Review Glorifying review of The Witcher at RPG Watch

[Monolith]

Tags: CD Projekt; Witcher, The

Prime Junta, guest writer at <a href="http://www.rpgwatch.com">RPG Watch</a>, has written an overwhelmingly positive <a href="http://www.rpgwatch.com/show/article?articleid=71&ref=0&id=66">review</a> of <a href="http://www.thewitcher.com/">The Witcher</a>. While he didn't go into detail when describing the game's single gameplay aspects, he made an in-depth analysis of why the game is more than just the sum of its parts, why it deserves a score of 5/5 (despite all its flaws) and why it's "the most significant game since Fallout" (I shit you not). To round things up, magerette, corwin, txa1265 and Dhruin added their opinions.
<br>
<br>
<blockquote>However, there's far more to the story than mere cleverness. The wryly humorous metafictional overlay and obvious satire overlays genuinely serious themes. This is what the game is really "about," the real meat on the eight-out-of-ten bones described by most reviews.
<br>
<br>
While The Witcher doesn't give a hoot about consistent linguistics, its fictional underlay follows some very strict and rather unusual rules. Monsters are not of the usual "assault from the outside" variety. They spring from normal, petty, entirely believable human evil. Monstrous plants grow from graves of unavenged murder victims; necrophages feed on the corpses of the fallen; a village's petty evil in aggregate summons a demon that sows terror in the night. "Every monster embodies a human iniquity", a character in the game explains. Devourers - gluttony. Vampires - drunkenness. Characteristically, though, Geralt replies "So what does a giant centipede embody?" At one level, The Witcher is a morality tale -- it's "about" the bitter fruit our little sins bear. War really does breed ghouls and graveirs, only in the real world we don't have any silver swords with which to cut them down.
<br>
<br>
[...]
<br>
<br>
This is real, friends. This is how war really is. The evil overlord who is evil because he's evil is refreshingly absent. There are only grievances, injustices, oppression, segregation, misunderstanding, a deepening cycle of violence with normal - basically good - people doing horrible things. In the end, only the ghouls, crows, and cemetaurs attend the victory feast. And you're right in the middle of it.
<br>
<br>
[...]
<br>
<br>
Your choices and actions have profound effects on the world at large -- even if this is one game where you won't be able to topple the Dark Tower and bring on a golden age of peace, love, happiness, and sunshine. If there is a moral to The Witcher's story, it is that in the real world there are rarely simple solutions to complex problems, the most terrible evil is done in the name of the greater good, and much of the time the best you can hope for is to pick the lesser evil and hope for the best.</blockquote>These paragraphs sum up what's made The Witcher so great for me - I just haven't been able to put it into words as fitting as Prime Junta did.
<br>
<br>
That review is a must-read, showing us why The Witcher is a must-play.
<br>
<br>
Thanks, <strong>Brother None</strong>
<br>
<br>

 

[Rohit_N]

I need to get back to playing.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

Agreed. It's a good game. Whether or not it's a classic, I don't know. I'll come back to it in a years time with more thoughts. Right now I'm just on my second playthrough and still loving it.

But where the fuck did this http://www.rpgwatch.com/show/imageview? ... ame=74.jpg come from? I can't remember being in this situation in the game, and the dialogue font is completely different from any other conversation...

 

[Annonchinil]

If there is a moral to The Witcher's story, it is that in the real world there are rarely simple solutions to complex problems, the most terrible evil is done in the name of the greater good, and much of the time the best you can hope for is to pick the lesser evil and hope for the best.

Do you guys live in the Democratic Republic of Congo, or perhaps Somolia? Because in the real world that I live in I don't constantly have to make choices between two evils and then hope for the best.

 

[cuthbert]

If there is a moral to The Witcher's story, it is that in the real world there are rarely simple solutions to complex problems, the most terrible evil is done in the name of the greater good, and much of the time the best you can hope for is to pick the lesser evil and hope for the best.

Do you guys live in the Democratic Republic of Congo, or perhaps Somolia? Because in the real world that I live in I don't constantly have to make choices between two evils and then hope for the best.

Did you forget the 2000 election?

 

[cardtrick]

It's a very well written piece. I'm not totally sure I agree with it, however. I love The Witcher, but for different reasons. I don't feel like The Witcher is a literary game - I don't even feel like it was trying to be. In my soon-to-be-published-here review, I spent a sentence drawing a distinction between game-as-art and game-as-game, saying that The Witcher falls into the second category. I certainly don't agree that The Witcher has "a four-out-of-five story (by literary standards, which are way higher than gaming standards)" -- its story is above average for an RPG, but hardly great literature.

That said, I do agree with the feeling of the review. I can't exactly articulate the reasons, but when playing The Witcher I really did feel like it was a significant game, and a real step forward for the genre. Most signficant game since Fallout? I doubt it. But it made real strides, and it looked forward rather than back. It's a great game, and I do believe it will be considered a classic.

EDIT: it's to its

 

[Elhoim]

If there is a moral to The Witcher's story, it is that in the real world there are rarely simple solutions to complex problems, the most terrible evil is done in the name of the greater good, and much of the time the best you can hope for is to pick the lesser evil and hope for the best.

Do you guys live in the Democratic Republic of Congo, or perhaps Somolia? Because in the real world that I live in I don't constantly have to make choices between two evils and then hope for the best.

Everytime there is an election here we have to chose the lesser evil. "Who will fuck us less, or more sweetly at least?", we ask ourselves.

 

[Shannow]

If there is a moral to The Witcher's story, it is that in the real world there are rarely simple solutions to complex problems, the most terrible evil is done in the name of the greater good, and much of the time the best you can hope for is to pick the lesser evil and hope for the best.

Do you guys live in the Democratic Republic of Congo, or perhaps Somolia? Because in the real world that I live in I don't constantly have to make choices between two evils and then hope for the best.

Might you be still living with your parents in a white, middle class suburban area and not really politically interested in anything?
In almost any other environment and with almost any other set of mind you will constantly encounter conflicts or problems that seemingly don't have easy solutions and where you might have to chose between two "evils".

 

[Andyman Messiah]

This would have been a good review of a good game, but then I noticed this:

Some of the best LucasArts adventure games -- along the lines of Full Throttle or Indiana Jones and the Secret of Atlantis.

Get your fate together, Prime Junta. I must now proceed to hate your review. Damn you.

 

[Herbert West]

Wow, he certainly got carried away there! I wouldn't say TW deserves 5 stars, more like 4. However, even though i disagree with giving it 5, I must admit that this review is a piece of good writing. Nice job!

 

[Marsal]

Wow, he certainly got carried away there! I wouldn't say TW deserves 5 stars, more like 4. However, even though i disagree with giving it 5, I must admit that this review is a piece of good writing. Nice job!

Actually he gave it 16. But they only had room for 5 stars. The rest was overflow

 

[Section8]

Interesting read, and I really have to agree with a lot of the sentiment, though probably not the degree of praise. The Witcher is one of few games where I will actually dig into the lore of my own volition. Partly because it's reasonably well integrated into conversation and such, but mostly because it's all very sensible within gameworld context.

I couldn't give a fuck about a monster description that says something like"The ubersoldat is the ultimate badass. It's stitched together from the remains of war heroes and is so tough it has muscles in its shit" because at the end of the day, that's just self-indulgent bullshit on the behalf of someone who thinks themself a game designer.

But when you have a monster that comes forth from the burial sites of wrongfully murdered people and can use that information to intuit something of the character of the person who owns that land, then I get all warm and fuzzy inside.

 

[WhiskeyWolf]

This would have been a good review of a good game, but then I noticed this:

Some of the best LucasArts adventure games -- along the lines of Full Throttle or Indiana Jones and the Secret of Atlantis.

Get your fate together, Prime Junta. I must now proceed to hate your review. Damn you.

Read the whole god damn review.

Fortunately, there have always been attempts to make computer games that are "about" something. Some old Infocom text adventures. Some of the best LucasArts adventure games -- along the lines of Full Throttle or Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. A very select few first-person action games, like Deus Ex, the System Shocks, Bioshock and perhaps The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. A whole bunch of irredeemably boring edutainment games that fail as miserably in their attempt as, say, Big Rigs fails as a racing game.

 

[Andyman Messiah]

This would have been a good review of a good game, but then I noticed this:

Some of the best LucasArts adventure games -- along the lines of Full Throttle or Indiana Jones and the Secret of Atlantis.

Get your fate together, Prime Junta. I must now proceed to hate your review. Damn you.

Read the whole god damn review.

Fortunately, there have always been attempts to make computer games that are "about" something. Some old Infocom text adventures. Some of the best LucasArts adventure games -- along the lines of Full Throttle or Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. A very select few first-person action games, like Deus Ex, the System Shocks, Bioshock and perhaps The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. A whole bunch of irredeemably boring edutainment games that fail as miserably in their attempt as, say, Big Rigs fails as a racing game.

Yes, but I forgive all of those faults because he has now corrected the title of the classic Indy game. Happiness! I'm also very tired and don't want to fight the good fight right now. Let me get some sleep and I'll be the first to yell "up against the wall, blasphemer!" at him for typing the words "Infocom" and "Big Rigs" in the same paragraph. Promise. A'ight?

Again, good review. Don't agree with all of it but The Witcher is certainly a good game.

 

[TalesfromtheCrypt]

hmm Prima Junta was a poster here once

Not really related to the Witcher, but I largely disagree with the begining of the review:

This is largely due to the state of the industry: technological evolution is so quick that most of the creative effort in game making goes into making those pretty lights, with comparatively little thought given to what the game is "about." If a game manages to hijack your dopamine reward system, it's a success. You know that's happened if you suddenly notice it's 4:30 am and you're still playing "just one more level."

in to

If anything, Gameplay in todays games is marginilized, while "cinematic" cutscenes, "cinematic" story, "cinematic" dialogue play a huge role, meaining games resemble interactive movies more and more, where you have to click a button once in a while to continue the story. Of course, these games still aren't "about" anything, because the "cinematic" story is usually cliched and shallow as hell.

 

[Claw]

Wait a second!


Now the Codex is criticising a review of a Codex-approved game for being too positive?
"I can't get no satisfaction" should be the official motto of the site.

 

[TalesfromtheCrypt]

Wait a second!


Now the Codex is criticising a review of a Codex-approved game for being too positive?
"I can't get no satisfaction" should be the official motto of the site.

huh?

 

[Ivy Mike]

Wait a second!


Now the Codex is criticising a review of a Codex-approved game for being too positive?
"I can't get no satisfaction" should be the official motto of the site.

Yeah, because god forbid people have an opinion... It's perfectly fine to be of the opinion that a review is overly positive, just as it's perfectly fine to consider a review overly negative, stupid or shit spewed by some dumbfuck illiterate who thinks he got what it takes.
No one was stating that it was a bad review, quite the contrary. The discussion is about some points the reviewer made concerning the game.

 

[Herbert West]

Wait a second!
Now the Codex is criticising a review of a Codex-approved game for being too positive?
"I can't get no satisfaction" should be the official motto of the site.

That's called discussion, Claw I'm sure that people here generally liked the game, in spite of it's flaws. And they are aware of those.
I enjoyed it immensly, and yet I can see the shortcomings, and sometimes I get really annoyed with them.

 

[Claw]

I.. I don't know what to say.

I am speechless.

Quick, someone fetch me a dictionary! I need to check if sarcasm is still part of the English language.

 

[Annonchinil]

If there is a moral to The Witcher's story, it is that in the real world there are rarely simple solutions to complex problems, the most terrible evil is done in the name of the greater good, and much of the time the best you can hope for is to pick the lesser evil and hope for the best.

Do you guys live in the Democratic Republic of Congo, or perhaps Somolia? Because in the real world that I live in I don't constantly have to make choices between two evils and then hope for the best.

Might you be still living with your parents in a white, middle class suburban area and not really politically interested in anything?
In almost any other environment and with almost any other set of mind you will constantly encounter conflicts or problems that seemingly don't have easy solutions and where you might have to chose between two "evils".

First of all no, second of all just because the choices aren't clear or easy does not make them automatically 'evil'. Finally what was the last time you had to choose whether to kill a witch or slaughter an entire village? Most 'choices' you make in your life are nothing of that sort and are rather mundane.

Second of all I thought that the point of the Witcher was that the world was all grey? Yet they show this by painting every side to varying degrees of evil?

 

[Ausir]

Being grey means being good to a degree and evil to a degree.

 

[Herbert West]

Being grey means being good to a degree and evil to a degree.

Aah, got a good idea here, you inspired me Ausir. Let's be done with the exploited and boring alegiance system so prevalent in D&D games.
Let's replace them with RGB scale- do you know how many combinations there can be? And if you feel constrained, just add the Alpha channel. Bingo- teh nextgen!

 

[Livonya]

As someone that has been playing computer RPGs since 1980 or so, I believe that The Witcher will indeed be a classic, and I would argue that it may very well be the most important RPG/Adventure game to be released in this century.

I think the reviewer understands The Witcher's importance.

The Witcher is a step forward. It doesn't get to the final destination, but it moves forward.

The destination in my mind is a graphic novel where I the player actually feel vital. Where I care more about the story and about my choices in that story than about stats or loot.

When I read novels I often day dream about being in the world that the novels portray. What would I do?

The Witcher is getting closer to that.

The last game that really made me feel that way was Planescape Torment.

- Livonya

 

[Annonchinil]

Being grey means being good to a degree and evil to a degree.

Yes but not everything is viewed from that perspective, you guys used politics as an example so take Toronto's David Miller, who managed the cities finances so good (including a $50,000 plant watering budget) that unless new taxes are levied the city is going to be bankrupt. Do I think that he is incompetent, immature and that his actions will likely cause problems for people? Yes. But does it have anything to do with him being part good or part evil? No.