Honestly, why I see so many people that dislike The Witcher 2?

[Maddy]

I like to follow some forums on steam to help and hear other people’s opnion on the games, but the thing I most see in the The Witcher 2 forums are people complaining how bad the game is.

Seriously why? They say the gameplay it’s awfull when it’s just hard.

They say that the story it’s bad when they didn’t even played the first act completly.

They say that the first game it’s better, but they don’t seem to understand that they did the changes to see what would be good or bad for the tird game. Besides if they didn’t change a thing the developter would have a lot of complains about it too.

I’ve played and seem much worse games that this, and it’s really a pitty so many people just like to say bad things about it.

(Poor Roche,Geralt & Iorveth, they’re such good characters)

[Chunkarock]

Personal opinions and one's tastes can affect how they can enjoy the game. That's just a habit that many people have and we really can't change anything about that.

[DogMeat]

I'm enjoying the story and the decisions that can be made druing it but I'm absolutely hating the combat system and I dread every boss battle. While I almost never do it I've just lowered the difficulty to easy because I'm sick of reloading for boss fights.

Maybe I'm just not 'getting it' but it seems like almost every battle requires metagaming prep work.

[Maddy]

Originally posted by Centurio:

Personal opinions and one's tastes can affect how they can enjoy the game. That's just a habit that many people have and we really can't change anything about that.

I understand this, but for some reason I see this happening a lot with the witcher 2 and praticanly nothing with other games. (I follow several forums on steam about various games and at least this big forum it's the one that I see more complains)

[Maddy]

Originally posted by DogMeat:

I'm enjoying the story and the decisions that can be made druing it but I'm absolutely hating the combat system and I dread every boss battle. While I almost never do it I've just lowered the difficulty to easy because I'm sick of reloading for boss fights.

Maybe I'm just not 'getting it' but it seems like almost every battle requires metagaming prep work.

Indeed. I confess I played on easy the first time, and now playing as normal it's really a challenge so I get your point. The system gets better on the tird game though.
Also, this game it's considered the hardest game of the franchise.

[adnoam]

It's all subjective.

For example - for me, the combat in W2 is not only better than W1 but also better than in W3.
I've never had control problems in W2 - the character did exactly what I needed exactly when I pressed the right key. But in W3 it's much less fluid and and there are many control problems. e.g. Geralt rolling in a different direction than the one I chose (once it was over a cliff :-)); Signs not being cast no matter how much I press 'Q', etc.

I realize others had a better experience in W3 combat than W2, so I'm not claiming W2 is "better". I'm saying that W2 is "better for me". (at least the combat. and the story. and characters. and the pacing. But if only W2 Geralt knew how to automatically open doors.. :-))

[Brian LeFevre]

When I first played TW2 I absolutely hated it. The game seemed interesting but I hated the combat and I barely played through the Flotsam section before I stopped playing. When 3 came out I decided to try it again, and once I got used to the combat I loved the game. Finished it and then went and bought 3.

TL;DR, It took me a while to get used to the game, some people may have the same issue and therefore dislike the game

[stcaFylnO]

In an attempt to be unbiased, likes and dislikes, along with comparisons between W1 and W2 are stacking up in another thread. They may share a universe, characters, story, genre, etc., but W2 is a major overhaul... completely different.

Is it the worst game ever? No. Is it the best game ever? No. Is it worth playing if purchased at a huge discount? Yes. Are these games difficult? No, just be prepared; if you think you are prepared, prepare even more and know before you go (books and if necessary kills for knowledge).

See the following: http://steamcommunity.com/app/20920/discussions/0/487876568229035600/

[Migz - DH]

I got bored with the story, writing, and over-sexualized world; annoyed with a dialog system which has timers and options which don't reflect what the character will actually say; and disinterested in Geralt and his issues enough during the prologue to not play it again since June, so I can't say whether the game turns out to be decent by the end or not, but at this rate, I might never find out as I have zero interest in continuing.

[TheTrippyHippie]

yea i agree i dont go much on all the cut scene stuff .. i mean how boaring is that crap !! although saying that witcher 3 is even worse for movie cut parts ... so much so i get boared of watching it and turn the game off ... i mean ffs if i wanted to watch a movie i would of rented a far better one than this crap lol .. just bring back gaming and less of this crap cut scence stuff .. its just boaring and a waste of my and the programmers time.

[therussmeister]

Once I got my settings tweaked I didn't have a problem with the controls, although it did take a while before I felt comfortable with them. When I first started the game I had lousy frame rates and it was almost unplayable.

Some of the set fights that have you trapped in a small area have places where the camera gets blocked by foliage, I can't see how the devs allowed that. You have limited room to dodge or maneuver and if you go to this spot....you're blind! Stupid. But overall I've really enjoyed the game.

[stcaFylnO]

I have been enjoying the game for various reasons, but all in all, it is hard to recommend without a huge disclaimer. One of the biggest problems, is that it could have been a top quality game, but I get the feeling it is "shovel-ware"; the publisher had to get it out by a certain deadline, so they did. As a result, it isn't really a matter of needing a little more polish, it is more like they couldn't even be bothered to finish the features.

If this game was a school project, I'd give it a C; since it is not a school project, what does that mean? W2 still manages to get ~87% for aggregate scores; I think critics and consumers are being far too lenient on devs/publishers.

There are a lot of design issues:
Inconsistencies, UI issues, redundant screens with scattered information, bugs, poor formatting and layout in screens, worst target-lock feature ever, half designed combat system (it needs much more work), HUD information that fades too quickly and no player settings to adjust behavior, no permanent log to reference, not all tutuorials get logged to journal, use of a fog-distance-limiter when not required, lack of common details (like star filled sky), no dead-zone setting for thumb-sticks, the heinous save system and bugs, spawn/respawn issues, quest breakage even with virtually independant and short modular design.... Most people only read one short sentence anyway, so this block of text should suffice.

On the other hand, I give huge Kudos to the devs stepping out and performing such a huge overhaul, a full PC UI with many more controller interactions than commonly available (rather than dumbing down the interface to the least common denominator), a much better engine and graphics, some of the artwork is fabulous, improvements and expansions to combat and gear, weight based inventory (allows carrying more weapon and armor variety), mass prouducion in alchemy mixer, a ridiculously low number of quest bugs compared to any Elder Scroll game....

[DogMeat]

Originally posted by stcaFylnO:

If this game was a school project, I'd give it a C; since it is not a school project, what does that mean? W2 still manages to get ~87% for aggregate scores; I think critics and consumers are being far too lenient on devs/publishers.

I think there are a few reasons people go nuts over this series. There is very little competition in the cinematic action RPG genre. You have Mass Effect, Alpha Protocol and thats about it. The Witcher, despite its gameplay flaws is the only one with a hard M rating that appeals to adults, immature or otherwise, and provides real tangible consequences to decisions vs. a lot of other games that have little to no consequences to important decisions.

I'm in no way defending the gameplay... I frankly hate it so far and find it to be nothing more than a barrier to the next conversation where I get to make a decision. Thats... sad because I love gameplay and I frankly hate how cinematic games have become lately so it speaks volumes that I'm loathing this game when it gives me actual gameplay.

[stcaFylnO]

I agree DogMeat.

I mean, hell, I am still playing it. But, I also log multi-thousands of hours over many decades in X-Com: UFO Defense and Jagged Alliance 2. Why? Like you say... few offerings to choose from.

So yeah, if W2 is on sale and time is not an issue, I recommend it. If nothing else, it is one of the few offerings you mentioned and if nothing else, it is educational... as in, what to do and not to do in games.

[Migz - DH]

Originally posted by DogMeat:

provides real tangible consequences to decisions vs. a lot of other games that have little to no consequences to important decisions.

oO This was what I wrote in my review of The Witcher earlier this year regarding the importance of decisions and what they meant to the game:

Decisions - This felt contrived and like an attempt to be like BioWare.

• The decisions at first seemed like they were going to be hugely important but ultimately weren't.
• When I thought they were going to be very important, I had a difficult time making decisions, because I wanted to see what the ramifications were going to be.
• I wouldn't have been so tempted to do that if the decisions and ramifications made sense, but sometimes, you do something, and a completely opposite effect from what you'd think would happen occurs. Also, sometimes, you'd choose to do something, and it'd feel like it should be important, but it turns out not to be. Then, something which seems little suddenly turns into a major faction-choosing moment.
• However, after I realized that the decisions only affected flavor (One lover vs. another; one bad faction vs. another bad faction) instead of what the course of the game was going to be (stop a war vs. allow it to build and get worse), the decisions no longer mattered, so I just picked whatever seemed fine at the time.

While the results of the decisions were, indeed, tangible, I felt like they were very unimportant by the time I finished The Witcher.

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Originally posted by DogMeat:

The Witcher, despite its gameplay flaws is the only one with a hard M rating that appeals to adults, immature or otherwise

This was what I wrote about The Witcher's mature rating:

Geralt can have sex with dozens of women during the game. I thought it was actually pretty silly and made me feel like the game was oriented towards teenagers rather than adults, but meh, whatever.

The Witcher 2 made me feel exactly the same way since it started out with an unclothed Triss in a tent in the middle of an army camp.

[stcaFylnO]

I see your points Digz, but in W1, I was pulled more into deciding what really was the least of two evils. I was intrested in choosing the most Witcher-ish path and straddled the fence as much as possible. In W2, it seems like I had to decide on one of two paths and never crossing the boundary or possibly running into issues; I'm not even sure if I can ever change sides anymore, so it doesn't matter.

As for doing what if analysis (WIA) in dialouges:
I have to resort to WIA a lot. There is a quest called Little Sisters. It looked like they pulled the quest from W1, white washed it, but didn't really evaluate it well. Basically, only do what the prompt tells you to, in the order it tells you, at the times it tells you. Additionally, don't have items evaluated, don't accuse anyone, don't try to flesh out the dialouges, just get both parties togehter and pick the correct solution, even if it doesn't really make sense due to not investigating fully... all of a sudden, the quest resolves perfectly. Odrin is another example, where I just tried each choice till to find the ones that passed, but there was no real clues as to what would work while talking to the gate guard.

Ah yes, Bioware... a little Jade Empire anyone? :)

As for the nudity and sexual situations, I find it mildly amusing, but not a selling point.