Posted June 10, 2011
Okay, a few observations, but some of my suggestions may require some development time. feel free to add on or ridicule as you see fit:
1. Fist Fighting - I found this ti be a bit of a disappointment. Almost a last minute effort. Simple "hit the key within 1.5 seconds of it flashing a key whose labeling is in an area on the screen which is not that easy to see with varying background contrast to the A,W,S,D,(space bar). If you had MOVES that could be triggered with key combination or mouse keys while allowing the character to move and stalk the opponent, that would be some SERIOUS wresteling. As it was, it felt a little "cheap" in terms of control (or lack thereof). I realize that actually allow a character to move around the ring a bit is more dev work, but I think it would REALLY be worth it: interesting style of combat, learn some combat terminology/moves and people would love it I'm sure (based on the craze with WFC over here in Toronto).
2. Arm Wrestling: So far, not impressed with the "hold the icon in the zone with your mouse" bit. I've read about some challenges but many people are not finding it such. Why not have a balancing system with strength discharge vs. stamina available (lactic acid buildup in the muscles per say). Then you'd have to time when you expended your strength (or lactic acid buildup) with the relative expended strength of your opponent balancing all the while, how much strength to you need to expend/available in balance with how much lactic acid (or toxcitiy level if you like) you can tolorate. Better yet, allow addition of that as a talent or add some strength/toxcitiy tolerence per level. In principle, it would take SOME work, but not a lot. And would make it MUCH more worthwhile/interesting. Like the fighting, I feel this was kinda last minute and not enough thought was put into it where there was big potential.
3. Eliminate bugs with non-responsiveness to key in combat (waiting for animation/location before excuting spells...) (bug fix/testing)
4. More character background to Triss, Zoltan and Dandelion. Seriously, we RPG gamers LIVE for partner character background/discovery, not just our own. really should be expanded upon.
5. I have mixed feelings about playing as another character (ie, king in the 2nd act). a little confusing for some. Okay, it adds for a few decision trees but a little disorienting)
6, Add drinking contests/conversations as means of information persuation. There were no drinking contests I observed in act 1. Those were actually a GREAT part of Witcher 1. Get info, and see if you can hold your drink That was really cool in Witcher 1.
7. It seems strange that you can recognize ANY plant without reading/learning but you have to relearn all your spells/abilities/potion making. The monster reading to learn more and better able to contact them is cool, along with abilities. But the plant recognition should also requiring learning in the same way Witcher 1 did. Its consistant, and another fun way to expand your abilities. Otherwise its mindless picking up of weightless objects for no particular reason.
8. the shield is in some ways too "invincible mode" in contrast to Witcher 1. Some more fine tuning to balance as with the Quen, you can apparently keep it up and attack with no weakness except to spell casters. Example: Poisoned: Cast Quen and you don't take damage, same for incineration. Even though its you can't regenerate vigor, its seems a bit TOO invincible at times.
9. have special sword combos with specific mouse button combinations. I know there are supposed to be automatic hits in "combos" but it would be cooler if, say "fast, fast, strong" in sequence would generate a specific combat moves. Yes this requires a little more learning, but that is actually part of the fun. I must point out that Icewind Date (and Baldor's Gate II) had HUGE manuals, which people actually LIKED (myself included). I was cool with reading your manual, but the manual (2nd draft?) I felt was a bit sparse. Could have had more meat on it. which leads me to the next point...
10. more rebust manual. (not counting the game guide from GOG). I understand that translating to many languages is a bit time consuming expensive...but given the lack of in game tutorials (which are more expensive in productions and translation I expect) it would be nice if more detail was in the manual. it seemed sparse compared what I discovered in the game.
11. Pause Button!! Some of us would like to take a second or two to evaluate our surroundings during combat. One could argue that its better for an ACTION game, and perhaps it is, but many us, when surrounded by 6-10 opponents would like the option of seeing an overview without dodging around with no ability to see the field of battle or position of opponents (or what they are). In Bioware's gold age, they used this simple, effective mechamism to great effect, and offered the best of both worlds. This is an easy add on (space bar or "p"?).
12. The character talking selection mechanism is ANNOYING. (I'm being polite its pretty bad). It is frankly unreliable: having your camera at the EXACT angle to select some characters...frustrating. And some characters I was unable to select for conversations and I couldn't tell if it was the camera angle or that the charcter ad nothing to say. A simple "alt key" to "tab" around the characters in view would fix this issue and I suspect with minimal development/testing time relatively speaking.
13. The doors with needing to open EVERY door even if a partner character had just passed through it. Many have commented poorly on this and now I'm another. Its a small but IRRITATING oversight/quirk. Please fix PLEASE.
14. This is being picky but a health meter on your partner characters during combat would be cool. Needing to actually rescue them in combat would also be good to avoid losing your support. Right now it seems your "partners" are invicible leaving you to only guard yourself. Its okay at easy, but harder levels they should have finite health. A small point but one we gamers enjoy using to play "hero".
15. More areas to explore. I'm hearing over and over how witcher 2 is smaller and I guess so far I'd have to agree. (not done yet). Maybe you are adding this in content you intend to charge for. I don't know. I think more could have been added from all reports I've read. Hopefully in an Enhanced Edition...
That is about it. I'll wirte more later as I proceed throught Act 2. These are the biggest I've seen so far. There are many improvements to the game over Witcher 1 (which I still enjoyed), the graphics being the biggest. But I fear that in doing such a great job with the graphics other important details got missed. Its a common occurence, but that is the difference between a good game and a GREAT game. Still looking the the one that beats the standard of Blador's Gate II or Mass Effect 2..this game could get there...perhaps if some (or even all? I'm not that lucky or inffluential...) get added in Witcher 2: Enhanced Edition, it would surpass the 2 I've mentioned. (some say DA:1 did but I don't agree there). Anyway, some great work here. Hope it gets improved upon, as there is room...and that would make this truly a work of art to be envied by all.
1. Fist Fighting - I found this ti be a bit of a disappointment. Almost a last minute effort. Simple "hit the key within 1.5 seconds of it flashing a key whose labeling is in an area on the screen which is not that easy to see with varying background contrast to the A,W,S,D,(space bar). If you had MOVES that could be triggered with key combination or mouse keys while allowing the character to move and stalk the opponent, that would be some SERIOUS wresteling. As it was, it felt a little "cheap" in terms of control (or lack thereof). I realize that actually allow a character to move around the ring a bit is more dev work, but I think it would REALLY be worth it: interesting style of combat, learn some combat terminology/moves and people would love it I'm sure (based on the craze with WFC over here in Toronto).
2. Arm Wrestling: So far, not impressed with the "hold the icon in the zone with your mouse" bit. I've read about some challenges but many people are not finding it such. Why not have a balancing system with strength discharge vs. stamina available (lactic acid buildup in the muscles per say). Then you'd have to time when you expended your strength (or lactic acid buildup) with the relative expended strength of your opponent balancing all the while, how much strength to you need to expend/available in balance with how much lactic acid (or toxcitiy level if you like) you can tolorate. Better yet, allow addition of that as a talent or add some strength/toxcitiy tolerence per level. In principle, it would take SOME work, but not a lot. And would make it MUCH more worthwhile/interesting. Like the fighting, I feel this was kinda last minute and not enough thought was put into it where there was big potential.
3. Eliminate bugs with non-responsiveness to key in combat (waiting for animation/location before excuting spells...) (bug fix/testing)
4. More character background to Triss, Zoltan and Dandelion. Seriously, we RPG gamers LIVE for partner character background/discovery, not just our own. really should be expanded upon.
5. I have mixed feelings about playing as another character (ie, king in the 2nd act). a little confusing for some. Okay, it adds for a few decision trees but a little disorienting)
6, Add drinking contests/conversations as means of information persuation. There were no drinking contests I observed in act 1. Those were actually a GREAT part of Witcher 1. Get info, and see if you can hold your drink That was really cool in Witcher 1.
7. It seems strange that you can recognize ANY plant without reading/learning but you have to relearn all your spells/abilities/potion making. The monster reading to learn more and better able to contact them is cool, along with abilities. But the plant recognition should also requiring learning in the same way Witcher 1 did. Its consistant, and another fun way to expand your abilities. Otherwise its mindless picking up of weightless objects for no particular reason.
8. the shield is in some ways too "invincible mode" in contrast to Witcher 1. Some more fine tuning to balance as with the Quen, you can apparently keep it up and attack with no weakness except to spell casters. Example: Poisoned: Cast Quen and you don't take damage, same for incineration. Even though its you can't regenerate vigor, its seems a bit TOO invincible at times.
9. have special sword combos with specific mouse button combinations. I know there are supposed to be automatic hits in "combos" but it would be cooler if, say "fast, fast, strong" in sequence would generate a specific combat moves. Yes this requires a little more learning, but that is actually part of the fun. I must point out that Icewind Date (and Baldor's Gate II) had HUGE manuals, which people actually LIKED (myself included). I was cool with reading your manual, but the manual (2nd draft?) I felt was a bit sparse. Could have had more meat on it. which leads me to the next point...
10. more rebust manual. (not counting the game guide from GOG). I understand that translating to many languages is a bit time consuming expensive...but given the lack of in game tutorials (which are more expensive in productions and translation I expect) it would be nice if more detail was in the manual. it seemed sparse compared what I discovered in the game.
11. Pause Button!! Some of us would like to take a second or two to evaluate our surroundings during combat. One could argue that its better for an ACTION game, and perhaps it is, but many us, when surrounded by 6-10 opponents would like the option of seeing an overview without dodging around with no ability to see the field of battle or position of opponents (or what they are). In Bioware's gold age, they used this simple, effective mechamism to great effect, and offered the best of both worlds. This is an easy add on (space bar or "p"?).
12. The character talking selection mechanism is ANNOYING. (I'm being polite its pretty bad). It is frankly unreliable: having your camera at the EXACT angle to select some characters...frustrating. And some characters I was unable to select for conversations and I couldn't tell if it was the camera angle or that the charcter ad nothing to say. A simple "alt key" to "tab" around the characters in view would fix this issue and I suspect with minimal development/testing time relatively speaking.
13. The doors with needing to open EVERY door even if a partner character had just passed through it. Many have commented poorly on this and now I'm another. Its a small but IRRITATING oversight/quirk. Please fix PLEASE.
14. This is being picky but a health meter on your partner characters during combat would be cool. Needing to actually rescue them in combat would also be good to avoid losing your support. Right now it seems your "partners" are invicible leaving you to only guard yourself. Its okay at easy, but harder levels they should have finite health. A small point but one we gamers enjoy using to play "hero".
15. More areas to explore. I'm hearing over and over how witcher 2 is smaller and I guess so far I'd have to agree. (not done yet). Maybe you are adding this in content you intend to charge for. I don't know. I think more could have been added from all reports I've read. Hopefully in an Enhanced Edition...
That is about it. I'll wirte more later as I proceed throught Act 2. These are the biggest I've seen so far. There are many improvements to the game over Witcher 1 (which I still enjoyed), the graphics being the biggest. But I fear that in doing such a great job with the graphics other important details got missed. Its a common occurence, but that is the difference between a good game and a GREAT game. Still looking the the one that beats the standard of Blador's Gate II or Mass Effect 2..this game could get there...perhaps if some (or even all? I'm not that lucky or inffluential...) get added in Witcher 2: Enhanced Edition, it would surpass the 2 I've mentioned. (some say DA:1 did but I don't agree there). Anyway, some great work here. Hope it gets improved upon, as there is room...and that would make this truly a work of art to be envied by all.
Post edited June 10, 2011 by jlibster
