The Witcher

[Lucifiel]

Hmmm... going to get this game soon. Still, I've got some doubts though... from what I've heard and seen from trailers, etc.

a) the "sex" and F-word stuff sounds kinda bleah. There're so many ways to showcase the callousness of an individual besides using just words and letting your char sleep around freely.

b) And the combat system sounds pretty annoying. It sounds like they tried to copy console fighting: the way they implemented combos and timing which makes it a bit silly since this isn't Street Fighter. Hell, even Prince of Persia did implement timing and combos but the system was intelligent even against a group of opponents.

c) The society thing? To me, it sounds rather unrealistic. If various groups were fighting and everyone was trying to off one another, sooner or later, there'd be a civil war, the gov./infrastructure would collapse and people(good or bad) would flee by the masses. I speak from experience: I live in Southeast Asia and many of the neighbouring countries have gone through this phase. Forget about "economy", there won't even be a society when everything has gone to hell.

d) And in Witcher, just like any typical rpg, it assumes that all monsters are a bunch of brainless buffoons which will choose to shorten their lifespan by attacking people, so they can be destroyed. At least in Eschalon, most of the "monsters" aren't exactly monsters: they're races, they likely had their own culture. The result of war or some conflict turned both parties against one another and which explains why creatures are attacking people. Forget about "grey decisions" and "moral situations", those only apply to "groups" the game or devs have determined will be "sentient beings".

[JewelCG]

My quarter's worth on this game...

When I first started reading about The Witcher and it's combat system I thought it would be too difficult for me to handle, as I generally suck at games where you have to do combos and the like. I can't do the 'hit x,y,z keys to make character swing, jump, dodge' bit. Just can't. It's one of those things. The combat system in Witcher isn't like that. Of course, it isn't like anything else I've played either. But, I can do it and even do it well. It did take some time to get used to though. I have a twitchy finger and tended to click, click, click, which of course doesn't work.

For me, I really enjoy being able to see all those beautifully deadly moves without having to do anything more than click at the right time. I still have to concentrate, but don't give myself a coronary by getting upset at my lack of ability.

The immersive quality of this game is top notch. The story is somewhat linear, but it progresses fairly well, is in depth and keeps your attention. You are Geralt, you are on a specific mission, not just out sight seeing. You have to make choices, most of which have effects down the road. There's a lot of side quests. I mean A LOT! So many that if you pick them up all at once it can be overwhelming, starting in Act II. I did, it was, I managed. The amount of world, monster, plant, NPC info is incredible. You can spend an hour or two here and there just reading history, character bios and monster/plant lore. If you're into that, it's pretty fascinating.

There is a lot of monster slaying going on. There is also a lot of thinking, weighing choices, problem solving and such. You even have to have some detective skills.

More on it being linear. You can't just explore the entire game world at the beginning. You progress in stages, fairly realistically. Once you progress to each stage, where you go and who you talk to in that area is left quite a bit up to the player. You can make decisions that get others killed, for the game world goes on around you, no matter where you are or what you're doing.

PROS

Incredibly immersive
Gorgeous game setting
Lots of quests
Interesting interactive NPCs
Funny non-interactive NPCs (generic population)
Everyone in the game is clickable and will say something
Generic population has some intelligence. Listening to their conversations as you walk by can be hilarious
Lots of items to do something with.
It's for adults.


CONS

Load times (significantly decreased with the 1.2 patch)
Combat system (for me not a con, but not for everyone)
Going back and forth and back and forth can get tedious
Some fights long, long long
Can't go on a killing spree and kill everything
I can't play it windowed.


I'm sure others could come up with a lot more cons, but for me the list is quite short. I love the game and am enjoying playing slowly through it. It is easily one of the top contenders for RPG of the year. It's certainly one of two great games I've found in a very long time.

I can't even compare it to Eschalon. They are two completely separate styles of game and it'd be way unfair to compare one to the other. Both are excellent, incredibly enjoyable and the best, IMO, in their genre.

Get the new demo and give it a whirl. You might find that you like it.

[vhailorx]

Been playing the witcher over the last few days....I think its a very good game but there is just something missing in it.....I can't quite figure out what it is....

I think it might be the fact that it feels more more like an action game with some rpg elements thrown in along with some choice and consequences. Probably should not have ignored the "Action\RPG" title

Example, you play Geralt and don't really have much say in how you develop the character. Sure, you can place skill points where you choose when leveling up, but the problem is you need all the skills to succeed, be it strong sword, fast sword, group sword etc....because you will face enemies that require all 3 skills so you can't really specialize and focus on one or the other. Also, the skill trees are linear as in some are bronze skills and you can only select bronze in early levels, then silver etc.....It doens't really let you play the game one way or the other for the most part. It might as well auto level up your skills and abilities for you.

One other issue I think is the closed off areas, you can't freely roam, you have to finish one area to get to the next so you never really run into any areas that look cool where you get your butt kicked by tougher monsters and just have to remember to return later when your stronger. Im playing on the hard difficulty and none of the fights except the boss fights are very hard to me.

So, I guess it's just not the type of hard core RPG I look for, but that being said it's still a very well made game. Fans of action RPG's will probably love it:) It's one of the best 3D action rpg's I have played so far. Im guessing once Eschalon comes out it will be ignored for a while.

I have to disagree with you on this one Saxon. You are correct that 'character creation' doesn't really play a role in this game because you MUST be geralt. but I have found that RPGs that make that initial choice and stipulate WHO the player is frequently have better, deeper, more developed stories that truly sand-box type games, and thus end up being better roleplaying games. This is the same case as Planescape: Torment (another game that used the amnesiac PC model). But setting certain facts about the PC, the devs can build the games story around that PC in a way that isn't possible if you can just be anyone. Same thing with Baldur's Gate and KotOR, though to a lesser extent. You can be any class that you want, but certain facts about your character are set and the games story is built around those facts.

the Witcher has this in spades because they are building a story around a very robust world with characters who are already well definied by sapkowski's novels. This game has plenty of weaknesses (lack of equipment variability, pre 1.2 loadtimes etc) but it's depth of story and character development are the very ebst things about it. You MUST play geralt, but you can play him in a substantial variety of ways, and make important choices about how your geralt will act in the world.

So sure, the action in this game has none of the complexity of turn and party based tacticl RPGs, but the story and character development in this game far surpass anything you find in all but the very best modern RPGs

[ThwockSplort]

Everyone's favorite game reviewer, Ben "Yahtzee" Crenshaw roleplays your favorite, pale, lanky misogynist this week on Zero Puncuation.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/article ... he-Witcher

Warning: contains naughty, yet hilarious-when-strung-together words.

[Saxon1974]

Been playing the witcher over the last few days....I think its a very good game but there is just something missing in it.....I can't quite figure out what it is....

I think it might be the fact that it feels more more like an action game with some rpg elements thrown in along with some choice and consequences. Probably should not have ignored the "Action\RPG" title

Example, you play Geralt and don't really have much say in how you develop the character. Sure, you can place skill points where you choose when leveling up, but the problem is you need all the skills to succeed, be it strong sword, fast sword, group sword etc....because you will face enemies that require all 3 skills so you can't really specialize and focus on one or the other. Also, the skill trees are linear as in some are bronze skills and you can only select bronze in early levels, then silver etc.....It doens't really let you play the game one way or the other for the most part. It might as well auto level up your skills and abilities for you.

One other issue I think is the closed off areas, you can't freely roam, you have to finish one area to get to the next so you never really run into any areas that look cool where you get your butt kicked by tougher monsters and just have to remember to return later when your stronger. Im playing on the hard difficulty and none of the fights except the boss fights are very hard to me.

So, I guess it's just not the type of hard core RPG I look for, but that being said it's still a very well made game. Fans of action RPG's will probably love it:) It's one of the best 3D action rpg's I have played so far. Im guessing once Eschalon comes out it will be ignored for a while.

I have to disagree with you on this one Saxon. You are correct that 'character creation' doesn't really play a role in this game because you MUST be geralt. but I have found that RPGs that make that initial choice and stipulate WHO the player is frequently have better, deeper, more developed stories that truly sand-box type games, and thus end up being better roleplaying games. This is the same case as Planescape: Torment (another game that used the amnesiac PC model). But setting certain facts about the PC, the devs can build the games story around that PC in a way that isn't possible if you can just be anyone. Same thing with Baldur's Gate and KotOR, though to a lesser extent. You can be any class that you want, but certain facts about your character are set and the games story is built around those facts.

the Witcher has this in spades because they are building a story around a very robust world with characters who are already well definied by sapkowski's novels. This game has plenty of weaknesses (lack of equipment variability, pre 1.2 loadtimes etc) but it's depth of story and character development are the very ebst things about it. You MUST play geralt, but you can play him in a substantial variety of ways, and make important choices about how your geralt will act in the world.

So sure, the action in this game has none of the complexity of turn and party based tacticl RPGs, but the story and character development in this game far surpass anything you find in all but the very best modern RPGs

I will agree with you the story and world are very well done, it just doesn't feel like an RPG to me, I can't play it more than a few hours before getting a bit bored with it.

[RezoApio]

Hi there,

just tried the demo yesterday.

Not bad even if I would not really call it a RPG. I like the graphics, the combo systme is not to hard to get (I play on easy mode). The world look good.

(why the plot is also about losing memory ? it is a common issue in the studio game industrie ?)

BUT I will not buy because it crashes on me more times on the demo (I have just made the prologue and into the first combat on book I) than I can recall !!

Can someone tell me if I am the only one ? or is it a known issue ? maybe solved by patch 1.2 ???

Thanks

[Saxon1974]

Hi there,

just tried the demo yesterday.

Not bad even if I would not really call it a RPG. I like the graphics, the combo systme is not to hard to get (I play on easy mode). The world look good.

(why the plot is also about losing memory ? it is a common issue in the studio game industrie ?)

BUT I will not buy because it crashes on me more times on the demo (I have just made the prologue and into the first combat on book I) than I can recall !!

Can someone tell me if I am the only one ? or is it a known issue ? maybe solved by patch 1.2 ???

Thanks

I don't remember it crashing on me at all. Are you system specs near the low end of the minimum requirements? I would install the newest patch and see if that helps as well. You might want to check the games forums as well.

[RezoApio]

is the newest patch installable on the demo only ?

My system is a Dell XPS 1730 so I hope it is not very near the low end of the specs....
At least when it runs it runs with good speed and all....

Some friends made me try the Crysis demo to test the graphis cards and it wen just fine in medium mode with a 1900*1200 full screen view....

I have just bought Oblivion to wait for the next Book II of Eschalon. For the moment I quite enjoy the experience.

Thanks for you reply.
see you soon.

[b0rsuk]

Actually IMO he looks like (and was borrowed from?) Elric of Melnibone (Michael Moorcock). Hopefully his sword is better behaved though.

More like Wiedzmin (The Witcher) from serries of novels by polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski. If the setting is fairly complete and interesting, it's because it's based on actual book(s).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Witcher

I read every book about Geralt and it's quite good fantasy. Not the best I've read, but deffintely among best polish fantasy. The setting is inspired, among other things, by slavic demonology (rather loosely). If the game is actually good I may even buy it. That would be a bit surprising, because the movie they made is just pitiful. Fans hate it, new people don't like it and are confused. Special effects are bad (rubber dragon etc).

In the book, Geralt is a mutant mercenary - a proffesional monster exterminator. The order he belongs to is quite small and has seen better times. Mutations and brutal training he was subjected to, as well as some basic magic, was meant to make him an efficient killing machine. Exterminators like him are not much needed anymore, and are target of superstitions and ostracized. He's a freak.

By the way: such down-to-earth and gritty fantasy is called 'dark fantasy'. If you like it, try Kane serries by Wagner. (Bloodstone, Dark Crusade, Darkness Weaves). I really like it. Also, the upcoming Dragon Age game by Bioware (bought out by EA, grr) is supposedly placed in such a setting.

[tempsanity]

Im into the Witcher. Great Game. A great Story. Geralt is a damn cool character!
This will ease the pain waiting for Eschalon.

This is a Polish game inspired by a great saga about the Witcher. I read it in my primary school, before the great boom You should really check out the books. The author is a grumpy drunkard but his books are world class. I read The Last Wish in English, it's hard to say whether it's as good as the original, still, worth checking out.

Cheers.

Edit: LOL, I just read the post above after posting this one.

[William]

Great game, one of the best I've played in a long time. You can just feel how much the devs cared about making it good, there's bunches and bunches of little details and you never run out of always something interesting to do. Some of the decisions are actually seriously interesting moral choices. Do you side with the unscrupulous terrorists with a genuine grievance, or with the racist yet honorable military order that doesn't hurt anybody without reason? Do you slaughter the vampires that infest the city, even though they don't kill? Who's worse, a witch that sells poisons and doesn't care who suffers, or the men that buy and use them? Nothing is ever really clear-cut.

You can even bungle up certain quests so that you do the opposite of what you actually wanted! I won't spoil it, but there is a certain quest that involves an investigation. Success or failute doesn't depend on your stats, it depends on how diligent you are in hunting clues and making the right connections. Hell, making the wrong decisions in the wrong place can even lead to you becoming an unwilling pawn to the man you're hunting! My first time around I was shocked at the revelation and made sure to research properly the next time around. The sexual content that everybody seems to focus on is really tastefully done and never seems artificial. All situations arise naturally and make sense in the context.

Another great thing: CDProjekt, the developer, wasn't happy with the way the translations were done, too much stuff was cut out due to censure or time. So for no extra money they're going to release Witcher Enhanced, with completely re-recorded voiceovers and dozens of new character models and other improvements. I can't think of one single developer in recent history to do something even close.

Seriously, this may not be much of an RPG, as such, but as a game it is just plain awesome. Buy it, you're really missing out on a lot. Me, I'll look for the novels.