I'm becoming mildly obsessed with trying to describe exactly what's going on with The Witcher 2's interface, the sheer number of different compartments for commands, and then things are just put randomly 2-3 layers deeper in any given compartment.
So you want to drink a potion?
Open the Quick Action Wheel and select meditate.
Now select "Alchemy and Potions"
Now select "Drink Potions"
Drink any potions, being mindful of your maximum Toxicity rating.
Escape out of the menus, then press space to stop meditating.
Open the Quick Action Wheel and select meditate.
Now select "Alchemy and Potions"
Now select "Drink Potions"
Drink any potions, being mindful of your maximum Toxicity rating.
Escape out of the menus, then press space to stop meditating.
Geralt starts with eight spells, but the initial way you have to interact with them is only by their short fantasy names like "Ahm" with no indication what any of them do barring the orange "Flam" which is probably the one that lights things on fire (and is).
The game never actually tutorializes the fact that Geralt has a human-killing sword and a monster-killing sword, and if you don't play the tutorial (added in the Enhanced Edition, so won't exist if you're playing stock) then "silver sword" isn't even mentioned.
Since weapon switching isn't explained in the core game, it's possible even on Easy to walk through a door and come face to face with a monster that's virtually unkillable, because you don't even know, and have no reason to suspect, that you're using the wrong sword.
The wildest thing is that I kinda get it?
Like, I can see the train of thought where they're trying to make the UI emulate the fiction.
Things are grouped by conceptual relevance rather than gameplay need.
Like, I can see the train of thought where they're trying to make the UI emulate the fiction.
Things are grouped by conceptual relevance rather than gameplay need.
Witcher potions are a deliberate, carefully-considered thing, so they're, logically, several layers deep in the UI, and of course you need to start mediating first, and naturally you have to decide to *stop* meditating.
It's very much made from an intensely passionate, but utterly internally-focused place. It made sense to the people making it, and you're either along for the ride or not.
It's compelling, but last night's stream was a stark reminder of why I bounced off so hard 9 years ago.
It's compelling, but last night's stream was a stark reminder of why I bounced off so hard 9 years ago.
It was also nice to feel vindicated playing it, like "oh, okay, no, I wasn't just bad at reading. It legit doesn't say what that thing does, you just have to intuit."
Even the "new" tutorial, which didn't exist when I first played, was... well, it took 45 minutes to get through, required a lot of assistance from chat, involved a lot of re-reading instructions, and instantly sorted me into Easy.
