Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings

[razeredge]

Nice easter egg in the game:

Witcher 2's easter egg - Eurogamer Videos | Eurogamer.net

 

[Helme]

I agree with some of what you posted, I disagree with potions thought. I think this is a better approach than Dragon Age's or the likes "spam 20 potions in 1 fight" bullshit. This way you'll actually have to prepare before-hand. The stealth-sections suck though, I agree - but the instant-death thing in conversations is fucking brilliant. You're not supposed to get away from an ambush where you are surrounded by 20+ of the best archers in the world if you taunt their leader, this is a major point for the game in my opinion because every single other game I know of would have solved it with "conversation is over > you kill everyone".

 

[Mabs]

i reached the "quick time event" to escape from the cells, and cant do it, no idea what the actions required are and it gives no warning

think im getting old

 

[Rulke]

You're not supposed to get away from an ambush where you are surrounded by 20+ of the best archers in the world if you taunt their leader, this is a major point for the game in my opinion because every single other game I know of would have solved it with "conversation is over > you kill everyone".

Why not? If I got attacked by 20 archers in the game itself, they'd be dead in seconds. Having an insta death conversation option (especially when you don't know it's a possible outcome) just forces a reload. Not fun, not challenging, just time wasting.

Also I don't want to be able to spam potions, I just dont want to have to spend 60 seconds to use them and never have them up when I actually need them.

i reached the "quick time event" to escape from the cells, and cant do it, no idea what the actions required are and it gives no warning

Turn on 'Simple QTEs' in the options, limits it to pressing WASD

 

[Zarjazz]

I loved the original and so far some changes are for the better, some things are for the worse but overall I'm a happy camper. And once I'd turned off motion blur and uber-sampling, installed the SLI fix and maxed out the gfx options it looks fucking amazing!

 

[Mabs]

Turn on 'Simple QTEs' in the options, limits it to pressing WASD

genius! ta !

was driving me nuts

 

[pito]

Hey guys not sure if any of you has had the same problem or if any of you may be able to help me fix it.
Basically i have installed the game from cd( me not pay steam i hate the mother truckers!!)
and it was all fine installed with no problems, anyway the problem is when i start the game i chose the game difficulty the screen goes black and the game stops responding (bottom right corner there is a skull with a snake going around it ) i am assuming this is the loading screen, but i have waited for 30 min to see if starts responding again, but it doesn't so i have to get task manager and end the process.
I have called the customer support but he told me he has no idea to send an e-mail to the developers and they may put a fix on the next patch (i lold).
So i am wondering if any one else has had the same problem and if so who do you fix it or go around it.

 

[ST^]

I'm at work so I can't find a link atm, but you should try to find the non-DRM exe and dll (GOG.com versions) to replace the ones installed by the CD. Even if it doesn't fix it, the DRM from DVD install is apparently causing bad performance issues, so replacing them is a good idea.

 

[Rulke]

Chapter 1 was decent, chapter 2 is really poor though - the battle in the mists bit was pathetic

 

[Helme]

I found it fine, I saw the actual mist-battle as a side point to all the intrigue you could discover.

I just finished the game an hour or so ago and I would seriously place it at the top of the list of favourite RPG's. Sure, it could be better in some areas but the overall experience certainly pales any other contender in my opinion. Alpha Protocol has more choice, but no gameplay to speak of, it's the same with Vampire the Masquerade in my opinion. That isn't to say the Witcher 2 falls short on choice. Talking with a buddy of mine who went opposite routes from me we ended up with vastly different stories and perspectives, and I had almost as much fun discussing that as actually playing the game itself, something which I haven't done since... I can't actually remember.

There's really no reason at all any fan of RPG's shouldn't play this game tbh, and I really hope this game shakes up the genre. BioWare should seriously be taking notes after their godawful Dragon Age 2.

 

[Ctuchik]

Hey guys not sure if any of you has had the same problem or if any of you may be able to help me fix it.
Basically i have installed the game from cd( me not pay steam i hate the mother truckers!!)
and it was all fine installed with no problems, anyway the problem is when i start the game i chose the game difficulty the screen goes black and the game stops responding (bottom right corner there is a skull with a snake going around it ) i am assuming this is the loading screen, but i have waited for 30 min to see if starts responding again, but it doesn't so i have to get task manager and end the process.
I have called the customer support but he told me he has no idea to send an e-mail to the developers and they may put a fix on the next patch (i lold).
So i am wondering if any one else has had the same problem and if so who do you fix it or go around it.

Try running in windowed mode and fiddle around with the graphics settings.

Apparently its part of a AA issue from what i've managed to find on various "fix" threads...

 

[pito]

Try running in windowed mode and fiddle around with the graphics settings.

Apparently its part of a AA issue from what i've managed to find on various "fix" threads...

yea disabling full screen did the trick but is just stupid that a 30 min chat to a support agent that is costing me 53pence a minute best solution was to submit a ticket on the website.

 

[Rulke]

I found it fine, I saw the actual mist-battle as a side point to all the intrigue you could discover.

I just finished the game an hour or so ago and I would seriously place it at the top of the list of favourite RPG's. Sure, it could be better in some areas but the overall experience certainly pales any other contender in my opinion. Alpha Protocol has more choice, but no gameplay to speak of, it's the same with Vampire the Masquerade in my opinion. That isn't to say the Witcher 2 falls short on choice. Talking with a buddy of mine who went opposite routes from me we ended up with vastly different stories and perspectives, and I had almost as much fun discussing that as actually playing the game itself, something which I haven't done since... I can't actually remember.

There's really no reason at all any fan of RPG's shouldn't play this game tbh, and I really hope this game shakes up the genre. BioWare should seriously be taking notes after their godawful Dragon Age 2.

I could live without other RPGs 'taking note' of the horrible horrible combat and non existent character progression (only about 1 in 10 things in your skill tree actually make a difference) or the laborious exploration (lost track of how many times i ran back and forth outside Chapt2 town or had to navigate through it's streets using that retarded minimap)

As for the story's intrigue - what happened to the yawn emote? You're not given any real reason to care about any of the involved parties, at all. Hell - the map isnt even in english so you cant even see wtf they are in relation to each other. The main questline is nothing more than a series of fetch quests interspersed with forgettable mini-bosses.

And the badly implemented doors
and ledges
and potions
and quest journal/tracking

Sure the game isnt as execrable as DA2 and I'm sure a few of my points are purely personal taste but "I just finished the game an hour or so ago and I would seriously place it at the top of the list of favourite RPG'"

Really?

 

[Helme]

Yes, really. All your complaints are fairly minor and I found myself caring about the story at least. As I said, it's a sum of the whole package that makes it so great in my opinion. I'd ask what you would consider a better RPG, because there's very few I'd nominate that is as good overall as Witcher2.

Mask of the Betrayer has terrible combat and an utterly broken engine.
Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines has even worse combat, and a slightly broken engine.
KoTOR is pretty terrible when it comes to combat, and the story really doesn't hold up that well on a replay.
Baldur's Gate 2 may compete in epicness but the 2nd edition D&D is fairly aged as it is, and is just pretty cumbersome - same for Planescape.

I'm not even going mention Bethesda's games because they're shit when it comes to anything other than fucking about, New Vegas deserves an honourable mention I guess but it's bugged to hell and back still after a year. Dragon Age Origins is I guess the game that comes closest to Witcher 2 in completeness but it doesn't offer as broad amount of choice, and in my personal opinion the universe isn't half as interesting because it doesn't know if it wants to be high fantasy or dark fantasy and suffers from the indecision, the combat isn't all that interesting either tbh.

edit: forgot Arcanum but it's pretty much in the same boat as BG2, except that combat is even more shit.

 

[Rulke]

Ah, best RPG cos the rest are shitter?

Each of those games above has better combat, a more involving world and better character development. Witcher 2 might have better choices, but when you dont care about your character or the world then choice is meaningless

 

[Ctuchik]

Ah, best RPG cos the rest are shitter?

Each of those games above has better combat, a more involving world and better character development. Witcher 2 might have better choices, but when you dont care about your character or the world then choice is meaningless

Why are you playing an RPG when you seem to care nothing about the actual RPG parts?

could that be why you don't like this game?

 

[Xandax]

I'm enjoying the game overall but tbh the myriad little flaws are starting to mount up to frustrate me more and more often.

- The minimap. Your arrow turns, the map turns as well and there's no North indicator. Useless. Oh, and it only shows about 5ft around you.
- The game might boast of over 80 hours of gameplay, but half of that is stuff I wouldn't exactly call Gameplay... Running around, opening doors (seriously, fuck the doors in this game) using that retarded meditation system to craft/drink potions, replaying areas because the autosave sucks and you forgot to manually save for a while...
- Potions themselves: You can't drink them in combat but most of the time when you actually want to drink them (bosses etc) you cant because you're steamrolled into them by conversations or invisible triggers in the world. If you do happen to use them beforehand they will have expired while you talked.
- Too many arbitrary deaths/forced reloads. I'm talking about bits like the stealth sections where for me it was basically trial and error. Or the dialogue options that result in your instant death.
- Give me a vault or let me carry more stuff ffs "You found a new crafting diagram! Oh, it needs all the stuff you dropped/sold 5 minutes ago" ;(
- Combat is pretty basic, nowhere near as bad as the first game but "cast Quen, spam click" isn't my idea of complexity
- QTEs. (even with simple QTEs enabled in the options. Fuck this)
- The journal and quest tracking is pretty poor
- The story is about as interesting as Star Wars episode 1, in fact a trade embargo might liven things up a little


Tbh these are all minor annoyances and like I said, I'm quite enjoying the game overall. It's just that a lot of the time the game forgets it's supposed to be a game and uses needless tedium in the guise of being a hardcore Action/RPG.

I agree with you.

I also have difficulty ..... accepting the claims the game is "difficult" and "hardcore" when the difficulty is merely trial n' error of timing your click to survive a battle. That's not difficulty, that's just frustrations.

The quest tracking, journal, inventory, map system twak: ) all annoy me immensely.

 

[ST^]

Baldur's Gate 2 may compete in epicness but the 2nd edition D&D is fairly aged as it is, and is just pretty cumbersome - same for Planescape.

I was with you until you said something bad about Baldur's Gate 2.

BURN HIM.

 

[Rulke]

9gb update for the game on steam wtf Oo

 

[Helme]

That's just steam being retarded downloading half the game all over again for no reason. The patch is actually 15mb or so.

and ST, I still enjoy BG2 - but the combat hasn't aged well and it's not so much the games fault as how shit D&D 2nd edition was in hindsight. This was my point for why the Witcher 2 is so good in my opinion - it's a modern game in every sense of the world, yes there's been sacrifices made and there's some really stupid decisions(like the doors and map) but overall, the combat works. The story branching is probably some of the best ever - the only one I think even competes is Alpha Protocol and that game is seriously lacking in all other areas. I personally really like Geralt, sure at times he's a bit Mary Sue-ish but what video game hero isn't? I think the major reason I like it though is that, the story isn't spelled out. Yes you know what you're supposed to do, but you never really know who is behind it all and why up until the end, and then looking back you can see that it all fits together, I can't think of many games that does this(apart from Dragon Age 2, but then it's more because it's just haphazardly thrown together.

It's a good game, and hopefully if they port it to consoles it'll sell really, really well because at it's base the Witcher 2 is a good RPG - something we haven't really seen in years, and something most developers seems to be moving away from in favour of more linearity.

 

[Rulke]

The Escapist review pretty much sums up my feelings on the game - it's a good game at it's core spoiled by a crappy interface and (imo) bad combat - 3½/5

 

[Helme]

I wouldn't trust that guy whatsoever when it comes to RPG's and grades. He gave DA2 5/5. I understand your complaints but really, linking a review of someone who obviously is a sellout doesn't help your arguments.

 

[Lethul]

I wouldn't trust that guy whatsoever when it comes to RPG's and grades. He gave DA2 5/5. I understand your complaints but really, linking a review of someone who obviously is a sellout doesn't help your arguments.

I don't think he is argumenting really? Just saying that this guy sums up what I feel about the game.

HOWEVER, Rulke should not be trusted. And if he say's something is bad my guess is that it is good!

ps. Aftonbladet gave it 5/5

 

[Helme]

Well maybe argument was the wrong word, but I'd still just ignore every single word out of that reviewers mouth, at least DA2 was good for that. Weeding out journalists with some sort of integrity versus those without.

 

[Lethul]

Well maybe argument was the wrong word, but I'd still just ignore every single word out of that reviewers mouth, at least DA2 was good for that. Weeding out journalists with some sort of integrity versus those without.

Was DA2 that bad? Loved first one but never got around to playing the second.

 

[Rulke]

Was DA2 that bad? .

No, it was worse.


Wasn't aware that guy 5 starred DA2, but doesn't really affect my original point.

 

[Ctuchik]

ps. Aftonbladet gave it 5/5

And you trust THEM to review games?!?

Skäms ta mig fan!

 

[Ctuchik]

Was DA2 that bad? Loved first one but never got around to playing the second.

I don't think so, it's no where near as good as DA:O, but it's not really bad, just dumbed down.

Tho there is/was a pretty major bug in it, after you finish the game all the stuff in your chest storage vanish.

Haven't touched the game since.

 

[Chosen]

I already hate this game, just started playing it. And even struggle to get past the first fighting sequence!(protecting the king, escaping the Dragon).

I can run before the other members cross the "bridge/wooden thingy" to the other one, but then get hammered down by the 3 guards standing there. If I wait, and run alongside with the other guys. I get hit by the dragons flame, and die right away....

 

[Rulke]

Enjoy the combat at the start, actually having to use some strategy!

(that strategy being use Quen, makes fights trivial)