So who's psyched for The Witcher 2? Looking forward to it, albeit not being able to get too much into the first one (damn the hell-hound near the beginning of the game). Looking forward to a fresh experience though - the wait's almost over!!
I'm installing it now. I never played the first one (only heard about it earlier this year) and I know next to nothing about this one and I've never read any of the books the games are supposedly based on so I'm going in blind. Wish me luck, I guess.
English video-review at the bottom of this text. http://www.gamereactor.dk/anmeldelser/83862/The+Witcher+2%3A+Assassins+of+Kings/ This game looks amazing. Then again I really liked the first Witcher.
Well, the novels are still much better than the two games. (But haven't been completely translated to English, only to German, which is what I read them in -- the 5th one just came out a few weeks back and was really, really enjoyable.) Anyway, the new combat in TW2 doesn't sit right with me. In some ways, it is more realistic, but feels slow and tedious. There are also no invincibility frames when you dodge roll, which almost seems like a bug. I also don't really like the whole "pulling one enemy, run back, rinse and repeat" requirement (I don't know about normal difficulty, only hard, but I think it's probably the same). I'm not sure how to put it, but I guess what I'm saying is that it's not difficult (though more difficult compared to most run of the mill RPGs until you've grown used to it), but it isn't "fun". Now, "fun" is subjective, so your experience may differ, but I'm missing a proper "flow" and the elegance. Graphics, art direction, audio, setting -- are all fantastic. No comparison to Dragon Age 2. TW2 eats that one for breakfast, though I liked some of the DA2 characters. But personally, I think that unless you have to play it right now and can't wait any longer, I think you might get a better experience if you wait for a patch or two. Not so different from TW1, really. And again, I highly recommend the 5-books series if you are fluent in either Polish (the original) or German (the only full translation available). The short story books in English aren't at all bad, but the novel series is amazingly good.
For anyone (like me, unfortunately) who doesn't have the patience to go through the original game: All cinematics from Witcher 1 http://www.youtube.com/user/CanadianInCanada#g/c/37457EE2F6EFE572 They are detailed and contain all of the important battles and events, it seems. Nothing is skipped - the storyli e is also very interesting, looking forward to watching more when I get some free time. Will put off playing W2 till after I finish the video series.