The Witcher 1 Thread

[Starwars]

I think much of these games depend on the world and whether you like it. If you do find it horribly bland and needlessly edgy, then I don't think any of the games will pull you in, even if you find the other games a bit better.

For the record, the second game has by far the best story of the three and some good choices & consequences (biggest example is the second act have two paths that are completely different) but the gameplay is complete and utter shit and they devolve a lot of stuff that was interesting in the first game like the alchemy system. It is an incredibly tedious game to play through in my opinion.

I guess the third game might be worth a shot. Even though I like the first game the best (even with all its weirdness and clunkiness), the third is pretty enjoyable. But, the story still isn't particularly good and neither is the gameplay.

It's a series that lives and dies by its atmosphere and gameworld in my opinion and if those things don't grip you, then I have a hard time seeing anyone finding much enjoyment in them.

 

[adddeed]

Im starting to think im in the minority here who enjoyed both Witcher 1 and 2 equally. Yes they are different in most ways, but i did find Witcher to be edgy or bland, or Witcher 2 to have terrible gameplay.

 

[Sodafish]

the third is pretty enjoyable. But, the story still isn't particularly good and neither is the gameplay.

It's true that the main quest story is a bit lacklustre, poorly paced and lacking in urgency, but there are moments of brilliance in there (the Baron questline being the obvious standout). The gameplay also isn't perfect but it's still head and shoulders above the first two. And as I said before, the HoS expansion for W3 is a must play.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

OK, I slugged my way through the 5th act of this game, and this is my utmost limit. What a fucking mess this whole thing was !
...
So my question is pretty simple : if I feel like the witcher world is horribly bland and needlessly edgy, that the overall story and characters are shit and plain as fuck, is there any point in finishing this game and trying the sequels ? I mean, does it get better storywise or on the C and C front ? I don't think that the gameplay is going to get better anyway, so without a good story incentive, I'm not going through the rest.

If you've already finished the 5th chapter, then there's very little left to the game and you might as well finish it. Even if by "5th act" you mean chapter 4 (counting the Prologue as the first act), the last chapter and epilogue are relatively short and you might as well complete it. Personally, I found The Witcher to be a promising first RPG from a new developer, although the action-based combat was worse than having a mediocre non-action-based combat system (as is nearly always the case for action-based combat in RPGs) and I didn't particularly care for Geralt or the setting.

I'd recommend avoiding the second game at all costs, since they managed to revise the action-based combat so that it's far worse than in the first game, and the rest of the game might as well be watched as played, since it's all about the cinematic cutscenes. There is a major choice at the end of the first of the three chapters, which leads to two vastly different second chapters and ultimately to three different endings (apparently, this is considered a success by the C&C crowd), but you can easily watch both versions of the second chapter and all three endings, without losing anything other than the displeasure from trying to play this poorly-made game.

Haven't tried the third game yet, but it was voted the Codex's 3rd best RPG of 2015 just behind Underrail and Age of Decadence, and they seem to have learned from their mistakes with the design of the second game.

 

[Ludo Lense]

learned from their mistakes with the design of the second game.

They learned in the same way Bioware learned how to deal with Mako going from ME1 to ME2. By removing it entirely.

W3 is far more digestible than W2 systems-wise but it is even more shallow.

 

[Frozen]

Biggest flaw of TW2 to TW3 is that nothing you did in TW2 matters when it comes to TW3
TW2 has the best story out of the 3 but at the end its like it never happened. You can make big world altering decisions but there is nothing out of it in TW3.
Even BioWare had better transitions with more things going from game to game.
To dude that didn't like "edginess" I don't know what's your thing, try TW3 its more Disney like.
I like TW1 exactly because of it- it doesn't try to make you care for Geralt- he is more of an asshole then in books. He has rigid moral compass mostly out of spite, his motivation is revenge and trying to stay afloat.
By TW3 he is just another boring superhero.

 

[Ivan]

OK, I slugged my way through the 5th act of this game, and this is my utmost limit. What a fucking mess this whole thing was !

I gotta admit first that it wasn't so unpleasant all in all. There was some good quests here and there, a couple of good revelations or situations, and the overall rpg questing thingy wasn't that bad for a moment...

It's just that now that I have to conclude the whole thing, I can't bring myself anymore to endure it again. Sure gameplay is shit, and this is a huge part of it, but, most of all, I'm just forced to realise that my engagement is nihil. Nada. I can't care less about Geralt, the world or any characters whatsoever. And, of course, I don't give a shit about the ending.

So my question is pretty simple : if I feel like the witcher world is horribly bland and needlessly edgy, that the overall story and characters are shit and plain as fuck, is there any point in finishing this game and trying the sequels ? I mean, does it get better storywise or on the C and C front ? I don't think that the gameplay is going to get better anyway, so without a good story incentive, I'm not going through the rest.

Production values for the sequels are through the roof and feel much more complete. Give them a shot.

 

[Carrion]

If you're asking whether TW2 is better than TW1 in the story and C&C department, the answer is yes. TW2 does make some serious missteps in terms of the gameplay, meaning that it ruins everything that TW1 did right, and especially the first few hours are full of misplaced cinematics, info dumps and simply terrible pacing. It does get better later on, especially with the Enhanced Edition, but it's still overall the weakest of the series.

There is a major choice at the end of the first of the three chapters, which leads to two vastly different second chapters and ultimately to three different endings (apparently, this is considered a success by the C&C crowd), but you can easily watch both versions of the second chapter and all three endings, without losing anything other than the displeasure from trying to play this poorly-made game.

The number of endings is actually 16. Granted, that's just the number of different permutations in the ending slides and not a particularly high number as such, but there's also a fair amount of in-game C&C that you'll see before you get there. TW2 is actually very good at showing you the consequences during the game rather than saving it all for the ending slides, even though the latter would've required a lot less work while being much more marketable (meaning that they could've had something like 200 endings instead of sixteen if they just added a few more slides).

 

[Blackstaff]

Thanks for the answers guys.

I don't think I'm gonna bother anymore with the series though. Like any other AAA out there, it just feels empty and random to me. It's a shame, being a big fan of GOG, I would have really liked to get into it.
At least, the first two chapters were interesting, but in the end the immersion just wasn't there for me.

 

[hivemind]

The full combat rebalance mod is so autistic holy shit

 

[AetherVagrant]

Slowly working through Witcher 3 again, First time I played on easy and steamrolled through, ignored sidequests and crafting, I just wanted to see the story. Second time combat is more fun playing on hard, I have to do sidequests to level up sufficiently, im paying attention to crafting...mechanically the game is much better on hard, and better than Witcher 1 (my favorite so far)

However, I was really hoping it had real c&c which it seems it doesnt. Story is still great, story I didnt see the first time is even better, but those bioware-style say-what-you-want we all branch to the same end choices are really disappointing, considering the illusion of choice it seems to offer at first.

 

[RRRrrr]

I was particularly fond of Prologue and Act IV

Do you mean Act 1 or the Kaer Morhen exposition?

 

[Haplo]

Yeah, I actually meant Chapter 1, sorry. Kaer Morhen tutorial wasn't great, although it was nice to see that place.

 

[RRRrrr]

Kaer Morhen tutorial wasn't great, although it was nice to see that place.

Yes, I agree. It was great in The Witcher 3, though.

 

[vdweller]

Started playing, still in the early game.

Combat is shit.

Rest is meh so far.

 

[hivemind]

kys retard with shit taste

 

[RRRrrr]

Combat is shit.
Rest is meh so far.

Combat is nice on hard when you don't get that visual cue on the combos and have to listen/observe the fights themselves rather than time the click on the visual cue. You also have to use potions and coatings, even bombs. Most of the people I've seen complaining about the combat didn't play on Hard.

However, the game has not aged very well. 8 years ago it was the shit. The music is still awesome.

 

[vonAchdorf]

The combat's better than in TW2.

 

[naossano]

The combat is also its own thing as far as i know. It might have some common points with other kinds of combat systems but still have its own flavor. (beside, there is several differences depending on if you play on isometric or not)

 

[RRRrrr]

(beside, there is several differences depending on if you play on isometric or not)

Non-isometric combat is terrible, you can hardly see what's going on.

 

[v1rus]

Finally sit down to beat The Witcher and it turns there is a gnome named Alfred Nabel who literally invented dynamite.

Seriously?

 

[v1rus]

Beat the I chapter. Like it so far, even tho I spent tons of time running back and forth through that darn village.

Now, I heard I need to talk to that Raymond fella asap, so I wouldnt mess up later quests. Is talking to him all I need to do to prevent messing up, or what_

 

[bozia2012]

Beat the I chapter. Like it so far, even tho I spent tons of time running back and forth through that darn village.

Now, I heard I need to talk to that Raymond fella asap, so I wouldnt mess up later quests. Is talking to him all I need to do to prevent messing up, or what_

I didn't know you could mess anything up...

 

[Haplo]

Hope you did both monster hunt quests, as you can't get back.
2 per chapter, 10 total. There's a nice reward if you complete all.

 

[v1rus]

Hope you did both monster hunt quests, as you can't get back.
2 per chapter, 10 total. There's a nice reward if you complete all.

Monster hunt quests? Think I did all available quests, but, just to be sure, which ones specifically?

EDIT - quick google search revealed I have missed one indeed. Thankfully, havent started Chapt 2 yet, and i got a save right before.