Gully State said:
Started my second play through on hard and really once you get the hang of combat, it really isn't that difficult (I haven't patched yet)..
I don't think combat is the frustrating abomination some impressions have made it out to be, but I do have a few big problems with it. The three things that bother me the most are
A. Blocking and magic used a shared stamina meter.
B. Rolling and blocking have a split second delay, and sometimes seem to not work at all.
C. Auto targeting being finicky.
Why can't blocking use a separate meter, that depletes on its own? It's frustrating and I can't understand the logic behind it. It makes combat a bit tougher, maybe... but it's not like you can't just roll away and wait the half second it takes to get a new brick for your magic bar. Delays things needlessly, imo. It's a time extender instead of a challenge.
And the unresponsive defensive movement is simply a pain in the ass. Geralt sometimes won't block, I can sit there hitting the button, holding it, magic bar full, and he just stands around waiting to take a punch/sword/claw/tentacle/fireball/bomb to the face. It's like it works only half the time, to the point where I seem better off ignoring my blocking ability altogether. Dodging functions similarly, but at least when it works it gives you some distance between yourself and your opponents. You have a little bit more time to recover. Still a pain when he rolls in an unintended direction or gets hitched up and doesn't roll at all.
The auto targeting system works fine in 1 on 1 fights, but against groups it tends to fall apart. It seems like there's a way to lock your target, which causes the targeting icon to grow, but I can't seem to rely on this consistently. Geralt's aim will still break, and it's very annoying when it does. Without locking your target, he's constantly diving back and forth between big groups of monsters seemingly at random. I think he's meant to be attacking the closest enemy, but this is a game where monsters and other opponents tend to crowd around you -- I appreciate that, I'm glad it's not a 1 by 1 snooze fest like Assassin's Creed -- but it doesn't help to have a targeting system that goes for the closest enemy, when they're all the same distance away.
I've been able to deal with most difficult encounters by spamming Quen (infinitely useful once upgraded). But I'd like being able not to do that. Does melee combat get better if you take a sword path? That may be the case, but even so, I wish it was more effective at the outset. Things like not being able to hit everyone your sword touches... that's silly. Seems like a fault built into the system, one that requires the user to fix, more than it does an actual upgrade.