The combat is way too easy on normal difficulty - this is fine if you only want to experience the story but very understimulating otherwise. I honestly suggest trying to play the game on Death March (but turn it up after the first time you fight a pack of Ghouls, they’ll fuck you up). On Death March you’ll be incentivized to interact with the game systems: Alchemy, Signs, specific monster weaknesses in the bestiary. All this really makes you feel more like a witcher, which in my opinion enriches the gameplay.
Experiment with builds - respec potions are fairly plentiful so don’t be scared to put points into stuff. Don’t underestimate Alchemy, but make sure you visit all the herbalists you can find to purchase recipes, the difference between basic alchemy and the upgraded recipes is massive.
Play Gwent, and check every single store you come across for cards and instantly buy them all. W3 Gwent is fantastic and half the fun of the game.
With the story calling back to both the two previous games and the books it’s not a bad idea to try to find some story recaps on YouTube of what has happened earlier in the story.
EDIT: Completely put 100%-ing the game out of your mind. There are a million ?'s on the map and they are almost all completely meaningless filler content. Trying to collect all the sunken treasure in Skellige will completely burn you out and make you hate the game.
While you’re not wrong about the grid, safe spots like the ones discussed in the video are generally more about being not off-grid but also outside the range of the Directional Scanner (14.3 AU). These safe spots can only be found via Combat Scanner Probes.
That being said, closer off-grid bookmarks also have their uses, but wouldn’t generally be labeled “safe spots”. At least that’s how I went about it years ago, I am also on a very extended break.
These kinds of moments are pure Remedy magic. Take Control is similarly amazing but hell, they’ve been doing quirky levels since Max Payne! Maybe even Death Rally? I never played that one.
Like the other poster said, Epic financed and published AW2 and paid good money for exclusivity. I doubt you’ll see it on Steam anytime soon. The only way to play it without Epic Games Launcher and all that is on console.
The game is worth it though. One of my most memorable gaming experiences over the past few years. And if you’re planning on upgrading I’ll tell you it looks absolutely gorgeous. One of the few games where ray tracing actually has a noticeable impact, too, in my opinion.
It still has some kinks that need ironing out, and it could for sure use a bigger roster, but they’re cooking with this one. The MOBA core and superb movement mechanics just complement each other so nicely, and with both powerful easy to use active items and ability-based heroes available it’s possible to perform even if you’re not an aim god.
I know the fan mod project for FF8 is jokingly named Demaster in protest of the official remaster, but I never thought a large company would release an honest to god demake of a game - and charge you for it!
I’ve never actually played through AW1 on Nightmare as I was afraid the challenge would be unfun, but maybe I will in the future based on your testimony. Though I find it increasingly hard to go back and replay games these days with the size of my backlog…
How much of AW2 do you remember? I strongly suggest starting over so you have everything fresh in your forebrain - it’s a game that wants you to pay attention to detail. Same reason I advocated for playing only it in the other thread and not both in parallel. Though you seem to have an impressive capacity for keeping track of multiple story-games at once (something I can’t even begin to relate to) so your mileage may vary.
Thank fuck, that’s definitely one of the game’s more detrimental flaws. I hope they also work on varying their quest design more, as well as mixing up the tone of the writing and acting more frequently.
I enjoyed the beautiful locations, solid combat and often great boss fights, but the game in general was too monotone for me to be truly captivated by it. Towards the end I felt worn out by it, having to mentally steel myself to even finish it. I get that the serious samurai trope is what they’re going for, but while that might work in a 2-hour movie it becomes incredibly one-note over a 50-hour game. Kenji alone is not enough to break up the flow with some variety. Especially with the gameplay being very repetitive too - so many missions are simple walk-and-talk, ride-horse-and-talk and go-to-spot-kill-mongols.
They all must go. You wouldn’t even believe the loss of revenue Nintendo suffers from the mere existence of SNES emulators. Money is being stolen right out of their pockets. Experts say they might never financially recover. ^[citation needed]
I’ll echo this, and I’ll also say that for me personally the story of AW2 kind of demands focus and I myself would not be able to take it in properly if I was splitting attention - particularly splitting it with its predecessor and having to keep track of what happens in each timeline separately.
Finished Deus Ex: Human Revolution last week, and I while i enjoyed it I didn’t want to jump into Mankind Divided right away. It was a fine game but I felt like going back for more straight away might make me burn out.
Decided instead to finally get through Metro: Last Light. I really enjoyed 2033, but when I started LL right after I just couldn’t get into it. This time it’s going better and I’m having a good time playing it - very immersive on Ranger Hardcore. I still prefer the first game so far though, I think. Still not thrilled about the way checkpoint saving interacts with the moral points system (you sometimes have to sit for minutes on end rewatching the same conversation), but it’s not enough to completely sour me on it. Looking forward to eventually getting to Exodus.
Also playing some Deadlock games, though despite loving the game I’m already noticing it’s not always great for my mood.