The Witcher 2 - Page 58

Combat was extremely hit and miss. As the millionth person I agree that the game starts out too difficult and then gets too easy. I purposefully avoided using quen (Prior to playing I had read it was OP, so outside of maybe 2-3 fights I never used the ability). A lot of the difficulty comes from learning how to actually be effective in combat. The bulk of chapter 1 you do at a very low level compared to chapters 2 and 3. You level up so much faster in later chapters, whereas you're stuck without finishers or some of the most advanced abilities at the start. However, once you get the hang of rolling, staggering opponents, and other factors it becomes a much easier game. Gear, obviously, plays a roll in this too, but opponents scaling isn't really a big deal.

Inventory management is annoying, but not terrible. Anybody who plays games like this is usually a pack rat, always afraid that selling or throwing away certain items might come back to bite them in the ass. Because of this, you end up getting near your weight cap frequently just from carrying massive amounts of items that stockpile to 2-5lbs each. Comparing stats with that slow as scroll speed could be annoying, but given how rarely it mattered isn't not a huge complaint.

Meditation makes some sense, but is really fucking annoying. I understand there is lore in terms of drinking potions, but having to spend those few seconds every time you want to meditate to check some of your character stats or your weird journal of monsters was really, really random. Having to meditate to level up or drink a potions is acceptable, but the other things just caused a headache.

Love is always important when I play rpg's. I don't always have relations between characters, but sometimes it flows with the plot nicely and I think doing so will add to the experience. The Witcher 2 did a very good job of making sure you could hold your love for Triss (and Yennifer, I suppose) as your key ideal. It's hard to take some RPG's serious when characters can't respond properly to situations, especially dealing with your character's emotions. I felt this game achieved that and I never felt like I was forced to pretend Geralt's emotions were non-existent when I made decisions.

Crafting was largely pointless and annoying. In my playthrough I think I only ended up changing weapons like 8 times? This isn't just a complaint about crafting not enough weapons, but just in general the idea that getting weapons should take a little more effort at times. The best weapon (at least I think best) could be crafted with extremely easy materials, although it did require you save a few other pieces from special monsters along the way. I think the best silver weapon is just one you get from a chest while doing the gargoyle quest as well, which just seems out of place.

Pacing was good at times and bad at others. A huge mistake many rpg's make is how they handle a character's dire situations in regards to others. Characters should feel forced to act quickly at times, and I never like when you have an important mission that should be time sensitive, but instead you spend days and days wandering around doing side quests. Mass Effect 2 is one of the few games of I can think of that punish you for your lack of action, and even that was largely meaningless in the larger scheme of the game. More RPG's have to start forcing your hands if you activate certain triggers.

The plot was interesting, but confusing often times. By the time the story is finished it all makes sense, but this is one of those games that suffers from having a lot of lore attached to it. So many names and places are thrown at you that it makes it really difficult at times to decide who is actually important. They list off king names, other kingdoms, sorcresses, random town's people, etc...

That aside, I've always liked games that throw you into a situation and it's largely the main character just trying to survive and get through. This wasn't some big save the empire game, although it did have some elements of that to it. However, it was largely Geralt getting thrown into 1 situation and attempting to parse his way through the information he gains, simply to understand more.

The Ending was abrupt, but not poorly placed. Act three certainly felt rushed and largely empty compared to the first two, but that happens with, well, almost every game. The game reached its logical conclusion for this chapter of the series. I know there are supposedly 16 outcomes, and I'm curious as to how different they actually are. I imagine most of them only matter in terms which character is shown loyalty the most. Obviously the ending is upsetting because, well, nobody wants the game to end, but it has to end somewhere. A little more closure would've been nice, but it's understandable to end it as they did.

Dialogue was handled well, but not perfectly. I like the idea that sometimes characters would only allow you to ask a question or two before shutting you out. However, there should be an easier way to tell when this is going to happen. It's in RPG player's nature to gather as much information they can from the npc's they're talking to, so to have them shut you down suddenly would be acceptable if you knew it was a possibility ahead of time.

Spec was important to combat, but given the levels in the game (I don't know the cap, but ended at 32 I think) you can certainly go deep into a second talent tree by the time you reach the end. I like that combat varies a lot depending upon how you choose to build your character, rather than simply hack n' slashing non-stop, regardless of the character design. There was plenty of hack n' slash, but that's impossible to avoid to some extent.

Small world didn't really bother me. I know some people want to play a big open world game. This certainly had the feel of an open world game, but it wasn't. I'm fine with that. Quite frankly, open world games oftentimes run the risk of having so much filler that the overall quality of the game is diminished. Every little nook and cranny in the game was expected to be explored and it meant that, while there were places to go, the "non-essential" ones still felt essential.

Beautiful world is an understatement. The graphics weren't mind blowing or anything. However, the attention to detail and schemes for the cities and outside were simply fantastic. They have set the bar insanely high for games to come in that regard. Each home, tree, path, or piece of rubble looked like it belonged there. Phenomenal looking environment.

Controls were pretty bad. Let's be honest, did you ever really feel in control of Geralt? Most of the the game, instead of feeling fluid, is you fighting with the controls to make Geralt do what you want. How many times would you try to cast a Sign and follow it up with a quick attack, only to have Geralt come to a complete halt and force you to roll away instead? The stupid acceleration on his walking making picking shit up on the ground is a frustration the entire game, especially if you use traps a lot. Now, it was never bad enough that I was angry or anything, but it certainly took away from the experience.

The lack of hand holding I'm fine with. It would've been nice for a little more tutorial into combat and things, but I'm ok with that. The game needed a liiiittle bit more in terms of help to the player though. For instance, I'm fine with everybody being a named npc. However, a little way to distinguish important people from just random people would've been nice.