Played a lot of the game today. First time player on 360 here - so still new to it all.
First of all - it's amazing. No doubt about it - it's capturing my attention far more than Skyrim ever did and likely any WRPG before this.
Graphics, music, sounds, dialogue etc are all fantastic - really atmospheric and 'focused' design wise. I'll probably cop some shit for this but the games reminds me of the Fable series in terms of creating a very focused, consistent fantasy world - obviously Witcher 2 has a far more mature theme driving it all.
Combat so far is good. I was going to start on Hard but given my tendency to stop playing single player games 50-75% the way through and getting distracted by online games, I figured I would go Normal for the first play through. Kinda glad I did, I got my shit slapped throughout the prologue, particularly by archers and shielded Knights. I feel I have a hang of it now - I still take damage but the few talents I have, allow me to avoid a lot of serious hits (the parry all-directions is invaluable). That said, it feels clunky at times. There have been several instances where I have clearly dodged away and I still take some pre-determined melee-hit from range... there is also a little jank involved when performing executions. They're cool and all, but tend to snap you out of combat. It'd be fantastic if the executions were as smooth as say, Assassin's Creed but we can't have it all.
Besides some of the jank, the combat feels very strategic and deliberate - giving me shivers of Dark Souls on occasion. I must be patient and careful with my strikes and plan ahead for some battles, often leading to some trial and error. Coming off a good 30+ hour stint on Kingdoms of Amalur - I guess I'm having a little disconnect/adjustment issue. KoA:Reckoning, despite being quite easy (even on Hard) and prone to potion-sculling - felt very smooth and free-form. If you can forgive the camera at times, it's an impressively strong combat system with a good mixture of responsiveness, freedom and 'flashiness'. Witcher 2 in contrast is slower, a little janky at times (some inconsistency with range/lunge etc), far more focused and while retaining some flashiness, can often amount to watching health bars. I look forward to playing through on Hard/Dark modes to see how different it can be.
Perhaps the best part of it all is the story, theme, atmosphere, characters etc. While I never played Witcher 1, I don't feel in the dark really. There are a few characters that have referenced previous relationships or events that I am clearly unaware of, but it's trivial at the moment. I am genuinely intrigued by the lore, racism/politics etc behind a lot of the lore. The politics tend to lose my attention on occasion, I can recall most of the important families and kingdoms, but again, some of the more trivial stuff just goes straight over my head and right into the Journal entries.
Geralt is a fucking bad ass. Love swapping between the Steel/Silver swords, love hearing his conversations play out, love being referred to as 'White Wolf', 'Witcher' and even 'Mutant' because you know he will flog some ass if given the opportunity.
Surprisingly I'm also enjoying the 'side' stuff like arm-wrestling and bare fist fighting. I tend to gloss over these things in other games but they're kind of engaging - and the fact that there is a story/motivation behind some of it beyond 'gambling' keeps me interested a little longer. Dice poker is probably the most throw-away mini-game I have encountered but I think I will give it a go here and there to ensure I don't miss any quests etc.
Really, really good game. This should keep me engaged for quite a while, and I hope my buy/play list is as slim as possible over the next month or two so that I retain the motivation to play through for different endings and difficulties.
