As Geralt gets stronger the game gets easier. On that same note, this game has a serious reverse difficulty curve. While I kept it on normal a good 85% of the time, I did knock it down to easy for a few choice quests in chapter 1. That brings me to the first thing I noticed about its sequel: you can change the difficulty on the fly.

I played the first game and loved it, but I hit a particularly difficult moment halfway through the game and had to put it down. For reference, I've completed Iorveth's side and am a little over halfway done with Roche's chapter 2. This game blew me away with how good it was. The world really feels alive, really well done. I'm really impressed with the graphical fidelity overall, as much as I am with the voice acting.

The art design is really well done, all the characters have great outfits/armor sets. This game needs some Arkham-style flow, I hope Witcher 3 will improve upon combat a bit.ДЄlso loving the graphics. It took me forever to realise the riposte skill is actually locked away, I thought for sure my game was either bugged or I messed up spectacularly. I wish it just took the time and explain 'the world' for about 5 minutes.Д¬ombat is kind of iffy. Similar to the novel I have a hard time keeping track of who is who, the game absolutely expects you played the first game. The game piles a huge dump of exposition on you at the start, all politics and all about people who I have no idea who they are or why this is relevant. I'm reading the Witcher novel Times Of Contempt which has some parallels with the story in Witcher 2, it's interesting to see the two kind of blend but at the same time it's pretty confusing. Never a dull moment, it just keeps on trucking. I'm now somewhere in chapter 1, the flow of the game is just amazing. I like how it takes its sweet time to set up the 'twist'. The opening is so good, I really enjoyed the prologue. I've been playing all evening, this game is epic as fuck. If you just put in minor or medium ones, it seems to me it would be something of a waste.I upgraded my GPU last week and aside from Elite Dangerous this was THE game I was really anxious to play. So I strongly urge you to only use Greater Mutagens.ДЇor example, I have two mutation slots so far, and in them I put in a greater vitality (+1 vitality) and greater power (+ 1-3 damage) mutagen. Keep in mind that this slotting is PERMANENT. When you highlight one of these abilities with a 'mutation slot', a 'mutate' option will appear and allow you to pick and slot a mutagen agent to it. My plan is to dip a little in swordmanship (to get twirl and the vigour regen/parry cost reduction), and then dump everything in alchemy, so I'm not sure if I'll get level 2 riposte.ДЄs for mutagens, basically when you learn abilities, some of them will have 'mutation slots'. :)ДЄnd once you get level 2 riposte, then you get a 10% instant kill change. Either way you still get something out of that vigor point you just lost. That said, I do believe riposte does more damage, at least that has been my impression. You combine the parry and the attack, so instead of just blocking and then moving in for an attack and then attacking, you do it all in a single movement. Riposte is better than parry and attack simply because it is faster.

Witcher 2 riposte tutorial