The Witcher

[emilyek]

The Witcher has got major technical and design problems, and people who praise it without reservation are riding the hype train.

But what makes it special is its story and the treatment of the story; a part of The Witcher opens a channel to how RPGs used to be, before they all became hand-holding cinematic T for Teen extravaganzas.

Everything wrong with it can be forgiven, just for that.

I'm beginning to believe that we simply wont see more games like it out of US companies ever again.

We will have to look to Eastern and Northern Europe for games that still have substantial guts and brains, games created by development teams who have skill and a decent-sized budget, and who aren't totally corrupted by their marketing departments.

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: emilyek

I'm beginning to believe that we simply wont see more games like it out of US companies ever again.

That or mods. There are some damn fantastic NWN1/2 mods out there.

 

[skace]

Originally posted by: emilyek
The Witcher has got major technical and design problems, and people who praise it without reservation are riding the hype train.

It has nothing to do with hype. A good game rises above bugs, always happens, look at Vampire Bloodlines. Bugs are trivial when a developer gives you a truely amazing experience.

 

[shortylickens]

I got the enchanced edition from walmart this morning.

I sincerely hope the story is as good as everyone says because the gameplay sucks.
Movement is annoying and combat is downright painful.
This feels an aweful lot like a console title. The graphics are pretty and the controls are shit.
Am I supposed to just click once on an enemy and wait until he dies?
Am I supposed to hold down the left mouse button until he dies?
Do I click constantly until I feel like I'm playing an NES game?

Mass Effect had similar problems. They tried (unsuccessfully) to meld a shooter and RPG together.
It was a rotten shooter but thankfully the story was so darn good you could trudge through it.

 

[Martimus]

Originally posted by: shortylickens
I got the enchanced edition from walmart this morning.

I sincerely hope the story is as good as everyone says because the gameplay sucks.
Movement is annoying and combat is downright painful.
This feels an aweful lot like a console title. The graphics are pretty and the controls are shit.
Am I supposed to just click once on an enemy and wait until he dies?
Am I supposed to hold down the left mouse button until he dies?
Do I click constantly until I feel like I'm playing an NES game?

Mass Effect had similar problems. They tried (unsuccessfully) to meld a shooter and RPG together.
It was a rotten shooter but thankfully the story was so darn good you could trudge through it.

I am finding that as the combat becomes more difficult it becomes better. It no longer is a boring, click-once until the combo symbol comes up, then click again. Now I have to start using potions at times, and change combat styles on the fly as different types of enemies join in the fight. Combat has turned from something that was somewhat tedious to being fun (around 1/2 way through the third Act, at least for me.) Of course if you chose easy combat when you began, you probably won't have the same experience.

I don't see the movement as painful either, although it is a lot like NWN (which makes sense, because it is the same engine). That is a little annoying, but I have played NWN more than any other game, so I kind of already had the drawbacks ingrained in my mind and they don't bug me as much anymore. (Like every non-dead body object has to be solid, and you need to walk around it. Red zones are straight lines, and not based on actual objects, which kind of limits how they could set up area. Most time based functions are based off of entering/exiting the curent "area" versus actual time.)

I still love this game, and I hope that CD Projekt releases another game soon. I just hope they use a different engine next time (and do whatever they did for the EE version when they do the English translation on the new game. The original translations didn't turn out so well from what I have seen.)

 

[Joemonkey]

As much as I hate it, this game is getting BORING. As soon as I got in the city and had 300,000 new things to do I felt a little overwhelmed and wasn't sure what I needed to do, let alone what time of day I needed to do it. Good game, I really hope it can hold my interest, but then again I could never finish Planescape:Torment either

 

[FirewolfX]

When attacking, click once on the enemy, when the flaming sword comes up, click again....and when it comes up again...click again...

 

[Slappy00]

i played the regular version (patched) and have very little problems with it .... an occasional crash but nothing remarkable.

This game is well made and if given a chance WILL suck you in. I really felt connected to my character and the people around him. Strangely I took my decisions in the game only after pausing and debating in my head what I really wanted to do. I have never been this involved in a game since the Black Isle era, and although the game gently moves you along towards an ending I feel strongly that this is one of the best rpgs in terms of story and immersion (the graphics are simply stunning and appropriate) in the last few years. Its easy to load up the game and quickly get lost in a different world, and like me you might even go and buy the book.... yes it's that interesting

 

[emilyek]

I didn't like the combat system much, at first, either.

It's just: find the right style/weapon for the enemy and click..wait for flaming sword (or watch and listen if you play on hard) and click again until the combos are done. It is baby simple. Too simple.

However, once you grow your skills and get more moves and you realize that you are always moving forward; that you can continue combos by clicking on different enemies; that you can do acrobatics to reposition; and that you can use Aard for stuns and fatalities, the combat becomes a kind of ass-kicking performance art. That's whats sweet about it and keeps it interesting. One might argue that how satisfying Witcher combat is depends on how aesthetically cool you can make it. That's the beauty in its simplicity.

For me, the beginning of Act III was the most frustrating-- mostly because ACT II can get all mucked up with the investigation quest if you don't do it just right. If you go through all of ACT II, and it doesn't quite work optimally and you finally get into ACT III (which is the most graphically demanding part-- you will experience slowdowns and lag) and you've got tons of stuff to do and even junk left over from ACT II because you didn't do all that stuff in the right order, it can be game-breakingly frustrating. It's where I quit on my first attempt at a playthrough, to be honest.

Act III, though, is where the main story really takes off, and you have to make the choices that will irrevocably shape the course of the game.

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: shortylickens
I got the enchanced edition from walmart this morning.

I sincerely hope the story is as good as everyone says because the gameplay sucks.
Movement is annoying and combat is downright painful.
This feels an aweful lot like a console title. The graphics are pretty and the controls are shit.
Am I supposed to just click once on an enemy and wait until he dies?
Am I supposed to hold down the left mouse button until he dies?
Do I click constantly until I feel like I'm playing an NES game?

The tutorial Prologue answers those questions, and the movement/control method can be changed in the game options. I like the low isometric with AWSD movement controls myself, though I can still use the left mouse button to move by clicking on the ground.

In a nut shell, you click on an enemy once and release. Geralt will attack once, then the cursor will show up with a ring of fire around it. When this ring appears, you click again. I forgot how many cycles there are, but Geralt will launch repeated, powerful attacks with each level.

You do NOT click and hold, this will constant interrupt your attacks and result in you getting pummeled to death in every fight.

 

[Martimus]

Originally posted by: Bateluer
You do NOT click and hold, this will constant interrupt your attacks and result in you getting pummeled to death in every fight.

Actually, that isn't true. Your attacks only get interupted when you click again during an attack that isn't finished yet. I know this, because all through Act 1 and Act 2, I thought I had to click and hold for an attack. (because that was the only way I could get it to work regularly in the intro) After reading here, I found that I don't need to hold the mouse button down, but holding it down has absolutely no adverse affects. It just isn't required.