Witcher 2 Xbox easy difficulty is easier

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 16 June, 2011

"We do want to make it accessible."

Witcher 2 developer CD Projekt Red will make the Xbox 360 version's easy difficulty setting easier than the PC version's.

The mature role-playing game launched last month to critical acclaim, but some reviewers raised concerns about its brutal learning curve.

The game starts out tough before becoming more manageable later on. Specifically, some have pointed to the game's prologue as being too hard.

But the Xbox 360 version, due out later this year, will make things "smoother".

"We definitely do want to tweak parts of the difficulty elements of the game," senior producer Tomasz Gop told Eurogamer. "Definitely we are thinking about the easy mode. It should be easy.

"Due to the feedback we had, we already have done some tweaks for the balancing of the game, especially the prologue of the game. And there will be more. We are working on that already. But that's for the PC.

"That's going to be included in the box of The Witcher 2 Xbox 360 and also things that will be done exclusively for the Xbox 360 version to make sure it's a native console game. Tons of stuff.

"Controlling with mouse and keyboard, these are considered to be the king of controllers for the PC. For the console it's going to be a pad. So it requires smoothing out. We will do it. We have that in plan, that's why we're speaking about adaptation, not a simple port."

Gop moved to reassure fans that, on settings other than easy, the Xbox 360 version will still present as tough a challenge as the PC version.

"It's going to be hardcore without any doubt, on higher difficulty settings," he said. "You know what you're asking for.

"But on the easy difficulty setting it might be slightly smoother than the one we have for the PC. It's a good thing, to give both kinds of player, casual and hardcore, the same kind of experience. We do want to make it accessible."

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (40) Latest comment 11 months ago

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  • Dolly #1 11 months ago

    That headline is an awful grammatical way to explain the content of the article.

  • telboy007 #2 11 months ago

    Yeah cos us poor console owners are weak game players, we can't handle anything tricky...

    Edit: Not a whine. A rolling of eyes jaunty type comment.
    Edited by telboy007 at 16/06/11 @ 10:38

  • karooo #3 11 months ago

    Wtf, I didnt find the difficulty hard at all, whats wrong with people? How can anyone find the combat hard. Yes, you will get your ass handed at the beginning but its all about adjusting.

  • Softie2k #4 11 months ago

    Haven't got far yet, but playing on normal initally kicked my arse and ruined the enjoyment. If I had wanted to find the game hard, I'd have selected hard.

    *Queue all the guys who finsihed it on hard, with one arm, blind folded whilst bathing in acid, claiming it was too easy.

  • login_name #5 11 months ago

    The pad works perfectly fine on the PC version. The game is also very easy after you get over the initial slap in the face. It could explain itself a little better at the start, I suppose. All the info is there, it just doesn't hold your hand the way most modern gamers are used to.

  • ocmerius #6 11 months ago

    @telboy007

    What are you whining about? Just play it on a higher difficulty setting if you want a challange.

  • Shikasama #7 11 months ago

    I wouldn 't say they need to physically change the difficulty, just do a better job of explaining what you can do. Especially in relation to bombs and potions.

    If you play the game on its own terms, rather than playing it like you would God Of War, you'll not only find it a very satisfying experience but have few troubles with the combat.

  • coolbrittannia #8 11 months ago

    when is the ps3 getting this???

  • Crembo #9 11 months ago

    This game is absolutely not for the casual, in my opinion.
    It is suppose to be hard, as the story is dark and bloody.
    And that's exactly what I loved playing this game and already can't want for the next part in the series.

  • unacomn #10 11 months ago

    Easier? Quen=win already.

  • Ranger101 #11 11 months ago

    A "console gamer" playing Witcher 2 on the PC... [link url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCjzA-C647o&feature=channel_video_title
    ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCjzA-C64...[/link]

    (It's a DSP video for those in the know...)

  • GamesProgrammer Verified Games Team Programmer, Eutechnyx Ltd. #12 11 months ago

    @CB

    even tho clearly dont care judging by your other posts, they are currently courting other studios to take on the PS3 work, but im sure you probably no that.

  • OnlyMe #13 11 months ago

    The whole game doesn't need to be easier, just the tutorial bits. The first hour and a half or so. But I think that's mostly because it's so easy to go in expecting hack and slash and then proceed to get massacred. Once you get over that, it's fairly straight forward with just enough challenge on Normal difficulty, imo. A couple of difficulty spikes needs to be balanced out though, but usually it's due to lack of information, so it becomes a trial and error kinda thing.

    I also hear it's easier to play with a pad, at least the combat probably is. But I still use the mouse and keyboard due to the fact that it's not possible to pick up just some of the contents of a container/body with the pad - I'm forced to pick up everything or nothing.

  • Shikasama #14 11 months ago

    Ranger101 - Hah, I especially like the part where he says 'they should have made it like Ass Creed, cos thats hard but fair'. Yeah...that game where it is impossible to die and everyone is killed by holding the trigger and pressing X.

    Doing us all proud he is.

  • Inmediasress #15 11 months ago

    @telboy007
    That's because usually console people are the most vocal about hard gameplay.
    Just like all the PC people are colored elitist jerks.
    That is called stereotyping.

    Oh and another reason is that making a game more "mainstream" or as devs like to call it "accessible" the esiest way and probably the only way is to make instant gratification.
    To say it in other words push a button and somethign awsome happens accordign to bioware... or not lol.
    Edited by Inmediasress at 16/06/11 @ 10:41

  • uknortherner2000 #16 11 months ago

    @GamesProgrammer:

    Actually, they're looking to bring a PS3 developer in-house for the PS3 version. CB's just trolling though.

  • telboy007 #17 11 months ago

    I wasn't whining. Maybe I should have put a ;) or summink. I'm enjoying that youtube video.

  • Darren #18 11 months ago

    Note to Xbox 360 owners: do NOT play Witcher 2 on Easy as even the PC version's Easy difficult is way too easy once you get beyond the Prologue. If anything CDPR should have added an additional difficulty between Easy and Normal, the latter of which is too hard at times. I completed the game mostly on Normal, even this difficulty becomes easier as you progress through the game, while switching to Easy for the boss fights.

  • Markusdragon #19 11 months ago

    Woah, woah, WOAH.

    Just because I might play it on easy doesn't mean I'm 'casual'. I'm just really goddamn lazy dammit!

  • DiamondIce #20 11 months ago

    @Superet #11

    This +100000.

  • UncleLou #21 11 months ago

    I don't think it would have to be easier, but better balancing/a better learning curve sure would be a good idea. FWIW, the game already is easier with a pad than with m/kb, anyhow.

  • gregski #22 11 months ago

    Well, maybe they should put a BIG text on the game's box, so everybody reads it even before unfolding it: "Read the manual before putting the disc into console! While in-game - read the journal!"

    While still I don't understand people complaining about the difficulty and so on, as there is easy mode available in the menu and it's there for a reason.

  • Freek #23 11 months ago

    It wasn't that the game is difficult, that's fine. The game was actually frustrating becuase at the start you do not have the tools you need and the game doesn't explain anything.
    A double wammy that turns challange into frustration. That's a poor design choice that is rightly being adressed.

    A difficult game should always be fair and point out to you that you are loosing because of your own mistakes, not because the game is unclear about what you should be doing.

  • Pac #24 11 months ago

    Perhaps they should just look at all the difficulty settings as the "Easy" setting is already far too easy. It's the "Normal" difficulty setting that has daft spikes. E.g. the Endrega Queen surrounded by trees which makes it impossible to roll properly.

  • anomagnus #25 11 months ago

    Well, i said this would happen. Difficulty is all over the place. The prologue shouldnt be harder than the closing chapter. It was a pain in my ass to handle three guards in the prologue, yet in the closing chpater of the game, i butchered about 2 dozen men to get to the dethmold.

    Now, i could accept that, if geralt had been some farmhand in the beginning, and the story was years long as he grew into a warrior. But geralt was already an accomplished warrior by the end of the Witcher 1, the step backward from being someone that could handle group combat, to someone that couldn't was jarring.

    I never thought that the combat mechanics from the Witcher 1 deserved half the shit they got. It was a good model, that just needed a little work. The loss of the group combat stance was a real bone head move, in my opinion.

    Easy was too easy, Normal was frustrating to begin with, and tapered off, and hard was just not worth playing

  • udat #26 11 months ago

    I have had my ass handed to me a few times, especially early on in the game when you don't have any/many talent points. Mostly this was because I let myself be surrounded, and that leads to quick death. I think I was killed by the wave of jerks guarding the ballista in the prologue a few times. I think the game could also give you more opportunity to learn what each sign does and how to use it before throwing in at the deep end. Saying that, it threw me in at the deep end, I died a few times, and I learned. Nothing wrong with that.

    Also, potions. Alchemy is massively easier to use than in the Witcher, and potions are very useful.

    And yes, Quen. Now that I have decent health, can't be backstabbed, can hit multiple enemies at once and have good armour/damage reduction I don't use Quen quite as much (but I am starting to love Aard and Yrden) but for the first couple of acts, Quen is invaluable.

  • dingo75 #27 11 months ago

    Yeah cos us poor console owners are weak game players, we can't handle anything tricky...

    Based on CoD "Veteran" difficulty: Yes you are.

  • Xardan #28 11 months ago

    Sounds good, might have to pick this up as well as Skyrim.

  • chicknstu #29 11 months ago

    Good call! The start was way too hard.

  • Rack #30 11 months ago

    Could really do with a normal difficulty mode as well.

  • dingo75 #31 11 months ago

    While still I don't understand people complaining about the difficulty and so on, as there is easy mode available in the menu and it's there for a reason.

    The problem is that some people's ego would be hurt if they had to play on "easy" so the new "normal" is the old "easy".
    These days I start mainstream games on "hard" by default which I never did in the past as "hard" is now the old "normal".

  • dsmx #32 11 months ago

    COD on veteran isn't difficult it's unfair, there's a big difference.

  • jonfon #33 11 months ago

    The issue isn't really that people want an easy game, but that it shouldn't start out really tough and then sort of mellow out into a pretty easy game as you progress.

    They need to reverse the polarity of their difficulty curve, when they were building it they stuck it on backwards (like me and Ikea furniture).

  • aplsin #34 11 months ago

    @Ranger101
    LOL WTF it looks and sounds like he used a cam instead of fraps when recording! AWFUL AWFUL AWFUL that is one youtube channel i'll have no problem avoiding in the future!

  • Zaiz #35 11 months ago

    I don't think that console gamers are any worse at gaming. I really don't understand what CD Projekt is up to here. I mean, sure, PC's hardest games haven't been ported over but PC's hardest games are made with ANSI/ASCI graphics and more hotkeys than you have keys!

    I mean really.

    edit: CoD on Veteran is magical player-seeking grenade most. I've beaten it on Veteran(except mile high club) but never bothered with it again...I didn't bother the same feat with WaW(which got ridiculously unfair near the end) and MW2(which really didn't hold my interest campaign-wise)
    Edited by Zaiz at 16/06/11 @ 16:12

  • _LarZen_ #36 11 months ago

    As long as I dont have to make lame ass potions all the time I wil be happy.

  • Shabbaranks #37 11 months ago

    Really looking forward to getting this on xbox. As with most people I will put it on normal difficulty setting and just slog through. Don't think I've ever gone to easy on a game yet, teeth marks on the controller prove this.

  • twelfthdoubloon #38 11 months ago

    The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings is out now on PC, and Xbox 360.
    I wish!

  • Lunatic4ever #39 11 months ago

    Tell you what,
    I bought this game for pc,not knowing it was going to be released for xbox, and HAD TO turn graphics down to
    ultra low just be able to play it. Now I see,there are going to release a 360 version and I ask myself...

    WTF!? WHY? WHY ME :D

  • Inmediasress #40 11 months ago

    @TomNook
    Oh I never underestimate idiots they always manage to make idiotic comments.