I'm sorry, I should clarify what I meant by "too hard."

Being too hard because the game is challenging is one thing, but I'm talking about being too hard because its poorly structured and the player is not properly able to deal with the presented challenge.

Spoilers*


The "player" is perfectly able to deal with that challenge. Although if youve been primarily relying on dodge and Quen up to that point, you'll need to develop some new skills. Dont worry. After you fight that same encounter 5 times in a row after the Draug wails on you because the last stupid save point is before that encounter, you'll be an expert at blocking and non-dodgeing mobility. :)

You might even find yourself with a new tool in your toolbox, now that the game has forced you to become acquainted with it. I know I started blocking more after that battle, just to change stuff up in battles, when Geralt was breezing through non-boss encounters with his powerful chapter 2 gear and abilities.

That's part of the problem this particular encounter removes most your abilities ASIDE from the swordsman ones and even some of those. It even gets rid of your potion effects. If you haven't specced for extra vigor, improved blocking and riposte this fight might be nigh on impossible.

While I wouldn't say the combat system is poor at all I do believe they needed to make the basic sword play a bit better. When facing multiple opponents it's near impossible to take a swing at someone taking multiple hits in return. Blocking is fairly ineffective and while it's better than being Assassins Creed style 'hold this button down for immunity' it still is fairly unresponive and your vigor is gone in seconds. Riposte is uninterruptable so it actually works in this case but it would have taken me about 50 tries without it.

I just think Geralt should not have to run and roll around all the time to survive. There's better ways to make combat difficult without having to run around like a lunatic avoiding the enemy. On hard without the overpowered upgraded quen spell it would have been actually been very very hard. With quen it was easy through most the game. I did not need potions or oils just kept quen up at all times and it was auto win. I came to hate using quen all the time as it made me use my vigor for nothing else and I didn't get to try out a lot of cool combat mechanics. Thus after upgrading that spell I didn't really care where I put my talents much since I already had what I needed to win all fights.

On my next playthrough I intend not to rely on quen - I think it will be a nightmare without it.

Quen is not necessary. Dodging and blocking skills are. A couple of us have already stated we dont use it regularly. I tend to only use it during boss battles or particularly epic melee-thons. After chapter 1, Geralts armor and defensive abilities are good enough to weather incidental damage, as long as you dont make a habit of getting hit (yes, on Hard).

Quen just makes you lazy.

party what i have been saying for a while, blocking should be separate from the signs. vigour is not a good way to limit blocking.

as it stand blocking does not require much skill, its just a form of management.

blocking should

A) have its own bar dedicated to blocking
or
B) be based on reaction time, press the button on time and you dont get hit.

in both cases countering would need to be redone a little to fit with it.

it can still be upgrades and would fit better in the metagame if this is done.

I have to agree Quen makes you lazy and when I did that part of the game I found out how reliant I was on it. I played through on Hard and after "getting over" quen, I started going back to what I did before I leveled that skill up, blocking and dodging. I did not have riposte at that point but I did put enough points in at that time of the game so that blocking does not take any damage so after a few tries against the Draug I was back in the rhythm. I found the arrow part hard as my fps dropped suddenly when they approached so I couldnt time getting to cover right and kept dying LOL.

Honestly, there are a few combat mechanics I think they can tweak, and for my next playthrough I think I will not whore out quen as much as I did this time.

Also, if you are complaining that "hard" mode is proving "difficult" for you at times...well, yeah. Thats kind of the point. Its not the mode designed to represent the intended baseline challenge of the game. It's designed to be...I dont know...I'm sure theres a word for it.

Drop it to Normal difficulty if youre having trouble. Hard to take someone seriously when they're complaining that "Hard" mode, is, in fact, "hard". I think you'll find that same battle to be much easier on Normal difficulty, where you're not taking as much damage and getting worn down so quickly.

What Cyjack said. you're playing on 'Hard" and then complaining that it's actually hard? Come on now, it *should* be difficult.

Having played through a good chunk of the game and got used to the combat now I have reached a couple of opinions about it:

1. That in an open field Geralt is an exceptional swordsman with room to move and dodge he is very hard to beat - every time you have room to move you will win a fight.

So how to CDPR counter this?

2. By severely restricting Geralt's movement. This is done by either:
- Surrounding him with enemies, (mist battle is a good example, but it shows up in other areas, nekker nests, endrega's, arachas ambush, harpies)
- Designing the level so Geralt can't take advantage of his movement, this includes narrow corridors, random props in the middle of the battle area, broken up map design so his dodges only work along predetermined paths, else you get stuck or maneuvered into a corner.

I think possibly the second point is more important as more often than not Geralt's acrobatic ability is restricted and controlled for fights to artificially raise the dificulty - you want to get away from a monster but roll into a wall/prop and get pummled then have to do it again in a different direction only to have to fight with the camera.

It's not that entirely that the combat system is bad I think that the gameplay designers did not sit down with the level designers enough, or worse they did and did this on purpose.

they can fix this by changing a bit of the combat system but too many times i find myself pinned with no way out but to die. hell some of the monsters attack so fast you cant do a thing.

So basically what you're saying vrmpsy is that whenever you get into a fight, the situation and environment is always in your favor? Sorry, but that's dumb. You should be at a disadvantage from time to time, it keeps things fresh and interesting.

So sick of these whiny topics...I like how the op doesn't mention you have bombs and other Signs to utilize besides rolling and Quen. Suck it up! Just because it's difficult doesn't mean it's broken or crap.
Don't get pinned in a corner, it's fairly simple.

does not always work out as planned. just a second ago i fell into a trap in the forest, then as i was looking it over (wanted to pick it up) it would not let mr so i decided to go when i walked just touching a tree and 2 monsters came up and pinned me instantly. bloody things blend with the forest so well i never saw it coming. i had no time to even draw my weapon with them attacking me. when i did draw i tried to attack but they were just attacking so fast no matter what i did it would not work. somehow i got out of it but during the rest of the fight they killed me because getting out of it left me with 1 hit left of health.

Nope not saying that at all. I stated that a lot of the dificulty is artificially created because of the way the environment is designed in contrast with how Geralt plays at the moment. Instead of creating a unique array of monsters that requires tactical use of bombs / daggers or signs or liberal use of acrobatics for variety / dificulty in combat they went for something much more simple. Imagine if you had to use grapeshot to shatter the golem to get at the heart or use igni to burn it's sigils off, or if you faced a shielded opponent used a sidestep to slash at his side as you moved past him or instead stepped past him and pushed him over with aard. There could be a lot of complexity in the combat but they chose not to.

I'm not sure I see how having the environment limit Geralt's options is a bad thing.

Sometimes you can't pick and choose where you fight, and sometimes that means you must fight in close quarters where Geralt is not that proficient in, at which point you need to find alternatives. Its a reasonable challenge.

There's nothing artificial in it at all, it is a natural feature of sometimes not being able to dictate the time and place for a fight. At that point the challenge is to find an alternative, such as using bombs or magic to buy you some space (thin out the numbers), or using block/riposte.

Nothing wrong with that, IMO.

Itkovian

I enjoyed parrying and countering too much so would focus on using Aard instead and just saving my vigor for blocks in case I screwed up the timing of my counter attack.

Found the game a lot more fun that way but it would be nice if you could initiate a counter with any enemy attack, not just the one you're targeting.