I Need a Testament: Witcher 2

Just curious if anyone would like to quickly testify about their Witcher 2 experiences, good or bad. I loved the first game (to be honest I hated the first 10 hours, but then put another 40ish in after that I believe). I am a bit confounded by the combat controls (and can't decide between controller or mouse+keyboard) but figure that likely fades away. I am in the prologue at the moment and have twice gotten stuck in the environment and had to restart the prologue. I can re-commit and see it through but would like to hear folks' thoughts.

People love Witcher 1. People love Witcher 3. Just checking in- is Witcher 2 equally awesome and worth giving a whirl?

I thought there was a clear progression in overall quality from first, second to third. I doubt many people that loved the first didn’t like the second. Personally I thought it was significantly better.

I prefer the original, but think the second has better combat, certainly. It's not good combat, mind you, and I wasn't as interested in the story. Witcher 3 is a muuuuuuch better game from the original two as budgets and experience increased, but I'm not a huge fan of playing the actual game. I think it does some stuff really well, but being Geralt is a chore.

I did not like Witcher 1 at all. I tried it twice and stopped in Act 3 both times.

Witcher 2, on the other hand, I actually got into and managed to beat. There was a sticking point in Flotsam, but once I got past that, I sailed to the end. I think it is a better game and story than Witcher 1.

Am I misremembering, or did CDPR back-port the combat and/or controls from Witcher 3 into Witcher 2 at some point?

I like all 3. They are somewhat different from each other, but each got its charm (and their issues). Stick with it if you liked the first.

There are combat mods for Witcher 2 as well, if that is something you want to try out. Such as https://www.moddb.com/mods/masterwit...
Also as far as I recall, inventory and carry weight is tedious in the game; https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher2/m... or https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher2/m...

All, thanks for the recommendations and comments.

garion333 wrote:

I prefer the original, but think the second has better combat, certainly. It's not good combat, mind you, and I wasn't as interested in the story. Witcher 3 is a muuuuuuch better game from the original two as budgets and experience increased, but I'm not a huge fan of playing the actual game. I think it does some stuff really well, but being Geralt is a chore.

All I hear you saying is "Skip Witcher 2 and play the good one." Could be that's what I am looking to hear.

merphle wrote:

Am I misremembering, or did CDPR back-port the combat and/or controls from Witcher 3 into Witcher 2 at some point?

I wondered about the controls. I recall that when it came out (within the first month or two, it seems like) they pushed out an update to drastically update and change the combat controls. Folks mostly seemed happy with the fix. Based on what I am playing now, and assuming I am playing with the updated controls, the original controls must have been really, really bad.

Shadout wrote:

mods

I may have to give that a try.

So far I don't hate it and I'll give it more of a chance tonight. The glitchiness of becoming entangled with the environment in two places (in the prologue) is rough. Hopefully just bad luck on my part that will dissipate with time.

Witcher 2 is well worth playing still, I'd say. It's also a lot shorter than Witcher 1, so it's not like you have a massive slog ahead of you.

Played it, rolled the credits and played again with the opposite path. Needless to say I lived it.

Controller all the way.

THey're both good for different reasons. Witcher 2 was a little more linear and shorter though but I enjoyed it lots.

However, neither can compete with 3, which is one of the best games I've ever played in my life.

Witcher 1 - I played through twice. I loved everything it was trying to do and that made up for it's obvious faults. Also, out of all the "East European PC games that try way harder than their resources allow" that were coming out in the mid-2000's, I feel like it came the closest to competing with the AAA guys, so I was glad to support it.

Witcher 3 - It worked for me on many levels with only a few tiny niggles. It was all killer, no filler, and out of the open-worldish games I've played, I actually felt immersed enough to take slow horse rides to every location and avoid fast travel.

Witcher 2 - I hated it. I made multiple attempts and always gave up after about 5-8 hours. The combat is hokey, the narrative is insanely boring, the inventory management is cumbersome. I finally watched a summary video on YouTube and I'm glad I did because boy could I not care less about where the story goes.

I bounced hard off of Witcher 1 and 2 after less than 10 hours each, multiple attempts. Combat difficulty and getting into the stories were my main complaints.
Witcher 3 was incredible and I put in well over 100 hours including New Game+. Combat took some getting used to.

I bounced off Witcher 1 after a dozen or so hours. Because of that I didn't pick up the second game until 3 had been out for a few years. But...

I then played through both Witcher 2 and 3 in succession and loved both of them. Witcher 2 is short and linear -- maybe 20 hours. I thought it still looked good and played fine with a controller. Like I said, I played it immediately prior to 3 and found it to be a good lead-in to that game.

I thought Witcher 2 was eventually superb but took a while to get into. I never played Witcher 1 but once I got my head around the witcher world I was hooked. I never loved the combat but learned to live with it.

Witcher 3 was a lot easier to get in to, and is also a superb game, but in the end I preferred the Witcher 2 for its denser environments and snappier story. So I'd say it's worth sticking with at least until Act 2.