If you ask about the dragon, it takes you to the dragon section...

Oh my, if all it took to master the combat is read the manual, then why am i not the #1 tennis,golf and soccer player in the world? Just knowing what the block,dodge and sign keys are doesn't mean you can mysteriously do the combat .

Some people actually like to get a fair shot at getting a feeling at how RESPONSIVE these abilities are and what their impact is, without being burnt to a crisp by a dragon which you can't even touch and being forced to QTE your way through multiple angry groups of archers and shield wielding enemies.....at the start...

Well I did all I could do in the first chapter when it comes to side quests. Now I'm going to defeat that boss everyone complains about. I wonder how terrible it's going to be. Hopefully I won't die more than 4x.

Reload 10 times is not masochistic. That's when you are actually challenged. :)

W2 does not do a good job at teaching the player how to play in the prologue though, so it's very easy to bang your head against the wall without realizing that's what you are doing in my opinion.

Took me several deaths to notice:
> That blocking had a vigor cost
> That quen was insanely useful
> That quen blocked vigor recovery
> That I should be using bombs
> That I really can't dodge through people
> That dodge has no invulnerability frames
> That I should not insist on finishing my enemies with a heavy attack
and so on, so forth...

Playing the game on hard and I don't find the hard diff really hard in the sense that it does not require a lot of twitch player skill.
When I die (and I have died quite a number of times!), it's usually because I made a bad decision, not because I failed at executing what I planned due to fumbling the controls.
I think for an action/rpg this is a good balance.

The real challenge is not in the action part, it's still in the preparation and decision making aspects. You just need to make those decisions quickly.

options->difficulty->easy. Easy option is for ppl to experience story with very easy combat.
Please atleast read first and then troll

I'm not quite understanding the prologue. What do you mean in order? When talking to that guy just pick the first option? So does that mean I will have a chance to do all the options?

I agree. I started out on normal and I'm still on normal. I am not going to let the game own me but I want to own the game. Which I already do. I am really excited about that sea monster which troubles everyone. I also recently noticed quen blocking vigor. Bomb are awesome. I bought almost every bomb recipe in the stores. So far my favourite is the napalm and explosive bomb. Even though it kind of hurts me if I'm too close but nevertheless, it hurts them more!

Yes you want to start with the first option then continue through the rest. You must complete all sections of the prologue to advance I believe. So you shouldn't miss any section.

The first option should open with Geralt in bed with a particular women...

Apparantly people aren't bluffing when it comes to the Kadryan. I put up Yrden spells but that squid doesn't fall for it at all -.-

Challenge (Personal at least) is about feeling the burn, being pushed to your limits but still coming out victorious even if you only have 10 HP left and a single health potion after the fight.

Thats the difference then masochistic challenge, reloading 10 times is just frustrating not challenging, there has to be a possibility to win for it to be a challenge, thats the problem we are coming into here. I think CDPR forgot its not the 13 yr old Call of Duty kids with hyper reflexes playing this game but adults who dont have such good reflexes. I mean dont even get me started on those crazy QTEs. Those are just ridiculous.

I find the difficulties to be completely unbalaced. Easy is not different from Insane. You will die in both cases, just faster on insane. Because:
Parry costs vigor
Controls stick, glitch, don't respond, respond with a huge delay and what have you
All signs exept for shild are plain useless
Most bombs are useless

And most of it is due to the shitty upgrade system. It is too slow, if we could upgrade faster then the game combat would be much better and more rewarding. Right now its just boring "Shield, hit, roll, run, bomb, hit and again" it is the same and works for every difficulty and ANY other plan fails even on easy.

Also would be amazing if they would fix the sign-bomb selection so we won't need to click to change the sign. That would make the game A LOT better, believe me!

Yesterday I've done the prologue again, at Hard difficulty setting, and I've died only 3 times and because I've screwed up...
It was a piece of cake
I've beat a fight in a minute, when the first time I had to reload a dozen of times

The Witcher 2 it isn't a very hard game, it is a challenging game because you have to figure out how to defeat a particular enemy (and there are more ways).

It all about preparation... more than become a skilled fighter...

Good for you? No really, Im glad you find the game easy but realize not everyone is like you, and that you are in the minority. The general Opinion is the game is very hard, and that is from both sides of the fence. Not everyone can be so ub3r with hyper reflexes otherwise there would never be competition because everyone was the same. I hope they keep hard and insane how it is, but with all the complaining I imagine Normal mode will probably be relalanced.

Why would they do this? If normal isn't for you, switch to easy. I've tried this today and it's walk in the park. You hardly take any damage from opponents attacks. What is your point? You don't like challenging combat but you also don't want to play on easy? Why? Because it's called easy? I'm confused...

wow i tried yesterday to put it on easy for a part that i had died like a few times on, and holy shit is easy TOO easy.

you can just non stop click basically. you barely take any damage, you kill easy, the guys that normally block, you seem to be able to bypass their block.

so anyone in this topic bitching about difficulty, switch to easy and go have a merry time playing a current gen game difficulty. pathetic