ok, i got it, its all just a big clusterfuck. the only reason it gets manageable in any degree as you play is you get stronger, more HP armour and sword power while enemies dont. the gaeme is really jarring if you take a weeks break, you lose all the timing and iit all feels horrible until you get use to it again. it all feels wrong. i dont think it should

There is a steep learning curve as most RPG gamers are used to the ez mode combat of Dragon Age etc. Games like Oblivison was ez mode as well since mobs levelled alongside your character.

I admit to dying often in the prologue and was getting quite annoyed. By the end of Ch 1 onto 2 one should have figured out the combat mechanics (best mutagens, bombs, tactics, etc) and start mowing mobs down.

I wager when I start my 2nd playthru with the exact same newb gear I will breeze thru the same early stages of the game I had much difficulty with as a newb.

I agree. I've got tons of combat options, and I'm sure the game rewards using them, but combat is just too fast for me. I'm no twitch action gamer. I like games that make me think, and The Witcher 2 does that: it makes you think, but it doesn't allow you to think; there's just no time. It's too fast. Better have a handful of basic reflexes prepared (roll, run, Quen) and ignore the rest of the options. That hurts a very interesting part of the game.

It would be nice if the game had a speed setting. I don't need easier combat, but if everything was just a tiny bit slower, that would bring a lot of variation to my combat.

A pause button would help for that, to stop and reconsider your abilities and what to do, select different signs etc.

I really would love to play the game as an alchemist but I feel like it punishes you if you aren't a Swordsman with upgraded Quen.

While I agree with some of your points, you assume wrongly that Witcher 2 isn't already a console game. Just look at the UI. Use the UI. Look at the limitations of the controls and camera angles. It's ALREADY 100% consoled!

It is because of that the combat is console action hack and slash because that's all combat in Witcher 2 is, either hack and slash button mashing and/or you're not ever actually fighting but doing everything else other than fighting in combat. Lay traps, throw bombs, throw daggers. Those + the console UI are ALL hallmark of console; it's written all over the place.

It's an extremely limited "RPG". The hallmark of an RPG is the ability for different peopel to roleplay different types of classes and fighting styles that suit their prefence. There are those who like to play RPG as guys who can tank but do low damage, ranged, magic etc. Witcher 2 removes pretty much all of that and combat is just,.. well... you're a magical guy who throws "runes", runs around a lot, throws daggers, runs around a lot and click spam while lolling on the floor a lot, drops traps a lot and bombs people a lot. To me that's just very unfocussed. What's the point of options when your only once, as many have so astutely put it, is to run, throw bombs and drop traps. Console. In Melee? Clickfest, roll on the floor, click fest. Console.

There's very little to any tactical decision making in combat. It's trial and error. You go in to die so you can reload and apply the right pots. CONSOLE. It's a very good looking console arcade game with a really good storyline.

Everythign about the game is console. I originally thought this was a port of an Xbox game (never played W1 or read about W2)!

It's not the difficulty that gets to me, because I actually don't think it's that difficult. It's the twitch based console nature of the game and it's purely console UI. Let me give you an example of how this UI was clearly designed for a console and not for a PC:

MOUSELOOK/CAMERA:

Mouselook is on by default. Because of that, i cannot use my mouse pointer to interact with the world. It's like driving a car but instead of turning your head to see who is driving beside you or behind you, you have to turn the car around to check what would have otherwise been easily and more effectively done by turning your head (rightclick/pan mouse camera). And because of this, i cannot successfully strafe or otherwise run diagonally. You are literally driving your car and turning it to face anything you want to see. It's clunky and best used with a console game pad.

TARGETTING:

Again with the driving analogy, Rather than trackign the target with your eyes and head, you are turning your car to face every enemy you want to engage. Add on the funky auto target system where it "intelligently" decides that maybe you wanted to target the guy next to your target instead of your target and it's just failure all around.

then when you decide you need to lol around on the ground, everytime you get back up, you have to do the whole turning and switching targets again. i've found it's just easier to just LOL on the ground, spamm qucik strike randomly, LOL around some more, spam more quick strike even more randomly. In most cases, i have been able to survive.

that's not to mention that lolling on the floor, you're just as likely to get killed, especially with multiple mobs. I'm not sure about anyone else but I've gotten killed plenty of times while in roll transit!

DEFENCE:

Parry/Block sucks bolls. The game doesn't register it a great deal of the time you activate it even with enough resource up. The reason why I LOL on the ground so much is simply because defence is so fubar. It's also less of a headache to deal with than to try to activate parry block.

That's assuming our Hero decides to pull out his weapon at all! Oh Look, enemies slowly stalking forward. I'l just pull out my sword and wtfpwn them! *1111111111...wtf* *222222...WTF* - died to a few chops with my swords clearly still in the scabbard.

Which is very similar trying to parry... *E.....* - you got hit! *E...* - you got hit!-
Screw that, I LOL on the floor!

So yes, the combat is one unmitigated disaster. Some people will like it and that is fine, but let's not pretend that it isn't already a purely console experience. Everything backs up that claim right down to the disaster of the inventory system. In this day and age where the inventory system has already been a proven element, we get Witcher 2 Inventory where we're treated to a full screen experience where you can actually only view a miniscule window or categorised but unmanaged chaos even at 1080p. The only way this is remotely acceptable is in a console. We're not on a console are we? And yet, here we have this.

LOOTING/INTERACTING:

Is also an area of consolitis. It's designed so you don't need the mouse to click items. You just turn your character. unfortunately this is not functioning well at all. You have to literally stand within 1 foot of the loot, face down, click loot.... AND THEN THE MOUSE POINTER COMES UP at the top left/right corner and you have to drag it sluggishly to the "Loot All" button! Seriously wtf. They put the mouse pointer here in a completely unnecessary location and remove it from everything else in the game world?

And it can be rather difficult to even be within range of loot with the way ou rhero lags before he does anything and lags before he stops. It's like I'm playing an online game at 10,000 ping. Even at the lowest settings possible it's like this. My Cyborg RAT 9 mouse pointer also lags like it's moving through molasses in the game.

If I can play Batman at 100 fps at maximum settings, I should be able to play this at a decent frame rate at lowest settings. the reality is, even when I put it to HIGH (very pretty), it still has those problems.


The best parts of the game are the story (superb), the graphics (superb). The mechanics fail. The UI fails and the combat fails.

i do not think i am being overly harsh as I have given my thoughts on why i feel that way. The difficulty is not bad at all even at the start (normal difficulty), but let's not mince words here. It is a console hack and slash spam fest. you CAN implement other techniques but for those who are melee centric players like myself who, when I fight, I like to get in there and fight.... yeah it's not going to work.

Sorry, I'm not taking that out on you even if it seems like it. I'm ranting against what I see as a perfectly damn good game being put out for the PC with clear indications their intention was to be put on the XboX console.

@ounkeo

Damn long, keep it short. I just read thou it because I like people cutting their throats for no reason..its fun and entertaining to....sometimes.

Anyways..

"It is because of that the combat is console action hack and slash because that's all combat in Witcher 2 is, either hack and slash button mashing and/or you're not ever actually fighting but doing everything else other than fighting in combat. Lay traps, throw bombs, throw daggers." <- Oxymoron

the console UI are ALL hallmark of console; it's written all over the place. <- Just having a round UI doesn't mean its consolized. Temple of Elemental Evil has round UI's, is it a console game..actually can it even be made into a console game!. Its design decision.

"It's an extremely limited "RPG". The hallmark of an RPG is the ability for different peopel to roleplay different types of classes and fighting styles that suit their prefence." <- ..some of the best RPG games do not have classes..Oblivion is one of them (thou there are classes, they are just a preset for skill selections).

"Console. In Melee? Clickfest, roll on the floor, click fest. Console." <- yeah..clickery click. clicking wildly like 20,000 times a second won't make the hero in the game do 20,000 swings.. incorrect reference

"There's very little to any tactical decision making in combat. It's trial and error." <- oh, I don't think you can just kill endrega queen or letho by just going in and doing clickery clicks!..in general; tactics are trail and error to find the best solution/strategy.

"console arcade game" <- Contra is an arcade game, I don't think Witcher 2 is like contra!.

the.. "MOUSELOOK/CAMERA: " section was incorrectly coherent with games implementation. Fallout 2 has isometric camera, that doesn't mean one driver a car by having their windshield replaced by a LCD display and whats displayed on the LCD screen is streamed via a news camera onboard a TV helicopter.

About the "Defence" part and about parry/block being ineffective!, the games default parry/block does 100% damage reduction. Its fair that the game also gives a 360 degree parry/block only at the cost of one bar.. (vannila game)

"If I can play Batman at 100 fps at maximum settings, I should be able to play this at a decent frame rate at lowest settings. the reality is, even when I put it to HIGH (very pretty), it still has those problems." <- Batman is a heavily consolized game, designed to run fast on both consoles and PC's..also if you compare the graphics of batman vs witcher 2, then technically batman 2 just has moderate textures and shaders effect while Witcher 2 has so much rich graphics and details.

-Edited for..the rude** comments-

Forgetting the clearly buggy and unreliable animation cooldowns and input commands, I think that the combat system is one of the game's absolute strongest points. It is dynamic and open-ended, just as advertised, allowing for a wide range of different tactics and strategies to employ; while also being very fun and satisfying to a point where I've played the game ten times now, and I've enjoyed the combat aspect equally much every time (even more in later playthroughs, in fact, due to my own growing experience with it). Turning up the difficulty and exploring different talents in the various trees, while utilizing more of the tools that are available to you, I feel I can say now that they really did succeed with the combat system in this game. In my book, it's brilliant.

Like I said in the beginning, however, it is riddled with bugs and glitches that are either more or less frequently occurring for some, and might even ruin the experience completely for others. Even though I'm one of those who has very rarely been made a victim of these problems, I do think they need to be fixed ASAP. I believe a lot of the negative feedback on the combat system as a design, could have been avoided if these issues had been resolved quickly.

I find the game balanced (with Better Combat and CEO mods), thou small glitches from the base game itself.

@Kindo, yeah as you said once you get hang of the combat its actually fun and additive.

Also the game allows for a diverse amount of tactics, Its just that new players aren't trying out those (blame the QUEN spell, as people start spamming and reduce gameplay to just hulk like offence.)

Just a tip for all new players, stop using Quen and you will enjoy Witcher 2.

(From past few playthroughs, found that parrying without riposte and throwing in a few bombs amounts to great fights)

-Edit-

Obviously with the Panel and HUD tweaks. :D

@ounkeo:

I disagree with most of your post but as other have beat me to it I won't bother to mention again the same things.

The UI was a design decision so that they didn't have to do extra work in order to make the transition to X-BOX and this is very clear. I do agree with you there.

Calling the combat hack-n-slash, spamming attacks or other similar characterizations couldn't be further from the truth though. Have you actually played the game. If you go in guns blazing Rambo-style you will die horribly. The game's combat system rewards preparation and learning to use diverse tactical options in order to win.

I do not find myself button-mashing at all. Were you playing on Easy?


Moreover, I have to disagree on what constitutes an RPG. Some RPGs allow players to create their own character and role play him in the world. Some other RPGs take a specific character, introduce him to the player and let him take control. Not every RPG has to do the first option and games that use the section option can be RPGs if they throw you in a very detailed world.

Calling The witcher 2 a non-RPG is so wrong when you take account its universe, one of the most mature worlds gaming has ever seen and I do not thing that anyone can shoot down that argument.

Ah, Bowmangr! Please keep your replies outside the end quote tags when you make a post. :(

Please refrain from quoting that six thousand, six hundred and fifty five characters spam in replies..

It bleeds the eye to read the...irrational content and hurts the minds eye.

-Edited-

Fixed it.

For me the combat is the most enjoyable aspect of the game.
Strategy will be tested if you played at Hard difficulty. Especially in the Barricade quest. Where the enemy comes in numbers by 2, 3, then by five. At first I thought it was an endless loop, but then I started to appreciated it and started to strategies my moves when attacked by the large group. The enemy are much more stronger and harder to beat. So I break them apart by casting the Ignii, run around the Ballista while attacking the one who are the nearest. I not just using the signs over and over again I put poison and other potion into my sword. I run around often careful not to pick by the group.

I played other rpg but by far the Witcher 2 combat system is the most enjoyable. You attack the foes by not having your feet fix into the ground. I don't really give a damn if it was 'made for console' game in my pc because I really enjoy the game. I don't really pay attention to bugs or glitches, just restart the game and it will gone. I brought the game to have a good time and Witcher 2 delivers it. And why complain if it was a console game? I still have NES emulator in my pc so that I could still play old Mario, Contra into my pc.

We aren't complaining about consoles; we're complaining about designing a console system into a PC only release because the devs had every intention to port this game to the console. That was their end goal.
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http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/01/28/th...mind%E2%80%9D/

Quote:
Talking to IGN, CD Projekt RED’s Jan Bartkowicz said: “You can play The Witcher 2 with joypad – it’s implemented. The whole interface is designed with console in mind, in fact”
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I just found that and pretty much explains my frustratiosn with the mechanics and control system. CDProjekt have said constantly that they are PC first but this release was very misleading. It was designed for consoles and released on the PC. It fullfills their statement but in a roundabout way. We usually take that to mean they are focussed on designing their games for the PC, no tparticularly that they will release on PC first. This game was released on the PC first but it was designed for a console. the consequence is that we get controls that are not at all optimal for the PC but for console gaming.

There is nothing wrong with console gaming, but we cannot have products designed for another system and expect it to be effective/efficient.

I know many people will like the combat system of TW2 because it's fast and realtime. I have no issues with that. I have issues with it being clunky for our platform and it goes beyond the combat system. It works but it is clunky. it could work a whole lot better. In an RPG, it is sub-optimal. We're locked into the limitations of the game controller using our keyboard and mouse. bugs i can forgive. Bugs on a sub-optimal system, i cannot forgive.

Anyway, I'm already committed so nothing to it but to get my money's worth. If I chore my way past the combat and UI, I get to the story, which is superb.