The Witcher Extended Edition, Should I play it?

[HawkSoft]

My preference is for lore focussed party RPGs like PoE, BG* and the Shadowrun series, I am also rubbish at twitch games.

 

I understand that the Witcher has an excellent story but rather dodgy combat mechanics, do people recommend that I attempt to play it?

[Oerwinde]

I really enjoyed it. Pirated the regular version, and stopped playing about 10 hours in when I found out the EE was coming. Paid $60 for the physical copy and started over. Think of it kind of like Diablo, if Diablo was a much deeper RPG experience with meaningful choice and consequences. Combat isn't that bad, they just basically wanted to break up the monotonous clicking and added a timing function to chain combos.

[Fenixp]

Depends, the first game is quite different from the following titles. When it comes to combat, it rewards preparation and is not at all about fast reflexes. It's pretty bad at providing feedback to player tho and combat mechanics are just wonky at best with weird animations and central mechanic being ... Somewhat unorthodox and not working particularly well. Preparation aspect is amazing tho, alchemy system is a lot of fun to play around with. If you don't want to bother with any of that - easy difficulty is the way to go as it genuinely makes the game quite easy.

 

While yes, the main storyline is amazing and nicely reactive with consequences which can come back and bite you in the ass hours after making a choice and some very cool investigation bits in the second act, the writing is ... Not good. Many dialogues are sub-par, game is trying hard to be "Mature" by including swearwords just about everywhere, and there's a mechanic where you collect cards with pictures of naked woment you banged (it can technically be ignored, but some conversation choices lead to surprise sex!) I'm no fan of gaming feminism, but Witcher just goes overboard with that kind of crap.

 

If you play the first game tho, you'll probably also want to play the other two titles in the series, and those are significantly different. Witcher 2 presents game of thrones wannabe plot which is actually fairly good, but a lot people disliked it for dealing with politics a lot more than personal stories of individual characters. It'll also teach you to never want to hear the word "Plough" again. They have finally dropped Geralt bedding 5 different women every day. Combat shifts towards 3rd person action game, again, it's fairly easy on easy, especially if you go down signs route of character development. You can also make potions but they're not quite as well implemented.

 

And then there's Witcher 3, which has by far the best writing, graphics and combat system, altho it's still 3rd person action. They finally dropped the constant swearing, writing feels a lot more natural and it presents open world which I found could be a fair bit better implemented, but eh.

 

Edit: Oh and consider reading Witcher books before playing the games. They're pretty damn good and are worth reading trough even if you don't play the games. Because if you do end up playing them, knowing lore and Geralt's story from the books will help you enjoy those games a fair bit more.

Edited February 4, 2016 by Fenixp

[Keyrock]

If the swamp didn't exist I would recommend playing the game wholeheartedly.  I can not, in good conscience, tell anyone to play The Witcher without warning them of the horror that is the swamp.  The swamp is a terrible place full of frustration that will take you forever to get through.  You will come to curse its name.  All the other areas are great, though.  The combat in the game is garbage, it's basically a rhythm game.  You pick the right sword and style for the situation and you click the button when the prompt flashes.  The voice acting and dialogue are hilariously bad, too.  However, the main story is fantastic and the game has choices that will haunt you 5 hours down the line.  Also, you get nudie cards for sleeping with women.  It's great.

Edited February 4, 2016 by Keyrock

[Starwars]

Given that it's enormously cheap on sales, I'd definitely give it a try. Even if the story or gameplay doesn't grab you, its atmosphere is something worth experiencing for sure.

 

It's the best game in the series in my opinion.

[HawkSoft]

Thanks for the advice guys, I've put it on my wishlist.

[the_dog_days]

Regarding combat: it's definitely different. There are no real dodge or parry (actual, you push a button and it happens) mechanics that I ever found. The first half of the game was a cake walk, but in the second half I had to abuse Quen to survive. Alchemy and crafting very important to any of the Witcher games.

 

In terms of lore, there's one important thing to remember: you play as Geralt of Rivia, but you do not get to define Geralt as he is part of a preexisting intellectual property; and because Geralt is a lowly witcher, he does not get to define the world he lives in. This means that you can't be the Dragonborn , you aren't anointed the Hero of Ferelden at the end game. Just like you or I, Geralt's influence in the world only extends as far as his influence on friends and family. This puts some players off because they expect the BioWare/Bethesda style "this world exists solely for my enjoyment, I am master of all" plot progression. But Geralt is a witcher; a professional monster slayer, sure, but a broke and weary monster slayer whom most people hold in disdain.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

I'd play it once, but the swamp will make you frustrated as hell and isn't rewarding. If there is a mod to skip the swamp, like the skip Taris from KOTOR, by all means use it and save hours of your time.

[marelooke]

Dunno if they tuned down the first boss encounter for the EE but if they didn't: that boss is, as far as I remember, the hardest fight in the game. So should you get frustrated there, remember that once you're past that one it will only get better.

 

In that fight be sure to use all the tools available to you (especially an appropriate weapon oil, specter oil, iirc. It makes a *huge* difference since you won't have a silver sword yet).

 

The Swamp, while annoying, doesn't come anywhere near that boss, difficulty-wise.

[the_dog_days]

I never had any problems with the swamp. When I got tired of the respawning drowners I would just turn tail and run. They usually stopped following me after a while.

[Nonek]

It's an enormously divisive game so i really couldn't tell you honestly whether to purchase it or not, it's the Marmite of video games.

 

The swamp has one of the most fun activities in the entire game, chain the Bluidzuiger explosions, i've managed fifteen myself and that was with Flash's mod installed so required some doing. I did splash out on the Red Ribbon as soon as possible however.

[Zoraptor]

Dunno if they tuned down the first boss encounter for the EE but if they didn't: that boss is, as far as I remember, the hardest fight in the game.

 

 

Against the Big Barghest in the prelude? I always thought it was ludicrous in the other direction since Aard-> Stun -> Instakill worked every time I tried it

 

 

Maybe that was a change to the EE though, not sure I played before its release.

[aluminiumtrioxid]

 

Dunno if they tuned down the first boss encounter for the EE but if they didn't: that boss is, as far as I remember, the hardest fight in the game.

 

 

Against the Big Barghest in the prelude? I always thought it was ludicrous in the other direction since Aard-> Stun -> Instakill worked every time I tried it

 

 

Maybe that was a change to the EE though, not sure I played before its release.

 

 

Nope, that's exactly how I killed it as well.

[marelooke]

 

 

Dunno if they tuned down the first boss encounter for the EE but if they didn't: that boss is, as far as I remember, the hardest fight in the game.

 

 

Against the Big Barghest in the prelude? I always thought it was ludicrous in the other direction since Aard-> Stun -> Instakill worked every time I tried it

 

 

Maybe that was a change to the EE though, not sure I played before its release.

 

 

Nope, that's exactly how I killed it as well.

 

With or without specter oil? Also:

 

 

Are you trying to keep the witch alive, or just kill the Barghest (The Beast was the nickname, iirc)? I always try to keep the witch alive.

 

[aluminiumtrioxid]

 

 

 

Dunno if they tuned down the first boss encounter for the EE but if they didn't: that boss is, as far as I remember, the hardest fight in the game.

 

 

Against the Big Barghest in the prelude? I always thought it was ludicrous in the other direction since Aard-> Stun -> Instakill worked every time I tried it

 

 

Maybe that was a change to the EE though, not sure I played before its release.

 

 

Nope, that's exactly how I killed it as well.

 

With or without specter oil? Also:

 

 

Are you trying to keep the witch alive, or just kill the Barghest (The Beast was the nickname, iirc)? I always try to keep the witch alive.

 

 

 

I used it, but I think the outcome probably would've been the same without. Just Aard in the rough general direction, bam, it gets knocked prone, stroll next to it, finishing move, fight over. Trying to protect the witch doesn't even figure into it.

 

 

When playing later installments, I kind of miss this awesome, raw power the signs had in TW1.

[licketysplit]

Absolutely. Combat gets better as you level up. Swamp isn't so bad I think. You can outrun or flee from anything to make the quests go faster there. It's weird, but he runs really damn fast in Witcher 1. In the next two he's a slowpoke. 

[Fenixp]

In the next two he's a slowpoke.

It's the amnesia. Burdens of life weighting him down. But yeah, I didn't find the swamp too bad either, in fact it has some of the most memorable game's moments for me. Weird.

[Vaeliorin]

I recall quitting the game at the beginning of chapter...3 I think.  Regardless, it was at a point where I was supposed to run around town doing...something, and I just got bored.  The terrible combat didn't help, nor did the investigation quest that told me that I'd ruled out people I hadn't even talked to yet, when I personally hadn't ruled them out.  Oh, and Triss forcibly having sex with Geralt when I'd decided to go with Shani didn't really help either.

[HoonDing]

Ultimately it's the only Aurora engine game worth playing.

[Zoraptor]

 

In the next two he's a slowpoke.

It's the amnesia. Burdens of life weighting him down. But yeah, I didn't find the swamp too bad either, in fact it has some of the most memorable game's moments for me. Weird.

 

 

I'd suspect those who hated the swamp were going back and forth a lot. While it's possible to only visit the swamp 3 (?) times in the whole game and do not that much criss crossing/ combat slog it's also easy to end up visiting it a dozen times with multiple criss crosses per visit and have hours of 1xp per kill drowner combat. It also has one easy to trigger potentially obnoxious quest at the start- Gramps' one with the multiple sets of multiple Echinopses when you may be at a level at which even killing one by itself is difficult.

 

Having said that while personally I wouldn't call it a favourite area, it was pretty good.

[HawkSoft]

85% off on Steam, Sold!

[the_dog_days]

85% off on Steam, Sold!

I bought the entire season over the summer in a bundle. After finishing the first one I went back and looked at my receipt and saw I paid $1.50 for #1. I think #2 was $2.50. Anyway, it was a great deal.