually look like people. Having just got off of Fallout: New Vegas before playing this set my standards low.

-Skill trees were more streamlined. One set of points to set in any part of a line of skills that I've unlocked. Easy peasy.

-Sword fighting was streamlined. While I didn't mind the "styles" mechanic from the first, I wasn't bummed to see it gone.

-The mini games were better. Brawling being a QTE-fest felt appropriate (and fun to watch), poker was streamlined to one round, and arm wrestling was different enough from both to be unique.


The Bad parts:

-The "tutorial" prologue was pretty vacant of actually telling you important stuff. I spent the whole first chapter being pissed about the auto target system that sometimes sends you flying off to a far off enemy just because the camera hit that person right. Zed had to tell me about the Lock On button.

(Sidenote: I got confused when I figured out you could play the prologue out of order... by accident. Not sure what the point of being able to do that is)

-Some fights were needlessly annoying. The Operator was less of a challenge, and more "how lucky are you with Aard stuns".

-The monster contracts were just a little TOO vague for me. Specifically the Nekkar Contract. Had I not looked up WHERE and WHAT I was supposed to be looking for I would have ended up tossing bombs at caves for a few more hours before I just gave up. (Note: Cave != Nest :: Random dirtpile on the dirty ground = Nest)

-Little on the easy side, even on hard. If you do things like fool the sometimes gimmicky AI, or stall for time while your Vigor recharges so you can spam Quen more (Damage Forcefield) then you probably wont die. Finding the "Hidden" weapons also makes you kind of OP.

-While I love the fact that the game autosaves/quicksaves in so many different slots...

A: it takes up a lot of space.

and

B: It makes pausing the game take FOREVER after you accumulate upwards to 2GBs worth of saves.

-Why is there a weight limit now? I spent more time dropping my stacks upon stacks of Ore, Timber, Cloth, etc that I accumulated at the start of the game (thinking I would need them) than I ever did picking stuff up.

The Meh parts:

-QTE's I felt weren't put in too heavily. There were only a couple times where they were brought into the actual game, otherwise it was just for Brawling.

-NO SEX CARDS!?!?! I DID NOT HAVE VERIFICATION OF ALL MAH BOOTAY I WAS GETTIN! ;)

-Persuasion/Intimidation/Axii dialogue choices seem sorta dumb. I only ever failed once. I hoped there was going to be some more dramatic outcomes from using a certain one, but instead it's pretty much just Persuasion/Persuasion/Persuasion with different icons.

-Amount of time it took to beat the game. I spent 60 hours playing it. Perhaps I'm slow, perhaps I'm thorough, I don't know but that's how long it took me. Getting stuck at a few points, playing Chapter 1's ending choice over, making sure I found all the "Hidden" weapons/armor/items (since you don't actually ever need to BUY any).

-Why can't I drink potions all willy nilly anymore? Apparently all potions must be taken in a seated, and upright position.

-Using an imported save that wasn't mine (lost my save. Couldn't beat the first one before #2 came out) made gold unimportant. Considering I had over 200,000, and never dropped below 200,000. I liked the little nods to your choices in the previous game and your starting weapon(s)/armor, but I would recommend making sure you start with 0 gold.

-Poker, Brawling, and Arm Wrestling didn't have a dramatic outcome like the first one did (for brawling at least).

-I used bombs/daggers a tiny bit, traps none, lures none, and Signs other than Aard and Quen virtually 0 times (other than testing what they did).

-Why is there only 1 slot for currently active signs? Yes, you can press a corresponding number on the keyboard to switch to a certain sign, but I was never told which were what ones. Plus I didn't care for bombs/daggers too much. Would of rather had two signs out.

-The first Witcher set up for the 2nd Witcher, so there wasn't much of a surprise that the 2nd shamelessly sets up for a 3rd. At least the Witcher games end their current story so you aren't left "Finishing the fight" like in Halo 2.

[frvge]

Seems like the new patch removes DRM, which boosts performance up to 30%!

[LennardF1989]

Bought it, love it. Though haven't been able too play much - about 3 hours last weekend - you have to remember there are 16 endings and 4 different beginning based on your old saves.

I actually died A LOT in the prologue - and also after - and my only complaint is that I spent more time reading through my Journal than actually playing due to "tutorial tips" being more than just 2 lines and only visible for like 3 seconds. F5 is my biggest friend at the moment, although I miss the Quick Load button - or I just haven't found it yet -.

My BIGGEST annoyance - which Cronky also named - is the Saved Games. It autosaves, and it does it a lot, but there is NO ingame delete save game button, I mean, wtf?

I can not give a good review until I actually finished it, but so far I agree with most reviews I've read - 9/10 ones.

[Spark Mandriller]

http://wiadomosci.gazeta.pl/Wiadomosci/1,80271,9684341,Prezent_Tuska_dla_Obamy__iPad_z__Katedra__Baginskiego.html


Yo Poles, did you really give Obama a copy of this game?

[knooger]

Yep, they did.

[DreadStunLock]

Heh, if the obama doesn't like it, god help you win against the US xD


25 commandoes vs the whole Polish country xD

[Zedblade]

I actually really want to buy it, IGN gave it 9.0/10.0 is it really that bad?

It's a great game, but to me the small annoyances that were present built up over time and really diminished the overall experience.

[zglina]

-Hey obama u won Witcher 2?
-Yep 2 times

[Farley4Fan]

http://wiadomosci.gazeta.pl/Wiadomosci/1,80271,9684341,Prezent_Tuska_dla_Obamy__iPad_z__Katedra__Baginskiego.html


Yo Poles, did you really give Obama a copy of this game?

I'm really glad I can't read any of that.