Review A Christian review of The Witcher

[RK47]

I look forward to adopting a pet dog and name it Jesus. Bringing it to a church and introduce it as 'Jesus, Man's best friend'

 

[Ahzaruuk]

I actually got the initiative to try the Witcher Demo from the PC gamer Magazine. Fucking awesome, and I haven't even finished the outskirts yet...

partially because when I try to hand In the Eternal Fire Shrine quest the demo finishes apparently

 

[Digitalos]

Hey Proverbius,

I still don't get what a lot of Christians have against fantasy depictions of magic. I keep trying to picture Jesus, who washed the feet of a prostitute to show her that he cared about all people, chastising a kid for playing a video game that had fantasy magic themes. Somehow, I just can't.

I think a lot of it comes from a misunderstanding of this passage:
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy 18: 9-12&version=31

In the prostitute case, she was committing sin. In the case of games, it's make believe. Now if the kid was somehow actually using magic as part of a game, maybe I could see the gripe.. But we're talking about MAKE BELIEVE here. Even if you believe magic is real, which I'm sure the vast majority of people don't, you still have to see the difference between make believe and reality. It's almost like arresting a kid for playing cops and robbers because he pretended he shot someone and putting him in jail for murder.

Right, which is why I think the issue is often two fold. 1) Extreme... I was going to say fundimentalist, but I actually don't think it's singularly that denomination, I will go with just extremely ignorant (and not in the derogatory sense) Christians propagate incorrect beliefs and 2) The media compounds this, as they love a good story, and it seems all the rage to bash religion nowadays, so that further propagates it.

Ultimately, it's a bit of a mess. But I think too having reviewers like this one, help to alleviate it to some degree. I saw the same heated reaction to the GTA games. My response was, and still is, that if you pick up those games, and the sole thing you do is kill people to get money, and then spend it on hookers, the chances are you need to find something else to fill your time with. As I think anyone would agree that after the first few times you do that, it rapidly begins to lose it's appeal. It's a gimmick, and not much else. On the other hand, you have a game with an actual legal system, where breaking the law, results in a direct response from the police. Seriously, people should be so lucky to have something like that in every game! Lets not forget the awesome story, amazing locations to explore, humorous gameplay and funny upbeat radio stations. Zeroing in on hookers and the ability to retalliate vs the police, is such a miniscule part of that game, which is so ultimately unrewarding compared to the other areas, that I just never understood it.

As I said, lack of comprehension from people and the media will fuel fires where there was hardly any kindling to start with...

Cheers,
Digit

 

[Digitalos]

I actually got the initiative to try the Witcher Demo from the PC gamer Magazine. Fucking awesome, and I haven't even finished the outskirts yet...

partially because when I try to hand In the Eternal Fire Shrine quest the demo finishes apparently

Be prepared for the 3rd act if you get it. As much as I love the game, the third act almost killed it for me. I was SO happy to move on. Essentially (and no spoilers here) the 3rd act takes place in town, and/or in a swap. This is almost the equivalent of being confined to fighting in a warehouse, and a sewer in a FPS game, over and over... in fact the town has a sewer too, which is like an underground swamp really. In additon, it's the largest act in the game, and I just found it amazingly painful, maybe my experience doesn't reflect everyone elses though.

Oh, also, it's the land of, "Everyone has a quest for me - of which only 10% I can finish in Act 3." which was very irritating.

Act 4 is awesome, and will blow you away though.

Cheers!
Digit

 

[Texas Red]

Um yeah, its only your experience. Act *2*(you forgot the prologue) is generally thought of as the real beginning of the awesomeness of TW.

My personal favourite is Act 4 though. A calm village surrounded by all sorts of plain weird sights. Plus I loved the use of folklore, such as reading poetry can dispell a curse of undeath. It had a very special atmosphere to it.

 

[Digitalos]

Um yeah, its only your experience. Act *2*(you forgot the prologue) is generally thought of as the real beginning of the awesomeness of TW.

My personal favourite is Act 4 though. A calm village surrounded by all sorts of plain weird sights. Plus I loved the use of folklore, such as reading poetry can dispell a curse of undeath. It had a very special atmosphere to it.

Lies!

It goes:
Prologue
Acts I - II - III - IV - V
Epilogue.

There are 7 'acts' in total.

I thought 'some' parts of Act 3 were good, and there were instances where as you say, "Oh wow, the game is actually getting going." but most of it fell totally flat. Also, the city could not be a more boring environment, with so many, "UPS" quests. I just lost it at some points. There were two main parts I liked I think, but I won't mention those for sake of the other poster who hasn't got it.

Act 4 definitely feels like the world has a life again. Act 3 I was either so bored I missed it, or it just had it in very small doses.

Cheers,
Digit

 

[Texas Red]

For me, I valued the architecture and the general feel of the city, as well as the varied cast of characters. I honestly don't know what else you are looking for, the best could only be the city of BG 2.

Though yes, I agree with the sucktitude of the swamp. The hordes of weak enemies in combination with that acid spray make for an annoying experience. Its always a good idea to lose a swarm of weaklings in favour of a few powerful enemies. Of course, you can buy a drowner repelling item but I never do since I love the combat.

I still think you're wrong on the acts. I'm positive the first time you reach Vizima its act 2.

 

[Digitalos]

For me, I valued the architecture and the general feel of the city, as well as the varied cast of characters. I honestly don't know what else you are looking for, the best could only be the city of BG 2.

I think my main issue was variety in that area, and the sheer volume of uncompleteable quests. That irked me, I am very festidious about quest completion and a huge number of them were dead ends until you reach a point where you meet someone who has something to say about them. So I at least, ended up spending a large volume of time running about, and the combat wasn't really that challenging and the weak enemies just irked me.

Though yes, I agree with the sucktitude of the swamp. The hordes of weak enemies in combination with that acid spray make for an annoying experience. Its always a good idea to lose a swarm of weaklings in favour of a few powerful enemies. Of course, you can buy a drowner repelling item but I never do since I love the combat.

I sort of wished the drowner repelling talisman made them die... on the spot, similar to how Sacred handled really low enemies, it just killed them and awarded 0XP. It was most annoying in the sewers, as you could never run far enough to get away from them, and then you could never open the doors and stuff to proceed, beacuse you would be considered as 'in combat'.

I still think you're wrong on the acts. I'm positive the first time you reach Vizima its act 2.

I think you are right in that when you first get there, you are in Act 2. That wasn't so much the issue, the issue for me was that the entirity of Act 3 revolved around the areas I mentioned, and it was a long Act. Several times you have to journey to the swamp and I think there were two really awesome moments, one was the golem battle with rain and thunder and a cool soundtrack. Really nice. I just wanted some open areas, that had more than a murky brown colour palette.

Cheers!
Digit

 

[Hümmelgümpf]

I just wanted some open areas, that had more than a murky brown colour palette.

I hope you were satisfied with Act 4. The shore at night looked freaking beautiful.

 

[sheek]

Hey Proverbius,

I still don't get what a lot of Christians have against fantasy depictions of magic. I keep trying to picture Jesus, who washed the feet of a prostitute to show her that he cared about all people, chastising a kid for playing a video game that had fantasy magic themes. Somehow, I just can't.

I think a lot of it comes from a misunderstanding of this passage:
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy 18: 9-12&version=31

In the prostitute case, she was committing sin. In the case of games, it's make believe. Now if the kid was somehow actually using magic as part of a game, maybe I could see the gripe.. But we're talking about MAKE BELIEVE here. Even if you believe magic is real, which I'm sure the vast majority of people don't, you still have to see the difference between make believe and reality. It's almost like arresting a kid for playing cops and robbers because he pretended he shot someone and putting him in jail for murder.

Right, which is why I think the issue is often two fold. 1) Extreme... I was going to say fundimentalist, but I actually don't think it's singularly that denomination, I will go with just extremely ignorant (and not in the derogatory sense) Christians propagate incorrect beliefs and 2) The media compounds this, as they love a good story, and it seems all the rage to bash religion nowadays, so that further propagates it.

Ultimately, it's a bit of a mess. But I think too having reviewers like this one, help to alleviate it to some degree. I saw the same heated reaction to the GTA games. My response was, and still is, that if you pick up those games, and the sole thing you do is kill people to get money, and then spend it on hookers, the chances are you need to find something else to fill your time with. As I think anyone would agree that after the first few times you do that, it rapidly begins to lose it's appeal. It's a gimmick, and not much else. On the other hand, you have a game with an actual legal system, where breaking the law, results in a direct response from the police. Seriously, people should be so lucky to have something like that in every game! Lets not forget the awesome story, amazing locations to explore, humorous gameplay and funny upbeat radio stations. Zeroing in on hookers and the ability to retalliate vs the police, is such a miniscule part of that game, which is so ultimately unrewarding compared to the other areas, that I just never understood it.

As I said, lack of comprehension from people and the media will fuel fires where there was hardly any kindling to start with...

Cheers,
Digit

Exactly, if anything Christians should applaud the fact that games include sinful options which mirror reality. You don't have to and I would not expect any Christian to use the whores and drugs in the Witcher, Fallout or any other game. How else can you prove your righteousness and faith if you're never tested? Those who complain are more likely to be the insecure Christians who don't have the faith to deal with the temptations, who know they are weak and don't believe that anyone can follow Jesus' example (and don't try to - they just talk about it).

The fact is that the world is a sinful place but it doesn't mean you shut yourself into your homes like a bunch of Jews and never venture out. If anything Christian organizations should be promoting games like the Witcher and CRPG's in general as being the best preparation for the youth, and less of the homeschooling Left Behind crap which are based on a complete fantasy world.

 

[Digitalos]

Heyas,

I just wanted some open areas, that had more than a murky brown colour palette.

I hope you were satisfied with Act 4. The shore at night looked freaking beautiful.

Yeah, as I mentioned, Act 4 looks awesome and just feels more like a really great game area to me. :D

Exactly, if anything Christians should applaud the fact that games include sinful options which mirror reality. You don't have to and I would not expect any Christian to use the whores and drugs in the Witcher, Fallout or any other game. How else can you prove your righteousness and faith if you're never tested? Those who complain are more likely to be the insecure Christians who don't have the faith to deal with the temptations, who know they are weak and don't believe that anyone can follow Jesus' example (and don't try to - they just talk about it).

The fact is that the world is a sinful place but it doesn't mean you shut yourself into your homes like a bunch of Jews and never venture out. If anything Christian organizations should be promoting games like the Witcher and CRPG's in general as being the best preparation for the youth, and less of the homeschooling Left Behind crap which are based on a complete fantasy world.

Lol, well I'm not sure I agree with all of that, but I do think it's important to decide why you find something enjoyable. Do people play Battlefield 2 because they love simulated murder, or do they play it because the game allows players to challenge each other's skills in an online virtual world. I would hope the latter. If it's the former, there's a problem, and parents need to take not that there kid is killing people, for the sake of killing them.

Cheers!
Digit

 

[Admiral Rimjob POOBUM]

I think you are right in that when you first get there, you are in Act 2. That wasn't so much the issue, the issue for me was that the entirity of Act 3 revolved around the areas I mentioned, and it was a long Act. Several times you have to journey to the swamp and I think there were two really awesome moments, one was the golem battle with rain and thunder and a cool soundtrack. Really nice. I just wanted some open areas, that had more than a murky brown colour palette.

Cheers!
Digit

I'm pretty sure you're thinking of Act 2. Almost all of Act 2/3's quests were finishable in Act 3, and the others were the ones that span the entire game like Witchers' Secrets and A Game of Dice (there were far too many of those for my OCD side to look at his journal and not weep with frustration, incidentally). The Golem battle was in Act 2 for certain, to get the tower open, and you only have to go to the swamp two or three times max in Act 3.
However, I do agree with your criticisms as they apply to Act 2. It was fun, and the investigation was great, but it was pretty flawed. Act 3 and 4, however, were pretty great... save the fucking trade quarter loading time. Urgh.

 

[Texas Red]

Cmon, Jimbo, it has a single moderately long loading time once you enter Trade Quarter. Surely it can't be much of a bother before the dreaded prepatch loading times.

 

[Lurkar]

The groups of religious people that criticize video games do so for the same reason Bethesda sues random websites for holding manuals.

 

[DraQ]

The groups of religious people that criticize video games do so for the same reason Bethesda sues random websites for holding manuals.

Incurable dumbfuckery?

 

[Digitalos]

The groups of religious people that criticize video games do so for the same reason Bethesda sues random websites for holding manuals.

I have no idea why Bethesda do that, but after Oblivion they aren't in my good books. >_>

I can understand criticism of some games. I loved the original Soldier of Fortune, although I wasn't playing for the Ghoul system. SoF2 I thought was a pretty lame game. I wish they spent more time on believable and enjoyable AI, rather than on blood and gore. The new SoF? I think I've lost count of the number of times I've said to my wife, "You know honey, how long is going to take someone to make a game where you can shoot off somone's penis." haven't you? Unless that was a joke, which I totally missed, I think I only saw it mentioned once - so don't quote me. The basic point though is that I think some games have just lost sight of the 'game' part, and gone on some weird tangent. There are companies that fuel this line of development, and I guess they think there is money in it, but I think many people, religious and non-theist, see the harm that extended exposed could have on young people.

I don't think anyone is going to see it once, and immediately run off an commit some atrocity, but over time, I think it changes someones nature for the worse.

Cheers,
Digit

 

[Digitalos]

I'm pretty sure you're thinking of Act 2. Almost all of Act 2/3's quests were finishable in Act 3, and the others were the ones that span the entire game like Witchers' Secrets and A Game of Dice (there were far too many of those for my OCD side to look at his journal and not weep with frustration, incidentally). The Golem battle was in Act 2 for certain, to get the tower open, and you only have to go to the swamp two or three times max in Act 3.
However, I do agree with your criticisms as they apply to Act 2. It was fun, and the investigation was great, but it was pretty flawed. Act 3 and 4, however, were pretty great... save the fucking trade quarter loading time. Urgh.

Ah ok, so perhaps it was Act 2 and partially Act 3. Yeah you feel the same as I do about the journal and questing. Which is why I was so wary of talking to someone, to ANYONE, because seriously, no soon had you said, "Hey!" than they said, "Say, you couldn't help me out could you?" ...

*new quest entry*

*headdesk*

Load times weren't too bad post 1.2 or whatever patch version was the one that 'fixed' 'em good.

Cheers,
Digit

 

[Admiral Rimjob POOBUM]

Cmon, Jimbo, it has a single moderately long loading time once you enter Trade Quarter.

I have 1GB of ram. You enter the trade quarter quite often.
It got to be something to dread a little, though everywhere else was fine.

 

[Lurkar]

The groups of religious people that criticize video games do so for the same reason Bethesda sues random websites for holding manuals.

I have no idea why Bethesda do that, but after Oblivion they aren't in my good books. >_>

I can understand criticism of some games. I loved the original Soldier of Fortune, although I wasn't playing for the Ghoul system. SoF2 I thought was a pretty lame game. I wish they spent more time on believable and enjoyable AI, rather than on blood and gore. The new SoF? I think I've lost count of the number of times I've said to my wife, "You know honey, how long is going to take someone to make a game where you can shoot off somone's penis." haven't you? Unless that was a joke, which I totally missed, I think I only saw it mentioned once - so don't quote me. The basic point though is that I think some games have just lost sight of the 'game' part, and gone on some weird tangent. There are companies that fuel this line of development, and I guess they think there is money in it, but I think many people, religious and non-theist, see the harm that extended exposed could have on young people.

I don't think anyone is going to see it once, and immediately run off an commit some atrocity, but over time, I think it changes someones nature for the worse.

Cheers,
Digit

The groups of religious people that criticize video games do so for the same reason Bethesda sues random websites for holding manuals.

Incurable dumbfuckery?

I was going more off of "complete boredom and the desire to rail against something.

Let's face it, life just doesn't have much pizazz without some evil force trying to corrupt our children.

 

[Araanor]

We did run into a few bugs here and there and some further polish would go a long way for The Witcher, but the game is able to stand on its own.

 

[Hory]

Are Christians allowed to role-play a sinner?

 

[Amasius]

Are Christians allowed to role-play a sinner?

Of course - if they roleplay a regretful sinner.

 

[Balor]

@ Digitalos
Sorry for offtopic, but I'm here just to offer a bit of thumb-ups for you in general.
If all believers were like you, I'd have no trouble with religions whatsoever, even if it's not my piece of cake. Unfortunately, it's not exactly the case.
And some religions seem to actively encourage dumbfuckery, see Islam. 'Kill all who say that Islam is not a religion of peace!", my ass.

 

[Balor]

Even if you believe magic is real, which I'm sure the vast majority of people don't, you still have to see the difference between make believe and reality.

Isn't failure to make that distinction central part of religious worldview?

That, sir, is pure gold!

 

[Ion Flux]

Even if you believe magic is real, which I'm sure the vast majority of people don't, you still have to see the difference between make believe and reality.

Isn't failure to make that distinction central part of religious worldview?

Please see The Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis.

Christians who don't get this are either not Christians or immature in their faith ... and occasionally responsible for a lot of bad things. Like holding women underwater until their perverse logic is appeased. And other stuff.