Letho is my favorite character in the series. He pretended to be dumbass around the sorceresses so he can gather information and use them to achieve his goals. He basically played everyone in TW2. Badass, self-aware, and very cunning.
He was very cunning except for the fact that his entire motivation was that Emhyr promised to rebuild the school of the Viper. He seemed to naively believe they'd actually do that and not just use him as as a disposable assassin, and then had no contingency plans for when Nilfgaard inevitably betrayed him. It's my one gripe with how they wrote him TW2.
@@sigzil1985 I played it on my 4k tv just a week or two ago for the first time. Even for todays standards it was, so great. (tbf i just finished Witcher 1 so i was understandably blown away). My favourite part was the atmosphere of flotsam swamps or the red skies on the wraith battlefield with the comet flying above.
For sure an amazing game reviewer and also very humble and appreciates his subscribers That’s why I try to watch every video Even when the game doesn’t interest me
Narratively and aesthetically this is my favorite game in the series, the fact that the game pushes you early to make the biggest decision is something I rarely if ever see in other RPGs who like to pussyfoot around and are afraid to deny the player of content based on their choices, then again SDPR were an AA studio at best at the time so they did take more risks. Visually this game have the best looking armors and swords in all of the games, wish they kept this style instead of the boring more realistic armors in TW3. Gameplay wise the game is a mess but I don't hold it against it.
I somewhat agree with your point about the armor sets. I think that in this game they were tailor made for Geralt's "style" (at least the way CDPR envisioned him). However I feel that in TW3 they also did a fantastic job at showcasing other styles and every school had a different feel that really fit in to its lore. I think they should've made more signature, witcher armor sets, and maybe add the ability to customize pauldrons, hoods, chest pieces etc. to regular armor sets, that way it feels like Geralt is customizing the armor to suit his style and preference, which is what he would actually do in the books.
@@Malisa1990 I mean Radobitch was more than "selfish". Or would you call gouging someone's eyes out selfish? Then you're based and redpilled for sure, but I'm not and I would call him a looney from the start. They even mention why in Bitcher 2.
I never comment on yt but because you made a review of one of my favorite games I have to give props to you. Great work! Really enjoying your channel, it's very chill, good content and you upload regularly :)
I did the Madman Achievement myself earlier this year as well and I know this doesn't help you anymore but maybe others that may attempt it in the future: You can actually turn off the QTE completely in the options.
Part of me wishes we got to find out more about Letho but I know that his mystery is what makes him so great. I thought I wanted to know more about Boba Fett as well. Learned that lesson.
51 minutes? Don't mind if I do! It's my 2nd favorite Witcher game, only because Yennefer is not in it. Otherwise the fact that they managed to do such a fantastic job within the span of 3 years (from Witcher 1) is astounding. I managed to clear all the achievements except Insane, because the chances me of dying in Act II at the beginning were extremly high and the hitboxes were wonky so I gave up on it (I did do 1 run and died at that part and didn't want to redo it). Thanks for the review Mort!
i absolutely love games separated to acts. It promotes you moving forward to a new places and to progress the story with it rather then letting you get lost in the same sidecontents on a vast map. Its why I felt connected to w2 story and finished it at least 10 times.(usually different endings but couple were definitely the same as i enjoyed that) The combat is janky but light years apart from the 1st game and can be mastered to eliminate as much junk as possible Still most of it is just hitting the same button. Lots of talking but the dialogue is great and voiceacted nicely and all. And characteres are not 1dimensional. As much as I love tw3, second game is just far superior to me
I disagree a little bit on promoting. It depends on the balance, but usually with acts you have to engage with all side content in the act to progress to the next one, because next act has a significant difficulty spike. Especially larian titles like DOS2 and BG3 are guilty of that (twice especially dos 2 - jump from nameless isle to arx is ridiculous when you enter a location with lvl 17-18 and all enemies are 19-20)
It's one of my favourite games of all time that I've replayed many times, but the horrible hitboxes and enemies blocking your attacks with no telegraphing or blocking animation drives me up a wall, haha. It's a great game, and I think there's a mod called Full Combat Rebalance made by a CDPR dev that fixes some of those issues. You might want to give it a try!
longer form reviews do justice to the effort you put into your content. thanks, would like to state my personal preference for this format, if ti means anyting
Great review dude! First time seeing your channel and I'm looking forward to watching more. Edit: wow the further I get into the vid the more detailed/helpful AND more entertaining it gets. Really good job with the vid!
Excellent review. You're the only RU-vidr who would treat all those classic games with the respect and dignity they deserve. IMHO. Thank you for your work, Mortym!
i had a sudden interest in the witcher games back in february, and your review on the witcher 1 got me excited enough to buy it and finish it within like 2 weeks i believe. i then subsequently bought this game and knocked it out within a month, and i have to agree with a lot of your points here. the characters and story were very engrossing and were probably my favorite parts of the game as well. i bought the witcher 3 a week ago and im playing it here and there, and i guess the reason im saying all this is i just wanted to thank you for introducing me, and many others, to a series that ive always been cautious toward for no particular reason; i probably never wouldve played the first game had i not seen your review of it, and TW1 was a really enjoyable rpg for me. i always look forward to your videos and i can tell you enjoy making them 🙂
i 100%’d this as well in late 2022, really agree with everything you said. i’m playing through my massive steam backlog about 200 games completed so far, with 250+ to go) in chronological order and i’m playing games from 2014 now so pretty soon i’ll be diving into the witcher 3
@@MacroChambers It would but The Witcher 2 is easily playable. The Witcher is a god-awful experience to most people with horrible combat. 2 is MUCH closer in feel to 3. One, mechanically, is basically a different game (combat wise).
Even tho I prefere W1 and W3 I still think entire trilogy is god-tier level of RPGs. CDPR, unlike modern Bioware, always remembers that story, characters and SETTING is soooo important in RPG. Witcher universe, Night City - No matter what game they're making (and how broken it is on release;P) those fundations are always there. Can't wait what CDPR will give us next with those franchises.
Yet Bioware is far better at remembering choices from one game to another. Also CDPR is basically done now, they had their high with W3 and went downhill with Cyberpunk.
@@sobsagI don't think one bad game means they're done. People will be more cautious about buying from them but their next project will no doubt sell a lot
I was always wishing for Witcher 3 DLC to include Witcher 1 and 2 remakes in the newest engine with the same gameplay. It would be a lot easier than just going ground up.
I love that there is a guide on how to make the game work on current computer hardware. Most guides, just say "look for the solution elsewhere". I really appreciate it.
Thanks! I have never played Witcher 2 even though I have over 200 hours in Witcher 3, this was the most detailed review I was looking for while most of the other reviewers just kept on comparing this game to Witcher 1 and 3 which doesn’t do any justice for the title review. Thanks much mate.
Iorveth vs Roche was a difficult and fun choice on par with Stormcloaks VS Empire decision. And loved each path for different reasons! Definetly prefer Iorveths path characters and areas more overall. But I like to imagine the default or canon Geralt would prolly lean towards Roche as he is generally a man of his word that wont easily abandon his current quest.
My counterpoint is that Geralt is an honest and honorable type of guy, and he wouldn't betray Iorveth after he just put a *lot* of trust in him. Which you kinda have to do in order to side with Roche. He might initially prefer Roche, but would accidentally end up with Iorveth due to circumstance and his own values. But that's just my personal take after having read the books
You really do have the best reviews. You give lots of useful info. I'm taking a break from BG3 and been looking for a good game with a good story to get into. I love W3 so I've been wanting to try W2 for a long time. Thank you.
Although I do think the Witcher 3 is technically a better game, Witcher 2 is still my favorite. The linearity shined brightly as it made me feel like the game wasn’t wasting my time. Plus, Letho is the goat 🐐
Great analysis! W2 being the odd mix of the former and latest entry in the franchise is very true. I get the similar impression for Oblivion which is after Morrowind and before Skyrim. I prefer MW and SR tenfold over. I however have finished W2 but only dipped into W1 and W3..
Same. I wanted to really like W3 but there's so much stuff there. I found some great quests but a lot of quests were just very...generic? And I would never know which one was which so I'd just get stuck in area forever feeling like I was going in circles. In W2 I always felt like I was moving forward. Well, apart from the drunks. That quest was hysterical.
I am telling everyone - i REALLY LOVE this game. I played this because i LOVE Witcher 3 so much i bought this to "backtrack" how the story and game was like. Completely no regrets and i really loved Witcher 2 - and i am a fan of the mini gambling game. (also honest to say i am NOT a fan of the first witcher game because its a little too .. "janky". but i did complete it and cannot wait for a modern day remake of it.)
Great review! This game is a black sheep of the series, which is a shame because it has some merits. I think that they wanted to implement the "Demon's Souls" combat but didn't know how to properly do it. At first I thought that it's something wrong with me, because I couldn't kill a single drunken bandit. Later after leveling up you felt like a god. I remember that you can easily brake the game by leveling the rolling mechanic. When leveled at max you could actually roll faster then you run. Imagine being a peasant in a small village and seeing a witcher rolling through the marketplace, lol.
After playing the second game and seeing the incredibly complex politics of the continent i was dissapointed with the only witcher 3 questline about it and how simplified it ended up being. To this day i wish that witcher 3 was more like second game, at least when it comes to consequences and story complexity..
Witcher 2 is kind of like Alpha Protocol in a way. The story, characters, and overall writing is great. The game features actual choices and consequences with the plot massively diverging into separates paths depending on who you side with. But the gameplay is just not all that good and there's some incredibly baffling design choices. Witcher 3 is an overall better game, but I think Witcher 2 has much better writing.
Great video! I enjoyed the Witcher 2 but I think its story went over my head because of how dense it is with all of these nations, factions, and characters. I've always wanted to go back and play it again after I played Witcher 3 and all of those things finally came together in my head to see if I'd have a better appreciation for them and this video convinced me that I would.
I'm watching these videos in reverse order, cuz why not? I do what I want!. Anyway, this game got me into the Witcher franchise, thanks to a recommendation from TotalBiscuit I picked it up on steam sale. Best 5 bucks I've ever spent. I then read the books and played the 1st game all in preparation for Witcher 3... and sooo glad I did!
One of the things Witcher 2 handled perfectly is respecting the player's time, the maps might be small and the game might not be too lengthy, but not because it's the devs were lazy, but because they wanted to create an experience where each side quest is actually full of substance. This game has 0 filler content. I wish more games were shorter like that, I don't need to farm meaningless side quests, I would much rather have a short game where the world is dense and exploring it is rewarding.
I really enjoyed assassins of Kings when I played it. it definitely took some time to fill out the combat and using my signs potions and everything correctly. Especially remember the act one Bossfight with Letho in the Catacombs, either i was badly prepared or sucked at the combat, Quen helped me to push through and experience the rest. Definitely a rather overlooked game considering how popular Wild Hunt was
Still my favourite Witcher game and one of my favs of all time. W3 was amazing, B&W had the best atmosphere, but in some ways it was too big, sprawling, lost some of its soul in some random alleys. W2 is like a good book, it's well paced (rare in games) and there's not a lot of superfluous content. I felt invested, immersed, motivated to do each quest as part of the story, it didn't feel like a checklist. Loved alchemy! Requires a bit of preparation and foresight, but I didn't find it frustrating at all. You almost always know what enemies you'll be facing as part of a quest, and you can anticipate the big battles (riot being planned? Epic battle ahead? Events building to a crescendo? maybe get ready for combat!?). Makes you feel a bit more intelligent and calculating, less of a superman.
I remember buying this on the Xbox360, not having a gaming PC at the time. I thought the game was too difficult, but I might try it on PC now that I have good modern hardware
A remake should have been released by now! I can’t believe it hasn’t been done by CD Project red. They took 2 more years to complete Cyberpunk 2077 and with a game with so much driving the driving still should have been way better! Why havnt some resources been invested into this given it will sell great!
So as far as the steam deck goes i had little to no issue. I forced proton GE 8-20 and was able to use the steam deck mouse for the launch options and switching the controls. I get 60 fps with all high settings and ubersampling off.
Your videos are SO well written, so interesting! It's a pleasure to come to this channel and find cool videos about rpg games Maybe you mention it in the video, but will you also review Witcher 3 ? That also would be super interesting to watch, I would be curious on your considerations on the gameplay of the thirde game, bcs as much as I love the narrative side of the game, I have my critiques on the gameplay side (not only in the sense of HOW it plays, but regarding WHAT you can do gameplay wise), and it would be interesting to see what you think.
W3 was my first witcher game. I had absolutely no idea who anyone was, who was King of what, etc... Made me wish I had played W2 first, which I eventually got to.
I had a phenomenal time with this game when I played this series for the 1st time last year. Played them in order and 2 was my favorite of the 3. I kind of hope that if they do remake it, that they leave it the same with just graphical and combat polishing rather than what I figure they will actually probably do, which is try to turn it into a Witcher 3 clone with this story. That would be a massive bummer
31:31 It's an RPG. Maybe I want to role play as Geralt, the vendor of used crap. To a bit more serious about it, if you limit the inventory, then you force people to return to towns, and this, for me, breaks the exploration. Onward to 200k. All glory to the algorithm.
I fell in love with The Witcher series when I accidentally stumbled on it when it first came out. Shame on Atari marketing for that. It was great to see how each game was progressively better than the last. For me this series is only rivalled by the Mass Effect series, but eclipses it by having a much better 3rd installment in terms of gameplay, story and - of course - ending. You are almost compelled to play through Witcher 2 twice given how different the split storyline is, and how much more things make sense by seeing it play out from the opposing perspective (though Broche is my preference). Great game, great review.
Alchemy mutagen build was so strong even at launch plus a few points into swordmanship... But a year ago a discovered a great mod that gives you 2 talent points for each level, if u want to have absolute fun when playing The Witcher 2 then install it a be a Witcher god. Actually I somehow feel that TW2 perks were better than TW3 perks in the trees, excluding TW3 mutations which added some power to the builds.
tbh, I am quite impressed with the XOne/SeriesX version of the game, its really a recommendation for anyone who can't get it to run on a PC or is a pure console player.
I have finished this game on dark without dark items (to make game harder). Alchemy is the most OP out of all trees. It is true that you can drink potions when you are outside of combat so you have to know what is coming. But if you know, alchemy all the way.
A game that I pirated and loved so much I bought the special edition at a time I didn’t have a lot of money. I haven’t played it in years and seeing this makes me want to re-install.
I used igni for the broken dragon at the end and it did a lot of damage to it. This was after over 20 attempts to directly go at it with swords or bombs
As someone who's been with The Witcher franchise, as a huge fan, ever since the first game released back in 2007, *I was honestly disappointed by The Witcher 2, ...* *...even though* I waited a few months after release to play it, *ON PURPOSE* , so as to actually have a less buggy experience. I won't go into detail, so here's the short of it: To me, *ALL* of TW2's negative sides (most of which you've elaborated here) stemmed from CDPR's trying to adapt the game to the general RPG audience of the time. . Part of this was due to them bucking under the severe criticism of the first game from some American media / gaming outlets. Basically, the American criics told them: *"Your game will not sell well with Americans because of cultural differences. Basically... make it more American-style and you'll sell better here!"* And CDPR changed it, to a point where it felt a bit off from the Lore... . ...it was like... *The Witcher 1 was somehow spot-on with the source material and respected Sapkowski's lore and spiritual feel of The Witcher Universe...* *...whereas The Witcher 2 felt like it had adapted to stuff like Dragon Age / Mass Effect in some ways...* You get the idea, I hope... Thus, my verdict: The Witcher 2 kinda failed because CDPR listened too much to the critics of the original. In reality, The Witcher 1 was a *near-EXCELLENT* game that only needed to focus on its strong points for the sequel... and upgrade the game's functionality and UI otherwise... ...instead CDPR weakened them, in order to conform to American expectations... .
One thing that bothered me is how small the areas you explore are. Like the forest around the town in Act I or the area around Henselt's camp in Act II. I feel like the game uses scale and atmospheric perspective/fog to make you feel like the areas are huge and open. But when you actually start moving through (especially after you remove roadblocks like certain monsters) they are actually really tiny and not very open at all. I wonder if it was a limitation of the engine, or maybe designed with console memory limits in mind. Kind of makes me think of something like Skyrim and how a (supposedly) huge city has maybe 12 buildings in total.
Iorveth path is superior to Roche. Ior has more interesting areas to explore and I'm pretty sure that chapter is a little bit longer on his side. But to fully experience the game it's good to at least once beat the second chapter on Roches side. This way you can interact a bit more with assassins of kings, Iorveth path sidelines them heavily.
This is my nr1 witcher game, the third is a great game sure but it is so easy to get lost in the open world and not get the main story(great open world though) Good show sir🎉
Witcher 2 was an absolutely fantastic RPG only brought down by the combat. I mainly brought down the difficulty of the game and just enjoyed the story with it's heavy choice and consequences in my multiple playthroughs. Which isn't great, but the rest of the game is so great that it doesn't really matter. You can tell CDPR almost went bankrupt while the game was still in development. 2011 was a great year for Western RPG releases with Dragon Age 2, Witcher 2, Deus Ex Human Revolution and of course Dark Souls 1 and Skyrim and to think Dragon Age 2 underdelivered when its predecessor was one of the greatest RPGs ever made. It's crazy to think they almost went under before even Witcher 2 came out and purely made it to where they were before Cyberpunk purely on good will and delivering top quality product. This isn't a dig at Cyberpunk btw, I absolutely love that game to bits, but we all know how it launched and how it severely damaged ther reputation. Witcher 2 showed the true potential of the company. And it really annoys me when people say they only made one good game before Cyberpunk. Both Witcher 1 and 2 were great games in their own right, they just aged really poorly in terms of gameplay. But they were just an obscure dev in Poland only made their first ever game with Witcher 1 and for it's time people had more tolerance for Eurojank when it comes to combat.
20 hour playthroughs? I played the Witcher 2 twice, back in 2015-2016, trying to finish everything on normal difficulty within the two main paths. That would give me... (check steam account)... 153.9 hours?!
