The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

[Jazar]

How are the combat changes?

[farfrael]

tried the arena mode (on normal) and ... fuck it's hard (or I am really bad). It also perfectly illustrates how in my case, the endgame became easy because of increased skills + equipment and not due to any natural gaming skills.

reminds me of the start of the game in v 1.0: you have no skills (in particular the one which means you don't get dinged for double damage when hit int he back ... O miss it so badly), no equipment, no vitality, no potions and do zero damage. Now go and kill 5 dudes. Shit.

I relearned that Quen is my vital friend etc etc. Also, the arena sounds (crowd, ennemies, fires etc) are really really good. I found myself going more on the offensive (big mistake ...) when the crowd started booing me ...

Still, it feels hard but fair etc and I still love this game to bits.

[belgerog]

How does the arena work in terms of configuring your character?

You level up and get skills as you kill enemies in the arena, and you also get loot after each fight.

[Tim James]

you also get loot after each fight.

I hope we get timber.

[TurinTuramba]

Arena on easy is tons of fun. The later fights are suitably epic. Made it to level 30 where 3 golems +7 gargoyles killed me :D.

[divorced]

I've downloaded the patch 3 times and keep getting a "file is corrupted" message. Grrrr.....

[belgerog]

Man, I forgot how great this game looked. I've never finished it, for a lack of time, I'm actually still around flotsam. I was walking in the woods nearby during the night, and I wandered into an area where the moon light shafts created an amazing sight.

I've also crafted my first superb witcher's silver sword, I love the pommel. It's in the shape of a wolf's head, instead of being a disk-like pommel with an engraving of a wolf's head, like the one standard silver sword has.

I'm still unsure about the combat changes. It's not easier, and I'm glad for that. Still, I like the idea of interrupts, but in hard mode you still get killed very easily, so you can't be reckless anyways.

Speaking of combat, is there any weapon that helps against the shielded guys, like breaking their shields? Or is stunning them the only way to effectively kill them?

[Lum]

I've downloaded the patch 3 times and keep getting a "file is corrupted" message. Grrrr.....

If you have the Steam version it won't work with it. Have to wait for Steam to get around to update their version.

[Tim James]

I believe this was already known, but 16:10 still has zoomed in FOV. I guess I'll play with 16:9 again.

I think I might downtune my graphics a tad too. It'd be nice to zip through a second playthrough holding 60 fps most places. I haven't found many good tradeoffs in the graphics options yet though.

[Tim James]

Dark mode in the arena seemed impossible until I remembered the quen sign. I guess it's been a while! The prologue isn't too hard. I died a few times to fire and arrows. *shrug*

Combat seems to flow pretty much the same. You have to pick your battles. I was looking for the improved responsiveness but I can't remember the problems from before. Geralt seems to raise his guard for a parry more quickly at least. So far I don't mind the damage on parry.

I think I'll go with an alchemy/magic build this time.

[Vesper]

So I just tried the tutorial and it was very good. I died after a couple waves into the arena, though. It recommended Easy for me. Bah. I need to figure out doing crowd control quickly.

[TurinTuramba]

I just "beat" the Arena finishing with a score of 165k. After 30 levels on easy the fights loop back to the beginning, but difficulty gets set to dark mode I think. So you can basically use easy mode (which isn't all that easy, some fights are just insanely hard) to build your witcher and then go for the real fights :).

The production values are really great, the companions you can hire even berate you in a few different ways if they happen to die in the Arena.

[Tim James]

How long did it take to get to that point on easy? An hour? It's too bad you can't save.

[TurinTuramba]

an hour sounds about right. The fights last all 1 to two minutes. Managed to get to fight 72 now and I was wrong. The difficulty seems to be everincreasing to the point where even a lowly zombieswordsman hits for 470 damage.

[Tim James]

So did it switch you to dark mode or does it just increase the difficulty from your starting point of easy? I guess it might be hard to tell.

Have they announced a winner yet for the first person to finish dark mode? It's already been 18 hours.

[TurinTuramba]

It's just an increase in difficulty designed to become impossibly hard pretty quickly. I had all damage reduction skills on the warrior/alchemy trees,200+ armor/700 life when I died. So I don't really see a reason to start on anything other than easy if you want a long arena run.

Apparently there is some guy who believably claims to have finished dark mode in three hours.

[farfrael]

3rd playthrough, on Dark this time.
Had forgotten how gorgeous the graphics are and how good the story-telling and world presentation are. I'm in love all over again.

My only wish would be for an engine which allows more freedom of movement (something similar to Assassin's creed, up to a point) and interaction with the environment.

[Tim James]

I swear the game feels like it's micro-stuttering slightly now with certain graphical effects on screen. I remember when I first played it on my new PC it was fine. But I even tried reinstalling an old version and backdating my drivers. Same thing. Maybe I'm just more sensitive to it now. I couldn't find any particular settings that cause the problem.

Oh well. Most of the time it's fine.

[Sean Tudor]

I think I might downtune my graphics a tad too. It'd be nice to zip through a second playthrough holding 60 fps most places. I haven't found many good tradeoffs in the graphics options yet though.

I've found turning on ultra setting and then turning off ubersampling gives the best balance of framerate vs graphics on my system (gtx580).

Also post 2.0 patch I seem to have gained an epic armor set in my inventory. Is this some sort of freebie that was given as part of the 2.0 patch?

[farfrael]

Also post 2.0 patch I seem to have gained an epic armor set in my inventory. Is this some sort of freebie that was given as part of the 2.0 patch?

you also have some shiny gloves and trousers

They were initially items given for pre-orders (different retailers had different rewards, Amazon was the pants, I think). CDP added them for everybody in patch 1.x (some time ago).

Like all -pre-order items, they are completely imbalanced and my suggestion would be to set them aside (at least for the start of the game). Which is fine, now they have added the ability to store items in a chest (similar to TW1, available in the inn).

[Tim James]

I've found turning on ultra setting and then turning off ubersampling gives the best balance of framerate vs graphics on my system (gtx580).

Of course, ubersampling is off. Maybe that'll be playable in the next generation of single graphics cards. I'll save it for a third playthrough or a possible expansion pack.

[Sean Tudor]

Had a marathon 29 hour session on the weekend. I had been waiting for the 2.0 patch before seriously getting into the game. The game continues to astound both in the quality of story telling and the mechanics of the game engine. I've fully opened the Sword skill tree and Geralt is a slice and dice killing machine.

So many great one-liners in the game. My favorite to date is "my favorite kind of magic .. lesbomancy". LOL

[belgerog]

I've played quite a bit lately too, and I love the game, but it can be really uneven at times. The story has some great bits, but also some pretty contrived plot devices.

So far for me the game has been at its best when you're exploring the amazing, wide environments to complete the smaller quests.

I've just finished the Flotsam part, and I have the impression the combat became easier. I got a bunch of levels from all the xp from the final Flotsam quests, and some pretty good gear, so I was expecting to kill endregas much more easily than I did before. Do new monsters bring back the challenge you get in flotsam?

[Sean Tudor]

I think the game becomes easier as you progress. This is probably more due to the abilities you gain as you level up. Later boss fights are still a challenge though and require some tactical thinking and intelligent use of abilities.

[KevinC]

I've never played a Witcher game but was thinking of picking up #2. I was curious how the setup is compared to other RPGs... is it more like Bioware fare with lots of small instances and heavy on the dialog, or is it more towards the Elder Scrolls end of the spectrum of open world exploring? I guess I'm wondering how linear vs freeform the game is.

[Sean Tudor]

I would say it is in-between the two. For example the area around Flotsam is freeform although there are certain areas you get channeled to via the use of cliffs and ledges. Transitions between the outdoor environment and caves/dungeons are either via a seamless open entrance or via doors. Each chapter of the game has a distinct area that loads independently of each other.

The game is heavy on dialogue which is IMO one of it's main selling points. The combat is also quite substantial and a joy to play with as you level and gain abilities.

[Tim James]

You can see the Bioware ancestry and a few remnants of the Neverwinter Nights engine, but it doesn't feel like you're running around outdoor dungeons like the latest Bioware games.

There's a lot of dialogue but it's not the choose-your-personality type. Mostly you're just clicking things to hear the next part. The characters are interesting enough that I was happy to sit there and watch them. Your mileage may vary.

[Mind Elemental]

I got sidetracked a few weeks ago, halfway through Chapter II, but want to pick it up again at some stage.

I'm curious -- I went for a magic build and at Level 17 or 18, I don't feel overpowered at all. Yes, upgraded Quen is a lifesaver and Yrden lets me cheese any one-on-one fight, but my experience has been nothing like the general 'zomg Witcher 2 is easy once you level up and reach Chapter 2' sentiment. Should I have dropped points into Aard or Igni? Should I have gone for a melee build instead?

[Blackadar]

I've never played a Witcher game but was thinking of picking up #2. I was curious how the setup is compared to other RPGs... is it more like Bioware fare with lots of small instances and heavy on the dialog, or is it more towards the Elder Scrolls end of the spectrum of open world exploring? I guess I'm wondering how linear vs freeform the game is.

I'd say it leans towards the Bioware model. Heavy on the dialog with finite areas to explore. The way the maps are designed you don't feel too constrained, but it's not an open world like Oblivion.

I'm a man of my word - I picked this up the day they dropped the price to $30 and released the 2.0 patch. I'm having a few technical problems, but nothing unmanageable. I'm just about through Chapter 1 and I'm enjoying it so far. Some of the quests need a bit more direction - I'm having to go look stuff up at the Witcher Wiki to figure out some of these side quests that don't have pointers on the map - but overall the story is good, the combat is decent and the graphics are splendid.

[Sean Tudor]

I've now finished the game. 3rd chapter was too short but it was still a great experience. I hope they release an expansion pack. I love the witcher world.