I did, three times. Cheers! ;)

ps. It's Witcher > Witcher 2, but that doesn't mean i didn't enjoy the sequel.

+1.

I'm also one of the guys who think the Witcher 1 is better than the Witcher 2. And yes, kizuxtheo, I did finish the game. :-)

Needless to say though that the Witcher 2 is also a very good game and that the Witcher 3 is superior to both.

I know that many people thought that the combat system sucked in the first Witcher game but I thought it was actually a lot better than in the second game once you got the hang of it. Proper placing of yourself in relation to your opponent(s), use of situation appropriate signs/potions at the right time and selecting the right weapon and combat style for the opponent mattered a lot more than your reaction speed. In the Witcher 2 combat felt quite a bit more arcadey.

I'd say try to give the game another chance. But you don't really have to play the series starting from the first game. While it helps getting to know the characters and the world it isn't absolutely necessary.

I did and find it a great game. I have yet to finish the 2nd one (played Chapter I and some of II), but I guess I'll rate the 1st one as the better of the two.


You should roll to move faster in The Witcher 2.

Hah! Five times. What say you to that, eh?
The first one did alchemy right. Always looked for those additional substances. Oh, and I absolutely love the change of pace and setting in the fourth chapter. The second game is shorter, but more compact. And it can be difficult at times. Losing focus is out of the question. Also, the ending was much better. At least there was no cliffhanger. I was determined to keep my word given at the very beginning and that's what I did. And what about Mavrick? Or Anezka? Or a particular quest that takes place somewhere in the forest near Flotsam? "Pig hearts? I suppose there'd be some poetic justice in that."
Both are good games, though I'd rate the second one higher. Obvious improvement in several areas: graphics, gameplay, voice acting, dialogue, world design, you name it. Except alchemy.
Still disappointed there was no Heliotrope sign in the third installment.

The English translations are a bit spotty as well, but they get the point across. Of course, some I read as fan translations before the actual books were released. Strangely I liked those better than the books released. The fan translations left the bard's name as Jaskier while the official books changed it to Dandelion. Jaskier translates to Buttercup, and I understand that doesn't sound like a male name, but I really didn't see the necessity to change the name in the first place. Geralt is still Geralt after all.

I tip my hat to you, sir! ;)

Useful to know.

I might just.

Re: the slow movement speed, it wasn't a commentary on the walking speed in general. The start of the second chapter has reduced movement speed because you're moving through a sewer, and I just found it tedious. I was very unhappy with the game on the heels of the previous chapter's boss fight, which had a difficulty spike and an unskippable cutscene prior to it, and my patience with the game was wearing incredibly thin.

You are right there, I didn't enjoy too much the sewers part, but other locations are much better. I remember being fond of locations like Fields and Murky Waters in Chapter IV.

Regarding the walking speed, I don't remember how it was in Witcher 1 (I played it probably 7 years ago), but in Witcher 2 I've found myself rolling quite often in the open areas of Chapter II. Maybe because rolling is invaluable in combat, so you kinda get used to it.

That pretty much mirrors my own experience with TW1. Adding to that was all the walking to and fro in the farmlands where you were strictly limited to the long linear walkways and couldn't take shortcuts across the pastures. And in the next chapter, all the houses you could enter, the containers you could loot without any of them offering something worthwhile (but how can you know for sure until you've looked?).

I took a long break somewhere in the city chapter due to boredom and now I can't get back into it because the journal overwrote the entry containing the general information on what my current quest is about with a very specific quest stage entry that doesn't help at all ...