The Witcher Revisited

[Meshugger]

The Witcher is totally underrated. I played the first 2-3 hours and got afraid by its awesomeness, so I uninstalled it. And I don't see myself revisiting it very soon. I wouldn't mind getting NWX2 very soon though...but thanks to Atari's sucky situation currently, I doubt that will happen.

 

Fixed

 

In all seriousness, having a mid-rage computer and playing only the tutorial level on low settings, would not only leave one unimpressed, but also annoyed by the whole lagginess and mediocre graphics.

 

The game didn't manage to grab me on until late CH1 - beginning of CH2.

Mid-rage computer? Are you spying on me?

I played into Chap1 I think, where I had some brawl fight, escorted some woman back to mommy and pappy (in return I got some hardcore-sex at the mill) and stumbled over some odd looking meat.

Well, the thing is just....every NPC makes such a sad, disinterested impression. Sure, there's poverty and prolly some plague, but the game just lacks the drive and excitement from a MOTB. The world feels rather oversized too, and traveling is just boring. I just saved some dwarfs arse on the way, and killed some demon doggies there. Is it just that I lost my hardcore edge? Whatever.... Maybe at some later point in time I go back and give it a real chance. But not now.

What I like so far is the interface, and the combat is astoundingly fun too. Not to mention that sorcerer in the Tutorial...what a woman!

 

Ah, you came further than i thought

 

If you don't like the bleak atmosphere, then maybe The Witcher isn't exactly our cup of tea after all. The dark and gritty atmosphere was the very drive that intruiged me to continue playing.

Edited January 8, 2008 by Meshugger

[Pop]

The Witcher seems to be getting a bit better over time, but it has the same problems NWN2 does with length padding, only worse. God, is this game slow.

I figured out Raymond was an impostor

and it's still making me wait through several hours of gameplay to bring this matter to bear.

Edited January 8, 2008 by Pop

[Meshugger]

The Witcher seems to be getting a bit better over time, but it has the same problems NWN2 does with length padding, only worse. God, is this game slow.

I figured out Raymond was an impostor

and it's still making me wait through several hours of gameplay to bring this matter to bear.

 

Spoiler!

 

 

If you have enough evidence of the imposter, you can expose on the spot. Sadly, Azgul kills you on the spot without any possibility of survival. Just reload and bear with it

 

[Wombat]

The Witcher seems to be getting a bit better over time, but it has the same problems NWN2 does with length padding, only worse. God, is this game slow.

I figured out Raymond was an impostor

and it's still making me wait through several hours of gameplay to bring this matter to bear.

Yes, I felt that part slowing down, too.

Even after jumping at the dialog option saying, "I don't trust this Raymond" or something, I still needed to make Geralt back and forth among NPCs.

The pacing doesn't seem to be done well in the Witcher, which even made me write some suggestions on Obsidian's upcoming RPG. If you have better ideas, how about posting your suggestions at the Alien RPG board?

[Morgoth]

If you don't like the bleak atmosphere, then maybe The Witcher isn't exactly our cup of tea after all. The dark and gritty atmosphere was the very drive that intruiged me to continue playing.

I'm fine with worlds that don't embrace the Lollipop-mentality of high-fantasy..... Whoever that "famous" Polish writer there is, I don't feel connected with his universe. The characters are mostly flat, the writing is kinda bad.... well, suffice to say, Gothic did a way better job in introducing it's world, even though the writing was bad and the monster-design mostly silly.

[mkreku]

No no, naked, pink birds that sounds just like chicken are never silly! Go Gothic!

[theslug]

I pretty much stopped playing which is kind of sad since it had so much promise. The atmosphere is just too bleak for me, it's not vibrant or anything and that makes me more depressed than I am usually, yes I'm on the edge. As far as combat goes its alright, like I just quit playing earlier today becuase I was walking along a swamp path outside vizima and this plant popped out. I started fighting it, hitting all my combos perfect yet I still got trashed in only a short time without really hurting it much. Not to mention you have to like buy books and stuff to actually get quest items from creeps such as the 10 or so drowners I murdered without getting their brains or w/e which is complete bs in my opinion. Of course each book costs like 500 dollars and I only have like 3 grand which besides stuff like that I have no use for. of course the quest rewards for stuff like that is also only like 200 or so orens which is bs.

 

Quest system is just like any other rpg set up like it I suppose but way less organized than I'm used to. Like how am i supposed to remember where all these people are at and their names? The story is also not particularly gripping at all. There are numerous occasions, no scratch that, every occasion where Geralt will say something that I have absolutely no idea who or what he is talking about. I guess I'm just not a multitasker becuase I much better prefer a system somewhat like Oblivion or WoW where you can just like do an entire set of one persons quests in a row or just pick one quest and follow it's directions until completion. Not so much in this game becuase it's just pure chaos and I can't deal with that. Sadly, I may have to let this one go.

[Pop]

I stopped playing because I got 9 of the 10 stones you need to get to wherever and I can't find the 10th. And I'm tired of having 1,000 tongues and brains and vials of blood while my rate of accumulation is so much greater than my rate of use.

Edited January 10, 2008 by Pop

[theslug]

Yeah inventory was pretty bad as well. Got way too much useless crap that I pretty much had to drop or sell for pretty much pennies. Completely stupid.

[Tigranes]

I don't know, I assumed the point of Witcher was that you can't pick up everything you see. Doesn't bother me too much.

 

I still love the game but I haven't bothered with Chapter 5, mainly because the type of area it's on (

Vizima on fire

) makes me lag so much, it's unplayable. My processor's not even on minimum reqs, so you know.

[Wombat]

Is the Witcher dark? There are many much darker movies, novels and even TV shows around. Also, you don't need to sit down for hours and hours (even if you have such time) but simply start playing it when you'd like to. You only need to keep the save files.

 

Quest system is just like any other rpg set up like it I suppose but way less organized than I'm used to. Like how am i supposed to remember where all these people are at and their names?

The Witcher's journal system requires some reading. Personally, I liked the comprehensiveness of it but people who don't read regularly may suffer from the comprehensiveness itself. As for the function, different from the Wither's quest system, Obivion's quest system can even track NPC, which made job much more easier for the players. Even if the players haven't played the game for a while, it is not tough to go back to the quests. If Oblivion's quest system allowed tracking even in town maps, it would be more desirable. For example, the players could directly go shopping by just browsing maps or see an NPC, as long as they have already known the shop and the NPC in question. This may sound too lazy for some people but, if you have some experience in game-mastering, you must have had to make the players refresh their memory of the last session before you start a new session. After all, the players have their own lives outside of role-playing games.

 

There are numerous occasions, no scratch that, every occasion where Geralt will say something that I have absolutely no idea who or what he is talking about.

The same thing is already addressed above. The Witcher is based on Polish novels and these comments are for the readers. For people who haven't read the novels, there are most heavily amnesiac option of "I don't remember anything", which usually lets NPCs to explain the situation.

 

Yeah inventory was pretty bad as well. Got way too much useless crap that I pretty much had to drop or sell for pretty much pennies. Completely stupid.

Inventory is yet another element which slows down the pace. I unload every single ingredient at inns after making a few kinds of potions. Also, I keep only two best weapons. Other slots are for loots. Presents are troublesome since I cannot tell which one is needed beforehand, though.

 

I think conventional "RPG elements" really needs speeding up to compete against other games. If you have ideas for pacing up, write them down at the Alien RPG board. Without feedbacks, what is the point of visiting developer boards, after all?

[Pidesco]

How about some awesome?

 

 

 Corrected English translation and voice work (over 5000 dialogue

lines re-written and re-recorded).

 Corrected German translation and voice work .

 Loading times reduced by 80%.

 Improved game stability.

 Improved combat responsiveness.

 Improved AI for Dice Poker mini-game

 Improved weather settings for locations

 Vitality indicator problem resolved (did not display at times)

 Inventory and map texture caching (accelerated map and

inventory load/ display)

 All corrections contained in game patches released to date

[Tale]

Can't wait to replay with the patch.

[Musopticon?]

YES!

[Meshugger]

Holy hell, that is what i would call a patch

[Tigranes]

It's not out yet, right?

 

Maybe I can finally finish Chapter 5, its currently unplayable on my crappy comp.

[Xard]

Holy hell, that is what i would call a patch

 

They restore the butchered dialogue?

 

NOW is the time to get the game, woohoo!

[Tale]

It's nice to see profits put back into improving the product.

[Pop]

Hooray for the Microsoft troubleshooting method! The Witcher gets its very own Service Pack 2.

 

Too bad they can't fix the monotony.*

 

*But at least they made dice poker more fun!

Edited February 18, 2008 by Pop

[Musopticon?]

Hey! I still hate everything!

Pop! What took you so long?

[Pop]

Hanging out in the future, apparently.

[Zoma]

I shudder at the thought of the size of the patch itself.

[skuld1]

 Improved AI for Dice Poker mini-game

 

Finally!

 

Not that the bad dice poker AI ruined the game or anything... but the AI was absolutely horrendous!

[WITHTEETH]

Sweet Ill pic up the newer enhanced UK version!

[Slowtrain]

 Improved AI for Dice Poker mini-game

 

Finally!

 

Not that the bad dice poker AI ruined the game or anything... but the AI was absolutely horrendous!

 

I always thought that was intentional to make the bad players bad, like when they would reroll a four of a kind. heh.

 

 

ANyway, that's pretty cool about the patch. I'll have to take another spin through the game at some point.