New players should read.. no ... DEVOUR the journal and character screen (including sub pages of it).

This game reminds me so much of DA:Origins that it is weird. I had this same feeling about Origins and have even posted about it in its forum at that time. Why does it feel that Hard diff is easier than Normal? (Like NM diff felt easier than Hard in Origins?)

The manual actually says:

"New game:

High – for very experienced gamers. Opponents deal high damage, and it’s harder to acquire items. Many battles require the use of a sword, magic and alchemy."

I'm finding a lot more items than in my first run and items I couldn't find on my first run in Normal. Lots of Trophies from Drowners in prologue, Nekkers and Endrega (still level 7 atm), lots of Greater Critical Mutagens .. (used 2 so far and it rocks!!!). I actually sold all imported and bonus items in Flotsam and never used them from start. (because I love playing only with the items that the game gives us and they are just as effective). But perhaps it was not meant to be this way, although it is not unusual for games to drop better items at higher difficulty level.

Well, my personal conclusion is that, not only being able to do combat better by understanding better the game mechanics, magic and trap system, helps but better developing my Geralt and getting some early abilities I didn't even know how to get on my first run helps a lot! (Cover for 10% damage reduction is actually awesome, among others.) Plus I'm hitting with Critical Effects a whole lot with only 2 Greater Mutagens! Knockdowns, incineration and Poisoning I can tell when happen. The others not yet.

I had this exact same excited feeling with Origins. Experience with the game is one of the best weapons available!

In short, difficulty becomes trivial once you pass halfway through Chapter 1.

Its kinda reverse difficulty, further you get along the game easier it gets. Meaning starts very hard and get easier when your gear, stats and skills/"spells" get up with leveling (depending where spent points).

No. I meant that once you acquire some experience with the game, a Hard run will be easier from start than a Normal run, if your first playthorugh was at that diff.

The difficulty design is beyond retarded. I mean Seriously who designs a RPG to get Easier as you get further in the game? Thats just poor balancing, the beginning of the game should be easier and as you advance it gets harder.

Guess you never played the Gothic series?

I did, and I thought it was stupid there too. Along with the broken combat controls.

Well, we'll have to agree in disagree. Gothic is one of the best combat system for me. And it pays to learn the combo attacks, study strategies and spend Learning Points wisely! A Master level Two Handed fighter in Gothic 1 or 2 is one of the most satisfying experience I've had!

I ment more how you have to hold down buttons on the keyboard and mouse to attack and such, but overall I dont like those 'twitch' combat controls in general, so agreeing to disagree works. Luckily Witcher 2 and Gothic games have such good writing and fun quests or I'd skip them just on the grounds of how bad the combat is.

My only issue is that normal can be a bit too hard, but easy is WAY too easy. I switched back to normal, because easy goes too far the other way. I lost the Kayran fight like 10 times in a row on normal, but on easy Geralt was practically on auto pilot.

Starting off exceptionally fragile, and becoming progressively more durable with powerful abilities that make the type of encounters that used to challenge you much easier to handle is actually a fairly traditional rpg convention. Anyone who has done much tabletop gaming will tell you the nerve wracking quality of those early levels, where combat is especially unforgiving, and you can die easily to a lucky hit.

But no, I dont think the game does a good job at present, of introducing new enemies and encounters in chapter 2 designed to test your increased abilities, outside of boss battles. That can all be fixed with a balance pass, though.

THIS!
Just like Bioware in Dragon Age: Origins, (from what I hear, I just begun Chapter II today) CDP seems to have missed introducing new challenges as you progress. Killing enemies from the beginning one-handedly later on is satisfying. But in order to keep the game exciting, a developer has to introduce new, stronger (and in the ideal case: different, in terms of tactics) encounters.

That is also what I love about this game. Like real life, if you set the bar low you will only jump low. If you set the bar high you will try to jump high and soon enough you will be leagues ahead of those who only trained on the low bar.

Hard forces you to adapt and to get better...quickly.

Huh... DA:Origins has level scaling, meaning you can fight a Dragon at level 10 or 20 and it will adapt to your level. Also, you can spawn the Dragon at level 10 and come back to kill at level 20. Cheesy!

I like more Gothic/Risen style. If you face a Wild Boar at level 2, hard diff, you better master your dodge skills because on hit will kill you. Now if you run and go back later, all the training you went through will show. And people complained that a pack of wolves were too hard in Gothic 3... well, duh, they are supposed to be! It is not Oblivion that you can go thru the main quest at level 1 and never level up!


QFT