Things I love about The Witcher 2:
The Story
Once again, it is obvious that the CDPR people are working hard to bring games that show conflict and tackle tough social subjects. The plot that I have seen is lovely and complex. The player choices seem to be even more crucial in this game than in the last. I would say that the story has matured (gotten better with age and experience) in TW2. One of the best parts of both games is the conversations overheard while walking around. I love the one-liners that so many NPCs have in both games. I appreciate that there is a much larger variety in these atmospheric conversations in TW2 than they were able to do in TW1. My personal favorite atm is the cook talking about a sheep in act one, followed by the entire Vergan area. What a riot to listen to those guys.

The Sound Track—Both games have excellent soundtracks. Someone is really tuned into the atmosphere that the game was trying to portray. While I thought the soundtrack for TW1 was excellent (and I still do) the new soundtrack is perfectly suited to this game. It seems to have been specially designed to increase motivation to this game.

The Graphics—there is absolutely no doubt that the graphics are so much finer in TW2. Even with my limpy system, there is a beauty that is undeniable. Good Lord the guys at CDPR must have been drawing and fixing things in their sleep to create all of the visual goodies that we have now. The skin textures and the details on each creature and stone wall are undeniably beautiful. The armors and weapons look so much more detailed than before. As a desert dweller, I have an affinity to the wooded area of act one. I long to be there, even with the pests that seem to fall out of the trees intent on making me dinner for the kiddies. Those spider- things are lovely. Even little things like the kettles and the texture on the walls are wonderful.

The Combat—I like that there are more choices in bombs and throwing knives. I really like that all signs from TW1 are there to use at the beginning. I thought I would not like not having a group style , but I have decided that when the character build and enhancements and so on are all done well, there is nothing missing.

The Atmosphere –Yes, the game is dark and that is what we all want anyway. I find it refreshing that all of the baddies are not obvious and the heroes are flawed. Dandelion is so much better fleshed as a character and Zoltan's crushing defeat in the battle of the inlaws is good too. Even the fighters and whores have stories it seems. This encourages me as a player to participate in talking to each one to see what is what. And Omgosh I was astounded with the event/climax of the Prologue and the ending of the game. (You know what I mean, not gonna tell all here)

The Love that went into creating the game Is obvious. CDPR shows that all involved in making the story have a love for the players and for the material they work with. I know they got paid for doing what they love, but there is something I always try to remember about games. That is, they had families that lived the production of this game with them too. I am certain there were times when they came home frustrated or cranky or exuberant. I for one am so happy they stuck with the project to completion.


Things I miss from The Witcher 1
The Alchemy System—I was one of those who went around collecting every flower and buying all the alcohol I could find just to experiment with the potions. I got really good at creating potions with secondary attributes and making recipes that sounded like full course meals. I miss the Rubido, Albedo, Negredo attributes for the potions now. I miss drinking and buying beer and those things too. I really do not understand the reason for the barmaids anymore in TW2, since all they offer is junk that does not help anything.

The Combat System—I miss the timing of the combat, but even more I miss the wonderful animations that went with successful chained attacks. I miss the heads rolling away.

The Immersion—I don't feel as connected to these characters in the same way I did before. There was something in the first game that made me care about all of the friends and monsters that I am missing in this game. I have yet to find anyone in this game as wonderfully unexpected as the talking Ghoul, Vaska or the old Lady at Shani's house. I don't see anyone as obviously abrasive as Thaler , Coleman or Ramsmeat. I still have not found the friendlies like the druids and the Lady of the Lake in TW2 either. I did not see anything like the storyline where Shani has a party, those things were wonderful and I just do not see them here in TW2.

The Sex Yes, I am aware that some countries have issues with this topic and other morality topics. I know the developers walk a fine line of what is acceptable and what is not. I did think that there was a better selection of who and where in the first game. Geralt could have been using this ability to his advantage instead of the way it is handled so far in TW2. I must say, the scenes we do have in TW2 are beautifully rendered and choreographed, I just miss being able to bribe with diamonds and so on. So far, I am not enjoying this aspect of the game as much as I did in the other game. I would even controversially state that for me the scene of suggestion in the first game was 'hotter' in some ways than these beautiful scenes we have now. I do appreciate that someone had to draw and create these scenes and I just prefer the other game's approach.

Geralt's fine rear end—Really We spend hours and hours looking at Geralt from this side of him, so yes I really liked his shape better in the older game.

The Auto Run Feature- This is pretty self explanatory. I just find it inconvenient to have to hold a button to move, when so many games make the auto run/walk an option.

The minimap and medallion features—I miss the marks for the places of power. I must need more time with the game in order to see how the minimap actually helps at all in TW2. Mine just spins around and I never really know where I am headed until I run into something.

The Tutorial section—TW2 has no tutorial. The prologue is not a tutorial, it is a backstory for the rest of the game with hints about mechanics in the game. I wonder if players who did not play TW1 would know nearly as well what is expected if this is all they have to go by. I thought the Kaer Moren area of TW1 did an excellent job of showing the player how to use the game's systems.

The Ability to Choose a Perspective—again, this is self explanatory. The ability to use the F keys to change the perspective was a plus I am sorry they did not use it in TW2.

The Variety Of Monsters—no alps, no wolves, few drowners, no scary plants, really not so many underground places to go into and find creatures that we can fight. I have many replays to see what there is, so maybe I just missed these in the first round.

The Talent Tree—I am not opposed to the new talent tree. It seems fine. I just liked the older one better. It seemed more tailored for the game. Again, with only one play through, perhaps I will understand the Talent Tree better over time.

The Inventory System—this system we have now for TW2 is so obviously for those who play with a controller. I liked the little boxes that were sortable and could be organized. I miss having a place to store stuff especially after the middle of act 2 when even imported items are not as good as what one can win or craft. But I will never ever get rid of my silver sword and ravens armor since I am emotionally attached to them.


About me—I am a 45 year old female player. I spent long lovely hours with TWEE and I was looking forward to playing TW2 for a very long time. This list is just a personal reflection about the differences in the two games. I am not expecting anyone to agree or start an argument over anything I am saying here, though I expect some may feel compelled to do so. I just want the people at CDPR to know that there are things that are missing in this version that some of us really miss having. I am not the best gamer in the world, I would not say I have any right to claim I am even a good player, since I have only been playing games for about six years or so.
At this point, I am on my second run of the second game. Edit: Silly me, I forgot about the actual review rating number-- for me, i would say it is about an 8.6 as released, and knowing CDPR it will probably go higher with additional dlc they tend to do. I would not be surprised at an eventual 9.6 ish rating.


What computer I am using to play:
Dell Inspiron 580
Intel core i3 540@3.07 GHz
4 GB RAM
64-bit version of WIN 7
GPU is a ATI Radeon HD 3650 all settings on low

Nicely written review.

Especially one point I find interesting, because many mention it, the immersion part. I think it may also be in part due to two problems... at least for me.

First of all the recovering memory bits, apart from not everyone liking the drawing aspect, but it is exceedingly important for the witcher, but not the player. If you're not a fan of the books, you don't really care about what's happened there, there is no real emotional connection, that binds to this part of the game, which should be one of the very important parts of your journey and make the whole Triss emotional subplot more challenging.

And the second are your friends.. they are fun you remember them from the first game and apart from the very first scene in flotsams tavern they really are underused characters. I would love to learn more about them, spend more time with them, find out what happened to Shani. Even Triss with her obvious "bonding" characteristics gets lost very early in the game. So all we get to bond with in this world, are not unfriendly but certainly not completely likeable allys in form of Iorveth or Vernon and even they are more distant advisors poping in to sometimes try evoke emotions, we really can't develop with them.

You should stop seeing this game as an open world RPG
Unlike witcher 1, witcher 2's event are always in a rush.
Geralt is actually very short on time in these events so he exploring the places and fight variety of monsters are actually unrealistic. What we had is already a given, given the story we have.

My only disappointment is the contradiction between alchemy and inventory weight.
They give us a game heavy on alchemy but not storehouse and enough weight to carry stuffs. Furthmore, stuffs disappear from merchants and the ground too fast. Earning money through gambling is also a heavy bother.

I wouldnt talk about graphic problems, tho. Cuz that's fault on my part for not having an alienware.

To Laverre-- thank you for reading and the compliment. I agree about the memory issue and the lack of importance of our friends past a certain point. Somehow, I forgot to mention those points, but I was thinking something quite similar.


To iamin7ove-- I do not understand what you mean. I would call an open world rpg something like Oblivion or Morrowind. In this game, I never felt rushed to complete anything, since the NPC who wants us to go do something will always wait nearby until we join them to continue the story. As I said, somehow I am just not clear about your comment.

The Immersion: oh how I miss Thaler and his ploughin business.

Variety of monsters: aye, indeed, and same with the underground locations.

Talent tree: Same. The first game had a much better sense of progression, whereas in Witcher 2 you get a skill point generally when you complete a main story quest. It's kinda disappointing, as many skills are not worth it (or not worth wasting points to get to them).

Inventory system: yeah, inventory tetris was pretty cool, and it worked. Though, one would argue that the amount of loot types in witcher 2 far outnumbers the types in witcher 1, so it wouldn't have worked as well. Still, it needs a lot of tweaking, as it stands.

I have to mention that I finished the game 3 times, so far.

That's all I have to say. Witcher 1 reminders were a trip down memory lane.

I have a similar set up as you but a ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5400 Series card.

How did it run on medium or high?

Thanks for reading and commenting. I just assumed that my card was under the published minimums and I have not even tried to go to Medium or High. After all, I think the 3850 is listed as minimum which would have more processing ability than my card has. I do know many other potential players had this exact same card before the original forums went away for their update of undetermined length, and those players were concerned they would not be able to play at all. I have not had any issues with the 1.0 release, however, the 1.1 patch did make the game unstable for me, and I did have to delete all and redownload. Hope this helps some.

The game just makes it feel relaxing. In reality, Geralt should be more rushed in clearing his name and saving Triss. Normally, people wouldn't consider doing part time job while they are wanted or their gf got kidnapped right?

MY point is that hugh difference between witcher 1 and 2 is that in witcher 2, geralt is always led in a rush by the nose by likes of Letho and SIle , Eilhart which always kidnaps your allies.
while in 1, he was a free wandering soul

ok , yes , that is much clearer to me now. I think I can see what you mean. I do think I could have been better at following the Kidnapping, but I got led astray by other factors. Ah well, that is what replaying is for . Thank you for reading and replying.