I agree with the OP... this game is frustrating to the point of just not being fun anymore

loads of unfair deaths plus long loading times plus following almost every thing which rpg's do badly... wish I'd pirated it at least then i wouldnt have to feel the pain of not being able to refun or resell :(

Edit: Nevermind, someone else answered your question

Personally i think, that the start, prologue should have been more structured, rather than you getting to choose in some random order what bits of the prologue you start, it should play out from the start. The first dialogue option is "thee" start of the game.

Its unfortunate its like that, not only the difficulty but it makes no sense to alow the player to start from the middle of the prologue and work back but realy, [SPOILER] who in their right mind when being interogated is going to tell their accounts of what happend by,

So we got to the castle, a dragon attacked, we got into the castle, we rescued the kings children, then an assassin apeared and killed the king, it was the scoi'atael. I had just woke up as i had been summoned by the king, the king and i spoke about battle plans, i helped the king breach the city walls, i noticed a patrol of scoi'atael, i attacked the baron.

To play the start of the story out like that is pretty confusing for the first time playing this, i have played the first witcher so i am a little bit more familiar with characters and settings, however i was pretty dumbstruck for which option to choose, i guess, start from the start....or the first option. :D

As I said before, the game isn't hard at all. It's just a question of taking the time and patience to learn the game.

It's tiring to hear of complaints from people who want instant gratification and then blaming the game because they aren't immediately rewarded for doing nothing. This is a game rated mature. And part of that maturity is patience and learning to play the game instead of raging and blaming the game for being unfair.

Ask anyone who has learned to play the game and you'll find out, the combat in this game is in fact too easy. It's much much too easy.

Most of my complaints have nothing to do with difficulty. I admit I am already finding the game easier. Most of these complaints stem from extremely poor design choices in the intro sections of the game.

For example, allowing the player to pick a dialog option where they will immediately be killed within 5 seconds of first gaining control of the interface unless they run is a very poor design decision. Putting tutorial messages up in situations where reading them will inevitably result in your death is a very bad design decision.

If this game simply ramped up the difficulty in the first hour or so gradually like the vast majority of these types of games, the intro would have probably taken me one quarter of the time to complete. Regardless of how mature a person is, they generally would rather not need to click through the same sections multiple times in order to complete a game.

Ultimately, the issues that I and others have had do not have anything to do with maturity. They are instead the result of a disconnect from the developers to new players and a lack of quality control and proper testing. These are not failings on the part of the players but the developer.

If anything, I hope that CDProjekt reads at least a handful of these complains and realizes the need for proper testing by inexperienced players prior to the release of a game.

That's why it's called trial by fire. It's not supposed to easy.

CD Projekt obviously did this with intention. They didn't do it just to troll players. They want to ensure players knew right from the start this is a game for mature players who are patient enough to read and learn how to play the game. The prologue I think is not necessarily about teaching you how to play the game but introducing the player to what type of game it is. And they did that splendidly. The player knew immediately this is a game that won't have mercy for mistakes, it will be brutal and it will not be holding your hands and giving away anything for free.

The Witcher 2 is parts are separated into novel jargon. Prologue, chapters and epilogue. There is a reason for that. Part of a prologue is to introduce the reader to the style and prose of the writer. CD Projekt took that same idea for the game of introducing the player to the type of game CD Projekt was interested in making.

The rest of the game is like the prologue. CD Projekt aren't teaching you or providing you tutorial examples and levels. You may use some trial and error, but you definitely have to spend the time to learn, read and root through your journal etc.

Considering the eurogamer article in which they bring up complaints of difficulty to CPR and CPR's response (far more polite than I would be), I think perhaps you need to simply find yourself a different game. Since 99% of video games on the market cater to the easy play you are obviously looking for, that shouldn't be a problem.

Grokmoo, there are a few things u learn after the tutorial because u missed them during the prologue since u were too busy fighting. it's a crappy tutorial, no doubt.

for example - every time u block it takes one vigor chunk. u only have 2 chunks so if u block twice than u need to doge until u regenerate more vigor. strange but that's how it is.

also getting hit from BEHIND takes 200% heath out of poor gralt. dont get flanked. roll.

in order to hit faster after your swing u need to wait and press the next swing right after your sword finished going through the enemy's body. not too soon.
i usually go for a light attack from afar (this closes the gap quickly and in a cool fashion) and with good timing i do a heavy attack afterwards. watch the rhythm of your attacks and u can kill a single enemy without him recovering once.

the defensive sign is useful if u know how to use it. it lasts for about 3 seconds if u dont get directly hit. if u block with it than it'll last. if u DO get hit than it drops in effectiveness. so even if u ARE using it, block!

the mind control sign works. u need to hold the sign button for 3 seconds untill u see the magic particles disappear. u'll know it has happend when it does. just hold it.


all those lessons where learned in blood. they should have been made clearer in the tutorial with more pop-ups that PAUSE the game when they appear.

i hope it'll help u enjoy the game more.

Again, the problems actually don't have much to do with difficulty. Punishing the player by making you re-run dialogs does not increase difficulty. Neither do the instant death scenarios in the intro. On the second time through, you realize what you have to do and can do it. The problem is that they should at least give you a few minutes to acquaint yourself with the interface before burning you to death.

Most of these sequences are actually not difficult at all. They simply require trial and error. The combat is also not difficult when you can easily win by running around in circles.

These problems are really due to the poorly designed learning curve. If the game was simply more forgiving (not even necessarily easier) for the first 30 minutes to an hour and for the rest of the time was as difficult or more difficult, it would be much better for it.

yeah this game can be brutal. I have died loads of times,even on normal. I'm only towards the end of chapter 1.

With all due respect, I can't help but detect a tinge of elitism in your posts revial.

Having yet to get past the ballista guards in the prologue, I'm wandering why this game bothered with tutorial pop-ups at all. You seem to be expected to have not only read the manual but to have also gleaned precise knowledge of all combat strategies from the manual before even touching the game. And it's not like this is a turn-based game where you can take your sweet sweet time reviewing your options.

I'm hesitant to switch to Easy because I've heard that in that mode the difficulty swings too much the other way such that mashing attack really is all you need to do.

Then what to make of immature comments such as this one that come across as smug?

Hardcore RPGers have the market cornered on Elitism and smugness and oh how they whine about the game market being crap for catering to the mainstream... it makes it ironic to hear them lecture on 'mature' when they are anything but.

Are you kidding me? I'm an adult with a job and all that lovely hooha. That's exactly why I'm not going to spend hours on a game that's just not fun. If I was unemployed or living off mom and dad, I'm sure the free time wouldn't seem so precious. People who spent x number of bucks on the game and were looking forward to a good game have a right to vent if they're disappointed, as much right as those who like it have to write "it's the awesomest RPG evah!!!" posts. Don't read such threads if you're so bothered. edit to be clear: I'm responding to the idea that it takes "maturity" to appreciate the game.
Are there so many deep, story-based RPG's that cater to "easy play"? News to me.

Then don't play. Go find something else to do since you are so busy. Time management is hard too.

What's hilarious about all this is that Witcher isn't a hard game at all. Dodging is difficult I know, pressing that spacebar is excruciating. Pressing left control and choosing Yrden and then pressing Q to place it on the ground and then taunting the boss to run over it, yeah you definitely don't have the time to figure that out. Finding the merchant that sells the books you need to read up on the monster in question for your quests is unthinkable. Being an adult in your life must be torturous if you don't have the time to spend 5 minutes and use your brain a little.