Thanks, men sound manly now!! ...even the women lol! (good volume balance)

As with most there are things I like better about TW1 and some are better with TW2. But I think TW2 really stumbled in a couple of big ways. Abilities development. The interface. And alchemy.

With the abilities, it's almost like they near completed the whole game and then someone piped up at a staff meeting and said "WHOA, we forgot the skill tree!! Quick, someone hash that out."
I miss being able to concentrate on developing a single sign while ignoring others. Same with the sword skills, being able to concentrate on defense or fighting groups, or even silver sword skills over steel. Made specializing or going for the jack of all trades more of a real option. Having to waste skill points on something unrelated to what I want to improve is, well, wasteful.

The interface? Nuff said by others but PLEASE fix the auto select for crafting and potions! I shouldn't have to change it every time when mixing multiples of the same thing. It's so clumsy now I don't even bother with it.

Alchemy and potions? They REALLY dumbed it down in my opinion. Toxicity used to be a problem as it was persistent for a time even after the effects of the potion wore off. You either had to meditate to let your body cleanse itself, not take anything else for awhile or know about the potion to reduce it's length of effect. And the stacking of potions with the same secondary traits for added bonuses was great too. Made you have to look for certain ingredients and I liked that.

All this is just MHO. TW2 is a great game and I am really enjoying it. Better than TW1? Well, yea, when it's not reminding me of the things TW1 did better.

Oh yea, BRING BACK THE BOOZE!! It's an ADULT game. You got T&A but you can't get drunk anymore?!?!?!? What's UP with that?

Not sure why people say that. I have gotten drunk at the celebration in Flotsam (saying more would be a spoiler).

I agree with you, shivnz. I think a large part of what made TW1 more atmospheric and dark-feeling was the music and sound design. You had the beautiful main "Witcher" theme, which was quite adaptable and used in so many different ways. There's the lone voice singing it, accompanies with low strings- very melancholy that way. Or, like in the Trade Quarter, you had the exact same theme in the exact same key being played on a recorder at a bit of a faster tempo, making for a nice exploratory piece. Then there's the much creepier version when it's accompanied by pipe organ in dangerous locations at night. I could go on and on about the music.

And the sound design of the first game, there was almost always sound to keep you on your toes. Take the swamp, for example. There were those eerie, unnatural monster cries mixed in with birds, and then every now and then you'd hear a sniff and a growl sounding like it was right behind you. It was awesome, like some huge hairy beast was trailing Geralt the whole time he was there.

I think if TW2 had kept the exotic and original musical theme of the first game and added more audio ambiance in general, it would have been a much better game for it.

I agree. Sound design (and music) seems to be almost an after thought in most games. For an example of the literally the best sound design of 2010 (and maybe all time), see Amnesia: The Dark Descent. The sound makes the game. Creep out city.

True, but it was all scripted. You didn't get to actually play Geralt while he was drunk. In TW1 there were situations where you had to drink (or you could just drink and play as the drunken witcher). You might pass out or you might succeed the task. And you stayed drunk until it wore off. Staggering, fuzzy double vision, slowed reflexes. You could take a potion or meditate. OR you could wander around drunk and take the chance you would get jumped. There were even skill choices that could offset (a little) your loss of abilities while drunk.
Alcohol was also a required ingredient for potions. Higher level ones required purer alcohol. Call me a lush, but it added to the game. :)

After playing both games. I would also say they're both wonderful games. But Witcher 1 is the better game. I don't know how but the atmosphere of the first witcher felt a lot more realistic and gritty. The small details of the first game was really well done; stuff like the interactions with the people talking to each other (and not constantly repeating their lines), the folksy music, the fun beer drinking and poker games - it really made it feel like the world's alive! I also liked the dialogue in those monster hunting quests. The quest givers most of the time actually try to rip you off if you let them! Haha. This kind of penny pinching adds the impression you really are a outcast mutant freak everyone hates (but the ladies love ^^).

I also loved the time travelling Alvin angle. That I was something I haven't seen before in any game. I was so confused and crushed when I found out I may of just killed Alvin at the end. I cared so much about the lil guy... I even sort of went into denial and tried to go online to find any evidence that it WASN'T Alvin. It was that engaging.

The witcher 1 story had really solid acts from beginning to end. Moreover it gave you more motivation and reason to continue than in Witcher 2, where it seems like you're just been forced from place to place by random events.

Finally Witcher 1 had that epic cliff hanger ending. Witcher 2's ending kinda just fizzles out.

So definately Witcher 1 for me.

For me the comparison between the witchers is like the comparison between the assassin's creeds - the first one is awesome but has some glaring issues, and the second one builds on the successes of the first one and comes back with better writing, design, and gameplay. But they're both excellent - one think I think the first one does better, though, is the ending.

This is very subjective but on balance storywise I much prefer TW1.

The graphics in TW2 are much better no doubt but for me it lacks the same sense of "place" that was in TW1.

For example in TW1, coming back to Vizima when it was burning had (for me) a real impact I cared about the characters. I really didn't like the swamp very much either, but it was the effect of that feeling that made the game enjoyable and believable, because of the feeling it generated.

I find Flotsam on the other hand too much a mission hub, go out, do a mission, come back, sell loot, but the thing I really find missing is that I don't care that much about the characters and the sense of place is not that strong.

I wonder if the story hasn't been a bit rushed in TW2, and maybe there aren't enough small "filler" quests which give a sense of living in the game world rather than epic quests the whole time. This is a matter of game preference, I personally like the small "fluff" bits in games whereas others want just epic action, but for me TW1 wins out for story and atmosphere (and UI).

TW 1 was much longer than TW 2 so therefore I felt I got more value from TW 1 than I did the second game. The ending seemed very rushed and incomplete. It wa sort of like the dev's going into a meeting with management and talking about this great game and describing chapter one and two. And then management says "Well we got one onth left to finsih so wrap it all up righ now".

TW1, too, so far. I guess it depends a lot on which one you played first. For me, TW1 was completely unexpected, new, complex, mature, dark, original, sarcastic with a great sense of humour, great main story and fantastic secondary quests, unforgettable and believable characters (often well defined with a single line of dialogue, like Foltest: - '..I'm a fucking king!' :)))))), open world, interesting reward system for the secondary quests (sex cards, waaaaay better than any illogical increase in character's stats) and so on - it just hammered me constantly :))

TW2... not so much. I mean - OK, there is still a complex story, it's visually better; the dialogue/choice system is way better etc. Some actors do a better job, others a worse job than the ones in TW1, no change here. The sword and magic fights are mostly the same too, only look and feel a bit different. And so on. There are some bad choices too - the infamous inventory, for instance. Speaking of feeling the game, I couldn't find my first and only love, Shani :D. But I had the chance to atone, instead, for some heartbreaking decision I had to make in TW1 (betraying the elves and dwarves and Triss... ) and eventually to find the meaning of life :)) I mean - in the end I didn't care at all about politics, kings, assassins - I just wanted to honour some promises I made to some people and to help Triss, who never gave up on me (Geralt, I mean), even after me (Geralt) being an asshole in TW1. All in all, it should have felt almost the same, apparently.

But it didn't. The incredibly 'real' elves (so much different from what one knew after watching The Lord of the Rings...) are still there, but they are not new and stunning as in TW1. The fantastic atmosphere is still (somewhat) there, but it won't surprise you anymore as in TW1. There is no more Lady of the Lake, or the Dryad. OK, there is still the lady Dragon, but... And there are still the hilarious NPCs, but... Well, they are not unexpected anymore and not as many as in TW1. The magic is somewhat gone. What would make it work for me the same way TW1 did, would be a TW3 to give a sense of continuity, to reveal the 'greater truth' that makes Geralt tick, in an epic way. Right now, TW2 seems more like a stranded episode, with no real sense of what I’m (Geralt) doing there and why. I’m just a guy trying to make sense of my own existence, but with no real purpose (the ‘remembering’ thing, the Wild Hunt, Letho and so on might be satisfactory for some people, but they don’t really give me a feeling of greatness and awe so far, mostly because they are unfinished businesses yet). Overall, TW1 was a story by itself, TW2 is just an episode in a larger story and I can’t truly make any comment here, because... I didn’t finish it yet. Everything changed when (as mentioned above) the premises were gone and I didn’t care about them anymore, but found new ones for my actions. This may be fine or bad – everything depends on TW3, which MUST come, now, to complete TW2 and make it a better (or worse) experience than TW1.

Perhaps I should write a review? Oh, wait, I just did it! :))

i gotta say i prefer witcher 2 to witcher 1 in a lot of major areas. i like witcher 1 better in a lot of smaller quirky areas.

TW1:
-more memorable music (witcher 2 only really has a few tracks that i'd bother listening to outside the game)
-better map/waypoints
-probably better alchemy system
-superior inventory/item organization
-longer game with more to do
-more/greater variety of monsters
-more named hunts for trophy beasts
-better cat potion, i HATE HATE HATE the way cat works in witcher 2.

TW2:
-infinitely better animation, especially facial animation
-much improved combat
-superb graphics
-cleaner, less confused UI and skill system without a ton of extra fluff graphics
-no loading!
-greater/more choice in story decisions

there are strengths that both games share, such as:

-huge areas with lots to do
-cities and towns where you can enter damn near any house you want


then there are weaknesses that both games share:

-generally horrible pacing (varies, much better on roche's path than on iorveth's path)
-bad/confusing quest design in some spots

all in all, you can easily tell that TW2 is a true sequel to the first game.

I agree with this. The atmosphere in TW2 is not quite as life-like as in TW1 and I suspect it's because there is less interaction with NPCs outside of the main storyline. I miss stuff like the party at Shani's (not to mention Grandma, of course), talking to Thaler or Vincent, the gossiping butcher in the Trade Quarter, the guy in the swamp who got hit by a brick,... By contrast, TW2 makes a stark separation between important (quest related) NPCs and unimportant ones you often can't talk to at all - even if you've just completed a quest for them. And there are just not enough important NPCs to make the world feel quite as real. Adding more "filler" quest would probably fill in this gap nicely and also make the game longer (for those of us that would bother with such quests). Your friends having more of a role outside of the main quest would also help.

I also have an issue with the alchemy system. Ok, potions should be either drinkable on-the-fly or last longer (there is a mod for that, btw) so they don't wear off in the middle of a prolonged fight sequence. But more to the point about atmosphere: in TW1 you needed alcohol for all potions (stronger stuff for stronger potions) and you could combine ingredients to achieve specific secondary effects. It all added a welcome degree of complexity to a topic that most RPGs (TW2 included) reduce to the requirement of owning a formula and the ingredients. Without secondary effects the purpose for having so many different alchemical ingredients is lost completely - you might as well receive rebis or quebirth directly as loot. What was a fun (for me, at least) minigame of collecting and mixing the ingredients to optimize your potions is now more of a chore where you have to replace the ingredients to avoid using up valuable crafting resources.

Nevertheless, TW2 does improve on the original in most major game mechanics: The story is much less linear and has more twists. It's presentation is more professional, too. The combat is (in my view, as a proponent of skill-based combat) much better as it is more fast-paced and yet more tactical - it requires paying more attention to not getting surrounded, using signs, bombs and traps. The sidequests are excellent and they include many different choices. I particularly love the monster elimination quests where you need to do your research and then apply a specific solution to thin out the number of monsters in an area - Oh, if only we had such an option in the swamp in TW1!

Probably the strongest part of TW2 is the extraordinary number of choices and consequences - a truly monumental achievement by CDPR. Yet one hardly notices after one play-through how much they have missed by not taking the other options - this is realistic but does somehow understate a major asset of the game. Adding a simple summary cut-scene at the end (Fallout-style) would give the player a better sense of closure for their story (a too-open ending seems to be a common complaint) and much incentive for doing another play-through and see how they can change the end-state. At present we don't even know which parameters define the 16 different end-states the game has.

Both these games are excellent and they are my two all-time favorites. For now, TW1 is slightly ahead due to it's originality (no sequel can hope to really beat that) and atmosphere. But after several more play-throughs and seeing the consequences of the myriad choices - who knows?

I like pc RPG's more than action RPG's designed for consoles. This game doesn't satisfy my RPG side like TW1 did and the atmosphere from the first game tried, but was not brought over into the second. Also, it's too damned short, the weapons and armor just seem to be thrown in there with the best stuff being given when there is only an hour or two left in the game. Why craft something when you can buy something better a short time later? There weren't as many different monsters..some alchemy changes were good while others sucked. No alcohol or alcohol related quests/games. I don't think the side quests were as dynamic or involving. Less sex, too much QTE's. The UI and journal are sloppy, the art doesn't fit in with the series at all.

I will say that the music was again, superb(not as good as the first though) and the graphics were also very impressive. The difficulty was good too. But if I could choose a game with TW1's graphics and more put into content/rpg elements, I would choose that one.

I'll give them the benefit of the doubt that they can make this game better. TW1, I hear, wasn't great when it first came out.

One thing I really like about the first Witcher that hasn't been mentioned yet is the love for detail you find everywhere in the game. Just remember the diversity of items: there where dozens of different kinds of food or alcohol, various kinds of jewelry and luxury items and lots of other things, and those wheren't just junk you only picked up to sell - food was used for healing, alcohol for potions, jewelry and luxury items to charm women, and so on. A large number of interesting characters appeared in every act, each with a distinct personality. And just think about collecting herbs and brewing potions: You had to get books to learn about the various herbs, and some of them only grew in certain locations. You had to take care of obtaining a potion base of sufficient quality, and if got ingredients with the same secondary substance, you could enhance your potions. I could go on, but I guess you see what I mean.