The Witcher series

[MetalMat]

I played the first one 4 years ago as I got it free. It was ok, the combat was a little too "rock, paper, scissors" for my liking and the story never really grabbed me. I made it up to some swamp level and got stuck on a quest and just stopped playing. I would not mind trying out the second but I am in no hurry.

 

[Bateluer]

You don't think missing all of the character introductions and backstory from the first game have anything to do with it?

Nope.

Maybe it's because I'm playing the Enhanced Edition.

Hate to rain here, but thats a big part of it. TW1 sets up a lot of the world, the factions, and the political machinations.

I'll give you an example. The Prologue is kind of neat, told in retrospect. But right after the prologue ends, there's a narrator with a weasely little voice that narrates shit that has no bearing on anything during a stupid cutscene while it shows the boat sailing down a map of a river. Nothing he said had any bearing. I don't know if that was in the original release or not, but it seemed out of place and irrelevant.

The cutscene of the boat sailing down the river is explained after you escape imprisonment in the castle, you board the boat and follow the trail of the Scoia'tel you noticed earlier in the Prologue. Its clearly explained.

Same thing with the whole Frank Miller-style comic cutscenes.

The animated style cutscenes play more into Geralt's memory loss, which has developed throughout TW1 and through most of TW2. One of the story arcs in both games pertains to the circumstances of Geralt and Yennefer's death.

As stated, though, I am enjoying the game, even though monster difficulty is extremely inconsistent and the story is about as sharp and straightforward as a rusty rake.

Do not mistake having the story spoon fed to you as being inconsistent and rusty. You have to actually talk to NPCs, do quests, and pay attention during the game in order to understand the story. The Witcher series doesn't hold your hand, and thats way the fans love it. DA:O was good, but the story was handed to it on a silver plate. Mass Effect was good, but the story was handed to you on a silver plate. And so on.

Also, I played about 15 hours of TW1 before I got bored of it. I had a fair introduction to the IP.

So you'd just made it out of the outskirt section then? Sorry to break it to you, but no, you didn't get a fair introduction to the Witcher. You read the first couple of pages in a book and tossed it aside because it didn't have Michael Bay style explosions in the form of animated GIFs.

 

[Kratos47]

@Bateluer
Good points. I also simply can't recommend anyone playing TW2 directly without playing TW1. Hell even TW2 starts with certain armours and swords from part 1 and there are a few instances where dialogues and character attitude changes according to your saves from witcher 1.

 

[Mem]

@Bateluer
Good points. I also simply can't recommend anyone playing TW2 directly without playing TW1. Hell even TW2 starts with certain armours and swords from part 1 and there are a few instances where dialogues and character attitude changes according to your saves from witcher 1.

I liked TW1 and controls were not bad just had to get use to them,story wise it was fine and glad I played through it until the end (actually 4 times).

TW2 was easier in many ways ie controls improved and you knew some of gerald's background and characters from TW1 so that made it easier.
Would I recommend playing TW1 first before 2,yes I would since I don't know why some people found it boring because it was not.

I can understand the control issues but as I stated just takes a little time to get use to them,also remember its a RPG so not a 5 min game ,you have to put the hours in if you want to reach the end,its not a dumbed down console game where you are finished in a few days.


Also some things were better in TW1 then 2,for example cats eyes potion in the dark.

Last point TW1 does not really take off until chapter 2 and also some people found the part in chapter one too hard(boss fight) and quit ,so at least get to the main town first and do a few things there before deciding to drop the game,personally its one of those games where you just need to stick with and it grows on you.

 

[Kratos47]

Well said Mem.

And funnily enough i'm that guy who actually bought Witcher 1 and didn't liked it years ago. Back then i was not into RPGs but only last year few of my friends told me it was an awesome game and i was like "hey don't i have that game somewhere?"

Now i played it & took it a bit seriously and tried to put some effort in the controls and then i was immediately hooked by the storyline. Plus part 1 was really long game. I think witcher 2 is quite small in comparison to the first one, story wise.

Overall i liked both the games very very much and it's hard to say which i like most, since both of them are really stupendously done.

 

[giantpandaman2]

I loved both games.

First thing I did with both games was download the "no weight" mods. Because no one likes screwing around with inventory. Also, master using your powers and potions. It makes the game much, much, much easier.

 

[Zanovar]

As above loved both cant wait for the 3rd.just to add i hated the beginning of the first game(running about in that damn castle).hated it so much that i left the game for months,but gave it another go and finally got through that tedious castle stage then couldnt stop playing .i would start with the first.

 

[monkeydelmagico]

I've never played this series until this past weekend. Jumped on the steam freebie trial for Witcher 2. Took a couple days to really learn, ran through the tutorial a couple times. I really like the intricate story line. Glad it has F5 save as I die alot. Graphics are nice, combat is challenging, side quests take a bit of thinking, and the enhanced edition dialog doesn't get instantly stale.

Overall I'm addicted right now and it's good.

 

[finglobes]

I tried Witcher I. I liked the graphics but the trifling fetch quests got tedious. The monotonous tone of Geralt's voice was dreary. I tried Witcher II and the tutorial was a real enthusiasm killer since there was so much thrown at a player. The game just felt like a chore.