Even though I'm going with the magic tree, I haven't upgraded Igni. I still enjoy swordfighting too much. Against certain enemies on Dark Mode, that's impossible without quen. Or rather it's extremely frustrating if you make a mistake late in combat.Originally Posted by Jasper Phillips
Heads up for anyone going magic or alchemy on Dark Mode. You'll probably need this god mode cheat during a certain part near the end of Chapter 2. It's most likely almost impossible to proceed without it. There's a save before the boss fight, so just remove it then and reload. It's only a simple XML file.
Spoiler: .
Oh my God I didn't know they made games this pretty.
I think I'm averaging six deaths an hour. Where's that "learn2witch" thread...
Whew. I had barely enough money and items for the last Dark Mode outfit. I deliberately skipped the early ones to make sure I got at least one. As far as I can tell, there are no unique items you must get in the first couple chapters, but you should really spoil yourself beforehand in preparation for the sticker shock.
I looted a lot of crates during the game but not all of them. I completed all quests but didn't need to grind anything.
I see no reason to bother except for completeness. They're you're typical overpowered DLC items. By Chapter 3 you're already overpowered. There's an annoying graphical effect (check YouTube) but the ambient sound is kind of cool.Spoiler: one tricky item
No! I forgot to do a quest in Chapter 2 for an optional boss in Chapter 3. I wanted to fight it with the Dark Mode gear. No way am I doing all that again.
I don't see a mod to fix it for me. That might be hopeless since it's a multi-chapter quest. I think I'll ask around for someone's savegame file.
I finished my second playthrough. Here's some relevant comments for new and returning players. Minor spoilers, but they're ones you might want to know for the best experience.
I think it's more natural to go with Roche on the first playthrough. With that other guy there are a couple revelations that make things awkward on Roche's side. Chapter 3 also makes more sense the first time with Roche. But I really liked the second playthrough. It's neat to see everything from a different perspective. It's a bold game design and they did a great job with it. There's plenty of unique content, other than most of the maps. Each skill tree feels different too.
Dark Mode gets a thumbs down. The item sets are merely a novelty. They're overpriced, overpowered, and use a visual and audio distortion effect that gets old after a while. You can watch a YouTube video of it instead. The difficulty level is also a letdown. According to that Dark Mode speed run I watched, enemies actually have the same hitpoints as other difficulties. (I haven't confirmed.) What we really need is a mode where enemies have 50% more hitpoints. That way you can do more interesting things in combat late in the game. Or just use weaker swords, I guess. Either way, I'd rather keep incoming damage the same as normal so you don't killed quickly after a mistake. All the quickloading breaks up the flow.
I guess you can play Dark Mode if you want, but don't expect anything that great.
Now I'm going to work on the arena.
I got to level 56 in the arena on easy. A little over 100k points. I don't think it's worth bothering with easy difficulty. No one blocks so it's just a matter of casting quen and attacking. The greatest risk is getting bored like I did on my last fight, and not wanting to bother casting quen again. The enemies eventually get higher HP and do higher damage, but there's no real combat skill involved. So stick with normal unless you really want to see the final fight or something.
There are 30 arena levels. Then it loops. Geralt's maximum level is 35 so plan accordingly. It probably took me 90 minutes to get as far as I did.
Arena on easy is extremely easy, on normal it is quite a challenge however.
You're right. It's a satisfying challenge on normal. I got past wave 30 but there's no way I'm going to try to beat it without dying. I'd rather quit now and preserve the nice warm glow I have from my second playthrough of the campaign.
Two things I hate about the arena: the audio mix on the crowd noise (too loud) and the camera shake on waves that have a lot of large monsters. It's annoying.
I discovered something about combat. If Geralt is a short distance from an enemy, we know he'll do a leaping attack. But if he faces left of the enemy, he always does that great multi-hit spinning attack. So you can circle strafe enemies in a clockwise direction, then use that leaping attack to take down most of their health. Afterwards just roll away.
I'm not sure I ever realized that it's Geralt's facing that determines which leaping attack he does. If you face to the right he does a simple jump thrust. The spinning attack is much stronger if you can use it against isolated squishy enemies.
Just tried the arena - what a great idea. Can't believe they have little voiced dialogs for your companions. Did they release that as a separate demo at all?
I was a danger to myself and my friends but struggled on for quite a while. My companions came to dread being selected - Are you sure? How about the dwarf over there?!
Muy bueno.
REALLY late to the party, I know, but: How many QTEs are in this game? Because the ones in the prologue took me a ridiculously long time to get past, since pressing Y when the button was on the screen didn't save me. I had to basically be a precog and watch a lot of death scenes over and over, because to live I had to be jamming on the button the whole time.
You can always turn on "Easy QTEs" or whatever the setting is called.
There are a couple more "surprise" ones for boss fights, and one or two where you need to a tap a button quickly.
I had no trouble at all with QTEs set to difficult. Maybe it's an X360 controller issue.
I finished the game twice with x360 controller and I didn't die in QTE ever...so no idea what is the problem there.
Not that many, other than those in the beginning of the game.
OTOH, QTEs are the laziest, crappiest, least fun bits of game design in history, so I feel Bowyer on this one.
No you don't. They're bad game design but they're quite easy to get past in this game. That's Matt's problem. Something's wrong.
The prologue is particularly QTE heavy, QTEs only show up during a small number of boss fights during the rest of the game (yeah, silly design decision) and for fist fighting.
There IS one particularly weird/buggy QTE event in the prologue
Spoiler: spoler
Flip off the "difficult QTEs" or whatever its called in the options and enjoy the game, thats what I did. The kayran about had me throwing my mouse till I discovered that option. As much fun as "instantly push a button you don't know you need to push till you've died" is, I decided to take a pass.
I had no idea that setting was there. I will do that. Thank you!
It was confusing. In the prologue, the first QTE popped up, I pressed Y after maybe a second, while the button was still onscreen, but I still got killed in horrific fashion. I don't think I'm taxing the machine too heavily, as my battles are fluid and responsive -- it was just strange.
Me either till my buddy was all "I turned that shit off early on."
So, does "easy quicktime events" just do them for me?
Some are removed altogether I think, which causes weird gaps in some conversation scenes. Others are merely easier, whatever that means. I've only played with easy QTEs so I can only go by hearsay.
It mostly seems to do the annoying ones. You still have to do the "click fast" ones. But anything silly like "PUSH X TO NOT DIE" is done automatically.
Thanks, guys! That sounds like a huge improvement.
Quite a bit of news on CD Projekt front (article and video in english):
http://polygamia.pl/Polygamia/1,9645...s_and_New.html
New franchise, probably scifi. If CDP makes Deus Ex-like FPSRPG....that would be heavenly.
I want Witcher 2 expansion and Witcher 3 the most though.
I think people who refer to settings as franchises should be shut in with a roomful of breakable china and Skyrim's physics engine.
I think the Witcher benefits hugely from drawing on a real writer. I hope they don't give that up with a new SF setting.
Another fantastic interview about DRM, piracy et al with CDProjekt founder:
http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/29/in...-not-worth-it/
I love this game!
Swords. Blood. Killing. Graphics. Decisions. Loot. Crashes. Dialogue. Lore. Women. Nudity. War. Crashes. Economy. Weight. Sneaking. Magic. RPG. Monsters. Crashes.
Right, so I just finished the tutorial (recommended settings - easy). I'm in the first scene and already got annoyed. I'm not sure how to get to the ballista but I don't mind to try a few times. But why on earth didn't they put a save point after the king asks me to open the road to the tower. Why do I have to go through that silly battle and cutscenes again each time.
Is this indicative to save pints placing later on, because if it is I just wasted 20 Euro.
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