The Witcher 1 Thread

trope trope trope trope trope

 

I was talking in prose the whole time?

 

yea that cutscene, everything happens way too fast. It always annoyed me.

 

Agreed, I found the cutscene and the beginning of Act I very confusing (where am I? Yes, that's a very evil dog. Oh, I'm in the same pub. That's nice. And there's this girl who acts as if she's seen me before). But the outskirts main quest, with you saving the villagers from an evil they brought upon themselves and the villagers not being particularly grateful as a result, was really nicely done. And as an area, I found it a good deal less annoying than the swamp, which was a very crowded swamp.

 

A bit into Act II now. Remember why I finished the game in the first place, the atmosphere really is something else in this game. Despite the roughness and shitty combat, the game tends to draw you in in a way that neither of the other two games do I think.

Hopefully I'll manage through the shitty swamp area and... whatever else was after the Trade Quarter (I remember liking that area but don't remember much after it).

 

I'm currently playing it for the first time as well, taking my time with it though.
The atmosphere is great, as is the art direction, which really helps a lot with the dated engine.
What's not so great is some occasional spots of very bad writing (some lines sound as if they have been written at 4 in the morning after drinking heavily) and e.g. how some quests have you constantly running at opposite parts of the maps. Also fucking drowned dead (see Akratus' pic).
Combat is, well, bearable, but it won't win any awards.

It may not be one of the all-time classics of the genre, but it's still a pretty good game, imo. Typical rough gem.

 

It gets really good at the last act, in my honest opinion. It was the only part I had *real* fun on in my most recent third playthrough, for a trilogy playthrough. Because I had already played it twice before I just rushed it, the combat was boring and I wouldn't touch a sidequest with a ten foot pole, unless it was necessary for the import or some favorable outcome.

I bet the most codexian playthrough would be full order, but I went full Gwynblaed and supported the Scoia'Tael at every turn, and I'm dissapointed by the lack of elves in The Witcher 3.

 

Drowners do get annoying. But then, it's The Witcher... they thought of everything. > http://witcher.wikia.com/wiki/Red_ribbon

 

I've done most of the investigation quest in Vizima. I don't remember how it ended up in my first playthrough but this time I actually found the body of the real detective (in the crypt in the graveyard). I didn't do that on my first playthrough. The entire investigation quest is really fucking cool I have to say, it's a shame it's kinda hampered by the writing (localization probably) and the clumsily set up dialogue trees. But as a quest, it's superb. It actually feels like you're investigating. What a far cry from that piece of shit investigation quest where you hunt the serial killer in the Witcher 3.

Also, Vizima's a great location (only in the Temple Quarter so far though). I remember thinking it was easily the best RPG city I've seen in a 3d game and I think I can still stand by that. The atmosphere is dead on, the size of it is spot on (not too small, not annoying large), it looks beautiful, it has interesting characters. It's great.

Enjoying the game a lot more than I remember, however, now I'm gonna enter the swamp...

 

I remember there used to be huge shit storm about the bad quality of english localization.

Is there any fix for that so it reach the potato's level?

 

Even the original is also awkward, but it had all those potato bits inside. They'd have to put some reindeer blood, lingon and cuck-sheds to achieve similar results in Sweden.

 

"Whaaat, you're DRUNK!?"

"Not truuuuue"

 

"What do you want?!"

"Mhm."

"Stop that, filthy mutant!"

"You're about to make me mad..."

"Yes?"

And then you can explore the dialogue trees.

Typical Witcher 1 conversation.

 

Even the "improved" English version is still missing probably at least 1/3rd of the original dialogue.

 

Just finished the game, havent played it past act 3 before (PC died when i got it shortly after release, then i was kinda not interested, but now i started to read the books and i had to go through the game), around 30 hrs, have done most of the quests. It feels certainly organic, although this is not really an RPG (if it is, then Batman: Arkham whatever series are also RPG games), and it looks better than twitcher 2 and 3 (both of which i have, but didn't play yet). At least it was a proper PC game that was adapted to KBM. When i launched Twitcher 2, i was appalled - sluggish, laggy mouse (thanks, console mouse acceleration and UI!), bad textures (Geralt's body is abhorrent, why his head looks great but his scars and shit is done in a 1994 texture?), lots of cutscenes (first 20 mins of the game is basically a cutscene with occasional combat). Is it the same in twitcher 3?

PS The only thing that was bad about Twitcher 1 is the localization - it looks like it was translated from English into Russian (instead of Potatio -> Russian), so all the humour and flair was lost. That prompted me to switch to English instead reading/listening very bland lines that were clearly written in Engrish before the translation

 

I also finished the game this year for the 2nd time. Mostly I love the 2nd and 3rd chapters which really represent most of the game. Chapter 4 is alright as a break from Vizima, but by the time I got to chapter 5 I was definitely kinda rushing through it, whereas I did all the quests I could in the other chapters.

 

A lot of people complain about witcher 1 combat, but I kind of feel like its the best in a lot of ways. He just goes in and wrecks shit with his group style sword wizardry. PLUS! I never felt like there were any situations where the AI felt lame and shitty like 3. 3 has some really awful enemy AI.

 

I think the Witcher 1 combat has its good sides. I never minded the whole "timing" mechanic and I liked the different styles as well. It's just that it feels kinda... unresponsive at times. The feedback kinda sucks in my opinion which makes the combat a pain at times.

That said, I love the use of alchemy and that you have to read books to pick plants.

 

TBH, I didn't play 3 so far, but AI in 1 seems to be just "let's swarm the guy with the white hair".

Somewhat related to that mechanic - which I like in principle - does one ever get a net profit from the various monster contracts?
It does seem that usually the money you have to pay for books (necessary to get the requested monster parts) outweighs the rewards from the contracts and selling surplus monster parts isn't always a profitable follow-up either.

 

Witcher 1 must be played from isometric perspective. Not only it looks best from up top, but the combat becomes much better and feels more tactical. The over the shoulder view is tacked on and useless, especially in combat. It just doesnt match the combat mechanics at all.

 

The "isometric" camera is pretty pointless in a single-character game. The OTS camera with KB + M works clearly the best, attacking and casting signs with the mouse but moving, dodging and choosing signs with the keyboard.

 

The most valuable resource known to man - XP.

 

You basically pay for lore, and as it was already said, experience points. It's not possible to max everything out, and 'pure stat' T4 and T5 trees have really nice things baked in (like dodge/immunity to poison/double pots and so on)

 

What? Pretty much every aRPG in existence is single character and isometric. And no, as i said the OTS is usess, especially considering the type of combat in the game.