I know it's something that's probably been debated to death on the forums to no real end, but I'll weigh in anyway. I enjoyed the combat system in The Witcher 1 more than the new system. I remember back when The Witcher 1 came out I found myself enjoying it. It isn't that it's "easier", it just requires a different kind of thinking. You have time to stop and think about who to take out first...whether or not group style would be good.

I think I would have liked what they tried to do with the new system, but it doesn't feel fully polished (though it is Polish...har har). It almost seems like they were trying to do some kind of Batman Arkham Asylum influenced type thing, but it just didn't really work. I feel silly rolling around all over the floor and spamming Quen. I don't really feel like the system starts to show any of the combat prowess that Geralt posesses until later in the game...and even then not very much.

Agreed,im on my third playthrough on hard and feel the same. Ive heard people saying Insane mode is great..but tbh,i felt that it was a bit of cop out..as in "hey,lets slap on a perma-death mode to make it really hard" even though its not really hard at all. It just adds fear of dieing to combat without actually changing the difficulty.

Id prefer the combat to be tuned up much more and i believe it will get there eventually. I doubt CDPR will do it all themselves though. The talent tree's are all over the place,gear progression is a mess,alchemy/blade oils/bombs and traps are not at all needed if one is determined.

Monster AI could also do with alot of tweaking,the leashing mechanic for monsters makes most fights a total joke or really cheap. Nekkers nests and Endregas in Flotsam Forest for instance,usually you are rushed by a ton of them..but if you run a tiny bit outside of their area they either reset,bug out,or completely dissappear...which in itself can trivialise certain quests because they wont respawn again unless you leave the area. It also makes traps completely impractical generally speaking.

Enemy spawning is also an issue imo,there is such a total lack of combat vs humanoids in this game outside of scripted battles. It would be lovely to be regularly ambushed by bandits or bounty hunters while traversing the various enviroments.

However,having said all this..the Witcher 1 was exactly the same in its Vanilla build,even when patched up to 1.5.

But there are some seriously excellent and dedicated modders in this community and i remember when playing W1 for the first time with the Flash mod on insane difficulty..that guy basically changed a mediocre and unbalanced combat system into a work of art that is extremely difficult and rewarding to this day.

Previously,a full Group-style build was enough to slaughter your way through hordes of monsters without thinking on the hardest difficulties.Then that mod came along and all of a sudden killing a single ghoul or drowner in chapter one required a full knowledge of the monster,personal skill,and the right blade oils/potions and preparation. Trying to do it otherwise would result in a quick death or 30mins of perfect timing with an un-oiled blade.

However,doing it right resulted in an extremely challenging combat system that made one feel as if they where playing a professional Witcher and not a super-human monster killing machine.

At the end of the day,i think the Witcher 2 is capable of this aswell =) They even removed the travesty that was group style and replaced it with a more scaleable talent based group damage skill. All it needs now is time,some patches,and some modding. The official forums will help with that im sure,once they come back online.

in the new game, I try to aard things and noone responses. I was kind of disappointed.

Regarding combat: I play assassin creed, prince of persia 2 (the very first one), I like their combat. I think they are the best martial art games.

I think the WC 2 combat is way far from those games, but I do like real-time combat , and I also like RPGs.

I feel that there are still someway to implement both RPGs element and real-time combat such as those in assassin creed.

for WC1: distinguishing group styles, fast styles was so boring. It doesn't presents a bit of interaction.