The flaws of the Witcher 2 (spoilers)

I think this is the best RPG this generation...CD Projeckt is king of the mountain at the moment, but some glaring flaws will prevent them from holding that throne, especially after Mass Effect 3 is released.

I am not going to talk about combat flaws, they are being patched out. More unpatchable flaws here....here are three of my biggest whines

1) The endgame decision between saving Triss or freeing Saskia/Anais turns out to be an easy decision when it shouldn't. Why? Triss is rescued regardless, but by rescuing Triss, you sacrifice the hopes of Roche or Iorveth. Its clear that there is a right decision and the wrong decision and helping Triss is the wrong one. This makes the decision less impactful and less meaningful. In fact, it should have been if you free Saskia or Anais, you lose Triss, maybe even resulting in her death. That would have been a far more sadistic choice. Geralt has Yennifer anyway.

2) The Witcher 1 import is weak.....choices don't really matter much...only saving or killing Adda really matters. You get to meet Siegfried again under the right conditions, and Geralt mentions killing the King of the Wild Hunt if he did. Other than that, choices in the first have an even less effect then they did in Mass Effect 2. Here is where Mass Effect 3 will crush CD Projeckt.

3) Side quests....not as good as the first game. Less of them too. Even Dragon Age II beats TW2 in this department. While there are some good ones....Claws of Madness, Three Sisters, and Flickering Heart for example, they lack the dilemmas and the heft TW1 and the major DA2 sidequests had. Act III had barely any at all.

Still an excellent game...with amazing characters, plot, world, and soundtrack. And the quest at the end of Act I for Roche should go down in every gamers memory...incredible (Iorveth's end of Act I quest is great too, and has the most sadistic choice in the game).

I've got to completely disagree with that - I picked Triss on my first playthrough, without any hesitation at all.
Philippa was manipulative and completely untrustworthy - I had absolutely no reason to take her advice, especially when my Geralt's lover's life was on the line. I thought that there would be another way to save Saskia, so going after Triss was the 'right' option in my mind.

Turns out that she completely lied to you about freeing Saskia anyway (at least about the 'stabbing her in the heart' thing). Also, I think Triss' path is much more interesting/revealing, story-wise.

[QUOTE="texasgoldrush"]2) The Witcher 1 import is weak.....choices don't really matter much...only saving or killing Adda really matters. You get to meet Siegfried again under the right conditions, and Geralt mentions killing the King of the Wild Hunt if he did. Other than that, choices in the first have an even less effect then they did in Mass Effect 2. Here is where Mass Effect 3 will crush CD Projeckt.texasgoldrush

There's always The Witcher 3, and for that matter, save importing was not totally functional until the most recent patch. I don't see where they had even less effect than the Mass Effect 1's choices - characters in this game were constantly questioning my motivations based on my choices in the first one, and there were events (such as meeting the Order knights) which play out differently depending on your original choices.

Oh, and that' not to mention the sheer awesomeness of starting the game with the same equipment from the first. Even if they aren't as useful in TW2, their inclusion greatly strengthened the continuity between the two games.

3) Side quests....not as good as the first game. Less of them too. Even Dragon Age II beats TW2 in this department. While there are some good ones....Claws of Madness, Three Sisters, and Flickering Heart for example, they lack the dilemmas and the heft TW1 and the major DA2 sidequests had. Act III had barely any at all.texasgoldrush

I was intrigued by the side quests in Iorveth's line. The succubus quest was fun, I liked the dwarvern runemaker's treasure hunt, the one in the first act with the elf 'spy' played on your expectations rather well, and so on. Even the basic dice/brawling/arm-wrestling quest chains all had their own unique permutations and twists.

The first game's sidequests mainly involved killing things - I thought this game handled quests a fair bit better.

4) The targeting system is just... strange. 5) The game has an oddly inverted difficulty curve - the hardest part of the game is the tutorial level for some reasonTheOtherTheoG

Haven't those both been fixed in patches now? And insane more shoudl definitely meet your difficulty demands. :P

Same Planeforger, I picked Triss no contest. However I'm doing a second playthrough to do the other choice, but in my first game, I saved Triss and saved Saskia.

At least I never saw her die or anything and I got the achievement for saving her.

Just wait till TW3, it will have much more meaningful choices than ME3 will ever hope to have.

EDIT:Wow, I just found out who the dragon was... I didn't even know that since I chose Roche. lmao

I agree with the first and the second but not really with the third. Usually sidequests in other games are a bit mmo style, go kill x number of animals. The first witcher had it. In TW2 a sidequest will force you to go read a book where you learn how to eradicate the monsters, learn a recipe for a specific bomb and then do the job or solve a puzzle like the gargoyle one. Usually a sidequest forces you to investigate a bit, not just a fetch quest with an icon on the map. The only problem I had, there weren't many sidequests.

You know what's bad? Finding the remains of an woman somewhere, your character saying "someone in Kirkwall might need this", following the icon on the map because somehow you know who needs it and when you deliver the corpse the guy's saying "thnx, I'll never thought I'll see these again". This kind of sidequest shouldn't have a place in a single player rpg. It's pointless, is a delivery quest that offers no challenge.

4) The targeting system is just... strange. At times, nor does it let you target the person your looking at, or let's you target anyone else but them, it's just plain weird.TheOtherTheoG

I keep hearing this. I never had this problem, rarely do I target the wrong guy.

[QUOTE="TheOtherTheoG"]4) The targeting system is just... strange. At times, nor does it let you target the person your looking at, or let's you target anyone else but them, it's just plain weird.edidili

I keep hearing this. I never had this problem, rarely do I target the wrong guy.

1) The endgame decision between saving Triss or freeing Saskia/Anais turns out to be an easy decision when it shouldn't. Why? Triss is rescued regardless, but by rescuing Triss, you sacrifice the hopes of Roche or Iorveth. Its clear that there is a right decision and the wrong decision and helping Triss is the wrong one. This makes the decision less impactful and less meaningful. In fact, it should have been if you free Saskia or Anais, you lose Triss, maybe even resulting in her death. That would have been a far more sadistic choice. Geralt has Yennifer anyway.texasgoldrush

If you are role-playing the choice is very easy - you should help Triss, because she saved your life in the Witcher 1. If you want to destroy your suspension of disbelief with considerations if the developers would dare to kill her - it's your loss.

I personally was disappointed that you don't get to interact more with Saskia - she seemed like an interesting character. And there didn't seem any way of remaining on the good side of Dethmold who is also charismatic in some creepy way.

Another problem for me was the crafting system - the better armor and weapons required ridiculous amount of resources and then you quickly find something better. Not to mention that the second part of the game is so easy that you don't have to worry about equipment. I only found it useful before the first fight with Letho when I got jagged blade and kayran armor.

The inability to use potions in combat led me to only use swallow before difficult battles. Otherwise I just didn't bother. Again, the difficulty considerations apply here.

I personally was disappointed that you don't get to interact more with Saskia - she seemed like an interesting character. And there didn't seem any way of remaining on the good side of Dethmold who is also charismatic in some creepy way.KiZZo1

From the sound of things, I'm guessing that you played Roche's path. Iorveth's path mostly revolves around her, although you don't get to speak to her directly for much of it.

[QUOTE="KiZZo1"]I personally was disappointed that you don't get to interact more with Saskia - she seemed like an interesting character. And there didn't seem any way of remaining on the good side of Dethmold who is also charismatic in some creepy way.Planeforger

From the sound of things, I'm guessing that you played Roche's path. Iorveth's path mostly revolves around her, although you don't get to speak to her directly for much of it.

They really hide what Saskia really is in Roches path. I didnt even know till I saw someone post about it, which is quite a revelation when I found out.

[QUOTE="Planeforger"]

[QUOTE="KiZZo1"]I personally was disappointed that you don't get to interact more with Saskia - she seemed like an interesting character. And there didn't seem any way of remaining on the good side of Dethmold who is also charismatic in some creepy way.illmatic87

From the sound of things, I'm guessing that you played Roche's path. Iorveth's path mostly revolves around her, although you don't get to speak to her directly for much of it.

They really hide what Saskia really is in Roches path. I didnt even know till I saw someone post about it, which is quite a revelation when I found out.

I had some control issues with registering keystrokes every now and then (no it's not because I was out of vigor).

Biggest issue with it though was the duration and end. It clocks in much shorter than Witcher 1 even if you do everything, and I was just left wanting more in the when it was over (in a not great way).

Beyond those I pretty much loved it.

I agree with the first and the second but not really with the third. Usually sidequests in other games are a bit mmo style, go kill x number of animals. The first witcher had it. In TW2 a sidequest will force you to go read a book where you learn how to eradicate the monsters, learn a recipe for a specific bomb and then do the job or solve a puzzle like the gargoyle one. Usually a sidequest forces you to investigate a bit, not just a fetch quest with an icon on the map. The only problem I had, there weren't many sidequests.

You know what's bad? Finding the remains of an woman somewhere, your character saying "someone in Kirkwall might need this", following the icon on the map because somehow you know who needs it and when you deliver the corpse the guy's saying "thnx, I'll never thought I'll see these again". This kind of sidequest shouldn't have a place in a single player rpg. It's pointless, is a delivery quest that offers no challenge.

edidili

The Witcher 2's got the most frustrating tutorial I've ever played. The only way you can beat more than 2 people is kiting them around and going in for the occasional hit, otherwise you can't attack/defend for more than 2 seconds. It's like AC combat except each guard attacks every 2 seconds.

That and they didn't support Logitech G35's and still don't support mine and other's screen resolution unless you have a widescreen format :( Guess I was just unlucky to experience all of this - can't wait to play the game when they patch the screen format issue.

The Witcher 2's got the most frustrating tutorial I've ever played. The only way you can beat more than 2 people is kiting them around and going in for the occasional hitcyborg100000

[QUOTE="cyborg100000"]

The Witcher 2's got the most frustrating tutorial I've ever played. The only way you can beat more than 2 people is kiting them around and going in for the occasional hit110million

The game has far more sidequests than I first thought, they are just well hidden.

The first time through I totally missed some quests and had no idea I had, such as 'Hung Over' in act 1 (I have a tattoo ALL game now!) or Meliteles Heart.

[QUOTE="cyborg100000"]

The Witcher 2's got the most frustrating tutorial I've ever played. The only way you can beat more than 2 people is kiting them around and going in for the occasional hit110million

I'll bear that in mind for next time. All I used was Igni as it was very useful in the first game.

[QUOTE="cyborg100000"]

The Witcher 2's got the most frustrating tutorial I've ever played. The only way you can beat more than 2 people is kiting them around and going in for the occasional hit110million

...or throw a bomb, lay a trap. Geralt doesn't have only swords, he is a killing machine if you make use of everything he has in his arsenal.

Side quests thing is bull**** because a lot of them in the first game were generic MMO-style quests. In Witcher 2, not a single quest is wasted, there is a lot of depth and variety to them as well as branching choices to a lot of them. Funny you should bring up the endgame descision being an easy choice where no matter what you do in DA2, you fight both main villans and run away at the end, its even more meaningless. The import being weak is funny too, I don't remember anything transferring from Dragon Age 1, I wasn't even the same character. :wink: 110million

Ooooh, getting a bit defensive, aren't we ? He only mentions DA2 in the sidequests part.

The only thing your post says is "I can't think of any good counter-arguments, so I will just say that DA2 has similar flaws"

Also, what the hell do TW's side quests have to do with TW2's side quests.

Even with it's flaws The Witcher 2 has a clear shot at GOTY.

[QUOTE="110million"]Side quests thing is bull**** because a lot of them in the first game were generic MMO-style quests. In Witcher 2, not a single quest is wasted, there is a lot of depth and variety to them as well as branching choices to a lot of them. Funny you should bring up the endgame descision being an easy choice where no matter what you do in DA2, you fight both main villans and run away at the end, its even more meaningless. The import being weak is funny too, I don't remember anything transferring from Dragon Age 1, I wasn't even the same character. :wink: svenus97

Ooooh, getting a bit defensive, aren't we ? He only mentions DA2 in the sidequests part.

The only thing your post says is "I can't think of any good counter-arguments, so I will just say that DA2 has similar flaws"

Also, what the hell do TW's side quests have to do with TW2's side quests.

Side quests thing is bull**** because a lot of them in the first game were generic MMO-style quests. In Witcher 2, not a single quest is wasted, there is a lot of depth and variety to them as well as branching choices to a lot of them. Funny you should bring up the endgame descision being an easy choice where no matter what you do in DA2, you fight both main villans and run away at the end, its even more meaningless. The import being weak is funny too, I don't remember anything transferring from Dragon Age 1, I wasn't even the same character. :wink: 110million

[QUOTE="110million"]Side quests thing is bull**** because a lot of them in the first game were generic MMO-style quests. In Witcher 2, not a single quest is wasted, there is a lot of depth and variety to them as well as branching choices to a lot of them. Funny you should bring up the endgame descision being an easy choice where no matter what you do in DA2, you fight both main villans and run away at the end, its even more meaningless. The import being weak is funny too, I don't remember anything transferring from Dragon Age 1, I wasn't even the same character. :wink: JangoWuzHere

[QUOTE="JangoWuzHere"][QUOTE="110million"]Side quests thing is bull**** because a lot of them in the first game were generic MMO-style quests. In Witcher 2, not a single quest is wasted, there is a lot of depth and variety to them as well as branching choices to a lot of them. Funny you should bring up the endgame descision being an easy choice where no matter what you do in DA2, you fight both main villans and run away at the end, its even more meaningless. The import being weak is funny too, I don't remember anything transferring from Dragon Age 1, I wasn't even the same character. :wink: 110million

Side quests thing is bull**** because a lot of them in the first game were generic MMO-style quests. In Witcher 2, not a single quest is wasted, there is a lot of depth and variety to them as well as branching choices to a lot of them. Funny you should bring up the endgame descision being an easy choice where no matter what you do in DA2, you fight both main villans and run away at the end, its even more meaningless. The import being weak is funny too, I don't remember anything transferring from Dragon Age 1, I wasn't even the same character. :wink: 110million

The combat is shallow and pretty boring. Also has a lot to do with the targeting system, which should be based on character position and not camera position (like dmc/bayo, and possibly others in the genre)Inconsistancy

10) Since there is pretty much no ending, all the moral choices are pointless because you don't know what are the consequences.pomd1

I played through the first time on easy just to experience the game and get used to the controls etc. But on my second playthrough I've opted for normal and its completely different combat wise. I think the combat is actually exhilerating. When I nearly die but manage to win the fight I feel proud. The greatness of the game definitely outweighs the negatives. My only problem is that the game isn't long enough and its a good sort of complaint. I never wanted to stop playing or progressing

The REAL benefit of going for Triss is not saving her (she never dies no matter what you do), but ****** up Nilfgaard's plans to screw over the lodge of sorceresses. If you go for Saskia then you will NOT be able to stop Shilard from convincing all the Northern Kingdoms that the mages were out to get them. Sure, you get to return her independence back to her thus guaranteeing the future of the PFS (that's the choice I made) but on the flipside the Northern Kingdoms are now piss-weakened.

The REAL benefit of going for Triss is not saving her (she never dies no matter what you do), but ****** up Nilfgaard's plans to screw over the lodge of sorceresses. If you go for Saskia then you will NOT be able to stop Shilard from convincing all the Northern Kingdoms that the mages were out to get them. Sure, you get to return her independence back to her thus guaranteeing the future of the PFS (that's the choice I made) but on the flipside the Northern Kingdoms are now piss-weakened.

Barbariser

I thought the game was goty material until the last chapter which just seemed lazily done and rushed, I expected more from cdprojekt as they claimed they put 4 years of work into etc etc, but the last chapter was just dreadful, uninspiring scenery, little to no quests and it seems they just wanted to get it out of the way as fast as possible. Also for a story about a monster slayer the game has barely any, in the TW1 there was a plentora of monsters each with their own origins and story which I found interesting, in TW2 there is barely any. Its still a good game but not as great as people claim.

I think this is the best RPG this generation...CD Projeckt is king of the mountain at the moment, but some glaring flaws will prevent them from holding that throne, especially after Mass Effect 3 is released.texasgoldrush

Stopped reading there.

[QUOTE="texasgoldrush"]

I think this is the best RPG this generation...CD Projeckt is king of the mountain at the moment, but some glaring flaws will prevent them from holding that throne, especially after Mass Effect 3 is released.Blacklight2

Stopped reading there.

Same. I don't get why a TPS would have any effect on an RPG.

[QUOTE="Blacklight2"]

[QUOTE="texasgoldrush"]

I think this is the best RPG this generation...CD Projeckt is king of the mountain at the moment, but some glaring flaws will prevent them from holding that throne, especially after Mass Effect 3 is released.ChubbyGuy40

Stopped reading there.

Same. I don't get why a TPS would have any effect on an RPG.

[QUOTE="ChubbyGuy40"]

[QUOTE="Blacklight2"]

Stopped reading there.

i5750at4Ghz

Same. I don't get why a TPS would have any effect on an RPG.

From what I've played of it, which is very little, I wouldn't even put ME2 past Oblivion. Why have I played little of it? Because I don't enjoy forcing myself to play what I find to be a bad game.

EDIT: Whoops, put New Vegas when I meant Oblivion which was pretty bad by itself.

[QUOTE="i5750at4Ghz"][QUOTE="ChubbyGuy40"]

Same. I don't get why a TPS would have any effect on an RPG.

ChubbyGuy40

From what I've played of it, which is very little, I wouldn't even put ME2 past New Vegas. Why have I played little of it? Because I don't enjoy forcing myself to play what I find to be a bad game.

[QUOTE="ChubbyGuy40"]

[QUOTE="i5750at4Ghz"] Say what you will, but ME2 is better than The witcher 2 let alone ME3.i5750at4Ghz

From what I've played of it, which is very little, I wouldn't even put ME2 past New Vegas. Why have I played little of it? Because I don't enjoy forcing myself to play what I find to be a bad game.

I don't remember most saying ME2 is the superior game other than Bioware fanboys.

[QUOTE="i5750at4Ghz"][QUOTE="ChubbyGuy40"]

From what I've played of it, which is very little, I wouldn't even put ME2 past New Vegas. Why have I played little of it? Because I don't enjoy forcing myself to play what I find to be a bad game.

ChubbyGuy40

I don't remember most saying ME2 is the superior game other than Bioware fanboys.

[QUOTE="i5750at4Ghz"][QUOTE="ChubbyGuy40"]

From what I've played of it, which is very little, I wouldn't even put ME2 past New Vegas. Why have I played little of it? Because I don't enjoy forcing myself to play what I find to be a bad game.

ChubbyGuy40

I don't remember most saying ME2 is the superior game other than Bioware fanboys.

[QUOTE="ChubbyGuy40"]

[QUOTE="Blacklight2"]

Stopped reading there.

i5750at4Ghz

Same. I don't get why a TPS would have any effect on an RPG.