Between the Witcher games and Painkiller, it would definitely seem polish-developed games are a thing to keep an eye out for.
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings - Pleasantly surprised.
- Thread starter Zhukov
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About the characterization, you couldn't have missed the point harder, to be honest. However it's not your fault. Both this game and the previous tried very hard to keep the lore's tone without requiring people to know it in order to get into it. When you know the lore or you play enough to get its feel and explore the back story, then you realize how amazingly they pulled it off. When you don't know it, it takes quite a while before it sinks into you and the most flamboyant bits (Geralt sexing anything with a skirt, people cursing like 90's Bronx) are put into context. For me, it only clicked around Witcher 1's third chapter and for many people this will be way too late. Yahtzee's review is a prime example of this. So, it's the price the devs have to pay for trying to pull this off.
I installed and registered the game today, didn't have any issue at all getting the day one patch or the DLC. Did it all through the launcher.Merkavar said:
OT - am loving the game so far. The difficulty is unbelievable though - having just finished the first game I thought I knew what to expect. I was mistaken.
The only thing that's bugging me (well actually two things now that I think about it) is the fact that I have no cursor in-game. I haven't checked it out, so i'm not sure if it's a bug or not, but i'm finding it slightly annoying.
The second (and by far less annoying) is the texture pop-in that sporadically shows up. I'm sure this is a driver issue though.
Combat is a lot of fun, much more challenging than the first game. The game itself looks beautiful (running it maxed out apart from the ubersampling), and the characters are pretty well voiced from what i've seen.
Ok, my only problem with the game is that goddamn part during the opening where you have to run from the dragon.
No, it's not a spoiler. One of the very first dialogue options - before you even know there's a dragon in the game - is "What about the dragon?"
No, it's not a spoiler. One of the very first dialogue options - before you even know there's a dragon in the game - is "What about the dragon?"
Runes and armor upgrades are easy to use. When you put your cursor over a Rune or armor upgrade, you'll notice the equipemnt slots will light up indicating that it's usable on that item (ie: Runes and oils for swords, armor upgrades for armor). It's just drag and drop onto the item you wanna upgrade, but it's permanent so be mindful of what you choose. The "dots" or circles beside that item shows how many upgrades it can take.Baneat said:
Applying oils is the same way, just drag it over the sword you want to apply it to and voila, your sword is temporarily boosted.
I have to disagree. The story is very deep, complex and emotional and choices you make influence the story more than any game I've ever played. The story is actually the best thing about the game.Zhukov said:
You should definitely replay the game because Geralt is not blatant at all. He has a calm voice so that might give you that impression, but he has to make all of those tough choices and some of the things he says and does on his own indicate that he's definitely a well developed character.Zhukov said:
You completely missed a huge part of the storyGametek said:
A witch didn't steal his soul from the dead. Yennefer, his once lover, brought him back from the dead after he died protecting non-humans from a genocidal mob in Rivia.
Eventually The Wild Hunt came and Yennefer was captured. He pursued the riders, encountering among others, Letho and the Witchers from the School of the Viper, until he managed to reach the riders of The Wild Hunt. In the end he sold his soul to the rider in exchange for Yennefer's freedom.
Eventually The Wild Hunt came and Yennefer was captured. He pursued the riders, encountering among others, Letho and the Witchers from the School of the Viper, until he managed to reach the riders of The Wild Hunt. In the end he sold his soul to the rider in exchange for Yennefer's freedom.
Anyone who can miss so much when it is one of the biggest parts of the story and is focused on so heavy really shouldn't even open their mouth about the story.
First off I will say that the Witcher 2 is a good game.
However, it's only a good game because of the amount of effort that the developer put into it and not because everything was executed flawlessly. I hope that makes sense to people, but I suppose what I am saying is that there are several parts of the game that do not work very well, but you can ignore/tolerate them because they are so "close" to being good.
Combat for instance is a big issue with me. The learning curve is far too brutal on it and I can see many people throwing down the game in disgust after being repeatedly killed in the tutorial level. It gets better and more fun once you have more options available to you, but even then there are still many situations where you know that you "won" simply because of luck or because after dying once, you picked the correct "starting action", like throwing a bomb or laying a trap off screen. The controls are just so flaky that even when you think you are "good" at combat, you seriously wonder if you are... It feels impossible to master, which is the opposite of say the combat system in Arkham Asylum, which felt like it got more complicated and intricate (and more possibilities opened up) as you got more skilled with it. Nice try CDProjekt but no cigar.
The loot/alchemy system is kind of broken as well. Limited accessibility of formulas and components from chapter to chapter is a big problem and having the right stuff to make appropriate gear later in the game often depends on having the foresight to know which bits to save from earlier scenes (which is annoying - why should I worry about if I need some creatures eyeballs later in the game???)
Also, the voice acting and dialog are... well they are 80% great and 20% utterly fail. The biggest failing in this department is that often characters talk in really unbelievable dialog. I don't know if this is a translation issue, or if the game was written this way, so I don't know who to "blame" but there are more than a few exchanges of dialog that are utterly. There is also the issue with there being far too many characters with weird fantasy type names to keep track of and too many references to them. I felt like I had to crack open the journal and re-read the character biographies several times just to understand what Geralt or others were talking about at several times in the game. (And I would swear that he often acted/or spoke of people that he shouldn't have known about, or hadn't been mentioned before - I think these are continuity errors but I was so confused to start with it's hard for me to confirm)
Basically put - I would recommend the Witcher 2 to some of my friends. I wouldn't just unreservedly recommend it to anyone because frankly, it's not a game for everyone. That's okay because if anything has been proven over the last few years, it's that making games to appeal to the "broadest base" often leads to unremarkable products. They set the bar really high for their game and they didn't quite meet it, but what they did create is pretty darn good.
I'll leave all comments about Geralt's character and such to the rest of you guys - I don't find myself enthralled in this department, but that's okay I suppose. Like a lot of things in the Witcher 2, it's kind of a mixed bag - some brilliant bits and some "wtf?!?" bits thrown in as well.
However, it's only a good game because of the amount of effort that the developer put into it and not because everything was executed flawlessly. I hope that makes sense to people, but I suppose what I am saying is that there are several parts of the game that do not work very well, but you can ignore/tolerate them because they are so "close" to being good.
Combat for instance is a big issue with me. The learning curve is far too brutal on it and I can see many people throwing down the game in disgust after being repeatedly killed in the tutorial level. It gets better and more fun once you have more options available to you, but even then there are still many situations where you know that you "won" simply because of luck or because after dying once, you picked the correct "starting action", like throwing a bomb or laying a trap off screen. The controls are just so flaky that even when you think you are "good" at combat, you seriously wonder if you are... It feels impossible to master, which is the opposite of say the combat system in Arkham Asylum, which felt like it got more complicated and intricate (and more possibilities opened up) as you got more skilled with it. Nice try CDProjekt but no cigar.
The loot/alchemy system is kind of broken as well. Limited accessibility of formulas and components from chapter to chapter is a big problem and having the right stuff to make appropriate gear later in the game often depends on having the foresight to know which bits to save from earlier scenes (which is annoying - why should I worry about if I need some creatures eyeballs later in the game???)
Also, the voice acting and dialog are... well they are 80% great and 20% utterly fail. The biggest failing in this department is that often characters talk in really unbelievable dialog. I don't know if this is a translation issue, or if the game was written this way, so I don't know who to "blame" but there are more than a few exchanges of dialog that are utterly. There is also the issue with there being far too many characters with weird fantasy type names to keep track of and too many references to them. I felt like I had to crack open the journal and re-read the character biographies several times just to understand what Geralt or others were talking about at several times in the game. (And I would swear that he often acted/or spoke of people that he shouldn't have known about, or hadn't been mentioned before - I think these are continuity errors but I was so confused to start with it's hard for me to confirm)
Basically put - I would recommend the Witcher 2 to some of my friends. I wouldn't just unreservedly recommend it to anyone because frankly, it's not a game for everyone. That's okay because if anything has been proven over the last few years, it's that making games to appeal to the "broadest base" often leads to unremarkable products. They set the bar really high for their game and they didn't quite meet it, but what they did create is pretty darn good.
I'll leave all comments about Geralt's character and such to the rest of you guys - I don't find myself enthralled in this department, but that's okay I suppose. Like a lot of things in the Witcher 2, it's kind of a mixed bag - some brilliant bits and some "wtf?!?" bits thrown in as well.
Right, one note on the whole amnesia thing.
It's only done for the convinience of international market. Geralt is a quite well known fantasy character in Poland there were ton of books with his adventures that explain the character and reasons behind it quite well.
But the game writers felt that a person going into the world without knowing the mythos in the books would be confused enough to have a character that feels so defined and full of history.
It's only done for the convinience of international market. Geralt is a quite well known fantasy character in Poland there were ton of books with his adventures that explain the character and reasons behind it quite well.
But the game writers felt that a person going into the world without knowing the mythos in the books would be confused enough to have a character that feels so defined and full of history.
Axil does damage in the sense that it's hella disruptive and the MC'd mob attacks the others, doing damage to them. The only damaging sign (Directly) is Igni, so if they just meant Igni wouldn't they have put "+4 Igni damage" on the rune rather than "+4 sign damage"?Hammeroj said:
The game's pretty fuckin long if I'm only level 7 and you finish at 30
Completely happy with its length.