Preview Witcher Previewed at NWVault

[Sol Invictus]

Tags: CD Projekt; Witcher, The

Upcoming Polish action game of roles, The Witcher, has been <a href="http://nwvault.ign.com/features/previews/TheWitcher/E3Preview.shtml">previewed</a> at the Neverwinter Vault with some good impressions.
<br>
<blockquote>The gameplay is totally different from NWN, and features real time combat with motion captured animations performed by a master of medieval sword combat. There is also ragdoll and rigid body physics, which allow for pushing of barrels for example. All actions in the game can be done with only a mouse though you can configure keyboard shortcuts if you want. Basically you setup different combinations of offensive and defensive moves and spells, which depending on how well you execute them during combat, will determine how much experience you get. There is additional feedback during combat to guide you on how well you're doing by telling you such things as you're going "too fast" or "too slow".</blockquote>
<br>
<br>
That sounds rather interesting, especially in a market full of especially <b>uninteractive</b> 'action' RPGs. To pose a serious point I would have to say that the implementation of the combat system will either make, or break the game. I'd certainly love to play a game with this level of interactivity, but one can only hope that the user interface does not prohibit smooth gameplay.

 

[Anonymous]

The Witcher sounds pretty good to me.

 

[Nightjed]

dunno, the "timed clicks" thing sounds like hell to me

 

[Ausir]

I prefer it to NWN-style "click & watch" and Diablo-style clickfest.

 

[Anonymous]

I prefer it for those same reasons, too.

 

[Ausir]

Of course if they manage to do it well...

 

[suibhne]

The gameplay is totally different from NWN, and features real time combat with motion captured animations performed by a master of medieval sword combat. There is also ragdoll and rigid body physics, which allow for pushing of barrels for example.

But are they taking it to the next level and allowing you to actually break the barrels?

 

[Sol Invictus]

I think what they mean is that the game offers you a much more interactive environment than any other game done with the Aurora engine. I'm probably wrong, but you probably walk around with the keyboard.

If you don't, though, then it's probably that if you kick someone and he goes flying into a stack of crates, those crates will fall on him.

 

[suibhne]

Sarcasm aside, there's potential here. The graphics are quite nice, definitely many heads and shoulders above NWN, and the premise sounds flexible enough to result in, maybe possibly, an engaging game. But it seems to me that the "action RPG" market niche is getting pretty crowded, and it's not a market niche I liked in the first place. Perhaps I'll end up having fun with both this and with Dungeon Lords; maybe I'll even get a kick out of Demon Stone on PS2, if I ever get around to buying one. But I'm going through a bit of a personal crisis, I think, seeing all of this E3-period hype about "action RPGs" and next to nothing about "real RPGs" - on a day when Atari has announced the next iteration of BG will be coming to cell phones worldwide.

[/rant]