So, who shipped the game in this state and who in their right mind thought that the combat system in this game was a good idea?

I simply can't beat The Beast anymore (had beaten it before, but I've f'ed up my save and had to restart) because as soon as the battle starts, I get a stun lock, can't draw the sword, get a bleed status then death.
Sometimes I can draw the sword and land a few hits, but then middle animation I get incinerated by the Beast in the moment that the hounds kill the bloody witch, surround me, stun lock, bleed, death. Same thing happens if I try to get some space.

F' me! - I've said to myself - This was easy before, maybe it's a bug!

Reinstalled the game (and cleaning all of it, including mods, registry and etc), start the adventure again, become more powerful than the other playthrough, and went to fight the bloody beast.

As soon as the cutscene preceding the battle ends, I find myself in another bug state: the camera suddenly pans over the fields near the houses, taking something like 3 to 5 seconds to start the battle, the battle which is already running because when I get to "control" Geralt, I can't draw the sword, I get stun locked, incinerated, witch dies, bleed, death...

This stun locked=death happened a few times outside this particular battle too, but at least I had little room to gain control and eventually win. This one I got nothing, I can't even begin, it's a matter of seconds and I'm dead.

*sigh*

I understand any problem during development, I accept (and quite like) the "roughness" of the work, I've liked this game since the beginning, and I simply wouldn't be able to experience the latter games if I can't experience where it begun, I will feel like I'm missing and consequently that will literally kill my appreciation for the series.
And yes, I know that W2 have the recap of the story, but I simply wouldn't be able, it's "my thing", and it's personal, I have to finish this game. And if the first major battle feels like this, how am I supposed to do it?

Most frustrating though it's the fact that all this rant will ultimately be pointless.

Rant over...
:(

That fight is brutal as hell, no two ways about it. I've found the best way to beat it is to make sure you have Aard levelled up a bit, and then hit it hard right from the start. If you're lucky you will stun it yourself, and then kill it right away. If not, you probably need to run about, with the wolves at your heel, while healing a little in between, then fighting a bit, then running again and healing on the back of potions. It's a right kick in the teeth, and IMO the toughest fight in the game, which is just bonkers so early. Otherwise the game is great though, and I liked the combat in Witcher 1 a great deal better than Witcher 2.

I always run to the gap beside the shed where the hounds don't follow.
You can snipe them and then run back.

Impossible, tried everything, I'm not fighting the enemies I am straight up fighting against the game mechanics and the bugs.
When I have the opportunity to even start the battle this happens:

-I attack, I get attacked back mid animation which puts me in a stun lock state with the enemies murdering me.
-I run, I get incinerated mid run, stun lock=death.
-I choose to burn the witch so the peasants can be murdered while I beat the dogs. Nope. Incineration, stun, dead.

Also, why loose the potion buffs/effects before battle? Why I get attacked mid animations with no room to defend?
WHY STUN EQUALS DEATH? WHY?

:'O


F'ing hell, I'm actually thinking in starting it again. In between save games fuck ups, OS fuck ups & mods fuck ups, I believe that will be the 5th or 6th time.

I think I'll get crazy...

I liked the rest of the game, but it's really dumb that you get no time to prepare potions/oils for that fight and the stun the beast does is ridiculous.

Timing of the battle is midnight, so avoid applying potions/oils first thing in the morning, they will have worn off by the fight.

Instead, run through to midnight, apply potions and oils then exit the cave and fight.

IMO it wasn't even close to the hardest fight (the one in the Salamadra hideout, in the blockaded part of town was *far* harder on every playthrough I've completed, and there are others that are difficult too)

I did the "night thing" too. Nope, incineration, Geralt remains stunned in that stupid animation while the hounds "gang bang" him to no end.

The Salamandra fight you've said, it's that at the bridge, near Mikul and the guards? If so I never had any difficulty whatsoever. I almost had the same problem in the Salamandra HOUSE hideout, because as soon as you enter , you have almost no time to react. By the time I've draw the sword, my HP was almost at half. But even then, I had time to react, jump behind, Aard and recover. With the Beast, it's straight up glitched, I barely can initiate the battle.

I mean seriously, it's f'ed up game mechanics. Is there someone here who had finished this game, there's something worse than this?

I've finished the game, and still think this is the toughest fight in the game. You're pretty weak here, so if you get locked down like that, you're often boned. Later on you have more tools at your disposal and obviously have more HP, so although there are definitely tough fights later on too, they are usually easier to handle (I've not played on hard tho).

This stuff about Geralt starting every fight with his sword on his back, despite standing ready with it when the combat animation kicks in, is really silly. It's one of very few things I disliked with the game. And it's a real hassle in fights like this, where you are right in the thick of it from the second the fight kicks off.

As mentioned above, my best way to deal with it is to make sure I have levelled up Aard a bit, as then you can get a lucky stun on the beast, and then slit its throat within 5 seconds of the fight starting. But this obviously requires you to build Geralt that way, and you may not have done that. IMO, aard and incineration are by far the best signs, and I tend to not bother with the others. That shield sign comes in handy here and there, but stun and fire are useful almost all the time.

Hold in the button a little bit btw, so that the meter bar fills up, and then you should have a decent chance to stun the beast, at least with a few levels into aard. Later on, this also means you can throw a fireball at enemies from a distance away, which is quite nice.

Hopefully you will like the game more when you get past this fight, as there is a lot to explore, and many interesting characters.

I found this one impossible to. So I did what the other poster did and ran to the bit by the wagon thing where they can't get to you. Other than that I thought the game was a boring buggy pile of shit.

Dropping the player into a hard fight at the end of a cutscene is bad design, pure and simple. This is one of the major flaws with TW1. Added to that is the fact that the cutscene shows Geralt drawing his sword, but when the cutscene ends the player-controlled Geralt hasn't drawn his sword yet, so you have to waste time doing that. Best of all, at the end of the cutscene the game fades slowly back in from black, and while it's fading in you can't see anything but The Beast and his minions are already attacking you. Really dumb.

Keep trying though. Or just cheat. That's what I did and I found the game much more entertaining once Geralt was super good at fighting. Chapter 2 is where TW1 really starts to get good, too. Chapter 1 is like a prolonged tutorial.

I started chapter 2 but quickly stopped because it just seemed more of the same: a massive, boring maze-like area with lots of dull conversations to be had.

It's actually not very big. There's a lot more going on there than meets they eye.

Aw man. I'm playing Witcher for the first time and really enjoying it so far. I took a little break from the game just now and thought I'd read some posts on it here on GOG. I chanced upon this thread and wanted to see what the "rant" was. Seeing as I'm coming up on this part and I didn't build my character with Aard to second level yet, I'm now worried this might be game breaking for me if I can't beat this fight.
Hopefully its only premature apprehension and it doesn't end up as badly as I'm now imagining it to be.

I just played through the beast part of the game for the first time on Friday and I have to say it is hard.

But not unbeatable just remember and keep back a Blizzard potion and Specter Oil for the beast fight.

Then you want to double tap one of your direction keys to jump free of the fight and go hide for while you take your potion first when the fight starts then put the oil on you blade.

The fight is also easier if you save the witch as she heals you during the fight and remember to try avoid getting trapped and jump free again as needed by double tapping.

Trying to stun the beast also helps but as I had not levelled up the and did get past its not essential also if you do save the witch she resurrect if she gets killed so you don't need to try and protect her.

As for the other complaints I have been enjoying the dialogues other then needing to redo them on failing at the fights and I have only had had one crash and no real problems with bugs playing under Windows8.1 on my Core 2 Duo quad, so I can't really complain, I have played far buggier games in the past.

Now I am on Chapter 2 I quite like the combat now I have had time to get the hang off it, but saving frequently both with F5 and into separate saves is important as I still get myself killed from time to time in combat and have also clicked on the wrong dialogue option from time to time and have wanted to change my selection (not for game path reasons as such but for role play reason I like to try and pick consistent options) .

I just hope combat is as fun in the newer games, as I am not a big joypad fan I tend to prefer keyboard and mouse control like Witcher1.

Oh, just saw your tips. I was coming back here to say I finally won that fight.
Took 2 days and about 20 tries. I did beat the Beast twice but died myself in the next second.
I used the Swallow potion when I was in the cave and tried to down the Blizzard potion during the fight if I was able to get away.

I think what did it for me when I finally won was keeping Abigail alive longer than she had been in the previous fights and maybe that last heal she was able to get off is what kept me alive.
So feeling all proud and powerful after winning, the Nadir fight was the last one I had left in Chapter One so I went looking for it. I charged in gung ho and promptly was surrounded and died quick. So maybe killing the Beast made me a little too overconfident. Nothing like a little humility to put you back into your place. I reloaded and went in more carefully and easily killed Nadir the second time.

The worst thing about the approximately two dozen beast fights I attempted were the cut scene dialogues. That took longer than some of my attempts to kill it.

And like you, time to see what Vizima holds in store for me....but lunch first. Can't fight on an empty stomach :).