Cute and spicy.
I liked the combat, too. Never understood what got everyone up in such a dander.
Electronic cigarette.
It's really loose and "slippery," nothing looks or reacts like the hits connect. It ends up looking like the game is still in beta, and they had implemented a rough idea of how the combat should feel and control but then never got around to finishing it. The movement animations also don't line up with the ground, so everyone skates around.
The best thing I can say about the combat is that it's serviceable.
Cute and spicy.
I'm sure that's all valid (been a couple years since I played the game). I just wasn't bothered by it, and remember having fun switching stances and timing attacks. Admittedly my standards for combat aren't sky high for this genre on PC...
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I just liked it cause it was interesting and required some getting use to. I agree it didn't really feel visceral though and did look a little clunky.
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Kill monsters, make designer drugs, nail bitches. Geralt is a baller.
I think part of what I like about this is that Geralt is an actual character, which is rare in Western RPGs these days.
You know for as much as this is characterized as a game for the hardcore RPG-heads because of its interface and alchemy, it's kind of progressive in a lot of way, removing (or rather hiding and making irrelevant) a lot of the stat-based elements, and just focusing on the skill tree for character development. Even equipment is a pretty minimal concern. I feel like a lot of the casual-unfriendly elements are concessions to the Aurora Engine, or maybe just convention.
The combat animation gets better as you level up those skills. It's almost as if there aren't enough moves early on to complete the frames they need to look smooth. Once you get to level III-V of the different combat trees, he literally does flips and shit while fighting.Originally Posted by MechDeus
Electronic cigarette.
While his actual animations might look better there's a disconnect between the controls and what's going on. For instance, let's look at fist-fighting:
One of the most obvious things I noticed first while playing was how the sounds don't really match up to what's happening. The actual event of someone punching the other and a corresponding sound occurring is maybe half the time. You can see even in the video there's a lot of times when someone (probably the player) is attacking and there's a hit connection and a sound of a hit being landed, but neither character on-screen throws a punch. Instead, they're both dodging.
What that video doesn't show is how little the controls have anything to do with what's going on. I can press attack, and Geralt might throw a punch. He might not. If I press dodge he'll dodge, but it might occur right away or it might wait a few seconds. It's clear the game is doing something where it's trying to take player input and then use a D&D d20 engine (or something similar) to determine what should happen, but what's happening and why isn't made clear to the player. Instead we get action game controls that look and react like playing a MMO over dial-up.
Sometimes I feel like the game was meant to have QTE context displays and they just forgot to put them in there.
Funny you should say that, because that's how the sequel is handling the fist-fights.
Electronic cigarette.
Awesome!
A lot of what the game presents would be more palatable to me if there was more info between the game and the player. If I recall KOTOR has the same kind of animation interactions and such during combat, but the game is upfront about how things are handled and you can queue abilities. It's easier for me to understand that, yes, me pressing attack is not actually an attack but is instead just a general command to go on the offensive. The Witcher, near as I can tell, is trying to straddle the line between dice-rolling and direct control but it ends up being kind of a mess of both.
Hopefully the improvements to the sequel are as good in execution as I want them to be.
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