Chris Davis
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings has one of the most impressive implementations of branching story paths in video games. Here’s my analysis of the story and how it compares to those of the books, together with a detailed look at combat.
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The Witcher Critique – https://youtu.be/kKC_y-XI9S0
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seedy project red
Loyal viewer here, reminding my favorite content creator of video game analysis, that we all egarly await the witcher 3 critique. This was the same as waiting for the mass effect 3 critique several months back. I just can't wait to hear your thoughts. Anywho dude, keep it up, your quality is exceptional. 🙂
The ingredients should not be overlooked in alchemy. Some quest or crafting items you can only obtain once can be ingredients. You want to look out not to use them by mistake. It can make you lose a lot of coin on objects you'd normally get for free or even prevent you from crafting powerful great altogether
"When I say 'risk', the chances of at least one die bouncing off are give or take about 100%, it's insane."
Yeah no I just drop them every time. It's random enough if you do, and there's no chance of them leaving the board that way.
"There's a hidden stat system whereby Geralt's ability to do any one of these [persuasion] options depends on how much he's used it … unfortunately you aren't given any way to keep track of what you've used and how strong that ability is."
I'm pretty sure you do. If you go into the Character Abilities menu it should show you the "Axii Sign Hex", "Intimidate", and "Persuasion" abilities, and which level each one is at. I think using one of these options once increases it by one level, and each caps at level 3.
"I am Henselt of Ard Carraigh, the last of the Unicorns. I won't beg for mercy."
in the distance, hear the laughter, it's the last unicorn
IM ALIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE IM ALIIIIIIIIIIVEEEE oh wait no I'm not
"Insane sounds much like the same as Dark, but with permadeath. That is 100% not my cup of tea, so I immediately wrote that one off."
So, this game on Insane difficulty was for me the single most memorable and rewarding experience I've had in any Witcher game. I did three playthroughs (one of which was on Dark) before attempting this, and I knew before going in which route I was going to take, how I was going to spend my skill points, what gear I would use throughout the run, I had everything planned. I ended up dying maybe ten times in the prologue, and three times later in the game. The prologue is by far the hardest part, since you don't have any skills or gear yet, but it's definitely doable as long as you take it slow and careful. Most of the rest of the game is pretty straightforward as long as you don't take risks. The Eternal Battle (when you go into the mist and posses the ghosts of the past) in particular can really trip you up, though. You're very limited in what you can do (no signs, no dodge roll, etc) so it's best to put skill points in the few things that do affect this part before going in, like vigor, riposte, etc. Also there's a section where you're being bombarded by instakill arrow volleys. I'd say this is the only point in Insane that's actually unfair, but if you're careful it's not a problem. The most important thing to remember when playing Insane is to save whenever you can, and reload your last save as soon as things start getting a little out of your control. If you play this way, and don't take risks, and you're patient, it's a VERY doable mode.
I find that difficulty recomendation insulting. I chose Dark on my first playthough and found no problem at all. I hate also when I die in some games and I get a hint of the sort of "lower your difficulty in game menu"…
Can you turn off your background music,or extremly lower it
you sound like RandomGamininHD
broseph anderson be like DELET DIS NOW !!
Geralt's code is his alone. There are examples of witchers like Witcher George who killed dragons. Geralt often uses the code as an official excuse to turn down requests that do not align with his own moral code.
Quote from Last Wish: "No not the code. Although I have at times hidden behind a code. People like that. Those who follow a code are often respected. But no one's ever compiled a witcher's code. I invented mine, just like that. And keep to it…
It's a great analysis – I've never heard anyone checking logs to complete their research so it's impressive. I'd advise adding some timestamps in the description or in the comments though – the video is long and the changes between topics are very fluent, but it would make it easier to watch it in parts, not to mention jumping to an interesting part of the analysis. Great job 🙂
I always go full alchemy tree.
After playing a while o learned to up my rune shield before cutscenes because it happen so often i was oneshot from a crossbow right after the cutscenes :p loved the game even if i struggle with some fights a bit.
Silé was in flotsam looking for Letho and the Scoiatael
You brought up Triss's secret from the Witcher 1 and how the meaning is unclear. Forgive me from going straight from memory as it's been so long since I played the first game but I believe when you get out of bed in Triss's room you can inspect a nearby window and Geralt will remark on scuffled footprints that indicate someone left in a hurry. In the Witcher 3 when the Witchers bond at Kaer Morhen during the lifting of the Sage's curse, I believe Lambert will bring up a time he spent in Vizima where he has a secret that could hurt a good friend. I believe the secret was that while Geralt was unconscious or otherwise indisposed, Triss and Lambert had a minor affair that they both hid from Geralt. I heard this theory on a couple of Witcher 3 Easter egg videos a while back so I mistakenly thought it was the popular consensus as Triss is definitely portrayed as more sly in the games than in the books. Anyway that's the conclusion I believe and I also agree that it is a poor plot point that goes unused, unresolved and ultimate unimportant
Excellent review! Extremely detailed and informative of both about this game and games mechanics in general. Very easy to listen to. Subbed – you shot up to top game reviewer. Very genuine and unbiased. Big Thanks for making this video!
Wooooow dat Witcher book spoiler!!!!!!😡😡😡😡
Really good video. Subbed
Playing the 6 intros takes only a few hours
Witcher 2 and DAO to extent represent the very "Road not taken scenario" you bring up for RPG they came out and could have been the games that influenced RPG and game development as a whole unfortunately Skyrim the more marketed and widely known game is what becoming the template for mainstream RPGs going forward that being big map packed with stuff. I do like to imagine a world where skyrim never released and Witcher 2 became the mainstream template for RPGs
Witcher 2 holds a special place for me and is still my favorite game in the franchise from the cold and pallid art design to the design of the UI and skill trees being like a nervous system or a brain. It was the reason I built my first Gamming PC when I was 16. I had played on PC before but always on stock or professionally built machines.
1:59:35 Someone else might have already pointed this out by now, but the real reason Sile came to Flotsam was to find Letho so she could get rid of him. Letho mentions this to Geralt during their final conversation. Anyway, love the videos! Keep it up 🙂
Best video on the witcher i've heard so far. I recently installed the game again, i felt nostalgic about the game. This helped me enjoy even more what's awaiting me (again) :). Thanks for your efforts making this video.
heliotrope is useless??? I found it very effective.
lol are you really crying because they designed it so controllers can work not just keyboard/mouse?
1:20:15 You actually can puruse Loredo and kill him here too. It's another choice.
i personally prefer the more hub based nature of 1 and 2 to the more open world of 3.
the fact witcher 2 is short helps it alot as it has very good pacing and you need to do both paths to get a full understanding of the story. you don't know anything about the dragon for example if you take one of the paths as it's only fully explain in the other.
Lesbomancy should be the name of an all female metal group.
You did a great analysis of the combat. I always thought that it was wonky, but I never realized the animations were not in sync with the registering of the hits. I'd also like to add that the telegraphing is awful. The enemies and the environments would often be the same color, so you can never clearly tell what move an enemy is performing. It makes dodging and parrying much less reliable and just enforces you to keep using Quen.
Interesting how you say that to you the "good" choice was siding with Roche. I guess I just instinctively sympathized with the elves and the fight for an independent Upper Aedirn 🙂 It was difficult to see the Scoia'tael as the greater evil when all the powers in the land were, at best, one bad day away from starting a massacre. At least the elves had a goal. Also, Iorveth's side of chapter 2 was way cooler and made more sense in my opinion, but that's just coincidental. It's such a shame that Saskia and Iorveth and Anaïs and everything else related to big decisions in W2 is completely absent in W3, I feel it cheapens the player experience 🙁
Also, I really, really, really don't get how the lodge of sorceresses comes across as evil to everyone who talks about the game. The kings of north are incompetent and use their resources to fight each other. The lodge sees the threat of Nilfgaard and tries to defend against the invasion, quite like they did as heroes at Sodden. Sabrina's fireballs may not have been elegant but again, the goal was still nobler than any ruler in the northern kingdoms. Yet somehow the casualties the lodge cause are an unforgiveable sin, while the pointless warring in the rest of the kingdoms gets a free pass. I got the impression that the morality around their actions was supposed to be as grey as the rest of the game, but somehow the lodge gets all the hate.
I found that the main quest blending in with side quests worked well and thought it was intentional. At the start of a chapter you have a goal, and a pile of clues, and it's up to you to discover which ones actually lead you towards your goal.
The massively branching story is a very neat and respectable idea, but it had to be incredibly difficult to design and pull off so I'm not surprised it's not commonly used in CRPGs. Having dipped my toes in the game industry, I can tell that it's already a serious endeavour to try to manage a big game development project and its changing specs and schedules, even without tying your shoelaces together by adding so many requirements on the story's part. Well, chapter 3 is kind of a mess even with the Enhanced Edition content, so I guess that's where compromises they had to make show. :/
Super agreed on the forced "connection" between Geralt and Letho. Another playerbase-majority thing I don't understand is how so many players spared Letho in the end. Geralt's job is to kill monsters, and he's killed a lot lesser ones before.
Overall, a very enjoyable video as usual! Evoked a lot of thoughts, as you may have noticed. 🙂
To me it is player choice and agency within the narrative as well as complex consequences and in depth writing that makes an RPG. The things like skills trees and leveling and items have slowly decreased in value as more and more AAA games are adopting them and as they're also losing value within tabletop RPGs more and more safe for the mainstream ones like Dungeons and Dragons and Pathfinder. That's why I don't consider a lot of modern A-RPGs to be actually RPGs for example some of the latest Bethesda games and why I've always advocated for RPGs to return to the C-RPG format as complex graphics, combat mechanics and voiced dialogue is holding the genre down significantly. The only company relevant today that have managed to bring A-RPGs to the standards of C-RPGs are CDPR and I'm incredibly thankful for that because due to their success people are also realizing just how bad Bethesda's "RPGs" are and how they're more action sandboxes more than anything.
It's also noteworthy to mention that C-RPGs are becoming the norm again, when most RPGs that released in recent years have been C-RPGs. Thinking of Divinity Original Sin 1 and 2, Pillars of Eternity 1 and 2, Tyranny, Wasteland 2, the Shadowrun trilogy, Baldurs Gate 3 just being announced, Icewind Dale + Baldurs Gate 1 + Baldurs Gate 2 + Planescape Torment getting remasters and some even being ported to the PS4 , Torment and more. Honestly I'm glad that this new generation of gamers are finally opening up to this clearly more complex and satisfying side of RPGs and leaving away the shallow instant gratification of most modern A-RPGs.
guess i'll watch this again for the 120503 time until the next commentary comes out
Any chance for some timestamps?
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For YouTube algorithm…