Posted May 21, 2011
Welp, I finished the game (first play through) earlier today (neeeded sleep so waited till now to give my final reveiw (for time being...)
Lets go with the Easy stuff first!
Graphically this game is stunning and stays stunning through out. Amazing game visually and if this engine is flexible and allows for more complexe gameplay designs, I hope some other independant studios start to use this. It will REALLY bump up the independant studios who usually dont have the bank roll of the big corperate developers like Blizzard, SOE, and now Bioware.
Storywise, I didnt enjoy the story as much as I did The Witcher 1, but I still give it a A rating (90%-95% score). Saying I didnt enjoy it as much as part 1 should NOT be taken as it being a bad or lacking story. Depth wise, concept wise, almost everything was on equal footing with The Witcher 1 storyline wise. The area that came up lesser (but not lacking, just lesser) was immesion. I simply didnt feel the same connection to Geralt, Zoltan, Dandelion, or Triss this time around.
Daring to say it, it was almost like the game was so visually stunning, the debelopers knew this and didnt work as hard this time around selling the characters and making them important to you! Far to often after meeting Zoltan and Dandelion, they had nothing to say but preprogramed responces rather then fleshed out conversations. As for Triss, while im not complaining, she quickly became nothing more then eye candy for most of game. I guess I wanted more regarding these characters as I love the writings and the first game so much and felt a connection still not explored fully.
Anouther issue with the Witcher2 is its advertised as a stand alone RPG adventure where you dont need to play the previous game or read the previous writings. I dont not feel this is 100% honest.
*Please note, none of this a issue for me because I did read the stories and did play the original like 12 times*
The first glaring issue is Yennifer, I dont think its every truely explained in TW2 who she is to Geralt prior to the first flashback of her (Ill leave that vague as she plays a important part in story from then on). I know the back story so I understood it all but Im 100% certain people who havent read the writings are confused and left wondering!
2) Through out the game characters respond to you "arnt you the guy that killed so and so?" or "hey I knew you from ...." with no more explaination. These are occurances from first game and if someone didnt play the first game they would be lost. I even read the books about Vizima to see if they explain the characters and nope, they dont! CDProjekt needed to flesh out these responces more. They add to game sure but not really if you no idea who or what they speaking of.
3) Speaking of The Witcher 1, My saved games are on a different hard drive as my old motherboard blew up so I took advantage to upgrade my main harddrive when I replaced mother board and vid card and everything. So because of that, I cant import my saved game files from it. Normally when you imprt a saved game file you direct game where to look but with The Witcher 2, if its not on that harddrive your SOL, and that sucks. I got The Witcher 1 on Steam for $10.00 and that was still 2 years ago now. People upgrade their equipment. One of the reasons (not only reason) I was so determined to recover and use that old harddrive with out formating it upon activation of the new motherboard WAS TO HAVE TW1 Saved game files.
So in a nut shell, everything about this game except the following item scores a 9 outta 10 or higher.
Then we come to combat!
Now if you read the GOG forums you will quickly see a battle forming between the older tactical/stratagy crowd of RPG players and the younger minded, more modern/with the times twitch/action style RPG player. At first I was VERY TURNED OFF by the combat in The Witcher 2 and almost shut down game and walked away when I encountered the first boss mob (Kayran). I ranted and screamed about how I didnt like the combat and what not and the kids were more then happy to proclaim their "self appointed" superiority and talk about how they had no issues with the combat, like that was helpful in anyway.
Finally my anger faded and I sat down to figure out what I needed to do to stop having so much trouble in this game. The answer was amazingly simple. STOP THINKING, STOP PLANING, STOP TREATING THIS GAME TACTICALLY! Figure out the patern and repeat it mindlessly. And thats what I did and quickly found myself raising the difficulty level from easy back up to hard setting (ill never have the reflexs for above hard settings).
The issue here is this game is clearly designed (gameplay wise) for consoles, not PCs. Your fist fighting, not so surprisingly, has 4 keyboard buttons that will quickly and easily switch over to the game controllers 4 bottom set up!
The menus are all designed for you to enter via 1 click/button and then move a directional pad to area you want (meditation is very obvious on this).
And the conmbat is your standard JRPG (or Bioware game) movement plus button push attack rather then the more advanced hot bar style combat where you utilize different attack styles and abilities (on cool down timers) and out think the encounter.
So if you like console style combat, your going to love this games combat/gameplay. I sadly expected more from a game that was being promted loudly and longly as a ADULT RPG FOR PC PLAYERS.
Even the first boss, I spent 3+ hours fustrated on it as I was trying to think and plan and use my different abilities and use different ideas and concepts and all were failing. Turns out the first boss is nothing more then a patern fight, you do the patern and you win, appearently everytime with ease. Your other abilities and what not are meaningless and in no senario will they help you! Simply do the patern! It was actually this fight that everything clicked finally and I simply stopped thinking regarding gameplay and combat!
BUT LET ME BE CLEAR, you dont play The Witcher 2 for its combat. You play The Witcher 2 for its story, its non linear play, its adult setting (which I admit they overdid in areas with the swearing. Some swearing sets enviroment and atmosphere, to much swearing and your once again pandering to 15 year olds (age wise or mentality) as those the only ones impressed with excessive swearing I find.
This game delivers on the areas it matters and the areas that will draw people to the game.
Ive finished 1 play through, I have 15 left to go. I dont know if Ill do all 15 more to be honest, but I played The Witcher 12 times and I can see a good 6-7 runs with The Witcher 2 because as you play you see all the different crossroads where making a different choice will develop a entirely new conclussion and playing out of events. This game most definately has replayability. Not as much as The Witcher 1 (and thats completely and utterly on the gameplay/combat IMO) but far more then recent titles like DA2 (refused to purchase), Mass Effect 2 (played 1.5 times, had no real replayability that mattered and was more a action shooter with a backstory then a RPG) and other titles.
The one thing im kinda excited on, but also bummed is the ending! I wont go into specifics and spoil for anyone (and besides there is sooooo many different paths to choose from, I couldnt possibly speak to them all anyways) but its very clear The Witcher is now a trilogy (or more) series. Yes, events of this game are finished...kinda. And thats where I have mixed feelings.
Im thrilled to learn that more Witchers coming out but at same time feel like I didnt really fully resolve this games issues!
LOL, then again, I remember the decades where you play a great RPG and anouther one never came, despite great sales. Guess I should just be happy that this game will most definately have a follow up and I just hope and pray CDProjekt learns from the comments about TW2 gameplay/combat and makes a true PC game next time around and 2) We dont have to wait 4-5 years for the next title :) Hopefully as they have the engine and own the engine, we looking at 2 years max for the next game!
Thats my reveiw, in the end I give The Witcher 2 7.5/10 score. And if you dont mind (or even like) console gameplay on a PC title, the score goes up to 9-9.5/10.
Far as RPGs in recent history go!
This isnt Mass Effect, Dragon Age: Origin, or The Witcher
But its a whole hell of alot better then Mass Effect 2 or Dragon Age 2
I guess The Witcher 2 will slip down to just below the Old SSI Gold Box Games on my all time RPG list!
1) Mass Effect
2-3) Tie: Dragon Age: Origin/The Witcher
4) Knights of the Old Republic 2
5) Knights of the Old Republic
6) Jade Empire
7) Neverwinter Nights (SSI Gold Box game, first MMORPG ever)
8) Dark Age of Camelot
9-17) SSI Gold single player games (excluding Spelljammer)
18) The Witcher 2
19) Knights of Legend
20) Might and Magic 1
Lets go with the Easy stuff first!
Graphically this game is stunning and stays stunning through out. Amazing game visually and if this engine is flexible and allows for more complexe gameplay designs, I hope some other independant studios start to use this. It will REALLY bump up the independant studios who usually dont have the bank roll of the big corperate developers like Blizzard, SOE, and now Bioware.
Storywise, I didnt enjoy the story as much as I did The Witcher 1, but I still give it a A rating (90%-95% score). Saying I didnt enjoy it as much as part 1 should NOT be taken as it being a bad or lacking story. Depth wise, concept wise, almost everything was on equal footing with The Witcher 1 storyline wise. The area that came up lesser (but not lacking, just lesser) was immesion. I simply didnt feel the same connection to Geralt, Zoltan, Dandelion, or Triss this time around.
Daring to say it, it was almost like the game was so visually stunning, the debelopers knew this and didnt work as hard this time around selling the characters and making them important to you! Far to often after meeting Zoltan and Dandelion, they had nothing to say but preprogramed responces rather then fleshed out conversations. As for Triss, while im not complaining, she quickly became nothing more then eye candy for most of game. I guess I wanted more regarding these characters as I love the writings and the first game so much and felt a connection still not explored fully.
Anouther issue with the Witcher2 is its advertised as a stand alone RPG adventure where you dont need to play the previous game or read the previous writings. I dont not feel this is 100% honest.
*Please note, none of this a issue for me because I did read the stories and did play the original like 12 times*
The first glaring issue is Yennifer, I dont think its every truely explained in TW2 who she is to Geralt prior to the first flashback of her (Ill leave that vague as she plays a important part in story from then on). I know the back story so I understood it all but Im 100% certain people who havent read the writings are confused and left wondering!
2) Through out the game characters respond to you "arnt you the guy that killed so and so?" or "hey I knew you from ...." with no more explaination. These are occurances from first game and if someone didnt play the first game they would be lost. I even read the books about Vizima to see if they explain the characters and nope, they dont! CDProjekt needed to flesh out these responces more. They add to game sure but not really if you no idea who or what they speaking of.
3) Speaking of The Witcher 1, My saved games are on a different hard drive as my old motherboard blew up so I took advantage to upgrade my main harddrive when I replaced mother board and vid card and everything. So because of that, I cant import my saved game files from it. Normally when you imprt a saved game file you direct game where to look but with The Witcher 2, if its not on that harddrive your SOL, and that sucks. I got The Witcher 1 on Steam for $10.00 and that was still 2 years ago now. People upgrade their equipment. One of the reasons (not only reason) I was so determined to recover and use that old harddrive with out formating it upon activation of the new motherboard WAS TO HAVE TW1 Saved game files.
So in a nut shell, everything about this game except the following item scores a 9 outta 10 or higher.
Then we come to combat!
Now if you read the GOG forums you will quickly see a battle forming between the older tactical/stratagy crowd of RPG players and the younger minded, more modern/with the times twitch/action style RPG player. At first I was VERY TURNED OFF by the combat in The Witcher 2 and almost shut down game and walked away when I encountered the first boss mob (Kayran). I ranted and screamed about how I didnt like the combat and what not and the kids were more then happy to proclaim their "self appointed" superiority and talk about how they had no issues with the combat, like that was helpful in anyway.
Finally my anger faded and I sat down to figure out what I needed to do to stop having so much trouble in this game. The answer was amazingly simple. STOP THINKING, STOP PLANING, STOP TREATING THIS GAME TACTICALLY! Figure out the patern and repeat it mindlessly. And thats what I did and quickly found myself raising the difficulty level from easy back up to hard setting (ill never have the reflexs for above hard settings).
The issue here is this game is clearly designed (gameplay wise) for consoles, not PCs. Your fist fighting, not so surprisingly, has 4 keyboard buttons that will quickly and easily switch over to the game controllers 4 bottom set up!
The menus are all designed for you to enter via 1 click/button and then move a directional pad to area you want (meditation is very obvious on this).
And the conmbat is your standard JRPG (or Bioware game) movement plus button push attack rather then the more advanced hot bar style combat where you utilize different attack styles and abilities (on cool down timers) and out think the encounter.
So if you like console style combat, your going to love this games combat/gameplay. I sadly expected more from a game that was being promted loudly and longly as a ADULT RPG FOR PC PLAYERS.
Even the first boss, I spent 3+ hours fustrated on it as I was trying to think and plan and use my different abilities and use different ideas and concepts and all were failing. Turns out the first boss is nothing more then a patern fight, you do the patern and you win, appearently everytime with ease. Your other abilities and what not are meaningless and in no senario will they help you! Simply do the patern! It was actually this fight that everything clicked finally and I simply stopped thinking regarding gameplay and combat!
BUT LET ME BE CLEAR, you dont play The Witcher 2 for its combat. You play The Witcher 2 for its story, its non linear play, its adult setting (which I admit they overdid in areas with the swearing. Some swearing sets enviroment and atmosphere, to much swearing and your once again pandering to 15 year olds (age wise or mentality) as those the only ones impressed with excessive swearing I find.
This game delivers on the areas it matters and the areas that will draw people to the game.
Ive finished 1 play through, I have 15 left to go. I dont know if Ill do all 15 more to be honest, but I played The Witcher 12 times and I can see a good 6-7 runs with The Witcher 2 because as you play you see all the different crossroads where making a different choice will develop a entirely new conclussion and playing out of events. This game most definately has replayability. Not as much as The Witcher 1 (and thats completely and utterly on the gameplay/combat IMO) but far more then recent titles like DA2 (refused to purchase), Mass Effect 2 (played 1.5 times, had no real replayability that mattered and was more a action shooter with a backstory then a RPG) and other titles.
The one thing im kinda excited on, but also bummed is the ending! I wont go into specifics and spoil for anyone (and besides there is sooooo many different paths to choose from, I couldnt possibly speak to them all anyways) but its very clear The Witcher is now a trilogy (or more) series. Yes, events of this game are finished...kinda. And thats where I have mixed feelings.
Im thrilled to learn that more Witchers coming out but at same time feel like I didnt really fully resolve this games issues!
LOL, then again, I remember the decades where you play a great RPG and anouther one never came, despite great sales. Guess I should just be happy that this game will most definately have a follow up and I just hope and pray CDProjekt learns from the comments about TW2 gameplay/combat and makes a true PC game next time around and 2) We dont have to wait 4-5 years for the next title :) Hopefully as they have the engine and own the engine, we looking at 2 years max for the next game!
Thats my reveiw, in the end I give The Witcher 2 7.5/10 score. And if you dont mind (or even like) console gameplay on a PC title, the score goes up to 9-9.5/10.
Far as RPGs in recent history go!
This isnt Mass Effect, Dragon Age: Origin, or The Witcher
But its a whole hell of alot better then Mass Effect 2 or Dragon Age 2
I guess The Witcher 2 will slip down to just below the Old SSI Gold Box Games on my all time RPG list!
1) Mass Effect
2-3) Tie: Dragon Age: Origin/The Witcher
4) Knights of the Old Republic 2
5) Knights of the Old Republic
6) Jade Empire
7) Neverwinter Nights (SSI Gold Box game, first MMORPG ever)
8) Dark Age of Camelot
9-17) SSI Gold single player games (excluding Spelljammer)
18) The Witcher 2
19) Knights of Legend
20) Might and Magic 1
