The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Critique (& Story Commentary)
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- Опубликовано: 2 окт 2024
- The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings has one of the most impressive implementations of branching story paths in video games. Here's my analysis of the story and how it compares to those of the books, together with a detailed look at combat.
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The Witcher Critique - • The Witcher Retrospective
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Witcher 2 was actually my introduction to the whole series, and I genuinely loved it. I think being unfamiliar with the setting and politics has it's advantages because Witcher 2 was unlike anything I had played before visually and stylistically. Witcher 2's big selling point back when it launched (from what I remember) was that it was a mature, adult RPG, and it really is in more ways than just sex and violence. Witcher 2 is a lot bleaker and more cynical than basically any other RPG (including other Witcher games), but it doesn't feel myopic, it's just genuinely dark. I think that was what really invested me so heavily in a game that really didn't care whether or not I was familiar with the setting or characters.
I just replayed Witcher 2 recently, and uh, yeah, definitely agree with you. I don't really think any game honestly handles sex very well. I think the one thing I like about the way Witcher 2 handles it is that Geralt's relationship with Triss is pre-existing so you never have to romance her and then get "rewarded" with sex like in so many other games. That's really about it, though.
@GiRayne It's just the way sorceresses are depicted in the witcher books. Though most of them are past 100, they look like early 20ies to 30ies. They wear robes that leave little to imagination. During the Thannedd banquet there are the following description for three different sorceresses. One wears a white chiffon blouse, so transparent one can see her nipples, another one wears a similar black chiffon blouse with some additional embroiderie, that leads the glance even more towards the nipples, the third is wearing a skirt with a slit. Whereas fashion demanded the slit to end up mid thigh, this sorceress had a slit up to the waist.
I, as a woman myself, don't mind this, as the sorceresses use their looks to their advantage and are (as some other women like Suleyka Thyssen of Kovir, Meve of Lyria and Rivia, Shani, Cantarella, Milva and Angoulême, i.e. most other important female characters) depicted as very strong, truely emancipated women. I'd prefer to look at a completely naked Geralt instead of one in pants though. But I take, what I can get.
@GiRayne dragon age really??
@GiRayne LOL i love how people are going crazy over Saskia's cleavage when there are games that show so much more. Like anime and those fighting games like dead or alive those are wayyyy worse. In my opinion CDPR does it in style and I'd like someone to mention games with better sex scenes.
@GiRayne sex as a reward? I fail to see how The Witcher uses sex as a reward. In no way does the game reward you if you do decide to romance a woman and it's always optional. And almost everything in life skimps out on male nudity not many people wanna see a penis or a hairy ass that's just the way it is.
I use these to fall asleep and I always end up three critiques ahead of where I started in the morning.
Slept for 8 hours, three videos have played in the meantime. #justchrisdavisthings ;)
Lol did that last night, woke up to this clip and read this msg,
If I was the author I would be slightly offended lmao
I do this too, wish there were timestamps on this vid
Ha thought I was the only one
Regarding the plague thing...
1:58:58
There was SUPPOSED TO be a string of side quests in The Witcher 3 that would focus on curing an outbreak of the plague in Novigrad with Iorveth helping you out... but it was cut. Time constraints and all that.
God damn it, that sucks...instead he just doesn't exist. I was looking forward to seeing him, and I just never got too. Was hoping he would be in a DLC.....nope. It just turned out that the path I took in Witcher 2 just gets entirely ignored, and the main character I rolled with doesn't exist anymore either.
@@Camelotsmoon wdym, I hear Iorveth everywhere while I'm playing tw3 XD
58:00 If I remember correctly, Foltest and the La Valettes are fighting because they are holding his children ransom: Foltest wants to legitimize Boussy as his heir instead of Adda, because she is either dead or still cursed and married to Radovid; and either way a prince would be a preferable heir. But the La Valette "family" (actually it's a group of once loyal bannermen and nobles who are actually in charge and are now turning on Foltest, like Count Echevarry who Foltest nails with ballista) are seeking "privileges that would weaken the crown", which you are led to believe is just garden-variety greed but is later revealed that they were working with Nilfgaard to attempt to undermine Foltest's power in anticipation of their invasion. So basically the whole conflict was set up by Nilfgaard in the first place.
MrOrdinaryundone wow didnt know this! Thanks
I love replaying this game and noticing all the details pointing to Nilfgaard as being behind everything that happens. I also love splattering Echevarry, I'm glad the game lets you aim the ballista instead of just showing you a cutscene. Much more satisfying when you hit him.
Huh, I did like the backstory of Letho and Geralt; so much so I let the man live in my main playthrough.
I let him live because i was comming of a long play session and wanted to finish the game before going to bed and just didnt feel like fighting him
"There's a hidden stat system whereby Geralt's ability to do any one of these [persuasion] options depends on how much he's used it ... unfortunately you aren't given any way to keep track of what you've used and how strong that ability is."
I'm pretty sure you do. If you go into the Character Abilities menu it should show you the "Axii Sign Hex", "Intimidate", and "Persuasion" abilities, and which level each one is at. I think using one of these options once increases it by one level, and each caps at level 3.
Normie plebs: Not saving Ciri because they were busy playing Gwent
Me, an intellectual: Not clearing my name because I was busy getting lost in Loc Muinne
me, a philosopher: still stuck in vizima playing dice with thaler and drinking with shani and the boys
Fun fact: Loc Muinne is constantly changing layout and it is therefore impossible not to get lost.
Really liked your review of the first game so looked forward to this, as the series gets better going on in my opinion.
I'm watching this because I can't wait for Joseph Anderson to finish up
lmao me exactly what the hell
same, it's a good warming up, provided that the stories are so complicated that it's better to see them twice in order to understand. Honestly, I found the vid average at best, it's not clear, not very well paced or explained, and 95% of the story content is description, not commentary, but it makes the job in introducing the story, it will be easier to follow and appreciate J.A's vid after that.
Joe is lazy af
same lol... still waiting
OOOF size: Extra large
but same
I see one good reason why they changed the scene of Triss talking to someone via the megascope. It helps introduce the mage you'll most likely interact with in Act 2. If you sided with Roche earlier, it stands to reason you most likely will again so you'll see Dethmold ahead of your interactions later on (and vice versa with Philippa more heavily featured in the Iorveth storyline).
@Chris Davis, I have seen 30 minutes so far and I absolutely love it. I especially like the background information you provide and the extra research you have done. Also the way you criticize something feels more reasonable and in general not nitpicky. Many other popular video game critique youtubers go to far on criticizing the negative side of games and can create a negative vibe in their videos by doing it.
However i have one issue with this video. 2 hours of content is really long and most folks would not be able to watch it in one go. The different parts in your videos seem to transitation well into eachother and therefore it could be difficult to make chapters. However, some time stamps could help a lot. Not only for watching parts of the video in multiple sessions but also the rewatch the video and look again at a certain topic (for example to watch your critique on witcher 1 combat vs witcher 2 combat and compare them to eachother without having to search those parts in their video).
I don`t think a lot of time stamps are neccesary, if you look at the dark souls 3 critique of joseph anderson there are only 4 time stamps in an one hour video which is great.
curious about your thoughts about it.
The "Witcher Code" is made up nonsense by Geralt himself. To have excuse for anything really :-) Taking job, not taking a job, whatever he feels like. Very flexible go to BS.
It seems like you read the books, so i assume it got lost in translation.
Jokes are after all very hard to translate.
Lmfao, that makes me love the character just a little bit more. I wouldnt have picked up on that on my own. Thanks for sharing.
Chris mentions this right at the end of the video, how the code is just a neither here nor there and made up by Geralt. Timestamp is 1:54:00
He also invented it after hearing a mention by a vesemir (or sb else, or the Geralt himself came to that conclusion, can't remember it clearly), that it makes him (Geralt) more trustworthy in the eyes of his contractors, bc, the witchers, while abominations/mutant/genetic freaks, still follow some kind of code, just like a knight, or a priest would do, making the withcers a bit more human.
thats so meta
Can't do the dishes, Witcher's code
You brought up Triss's secret from the Witcher 1 and how the meaning is unclear. Forgive me from going straight from memory as it's been so long since I played the first game but I believe when you get out of bed in Triss's room you can inspect a nearby window and Geralt will remark on scuffled footprints that indicate someone left in a hurry. In the Witcher 3 when the Witchers bond at Kaer Morhen during the lifting of the Sage's curse, I believe Lambert will bring up a time he spent in Vizima where he has a secret that could hurt a good friend. I believe the secret was that while Geralt was unconscious or otherwise indisposed, Triss and Lambert had a minor affair that they both hid from Geralt. I heard this theory on a couple of Witcher 3 Easter egg videos a while back so I mistakenly thought it was the popular consensus as Triss is definitely portrayed as more sly in the games than in the books. Anyway that's the conclusion I believe and I also agree that it is a poor plot point that goes unused, unresolved and ultimate unimportant
While questionable, why would another witch care about something like that? Especially if it was a minor fling. Which makes even less sense, if you think about Geralts loss of memory and how little he would have cared about it.
1:57:32 Geralt has his own motivation to lift the curse -- regaining his memory. Also, the mist is spreading.
1:37:26 Stennis getting arrested is a result of your choice. You can get his blood if he gets lynched. And you still need to cross the mist to find Triss.
You need to clear the mist on Iorveths path because it is slowly expanding and eventually it would reach and consume Vergen.
Also, Cedric tells him a prophecy about his memory returning after he lifts the curse from that battlefield.
Since I didn't have a gaming pc I remember buying a used Xbox 360 just to play this game and it was worth every penny.
I love ur videos, they help me go sleep. Not in a boring insulting way. I always pick up where I left off every night. Just soothing narration and critique about awesome games.
I think the idea bout not needing to research monsters is that Geralt is remembering his knowledge of those monsters.
Xbox Owner: Yes we did get a physical map and a handy dandy quest book.
With dice poker, I never threw the dice I just kind of gently dropped them and still won really often 🤷
oh my god yes yes yes on the potions! it’s such a big downgrade i wish all the witcher games copied the first games potion system witcher 2 was downright awful
I played through the witcher 2 twice, and for the life of me cannot remember anything about the combat.
Maybe it was changed in later patches, but when I first played the game Quen was insanely overpowered.
You could easily defeat the dragon at the end (even on the hardest difficulty) just by reflecting damage trough that sing.
It took a Long time, but it was quite doable.
Wow seeing this upload has made my night. Can't wait to watch this!
it kind of ruined mine , i hope my boss will understand :o)
One of my fondest memories of this game was me and my buddy taking turns to try and beat Letho on the hardest difficulty. Took us a good 2 hours to do this.
Quen-spam for the win!
This is a much, MUCH better critique than Joseph Anderson's. Fewer memes and nitpicks, more substance.
I like the Joseph Anderson reference. Everyone has been waiting on his review.
Yesterday I finished your The Witcher 1 video (it made me subscribe), so this is a nice surprise!
I think what I am most impressed by with the Witcher games is that they are genuinely something I can respect creatively.
Most larger gaming projects might be entertaining, but only in extremely rare cases do they ever seem to have a real, original vision for what they want to be that's not built on focus testing and market efficiency - the Witcher games do.
Creative integrity and passion, how often do you see that in gaming? And with a budget, even! Insane.
Best video on the witcher i've heard so far. I recently installed the game again, i felt nostalgic about the game. This helped me enjoy even more what's awaiting me (again) :). Thanks for your efforts making this video.
I'd like to add I think the Witcher's code is simple and brutal (don't kill other witchers, remain politically neutral, always exact payment for your duty), and Geralt's Code is used either to discourage curiosity and spies ("we can't talk about my work") or to uphold his morals (I will say the Code allows X, so I can do good. I won't leave someone behind because of the Code).
His Code would be a political tool and means to force himself to do good. It's something to get past academics and officials, and a shield to hide his hidden nobility.
+
Will you make a Dragon Age: Origins retrospective?
No
Chris, your stuff is great. Thanks, man.
Sheela in Flotsam was looking for Letho. In her mind he went rouge after killing Foltest. She wanted to find him.
31:20
In all your examples you can't use signs when you have only one vigor point. So I'm guessing that the shown vigor point system is only simplification and there is a posibility that it shows one vigor point even when it's not actually ready yet.
at 1:11:30 dont you mean famous?
1:39:00 if you investigate the corpse in the crypt after you bought the pliers from the general goods vendor you can find out there are pieces of metal stuck in the claw wounds, indicating it was a metal weapon that killed him, not succubus claws. So yeah, the succubus is not evil.
I personally like witcher 2 the best since its the most focussed of the bunch. Also I found the potion system a good middleground since meditating to drink took a lot of time while the W3 potions feel like regular potions. You still have to plan your stuff while being able to pick the right drink on the spot. Like when you plow through the dungeon to get to saskia and you run out of cat halfway.
The dark weapon sets are a chore to grind since they are insanely expensive (so you do a bunch of boxing), you get them only at the end of a chapter, and the stat bump from each chapter's gear makes it kinda useless. They do look good though.
One thing I missed is that you get perks based on your actions. Usually they are fairly small. But if you turn down triss in the elven baths you gen unenchantable, which is a 10% magic reduction which is probably one of the best of the game. I guess most people didnt see it though since they wanted to get down with triss.
Lastly, after you kill the kraken you can go back to find a note in the crashed ship in the boss fight arena. This is a 3 chapter epic quest to get really good armor which gives +1 to your fatigue meter.
It's a great analysis - I've never heard anyone checking logs to complete their research so it's impressive. I'd advise adding some timestamps in the description or in the comments though - the video is long and the changes between topics are very fluent, but it would make it easier to watch it in parts, not to mention jumping to an interesting part of the analysis. Great job :)
TW2 is definitely the part of the series I have the most trouble revisiting. The clunky controls and erratic combat make it a nuisance to play most of the time, but I also think that the writing itself has aged poorly in some parts. Granted, the same could be said about TW1, but that title carries a lot of charm with it, and I absolutely adore the stylized visuals. TW3 is a masterpiece, though, and no matter how many times I replay it, it never gets tiring.
Writing was the best in Witcher 2.
TW2 writing, character and plot were far superior. TW3 mainstory felt somewhat like a JRPG's..
Yeah, I'm the opposite. TW2 has by far the best writing and the characters are on par with TW3. TW2 has plenty of charm and great visuals, while TW1 is just plain ugly to me. TW2 has perfectly usable controls and combat, I have no issues with it, however TW1 has terrible controls and combat. TW1 is the one I have the most trouble revisiting, and TW2 is my favorite, but TW3 is also way up there.
@@HeelPower200 lol. Nice joke.
I fucking love all Witcher games, they all offer something unique. I remember even beating the witcher 2 on insane mode. I played through it at least 5 times
Sheila being in flotsam is explained as her looking to contact Letho after he killed Foltest, because the sorceresses still thought that he was their ally and just got over enthusiastic. Kayran parts were just a bonus/cover. It definitely got explained somewhere in the game in at least one of the paths, don't remember where though.
I love act 2/Iorveth's path so much.
comment for the comment algorithm.
I love your videos Chris, wish you all the success
I loved this more than the 3rd
Yet another incredible critique, fantastic work!
1:52:17 Yes, Xbox 360 version comes with a two-sided map. One side is the map shown here, and the other is a closeup of the Pontar Valley.
The funny thing about the Witcher's code is that Geralt states in the book that he made it up to try and sound more respectable to gain more coin. He also found it useful as a way to refuse contracts he didn't want to do.
Crazy how we complain sometimes that a campaign is only going to be 25-30 hours with reply value, when most games nowa days barley make 6 hours.
Now days after 5 hours we are usually begging for the game to end. Its unusual to want more :p
Like which games? RPGs these days last way longer than 6 hours and generally more than 25-30. I don't think it should be compared to something like the story mode of an FPS since those games inherently have better replay value and are developed around multiplayer rather than single player.
"When I say 'risk', the chances of at least one die bouncing off are give or take about 100%, it's insane."
Yeah no I just drop them every time. It's random enough if you do, and there's no chance of them leaving the board that way.
"Leveling Up the Backstab damage reduction to 100% on Higher Difficulties feels like a necessity".
I don't know If I finished this game too many times that I'm now fluent in all its mechanics and I can plow though even on Dark without the Dark equipment, but I *never* upgraded that skill. The backstab thing is not even such a big deal IMO.
Yes, but that plays into "don't get surrounded" approach. It's not an issue if you don't expose your back to the enemy in the first place.
@Prince of Persia Sure, but he made it sound like a bigger issue than it is. You'd take a lot of damage in "any situation" if you're surrounded
The best game in the series imo. I love Witcher 3 but I think it would have benefited greatly from a more linear experience
A very reasonable critique. You definitely missed out on the succubus quest. A minor thing: there's no 'A' in Yrden and Shile even pronounces it during the Kayran battle.
> You definitely missed out on the succubus quest
I did, too, due to the confusing layout of Vergen. I had no idea the area with the pond even existed for the longest time.
He probably didn't buy certain tools from the merchant. If I recall correctly, the game never yells at you that you need them in order to get the most out of the victim's corpse.
One thing you should mention is how the side quest are connected to the world an main story for example in that quest in the haunted mansion, if you go hand over Rupert and his friend to Loredo, you find out that his mother was the girl who made off with all the loot nilfgardians hid and used it to secure position for her son in Flotsam.
Omg after so many years I still remember that Kayran - goddd it was scary and it was one of the hardest and most annoying and most time consuming battles for me. Not that it's bad - just being so hard and dying 283@!#@8 times in one boss battle can be kinda demotivational.
*Dragon daddy Joe wants to know your location.
Gay
More player choice than Cyberpunk...
My thoughts on the, "Witchers don't kill dragons," thing is either that witchers don't kill dragons because they are more often than not sentient, they are just way too dangerous to be hunted alone, or some combination of the two.
1:34:19 Pretty sure the events you're referring to take place in the south, where Geralt wouldn't be recognized.
Great stuff. Just a thought, timestamps might be a nice inclusion for these longer videos, for those of us who can't always get to watching the whole thing at once. I realize there aren't clean sections for this, so maybe it's just not really doable. Just a thought. Keep up the good work!
But the video should just kick off where you left it.
I spent so long getting the dark mode specific armor in the first town only to discover it puts this OBNOXIOUS visual filter on your screen and even plays an annoying sound the entire time you have it equipped.
You haven't played the Witcher 2 unless you unequipped your boots by mistake and didn't notice Geralt running around barefoot for the last hour.
In the book: Geralt says "I don't kill dragons" not "Witchers don't kill dragons".
Hey chris i use drugs to enhance my self to am i witcher
If you have cat-eyes, yes.
Yes
Can you play Gwent?
Online the standard version the others are not canon
No
There isn't much difference in AC Odyssey's endings? Ummmm Yea there is. My first playthrough I kept all my family alive but I was surprised as hell on my second run when Kassandra stabbed my mom in the back when they were hugging. I was so sad that I reloaded and decided to fight Kassandra and not give her the chance to kill my mother. But in that ending she was pissed because I promised earlier that I would save Kassandra and she didn't want anything to do with me. I am actually surprised at how much choice Odyssey had.
iam surprised you didnt mention you can play neutral in witcher 1 and in witcher 2 you have to chose. i guess you didnt know its possible to play neutral in w1? because aloooot of people dont know that and its easy to fail.
[edit] oh and its clear the roche side is canon (even while i liked the other side more) just look at witcher3
I actually like TW2 over TW3 in terms of both combat and story. In terms of volume however, TW3 is unbeatable.
really well put.
I never got into the witcher 2, the combat really got to me and just killed my motivation to see it through. Which is strange because I loved the first game and it's way jankier.
Looking forward to what you have to say about 3 after all this now.
Loyal viewer here, reminding my favorite content creator of video game analysis, that we all egarly await the witcher 3 critique. This was the same as waiting for the mass effect 3 critique several months back. I just can't wait to hear your thoughts. Anywho dude, keep it up, your quality is exceptional. :)
About saskia's side not needing to clear the mist. The mist is expanding and it will eventually cover Vergen if not stopped. That's why they have to clear it.
My take on The secret that Triss was not telling is about Ciri rather than Yen, but it was my own interpretation knowing nothing about the books.
It may have been left open for the players to fill, which is a good whicher thing to do.
Anyone else find it difficult to reconcile the map at 1:52:11 with the world map of The Witcher III? I've spent literal minutes at a time trying to figure out how they correspond to each other - and while Verden and Skellige seem about right the land in between Verden and Novigrad seems a lot larger and Oxenfurt seems like it's moved completely. It's a bit of a headfuck.
Also - 1:53:48 lol
In terms of combat I think most of it revolves around working around getting backstabbed, I never really skilled the backstab damage reduction but as you point out the roll distance is vital. When in a dark mode playthrough basically all I do is invoke the spinning attack that you use to finish off the nekker at around 16:57 and then put distance. To do to the spin attack just run towards the left of your opponent then do a fast attack. It'll rapidly apply like 3 attacks which is insanely powerful. I think the signs are some of the weakest upgrades in the game as they're very powerful unenhanced. The alchemy tree is insanely overpowered but each to their own.
The amount of rolling around on the ground in Witcher is just so stupid I can barely get past it.
The bombs in The Witcher 2 were actually very good, much better in fact than signs. In particular the fire bomb, I don't remember the name but it dealt huge damage and staggered enemies so it was crucial for croud control with swarming fast enemies like nekkers, humans and harpies. Signs required points invested that you had to take away from the combat or alchemy tree. They were also very hard to make hit what you wanted properly when upgrading them to have AOE effects. For Aard and Igni especially, the enemies that were hit were determined by proximity to the targeted enemy as mechanics wise the Igni and Aard were still single target signs that added a spreading effect after casting. The only sign worth upgrading IMO was Quen, just for the damage it dealt when exploding which staggered enemies as well
1:37:55 that wasn't Zoltan.
I really don't understand the people who don't like when a game lets you experience the whole thing in one play through. Why would anyone want to play the whole game six times in a row? I haven't played Dragon Age Origins, but I played other similar games and I'm guessing six origin stories don't really affect the game in any major way and the game gives you, like, a unique dialog option every maybe 15 minutes or so? That doesn't really change the core gameplay in any meaningful way at all? I'm pretty sure for every unique opportunity your origin story gives you, there's like 20 events that are shared between every race. Why would I want to go through the same game six times in a row just to see unique event once in, like, 10-20 minutes?
It seems to me what you wanted from Dragon Age Origins is six different games for the price of one. Well, I'm sorry to say this, but those wild west times of extensive RPGs are long gone because the games are way way way too expensive to make.
So yeah, every game with an RPG tree better give me enough skill points to max out everything, because I'm sure as hell ain't going to sink a 1000 hours repeating the same main story over and over and over and over again just so I can see everything the game has to offer. That's fucking stupid.
The origin stories in DAO are not so long, just one or two hours, so one can play all 6.5 of them and later decide, which one to take. The differences between the origin stories in the playthrough are not changing the core mechanics, but they change the feeling, because they change people react at you. E.g. you enter the camp of the Dalish elves for the first time. If you are human. the Dalish are very hostile, only when they realize you're a grey warden, you may enter. If you're a dwarf, the will be a little friendlier, but not much. If you're a city elf they will acknowledge you're a fellow elf, but as you're not a Dalish, they will treat you with caution. But if you're a Dalish, they will call you "friend" and you're invited to the camp. And that happens with many encounters in all major areas and throughout the whole game. The correct choice of race and gender even determines (together with a whole bunch of dialogue options and some decisions, without the game giving you the slightest idea upfront how they play out - you have to rely on your intelligence and common sense) if a certain companion proposes to you, so that the couple of you become king and queen of Ferelden.
DAO is my number 2 of all RPGs between TW3 as #1 and TW2 as #3. I have about 20 complete playthroughs with most of them including Awakening and I play it at least once a year. I highly recommend it for the story and the meaningful choices to make. I love the gameplay, but I know the combat system is not everybody's cake.
I finished a third run on this game yesterday (doing the trilogy in one go). Perfect timing !
You've earned a subscriber
You completely misunderstand TW2's combat system. No, this game is not meant to be a traditional sword and shield game, far from it. It's combat is designed around mobility. You dive in with the stab, block the opponents strike, counter attack, roll away, cast a sign and rinse and repeat. If you stand around trying to hack and slash at an opponent, especially a group of opponents you're in for a long day of reloading. I'm playing the game at time of writing and I've been backstabbed once during the prologue as I relearned the controls. It's very easy to not get hit in this game. The key to this game is knowing what sign to cast when in combination with which strike against who with effective blocking is necessary especially on Dark Mode.
The Kayran fight is again on you, not the design. It has never once occurred to me to go up to the Kayran and try kill it, the thing spits poison. The logical path is to go up the rubble, that just makes perfect sense. That said I do agree it is a toxic fight because it whacks you with its non-killable tentacles. I also had the same situation were on my first playthrough I had to chop 4, my second was 3 but I noticed that whilst you have no say in the matter, you get one less piece of Kayran skin if you do 3, meaning you are unable to craft both the armour and the enhancement. In that it's badly done because you're not presented with a choice so you're forced to fight through that toxic boss fight again.
I would also recommend importing a TW1 save with the best armour and best swords, which will carry you through the Prologue, and contrary to this video's claim, so long as you don't have your best sword equipped during the Dragon scene, all your gear is recovered once you reach Flotsam. You have to re-equip your Silver Sword though. The Sorceress in TW1 is thought to be Phillipa since it's the same VA playing both parts, and the thing she doesn't want Geralt to know about is the Lodge which is pretty much confirmed if you rescue Triss in Loc Muinne. She states that Sile saw him as a threat to their plans.
Probably my most hated thing in TW2 is the game model for Letho which is just ridiculously OTT, and the generic tough guy voice the VA uses almost makes him seem like a parody. It also made no sense that he had an American accent (for that matter nor did it for Triss) since the American accent is meant to be a Rivian accent, something Geralt taught himself to give himself some kind of background. This was a mistake perpetuated continued in TW3. Letho is a Nilfgaardian, his accent should have reflected that. It's not that he's badly acted, but I wouldn't say it was great either, the performance failing to deliver any kind of nuance or emotion in it. Letho's quite a complex and sympathetic character but sadly the VA never manages to convey that through his performance. Just a point on Iorveth is not a freedom fighter because he's not fighting for equal rights for Elves, he's fighting to reclaim Elven civilisation and that boat has long since sailed by the time of TW series. Iorveth fights for vengeance, nothing more. Roche on the other hand is a professional, and does what he does for the love of country. Although never outright stated, I believe him to be a professional like Ves who kills Elves because that's his job, not because he's a racist. If his job was to kill Redanians he'd put just as much vigour into that as he does non-humans.
Geralt being a bodyguard, he tells you the reason to Roche in the prologue "Foltest isn't somebody you say no to". He doesn't really have that much of a choice. Plus there's also Triss to consider who at this point he is in love this. This is unequivocal because you have not yet been offered the choice not to be, that comes in Flotsam. The prologue is narratively linear. All in all, because I have to end this essay somewhere, TW2 is one of the best games ever made, one that is head and shoulders above the competition of its time. I really hope they do a full trilogy remake in the UE5 engine, not stop at the first game which will make sense since TW1 remake will be the best looking of the series.
About thinking you register a hit because batmans fist connects with the enemy... I've never thought this less than in the batman games. I press button to inflict damage and then watch an animation of how that happens to occur.
I think one of the great qualities of Witcher 2 is how it presents you information. If you have not read the books or played the previous games there is a lot of stuff you do not get. However you get enough to be really invested in the story. And then on multiple playthroughs you can piece everything together yourself and that includes the main events and character backgrounds (on of the biggest for me was that Saskia is the dragon, which is only revealed if you side with Iorweth which I didn't during my first go). But you also find out more about Geralt's mysterious backstory with Yennefer and the Wild Hunt. I learned of ALL these things from the memories of Geralt during Witcher 2 which was a phenomenal experience.
btw the love this game. I bought it on my 16th birthday first things first and played it at least 4 times.
1:20:15 You actually can puruse Loredo and kill him here too. It's another choice.
Can't wait for the 3 hour video on Witcher 3
One big ass freaking problem with the witcher 2: HOODS. Nobody in their right mind would wear a damn hood when swordfighting.
When you talk about replay value you have to understand that our "must play before I die" list gets larger and larger each day, we are living in an age where playworthy games are released every week. Second playthrough? That's nuts.
I used the second playthrough to build a totally different Geralt. Made it seem like a different game.
Instead of a rock creating a wave, I think it's more similar to a lot of small pebbles been thrown into the water. Where Geralt isn't the only one who made a different decision to start the other path.
Didn't finish watching yet, but. When mentioning QTE you need to mention that you can deactivate QTEs in settings.
I wished they remastered the the witchers for consoles man. I love two and did think they did better than three in some parts
ImarBenIsrael it’s a mix. Witcher 2 is more focused, and some might say better. Where Witcher 3 is broad and less refined. I find Witcher 3 reaches some great highs but also has much more mundane times. Idk it’s give and take, depending what you value
heliotrope is useless??? I found it very effective.
Absolutely loving this series, you are so underrated.
The ingredients should not be overlooked in alchemy. Some quest or crafting items you can only obtain once can be ingredients. You want to look out not to use them by mistake. It can make you lose a lot of coin on objects you'd normally get for free or even prevent you from crafting powerful great altogether
I really hated the potion mechanic, it only adds needless clicks and time wasting. They should have just put them on hotkeys but made them unavailable to be used in combat. The only thing that meditation/alchemy mechanic did for me was make me very, very, very rarely use potions and that sucks because the variety of potions is something you don''t see in other games and adds an interesting touch. There was no useful mechanic behind it that couldn't have been accomplished in a better way
1:59:34 Sheala is in Flotsam to find Letho as well.
Yes, he killed Foltest and went rogue, that wasnt in the lodge plan.
Good stuff!
"I am Henselt of Ard Carraigh, the last of the Unicorns. I won't beg for mercy."
in the distance, hear the laughter, it's the last unicorn
IM ALIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE IM ALIIIIIIIIIIVEEEE oh wait no I'm not
The problems with the combat in The Witcher 2 boil down to a few specific issues that are catastrophic when they overlap under very particular circumstances.
1. The 'lock-on' system. I emphasize the locking-on aspect because you don't manually lock-on to enemies; the enemy you are targeting is arbitrarily decided based on the direction you're facing when you initiate an attack.
2. The silly fucking attack animations Geralt does that send you hurtling over the enemy you were actually trying to attack, slicing thin fucking air behind them as Geralt tries to attack an enemy 100 feet away... you know, because of how the game decides what enemy you're targeting.
3. The attack damage cone that projects out of Geralt's character model at a time that almost never actually syncs with whatever attack animation Geralt is currently engaged in, resulting in an enemy visibly taking damage well before an attack animation is completed, or your sword passing right through an enemy as they smash your dick with an attack of their own.
4. The dice roll with what sort of attack Geralt decides to do, with almost no way to control what Geralt does once you press an attack button, outside of signs. You will often either do a ridiculous roll WHILE REMAINING IN PLACE 5 feet from an enemy, or stand in place, again, swinging at empty air while you are trying to attack an enemy 10-15 feet away.
In fact, signs seem to be the only predictable thing Geralt CAN do, as he won't spin around like a dipshit before casting a sign. This is a damn shame, because you can't possibly expect anyone to kill everything with Igni.
The Witcher 2 is a phenomenal game with some of the worst combat I've ever seen in a game. It's a success DESPITE the wet fart that is combat.
Am I the only one who knows just by the RUclipsr name before starting the video, that it's gonna be some bloke from the UK..I dunno why, but I'm always right like 90% of the time that it is..Then I get disappointed sadly and usually click off the vid..Which is odd cuz I LOVE RKG and those are 3 very distinct accents and none bother me in the least.. Amazing lads!!! But something about your kind doing critiques is not pleasing to my ignorant American ears ;) ust my 2 cents that know one cares or asked about lolz..
Picked up The Witcher 3 a few years ago for $10 on clearance. Just started playing it... And it's daunting, having never played the Witcher series before. I also picked up The Witcher 2 on sale for Xbox for $1.99. I then find out that it's another 60-100 hour game...
I think W2 combat is better than in W3. Yeah, i said it.
I finished it last week and didn't enjoy it at all. Completely disagree with you on the journal, I feel like the writing style made it impossible sometimes to figure out what exactly I had done and what I needed to do. There were also a bunch of quests that it told me I had completed, only to show as failed at the end of the chapter. The minimap is also garbage, I played Iorveth's path and running around the city trying to get to places was an absolute chore.
Compared to the first game the graphical jump is incredible, the story is still pretty interesting and the combat was definitely better. But in terms of gameplay it was so bad I kinda just wanted it to be over so I could move on to finally playing The Witcher 3. Only a couple hours into that but so far nothing that's happened in the 2nd game has come up/mattered as far as I can tell. I've only played the first game but never read the books so maybe that's part of the problem for me but it will be a while before I willingly come back to this game, even to experience the other path.
Bioware did the multiple story twist in SWTOR as well.
'The Witcher' s Code' is something Geralt made up to... Get away with his decisions. In books it's mostly used for comedic effect - the people usually have no idea about the witchers and since many guilds have codes and rules, it makes sense for them :). Geralt is quite pragmatic on occasions.