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General: Outside the MMO Box: The Witcher 2
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
One of the most keenly anticipated RPGs hit store shelves last week when CD Projekt's The Witcher 2 finally arrived. In our continuing look at games that generally lie outside the MMO box, columnist Adam Tingle has taken a good look at The Witcher 2 and has some thoughts to share. Check out what Adam has to say about The Witcher 2 and then let us know your thoughts as well.
So we are back in the imagination of Andrzej Sapkowski once more in Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings - a game which has been so long coming that I have burst with anticipation several times already. From the moment that the game is booted up, you know you are in for something special. The opening intro introduces the story a little - our hero Geralt has done something wrong, mightily wrong, but we don't know yet - cue a flashback sequence that feels staggeringly like Dragon Age 2's opening gambit (but of course a lot more interesting with more than one city - don't get me started).
Read more of Adam Tingle's Outside the MMO Box: The Witcher 2.
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Comments
This games beates Bioware their RPGs by far (except Mass Effect 1&2). The Witcher was amazing in every way, the Witcher 2 is from another planet. The developer gives so much support as well.
Hearing nothing but good things acrossed the board, especially with it's dynamic story/choice system which is not as one-note/black&white as Bioware's take on it.
Hope they do port it over to consoles (because my PC is crap), but that is only in the rumor stages so far. There is hope though, since apparently there is a seperate tutorial if you are using an xbox360 controller.
Honestly i didn't liked The witcher very much, especially the combat system was horrible to me. Found Arcania Gothic 4 to be way way better, in pretty much every domain.
I had such high expectations for this game (being great fan of the first one)
And it managed to meet my expectations and surpass them.
Amazing game
How are the controls for this one? I remember trying the first one and the controls just felt off, and I couldn't get into it, though I really wanted to. Is it better with a game pad, or are the mouse and keyboard controls good?
well, i am old-school. in MMOs and offline games as well. i prefer an open world. TW is more open than Dragon Age but still not as open as my favourite RPG Morrowind. i also dont like closed-range-fighters. i see, that all games improved very much for closed-range-fighters since the days of autoattack and just a few skills like the warrior had in EQ. but this jumpring around and using blocks and sophisticated combos is something i like to avoid, as a range-fighter and crowd-controller. so i should avoid TW2.
i did not, because the story is very good and i consume TW like an interactive movie, not like an RPG. i follow the storybook and enjoy the few sidequests. i do my very best, in order to avoid these fights i dislike or manage them with superior skills. this worked very well in TW1 but in TW2 they introduced these QTE- Quick-Time-Events. heavily scripted parts, where you can not avoid to follow the exact predefined solution. and these QTE often have nothing to do with your skills. they are more like minigames for fingerwigglers. nothing against minigames in an RPG, as long as i can avoid them with passion. but in TW2 i cant. they are sometimes part of the mainquest. so i am near to quit the game.
however, TW2 is way better than DA2 was this year, but it follows the same unholy trend to more linearity and fast console-oriented gameplay. my last hope this year goes with Skyrim, Risen2 and perhaps Amalur may surprise me.
played: Everquest I (6 years), EVE (3 years)
months: EQII, Vanguard, Siedler Online, SWTOR, Guild Wars 2
weeks: WoW, Shaiya, Darkfall, Florensia, Entropia, Aion, Lotro, Fallen Earth, Uncharted Waters
days: DDO, RoM, FFXIV, STO, Atlantica, PotBS, Maestia, WAR, AoC, Gods&Heroes, Cultures, RIFT, Forsaken World, Allodds
even if i did play it with mouse and keyboard, which is possible and not so bad, i am fully convinced that you better use a gamepad, if you own one. the combat is very action-oriented and you need to react and move as fast as possible. gamepads are far superior if it comes to fingerwiggling.
played: Everquest I (6 years), EVE (3 years)
months: EQII, Vanguard, Siedler Online, SWTOR, Guild Wars 2
weeks: WoW, Shaiya, Darkfall, Florensia, Entropia, Aion, Lotro, Fallen Earth, Uncharted Waters
days: DDO, RoM, FFXIV, STO, Atlantica, PotBS, Maestia, WAR, AoC, Gods&Heroes, Cultures, RIFT, Forsaken World, Allodds
It's your opinion, but i disagree.
Beats Bioware RPG's in what?! story? no. Combat? no, it's clunky and frustranting. Polish? no, the game is full of bugs and lacks optimization which is terribly annoying. Another over-hyped game... it's a good game, but isn't the best game ever. ME 1 & 2 and even DA: Origins are better and more fun than this. Hell i loved the original witcher, but i was really disappointed with this game. My personal review is 8/10.
This is single handidly one of the best RPGs I've played the last few years, the other being ME2. However, unlike most heavy-dialogue RPGs this one isn't about being the good or the bad guy. It's about chosing the lesser evil which sometimes is really putting you through thoughts and moves you emotionally. A dark, gritty and mature RPG with White Wolf being one hell of a guy, away from the generic cliches and an amazing character development (both for Geralt and NPCs alike) is what mostly describes this game. I do agree though that the combat sometimes felt difficult and frustrating rather than challenging of an otherwise must-have game for RPG lovers. Bioware better start taking notes in every possible way.
it all depends on your main criteria. i also said TW2 is better than DA2.
it is more open than DA2 and less linear, the zones are not copied and pasted, the character development is not simplified and castrated like in DA2. but both together are worse than some 10 years old RPGs from my point of view.
it all depends on point of view, personal preferences and expectations.
played: Everquest I (6 years), EVE (3 years)
months: EQII, Vanguard, Siedler Online, SWTOR, Guild Wars 2
weeks: WoW, Shaiya, Darkfall, Florensia, Entropia, Aion, Lotro, Fallen Earth, Uncharted Waters
days: DDO, RoM, FFXIV, STO, Atlantica, PotBS, Maestia, WAR, AoC, Gods&Heroes, Cultures, RIFT, Forsaken World, Allodds
DAO wasn't better, was different. Bith are driven-stoty CRPG, butBW's one is a group-based CRPG; CDPR one is a "one hero" CRPG.
Both great games, but masterpieces are other titles: P:T, U7, FFVII, EotB, Daggerfall and stop.
My blog about (no more)MMORPG Addicted - a bog about videogames, cinema, politics and other things (in Italian)
As another old school RPG player. I hear you.
Thing is , TW2 is in its core action rpg. Even more so , its unforgivingly hard.
It is also not free roaming RPG.
It would be best described as Fantasy Mass Effect.
And when you perfer strategic rpg and free roaming rpgs , its away from the both.
When your only complaint about the game is that its not something you wanted to be. Its not games fault.
Its you.
No mater the gaming preference , all can agree that TW2 sets new bar for quality of games (RPG and any other)
In terms of graphic , animation , story , even buyer friendlines (no DRM).
In fact it sets the bar so high. I wonder when will we see another game reach this quality ?
I'm glad the polish team resisted the globalisation of their game and keeped everything in the european RPG style (Gothic series i.e.). No "follow the sparkling line to the objective (puah/Fable for kidz III) no "I'm a light orb signaling an epic cool sword to loot", and yes, you gotta READ all info to understand what/where/who... Impressive story, bugless release + an END (in the realm of DLCs...).
LE: good (read hard) played on "easy", compared too "I'm too lazy to play an RPG" , so I-don't -want -to-mention-the-continent players, beware...
They will deserve a "GotY" in RPG area, imo
Bethesda, what (will) say you?!...:)
거북이는 목을 내밀 때 안 움직입니다
Geez, "really disappointed" and you give it an 8/10 ? On what kind of scoring system are you working? I hate to see what you give a game that is brilliant, 9/10 ?
That's because Arcania is to simple, and fighting is just like any Mmorpg, click, click click
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.
Edgar Allan Poe
I couldn't get into it. Too much of a hybrid action adventure RPG. I prefer my action combat in games like Bayonetta, or my RPG combat in DA2. For me, the crossover just doesn't work.
And while the graphics are impressive, it drove me crazy that Geralt always seemed to be blocking my view, with no way to either pan out, or switch to 1st person.
Always seems strange to me when I hate a game that's so widely well liked, but I uninstalled it before getting through the intro. Just couldn't stand getting killed over and over struggling with the controls.
When I want a single-player story, I'll play a single-player game. When I play an MMO, I want a massively multiplayer world.
I loved witcher2 what a great sp rpg game, the combat is the thing i enjoy the most. It was refreshing to get a challenge in rpg games again.
After the prelogue i met two wraiths pretty early and they trashd me hard, i bearly managed scratch em. So i waited with those until the end of that chapter and it went much better.
sadly next chapter was a cakewalk since i had learnd how the combat works, got better gear and tallents.
Playd true the game 2 times and stil want to play it more.
I think the camera is the weakest part of the game. I am hoping they fix it. I also hated the looting.
Everything else was great I thought (other than the QTE but that can be turned off).
Fully agree with the looting what a pain in the butt, kill wait wait wait loot ><
Stopping in-combat looting is fine, otherwise it should be like a 3-4sec animation where you leave yourselve wide open to being murdered, pushed back to last save, and physically reinforce why combat-looting wouldn't/doesn't happen.
Now, making the targeting of lootable crates/containers not suck, yes please. Targeting the bags and boxes all over is just tedious for how small an area they give you and how vague the "center-screen" point is when its just panning Geralt's head around.
Though for actual camera controls, I hope they don't do anything more than maybe one more setting of zoom out. I remember reading dev comments how the game is heavily inspired by Demon's Souls as well, and is probably taking camera cues from that.
A big part in both is that the camera can/should be used to accent information denial against the player. It's by design they don't want you seeing the battlefield 360, its by design that you have specific fields of view.
Can this design flex in some cases, say FOV angle and maybe a little more camera pull back, that'd be cool.
But IMHO, it should always have some sort of physical lock to Geralt where he's at least 10-15% of screen real-estate and no more than 240deg of situational awareness capability from any one facing.
Lets Push Things Forward
I knew I would live to design games at age 7, issue 5 of Nintendo Power.
Support games with subs when you believe in their potential, even in spite of their flaws.
This :- I don't understand why this game is so highly praised. I wouldn't have even given it an 8/10 just for that abysmal thing that call 'combat'. I don't care if it gets easier, I ~don't want it to get easier~, I want the combat to flow. I want to be challenged but still feel like I actually have control over my actions. I don't want to take an additional two steps forward after I stop moving, I don't want every sword swing to turn into an elven dance, how do people find this okay?
If all I cared about was story, I'd read a book. Which coincidentally is what I'm doing, reading the books. Hell of a lot more entertaining than playing the game.
Skyrim is the only thing that can save this year, and I have a lot of faith it will. Every other RPG that came out this year can kiss my ass.
"Forums aren't for intelligent discussion; they're for blow-hards with unwavering opinions."
The Witcher imo has awful combat and GUI (feels like its more designed for consoles), I tried it but I dont like it at all
It seems this game is either one you love or hate
Personally I dont rate it better than Biowares games what so ever
I miss the 3 fighting styles The Witcher 1 had. Why did they remove those? You can't use potions in combat. You hit z to highlight items in the world and you can't zoom out to get a better view of the action. It's like DA2 vs DA. It's looking amazing but it's not as enjoyable like its predecessor imo.
I think it comes down to what you want from an RPG - Witcher 2 is not an open world explorer in the vein of Bethesda and never proports to be so, it is a deep, engaging story-driven affair that is as good as the time spent with it learning every little detail and sub-plot. As mentioned the combat is hit and miss but not to the point of breaking the game, and the design is definitley not skewed towards console leanings - the game hasn't even been confirmed for a cross platform release yet.
The great thing about CD Projekt as a developer is that their games don't feel like BioWare or Bethesda or other RPG companies, they are unique and their own making - the Witcher series IMO is one of those great series that makes me proud be a goblin botherer.