I respectfully disagree. I found the Witcher 2 quite enjoyable; the combat is fantastic, the characters have good depth, and the journal entries lend flesh out the backstory.

The interface proved a little clunky but that I fixed with mods and the developers are rapidly improving on the few areas of gameplay that were lacking.

Part of the problem with the perceived difficulty is that most modern games make normal a difficulty that could be done without too much effort. Here, the developers specifically said they wanted to make the game more on par with Demon Soul's and normal requires actively reading, thinking and adapting to prepare for the monsters you probably will encounter.

When you said, "it's simply uninteresting and a chore," did you mean combat or the game as a whole? Because I was only talking about combat, and I don't think uninteresting is a word that describes the combat. Frustrating would absolutely be appropriate, but uninteresting, to me, implies that it's boring. When combat in a game is boring, it's usually because it's basic and with no enemy variety that force the player to use different strategies for different situations. And the combat in TW2 is definitely not that.

However, I was not implying in any way that combat in The Witcher 2 is perfect. In fact, I feel the almost the exact opposite about it. I have quite a few problems with it, pretty much all of them are related to the lack of responsiveness in the controls and it does annoy me while playing. It was not enough to prevent me from finishing the game, however. And if they could just solve the responsiveness problem it would be a great combat system.

But if you were saying the game as a whole is uninteresting and a chore, then I would agree with you a bit more, but not completely. The amount of slogging you have to do when completing quests and contracts with the lack of a fast-travel system does make the game tedious at times. That, and the fact that you can't switch from trading with a merchant to item crafting without leaving the conversation completely and then having to re-initiate conversation, the fact that they put monster info you have learned into the character stats menu instead of the journal for some reason, and that you have to go into meditation to drink a potion (especially since the game is very picky about where you are allowed to go into meditation) all take away from the flow of gameplay.
No, it's not that. It's the games lack of responsiveness when you make inputs during combat. When you press the block button when you are not moving, don't have any other buttons pressed, and the game still refuses to make Geralt block then that is either bad code or a bad design choice depending on if this was a deliberate choice by the developers or not. This lag also exists during normal gameplay and town exploration, but it is easier to put up with when not in combat situations.

Most people complaining about this are not aware that blocking requires Vigour. Not saying that's your case, just offering some help.

And I am not one of those people. The lack of response is not limited to blocking. It also happens when trying to throw bombs, cast signs, start moving again after I have stopped to cast a sign or throw a bomb and draw a sword because CDP thought it would be a great idea to bring the player back after a cutscene and place them less than two feet from an enemy that's ready to attack but you have no sword drawn and the game isn't drawing it for you automatically.

And please don't waste a post saying, "most people complaining about this are not aware that signs require vigor or that they have a limited number of bombs." I am sure you meant well, but all comments like this tend to do is disregard those users posts in the future, even though I know you can't read my mind and tell I am not one of those absent minded players.

Combat and gameplay both. The continous medal button abuse comes to mind.

Personally to me it's really easy game you don't even have to target the enemy anymore it does that automatically for one thing. You can't have him do the moves you use to do in TW1 when pressing the different direction keys for another.

1.) O_O ummm...no, you still have to target your enemies. The game definitely does not do this for you. I have no idea what game you are playing that gave you that idea.

2.) That is true that you can't flip over enemies anymore. But that one thing alone does not make the game dumbed down in comparison to the first one.

Just want to add my agreement with OP. I feel I've wasted £30 on a game that for me is almost unplayable. I'm an experienced gamer and have seen the good, bad and ugly. I enjoyed Witcher 1 enormously, and I'm completely disappointed with Witcher 2.

Wish I could just get a refund and spend the money more wisely.

Really mine just jumps to the closest guy and I just click 1 and he will turn a 180 attack that guy I just spin the camera around 180 while he is still attacking the one I told him to and guess what the attack cursor finds and targets the next closest enemy. I click once and off he goes to that one. This game is easy compared to TW1. Easier playing TW2 then playing TW1 on the easiest setting. The hardest part about the game is the UI is screwed up. Other then that the game basically plays it's self. Joy Joy...

So far, this game is a profound disappointment in many ways. I love the story, the characters, the political intrigue, and the setting. But I just deplore the gameplay and mechanics. I don't mind dying in games, and each game has its quirks that you need to learn to deal with. Witcher 1 was very unique and a bit hard to get into when it first was released. You had to stick with it to get the addiction point, but once there, it was awesome. I have many hours into Witcher 2, and I'm just struggling to connect with the gameplay. I can only play for an half an hour or so, sometimes less, as its so painful. The navigation, the linearity, the obtuse nature of so much of it just makes it a bad experience.

CD Projekt is usually responsive and listens to their customers. Witcher 1 received a total game changing (and improving) update/patch a while after it was released, which made playing it even more pleasurable. I hope they do the same with Witcher 2.

Experienced gamers have no trouble playing Witcher 2, especially when one has played Witcher 1 and liked it.

That only happens if you refuse to place your cursor on a target, and letting the game do it for you is a sure way to get yourself killed. So in that sense, yes, it CAN lock onto enemies automatically, but you shouldn't let it.

You are welcome to your opinion that TW2 is easier than TW1 but I must disagree. TW2 was much harder from a combat perspective unless you took the path of just abusing Quen and using all you upgrade points on it. Of course that really screws you over when you reach the end and have to fight the dragon. But then again, not much of anything helps you fight that damned thing. Very frustrating boss. But while TW2 has some issues that can frustrate, it was also alot less frustrating than the first in lots of other areas.

I have recently gone back to try another playthrough of TW1 and I am having a hard time staying interested for longer than a half hour. Once I get to the Outskirts everything goes downhill fast. The pacing slows to a crawl, none of the characters are written or acted that well (though this could have just been the result of bad english localization and not the developers fault), and the quests are not very creative or fun. Just kill X number of monster Y for moron Z over and over again...but oh, did I forget to mention that unless you have acquired information about the creature in question, you can not complete it? Despite the fact that I have already killed a ton of Barghests and have their skulls sitting in my bag, the game won't let me complete the quest to collect Barghest heads until I read a book or put a point into that monster lure skill. Because apparently Geralt's amnesia is sooooo bad he doesn't even remember what a skull is, despite the fact that he knows well enough that he should be collecting their heads even before he knows what they are.

But I get what you mean about the mechanics in TW2. I am by no means satisfied with the final product as it stands. I like all the things they tried to do, they just didn't execute them well. I just want to point out that, in my opinion, the first game was NOT a masterpiece and I really want to get my voice out there to make sure that TW3 doesn't regress back to being what the first game was. I've got alot more I can say about the differences between the two and why I don't like the first one that much, but I know how much people on the internet can't stand a post longer than 3 paragraphs or they lose focus and start in with all that TL: DR bullshit.

you have patched to the latest version right? the beginning is far easier than it used to be now. i just replayed the prologue on harrd and i did it virtually in my sleep and i am in no way a skilled player. maybe it's easier with the xbox controller which i am using.

*scratches head* I have complete three playthroughs (normal Quen-abuser, hard sign-user, hard alchemist) and have never ever used the manual targeting system.
I died a couple times. but that was more due to me blindly rushing groups of enemies instead of the targeting system.

If you are trying to take out opponents primarily with your sword instead of signs and bombs, especially nekkers, letting the game auto-target for you is a disaster.

I use everything I can signs and sword and I agree with K_Murx.