When I first started playing the game I was extremely disappointed in it. In fact I was really mad at the game and developers. I didn’t like the combat, the inventory and other UI designs stunk, QTE’s were a pain and so on. I complained about design decisions that seemed to be influenced by consoles. I must have died 100 times and switched over to easy and still died a few more times. Nothing seemed to work for me in this game. Heck I was even lost as to what the story was. I finished the game picking the Roche path and felt it was too short, incomplete and not sure what really happened.

But I decided to try playing the game a second time. After a few restarts I began in earnest on hard mode and vowed to not change it. I upgraded to patch 1.2, increased my mouse sensitivity and installed a couple of mods. The mods included the one that lets you sort inventory and has a junk tab, plus three other mods. They increased the time of potions and oils, an increase in my carry weight by 100 pounds and the one where I can buy patterns to combine mutagens into higher types. The reason for adding these mods were to allow me to spend less time doing chores and mundane things and more time in the actual game.

In my first game I admit that I didn’t read all the books, notices, and didn’t pay close attention to all the dialogue. This time I decided I would spend time doing that. Since I saved time from running back and forth to sell loot I had more time to play the actual game. And the time spent at vendors decreased sharply with the inventory mod.

Let me tell you that the game went from a 4 to a 9 out of 10. I am really enjoying it. I’m nearing the end of chapter one and have not died once. This might be due to the patch, mouse changes (for QTE’s) or just finally getting a feeling for how to fight. But combat is very smooth. I don’t have to gimmick the fights nor am I just standing there exchanging blow for blow. They feel right tactically. I also understand much more of what is going on in the game. I don’t feel lost. I have spent about the same amount of real time doing the chapter as before but I spent much more time actually doing things like fighting and questing and paying attention to the events and lore in the game.

There are still problems with the game. They really MUST fix the sound situation as it’s hard to hear some dialogue. QTE’s are still a pain (I have these on easy due to either hardware or some other reason). Potion creation is too time consuming. And the game should come with an official patch that fixes the inventory to allow better scrolling, sorting etc. Plus I don’t know yet how the ending will play out in this run through. I may still not like it or feel cheated. But for me the game has gone from a big disappointment to a fun game that I’m enjoying playing right now.

TW1 was a game that took time to grow on me. By my 3rd run it had become one of my favorites. I expect this game will be similar. It takes multiple playthroughs to really appreciate it.

I personally don't like it when criticism gets all caught up on something as subjective as game difficulty.

I loved the game from the get-go. Played it on normal, died several times during prologue, and loved the challenge. I thought QTE's were a nice addition honestly and helped keep the game more dynamic.

The only game changing mod I used was the increased capacity mod simply because I like hoarding items (just as I used the storage anywhere mod in W1) and I realize that I could've managed just fine without this mod by selling all the entrails and brains that I picked along the way.

Yes the UI can be frustrating at time (press Enter here, and Space there, wtf!) but I still feel it's a big improvement over W1. I mean, the first time I played W1 and opened the hero skill page, I had no idea what I was looking at lol. It was just a mess of icons and trees with no clear progression path (spell X from tab A is a pre-requisite for spell Y from tab B...)

Yes, the game does have some issues. But they're minor issues at best imo, and the game is immediately enjoyable, unlike the first one which needs some time investment before you really start liking it.

@Goodmongo - it's nice to see that there are still some patient gamers out there, ready to give the game a chance :) and there might be a nice surprise waiting by the corner, as your example shows.

I can't wait for my second playthrough, but I'm waiting for CDPR to patch 5:4 aspect ratio thing and a system upgrade as well, so I can switch from high to ultra.