You can't even take a short cut between two trees in the tutorial. There are many invisible corridors, too.

Whats the point? I mean, you're essentially starting in the middle of a story. Play Mass effect 2 before the original? It's quite silly.

Sorry to hear. I liked it and think it's one of the better. Sure it is repetitive and has not much depth apart maybe from the conflict of humans vs. non-humans and choosing a side in this, but I have this complaint about almost every CRPG I ever played (including Bioware titles). Can anyone suggest CRPGs that are non-repetitive and depthful?

The german voice acting was quite good. The voice of Witcher had a certain vibrancy which I liked, the same with Triss, but unfortunately they changed the voice of Triss in the second part (to the worse).

The fighting system I could endure. Clicking at a given visual signal is kind of simple but at least a bit challenging. Just pure clicking-orgies as in many other CRPGs (Jade Empire comes to mind or Witcher 2) is even worse. I could manage it and still need to find CRPGs with better fighting systems. Again if anyone has suggestions, please post them.

I own it but am yet to try it. It's very much towards the end of my backlog. This thread saddens me a little, I assumed it would be extremely good, but I also suspect I have much lower standards/expectations compared to most people.

Oh yes, you're right, tutorial is very linear. But the game opens up a lot ofter that.
Play TW2 on harder difficulties. If you can get trough the fights by clicking repeatedly, you're either cheating or incredibly lucky :D

I don't agree. You can't go back to earlier acts. I won't list all the corridors and fake landscapes here, because there are too many. It's also a console game at the same time. it not an open world, but restricted sections knotted together. Still it's good enough and more open than many competitors.

I agree the Witcher games aren't open world games, but I don't think that makes them linear.

The storyline of Witcher 2 is probably the most branching and replayable I've ever experienced. True, it takes place in more or less the same environs, but you experience them in very different ways - especially chapter 2 - depending on your choices in the story.

I loved the first game, felt really special to me when I played it

You just have to go into the game with the right mindset and attitude

I just hope the 3rd game will capture the Atmosphere and feel of the first game

Well... Yes, that's pretty much what I'm saying. Non-linearity of TW comes from the story, since it contains very non-linear storytelling (yes, even story progresses along a ton of different threads, but they intervene and influence each other (thus the inability to move freely between areas, but the areas themselves are still pretty open.) As to the existence of invisible walls, that's true. But you still get a fairly large area encapsulated beneath these walls, especially the first act, and as for the 'linear paths' - those 'linear' paths cross, join together and split again, allowing you to traverse entire locations pretty muh in any manner you see fit. It's hardly a corridor, and while it's definitely not open world, it's not linear either.

Since you're German, it's kinda hard to believe you haven't played the two Drakensang games :) You should definitely give them a try, both Drakensang and Drakensang: Am Fluss der Zeit. It uses 3rd Edition DSA rulest I think. Very well thought out and deep system, if you ask me. I was so sad that they raped the Drakensang name into that horrible browser run diablo clone.

You brougt up Witcher and I remembered something. Does Geralt also scratch his ears every 5 seconds in TW2? I hope voice acting is better in the sequel, cause it's totally meh in part 1.

Both voice acting and gestures are way better and more natural in the sequel.

I thought the voices were good, but yeah, there were some parts that just sounded like they were being read. And I get annoyed (but not too much) when voice actors don't know how to properly interrupt each other.

"Yeah, but I don't see - " ...... long pause...... then someone else butts in.

But I love the game. I find it interesting, engrossing, fun, and replayable. One of the best, in my opinion.

I hate Skryim, though. Couldn't stand it. So really, as with just about anything, it comes down to personal taste.

I played the first part. I liked that you can open a console and see what the dice are doing and which part of the body is hit. Reminded me on Baldurs Gate. But still it doesn't mean that fights are exciting or diverse or require skills. I remember not much from Drakensang actually so I cannot comment more.

Have your reached the swamp yet? If you're not enjoying it in Vizima, you're going to drop it like a brick when you reach the swamp.

I did finish the game and found the story interesting enough to keep me playing it without stopping for too long, but the combat does feel repetitive and the level improvements are pretty much number or percentage increases to stats, but other than that, I liked the quests, the 'chose between bad and worse' situations and the final outcome. Don't force yourself to play it if you're not liking it though, just move on. You can find out all the story details online and be up to speed if you want to play the sequel.