Review The Witcher - not for hardcore RPG players

[Vault Dweller]

Tags: CD Projekt; Witcher, The

<a href=http://www.ugo.com>UGO</a> has posted a very positive, but still retarded <a href=http://www.ugo.com/ugo/html/article/?id=18004&sectionId=2>review</a> of <a href=http://www.thewitcher.com/>The Witcher</a>:
<br>
<br>
<blockquote>Unfortunately, some of the most compelling things about many RPGs didn't make it into The Witcher. Your main weapons can be improved, but you're pretty much stuck with them, and you won't be finding a ton of loot with all kinds of configurable enchantments or the like. <u>To me, the most important thing about RPGs is making choices that affect your character's in-game performance, and in that respect, this game doesn't quite hit that mark. Most of the important choices affect the story, but don't really help you kill monsters in any different or more efficient way.</u> Sure, you still gain abilities and can put points into melee attack and magic styles, but you're not also creating or equipping all kinds of gear with various properties to help you fight better. The ability to create potions through Alchemy is there, however, and while Geralt usually doesn't need it to win, that is one option for finding that RPG-like depth.</blockquote>Kids these days.
<br>
<br>
<blockquote>While just about every RPG out there has lots of dialog, The Witcher is unique in that the dialog becomes one of the more compelling reasons to play.</blockquote>Crazy, huh?
<br>
<br>
<blockquote>Yes, the combat is good, and your character does gain new tactical options and cool abilities as he improves, although the lack of new gear will turn off those for fans of games like Diablo. The world design is realistic but interesting and the enemies you fight are generally worthy opponents, but it's the story of Geralt and how he affects his world that will keep you playing. Some technical problems plague the experience, but overall I think you will have a hard time finding a better fleshed-out story in any game released in 2007. <u>The Witcher is not for everyone, and even some hardcore RPG players might find this a disappointment</u>, but it's still an excellent fantasy game with enough merits for me to recommend it for any fan of the genre.</blockquote>I guess these days RPGs should belong either to the Diablo or Oblivion camps and anything that doesn't fit these two categories confuses the fuck out of gaming media.
<br>
<br>

 

[Baphomet]

What the hell is a hardcore RPG player anyway? Someone who goes to DragonCon hoping to lose his virginity?

 

[Vault Dweller]

Someone who played Oblivion for 500 hours and wrote this handy guide to role-playing:
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Roleplaying

 

[Kingston]

"Most of the important choices affect the story, but don't really help you kill monsters in any different or more efficient way"

Oh jesus fuck no! I'm quitting The Witcher right now.

This was sort of lulz:

"Sure, you still gain abilities and can put points into melee attack and magic styles, but you're not also creating or equipping all kinds of gear with various properties to help you fight better. The ability to create potions through Alchemy is there, however, and while Geralt usually doesn't need it to win, that is one option for finding that RPG-like depth."

Yes, that famed "phat lewt" rpg depth.

 

[MasPingon]

*Goes play Oblivion and Diablo to become a hardcore crpg player*

 

[Deleted member 7219]

According to that article a hardcore RPGer is someone who plays Diablo. And the reviewer saying Geralt doesn't really need potions to win is a downright lie. Unless he played the game on easy mode, of course.

 

[Red Russian]

...To me, the most important thing about RPGs is making choices that affect your character's in-game performance, and in that respect, this game doesn't quite hit that mark. Most of the important choices affect the story, but don't really help you kill monsters in any different or more efficient way...

This is... this is fuckin' gold! I mean... fuck, I don't even have words for this. Who the fuck!?

 

[Texas Red]

*Goes play Oblivion and Diablo to become a hardcore crpg player*

Just playing is not enough. You need to *imagine* to become a true RPGer. :wise master:

 

[Hümmelgümpf]

*Goes play Oblivion and Diablo to become a hardcore crpg player*

Just playing is not enough. You need to *imagine* to become a true RPGer. :wise master:

That's easy:

Deity

Become a god of Cyrodiil! Note: This only works if you have the PC version and can use the console.

* Put all your stats and major skills to 255.
* Live in a temple and pretend that group of followers pray to you.
* Name your character after one of the major gods/goddesses of the Nine and give them major skills similar to what the god/goddess would have.
* Preach to your followers every day or once a week.
* Have a few disciples. Anoint a specific follower as your disciple and have them follow you around as you preach. (Use the console to create a permanent command humanoid effect.)
* Use only powers (console commands) that the god/goddess you are trying to emulate can/would use.
* Use console codes to make yourself larger.

Remember you're a god and you can do anything. Is someone annoying you or your disciple? Use the console to reap justice on the unfortunate soul. Also remember that you don't have to eat, sleep or drink but you do get your power from your followers. Try to spend time with them for at least an hour each day.

Another idea: maybe you want to be a fire god? Get something for 100% resist fire and fire damage. Now use only fire spells and fire weapons and wreak havoc on your foes!

 

[Troll]

The ability to create potions through Alchemy is there, however, and while Geralt usually doesn't need it to win, that is one option for finding that RPG-like depth.

The guy clearly hasn't played on Hard difficulty. Though the level is not very challenging as its name points out ( i'd call it more a Normal difficulty of the old times ) at least it makes you try and go through all the aspects of the game... ( actually you can go through Hard without alchemy... if you're extremely patient and load/save often but it's not wort it - at least up to chapter 2, don't know about the rest )

And the developers at CD Projekt, being European and all, don't have any problems putting things like sex into their games.

Damn us Europeans for messing with a tabu. Actually i think the sex - and i'm reffering to card collecting minigame - is rather puerile... but as we're roleplaying a grown man we can't expect him to be asexual... and all the sex minigames can be avoided ( i think it's more damaging for the kids to watch porn than what is presented here... as part of a context - you save a chick's life, she has sex with you in return - that's pretty resonable in my opinion
By the way, i also noticed this was that author's longest paragraph... yeah, i checked.
Anyway, in the end i think it's good game marketing strategy, as it produces a great fuss about it without having something outrageous - we got to leave something for the mainstream gamers, don't we?

 

[muds_animal_friend]

some of the most compelling things about many RPGs...

...a ton of loot with all kinds of configurable enchantments or the like.
...making choices that affect your character's in-game performance [to] kill monsters in [a] different or more efficient way.
...creating or equipping all kinds of gear with various properties to help you fight better.

The quoted sections outline the gameplay components of an 'action' RPG. The Witcher is marketed as an aRPG and if the reviewer was responding to that categorisation then his criticisms would be reasonable - just as Oblivion could be criticised for its "quintessential RPG" tagline. The Witcher is (thankfully) no more what I expect from an aRPG than Oblivion is what I expect from a "quintessential" RPG, anyone purchasing The Witcher hoping for Diablo style hack 'n' slash 'n' loot is going to be disappointed. Sadly the author isn’t making those distinctions but asserting that hack 'n' slash is the essence of RPG in general.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

The ability to create potions through Alchemy is there, however, and while Geralt usually doesn't need it to win, that is one option for finding that RPG-like depth.

The guy clearly hasn't played on Hard difficulty. Though the level is not very challenging as its name points out ( i'd call it more a Normal difficulty of the old times ) at least it makes you try and go through all the aspects of the game... ( actually you can go through Hard without alchemy... if you're extremely patient and load/save often but it's not wort it - at least up to chapter 2, don't know about the rest )

Not even on hard difficult, I'm playing on medium and I have to use potions in more than half the fights otherwise I get my ass kicked. I definitely need potions when I'm fighting multiple opponents and in the 'boss' fights.

 

[fastpunk]

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Roleplaying

I fuckin crossed myself while reading that.

After beating Shivering Isles, you essentially become the new Sheogorath. Excellent opportunity for role-players to take advantage of.

* Pretend to have appointed one of the people living in the houses to be the new Duke of that realm, since you have now become Sheogorath and the other is dead.

Sheogorath in all his glory!

* Wear your regalia and stroll around town, but don't forget your escorts!

* You can change things in your realm if you want, say one day your feeling sad, change the weather (hopefully it will start raining) to make the realm better fit your melancholy mood.

Note: There is a mod out that gives you a weather-changing staff.

* If you really want to pretend you have become a god, turn the difficulty all the way down. This helps to increase your invincibility as a god.

* Fight off creatures when they attack the towns and defend your realm.

* When there are intruders at the Gates of Madness, go there and watch the fight, as if it were a show!

I'm guessing that the author was also at the "gates of madness" when he wrote all this.

 

[Texas Red]

The ability to create potions through Alchemy is there, however, and while Geralt usually doesn't need it to win, that is one option for finding that RPG-like depth.

The guy clearly hasn't played on Hard difficulty. Though the level is not very challenging as its name points out ( i'd call it more a Normal difficulty of the old times ) at least it makes you try and go through all the aspects of the game... ( actually you can go through Hard without alchemy... if you're extremely patient and load/save often but it's not wort it - at least up to chapter 2, don't know about the rest )

Not even on hard difficult, I'm playing on medium and I have to use potions in more than half the fights otherwise I get my ass kicked. I definitely need potions when I'm fighting multiple opponents and in the 'boss' fights.

Yup. You need potions and thats a FACT. How would he handle the golem without a few boosters?

 

[Deleted member 7219]

The ability to create potions through Alchemy is there, however, and while Geralt usually doesn't need it to win, that is one option for finding that RPG-like depth.

The guy clearly hasn't played on Hard difficulty. Though the level is not very challenging as its name points out ( i'd call it more a Normal difficulty of the old times ) at least it makes you try and go through all the aspects of the game... ( actually you can go through Hard without alchemy... if you're extremely patient and load/save often but it's not wort it - at least up to chapter 2, don't know about the rest )

Not even on hard difficult, I'm playing on medium and I have to use potions in more than half the fights otherwise I get my ass kicked. I definitely need potions when I'm fighting multiple opponents and in the 'boss' fights.

Yup. You need potions and thats a FACT. How would he handle the golem without a few boosters?

To be honest it took me about five reloads until I came up with a strategy to defeat the golem. I just kept hacking at him until I drove him into a fallen tree and he had nowhere else to run. But even then that was using the in-game environment to my advantage, I had to think about it, had to plan a strategy, I realised hacking at him mindlessly driving him into the swamp wasn't going to help as he would soon recover and kill me, or the spawning drowners/bloedzuigers would do the job for him. And I still needed a swallow potion to regenerate health otherwise he would have gradually killed me by the small strikes he managed to make in between mine.

The beast at the end of Chapter 1 was a pain in the ass too, definitely wouldn't have been able to do that without blizzard, swallow and tawny owl.

 

[Hümmelgümpf]

You do know that you can kill the golem by activating the pillars again, right? It takes only three lightning bolts to kill him.

 

[HotSnack]

You guys realise the quickest way to kill the golem was with those lightning rods right? It even says so if you bothered to buy a book about golems beforehand.

Edit: beaten to the punch, though I guess I'll also chime in that you pretty much need to use potions for all bosses you encounter, and even then it can be pretty hard (especially fighting The Beast with the intention of saving Abigail, or that sewer monster near the end).

 

[Direwolf]

The ability to create potions through Alchemy is there, however, and while Geralt usually doesn't need it to win, that is one option for finding that RPG-like depth.

The guy clearly hasn't played on Hard difficulty. Though the level is not very challenging as its name points out ( i'd call it more a Normal difficulty of the old times ) at least it makes you try and go through all the aspects of the game... ( actually you can go through Hard without alchemy... if you're extremely patient and load/save often but it's not wort it - at least up to chapter 2, don't know about the rest )

Not even on hard difficult, I'm playing on medium and I have to use potions in more than half the fights otherwise I get my ass kicked. I definitely need potions when I'm fighting multiple opponents and in the 'boss' fights.

Yup. You need potions and thats a FACT. How would he handle the golem without a few boosters?

Well, I just ran around him clicking on the three stones until he died. He didn't even touch me once.

Edit: Too slow.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

You do know that you can kill the golem by activating the pillars again, right? It takes only three lightning bolts to kill him.

Every time I did that, I died. I was extremely careful - I was sure to stand OUTSIDE the pillar circle every time I activated the last one, but every time the lightning struck me and not the golem. So I had to do it the long, old-fashioned way.

 

[Ismaul]

To me, the most important thing about RPGs is making choices that affect your character's in-game performance, and in that respect, this game doesn't quite hit that mark. Most of the important choices affect the story, but don't really help you kill monsters in any different or more efficient way.

Fuck, this kind of thing is appearing much more in journalist articles nowadays. This pretty much means that the raping of the definition of cRPGs has come full circle. From the confused marketeers that didn't know how to label games, to the masses that relied on gaming genres, it has come and fully infected the journalists, sealing this foul definition in stone.

That's what happens when words and definitions are controlled by the marketeers rather than informed individuals that care a bit about education. I fear that good RPGs are going to suffer even more from massive comparison to this definition.

 

[Marsal]

You guys realise the quickest way to kill the golem was with those lightning rods right? It even says so if you bothered to buy a book about golems beforehand.

Edit: beaten to the punch, though I guess I'll also chime in that you pretty much need to use potions for all bosses you encounter, and even then it can be pretty hard (especially fighting The Beast with the intention of saving Abigail, or that sewer monster near the end).

Err, the sewer monster dies from Igni sign spam easily. Drop a couple of Dragon's Dream bombs and spam Igni for even better results. Igni sign is way overpowered (in the sense that creatures you fight die easily to it and it requires no effort or "strategy" to use), because its power depends only on intelligence (it's even better to leave it at level 2, as it costs less endurance to cast). Putting points in it beyond lvl 2 gives only marginal benefits and larger arc of fire (this would be ok if the max arc was about 150 degrees, not 360 as it is). When maxed, Igni enables you to run and immolate everything around you, killing it. End boss included. I don't know how strong Igni is at the beginning, as I was forcing Aard in early game.

Bonus tip: when incinerated, enemies take 50-60% extra damage when using strong silver style (I think). So, burn first and hack away at it if it doesn't die by the time you empty your endurance spamming Igni

If you prepare for a fight by drinking a few potions and coating a blade with appropriate oil, with 2000 HP, 100+ endurance, both regenerating, sign damage buffed, *nothing* can stand against you (this requires albedo based potion and/or a 2-3 gold talents in endurance, easily achieved by Act 5). Maybe the "crab" monster, but just maybe (I managed to beat it without preparation using Dragon's Dream bombs, as it was a "surprise" encounter, but I think I got lucky and wouldn't manage to do it again).

Early game can be challenging (wyverns kicked my ass a couple of times), but only if you're not careful, get surrounded (unresponsive/non-predictable controls from isometric perspective can be the cause of this) or get under some status effect (ie. stunned, knocked-down). Beast was a challenge, but couple of Aards + Coup de Grace when it got stunned, owned it

Drinking potions is required and there is no reason not to drink at least Swallow every time you go in the "danger" zone. It lasts about 4 in-game hours (I think) and that's 24 minutes real time (if I'm not mistaken), if made from quality base (again I didn't test this, but I believe this to be the case). Converting booze to White gull (basic Witcher's potion) and then making the desired potion is a good option (and reduces clutter in inventory). Also Tawny oil with albedo (white) base and Swallow with rubedo (red) is a great combo (Tawny is easily made, Swallow can be any other if no "green element" + rubedo is available).

Bombs are useful, but not required. I killed Dagon in Act 4 with only one Dragon's Dream. God my ass And those fear and stun granades work great when surrounded.

I never thought I would say this, but maybe some level scaling would be good. By this I mean fixing those fucking drowners. They stop being a challenge (even in groups of 6-7) as early as Act 3, yet appear throughout the game. I know there is a repellant, but they can initiate combat and interrupt my herb gathering making me draw my sword and earn a whopping 1 XP per capita (leaving about 30K XP to go for the next lvl). Bitches Give them some Deadric armor :wink:

Lot of things could be fixed by reducing the talent gain (or changing the skill trees by making lower tier skills less useful). Right now, it seems that it's vastly better to force the character attributes than the sword styles or signs. I only used talents on sword styles when I had everything from attributes I wanted. Of course you can gimp yourself intentionally, but I hate doing that.

Uh, quite a long post. All this is on hard, F1 perspective, using wasd to dodge sometimes.

 

[DraQ]

While just about every RPG out there has lots of dialog, The Witcher is unique in that the dialog becomes one of the more compelling reasons to play.

Crazy, huh?

RPGs these days.

 

[HotSnack]

Yeah, I spammed Igni during that fight but it was still the longest single fight I had in the game, I think I only had lvl 2 Igni and lvl 3 int though, so if you had higher scores that fight might have gone much more faster.

I hardly ever used bombs, there were just too few situations when you get surrounded which the group style didn't solve, and even when I do encounter a spot of trouble I find myself reaching for the Aard sign more than anything else.

Don't know how you managed to beat Dagon with a single dragon's dream though, those fish people are highly resistant to incineration and I found it more useful to stun them with Aard and then OHKO them.

The final style upgrade for everything but the strong styles do seem overkill, I usually find that I kill most enemies before I reach the final chain. I was playing on normal though, so I'm not sure if enemies are much tougher on hard mode making the final upgrade more vital.

If there's one thing that needs fixing though, is those charge attack skills. They're not as useful as signs, and yet eat up just as much endurance. The benefit of charge attacks is that you can do large damage straight away without going through the attack chain, but you still end up using your attack chain anyway because once you built your "momentum" and start using the high damage end of your attack chain you can repeatedly use it for several more times resulting in a "killing spree" moment where you're killing several enemies in one hit once you time how to switch targets correctly. That and the real killer I find for the charge attacks is well, the charge time. Especially so with the silver styles which take as long as signs to charge up, but unlike signs you'll undoubtedly be in melee range while doing it, so chances of you being interrupted (and so losing that charge) are much higher.

Oh and just in case people got the wrong impression, I thought the Witcher was one of the best games I have ever played. :D

 

[Marsal]

Don't know how you managed to beat Dagon with a single dragon's dream though, those fish people are highly resistant to incineration and I found it more useful to stun them with Aard and then OHKO them.

Well, I was surprised too. I saw them coming out the water, dropped the bomb, walked a few steps away, charged the Igni and waited for them to come closer. And boom, a bit of frame rate drop, everything is dead and I'm on fire too It was my first try, so I don't really know how though he is, if fought conventionally.

I wonder if someone managed (if it's even possible) to kill that "mother bug" thing the conventional way. I tried a couple of times, but 1 hit kills got old quickly (and that shield doesn't do much good either).

 

[suleo]

If you prepare for a fight by drinking a few potions and coating a blade with appropriate oil, with 2000 HP, 100+ endurance, both regenerating, sign damage buffed, *nothing* can stand against you (this requires albedo based potion and/or a 2-3 gold talents in endurance, easily achieved by Act 5).

Actually it doesn't even require albedo, as I found out to my slight disappointment. Almost all potions except swallow have a 6-8 hour duration. So you can:

1. Drink 2-3 potions (vitality and endurance increase first, and cat).
2. Rest for an hour to drop toxicity to zero (maybe 2 hours if it's too high).
3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 until you're done with potions (stun/knockdown immunity and 50% extra damage are good candidates here). Save swallow for last and drink it right before a fight starts.

With that and str, end, int and igni maxed out, I breezed through ch6 and wtfpwned anything that came my way. On hard.

Hard was actually too easy at the end. I wish there was a "superhard" level. Or perhaps more incineration-immune enemies.