Help me hit the high points of the Witcher

[SpaceKungFuMan]

I've been trying to start the Witcher for months now, but I haven't been able to let myself get into the game because it's so damn long. I don't have much time to play games anymore, and the idea of starting a game knowing I still won't be done with it for months is just depressing. Could anyone give me some tips on how to hit the good quests as quickly as possible? Are there some chapters and/or areas where I can just follow the main quest without missing any good writing, storytelling, or choices. I really just want to get as much of the story and vaunted c&c as possible, and don't care at all about exploring, collecting everything, or doing quests that only reward me with money or items/weapons. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

 

[Volourn]

High Point: Uninstalling it (or not installing it at all).

 

[Gragt]

The bounty quest aren't required to make the progress so you can avoid those first if you want. Though many complained they feel like MMO grind quests, I found that it was very easy to do them while completing other important quests so I never really saw the problem with them.

Anyway TW doesn't strike me as a game that should be rushed, if only because some of the C&C takes time to develop and will only remind themselves to you much later in the story.

Oh and I guess you could play on easy as well to make the combat, well, easier. There are also a few talismans you can get in the game that allow you to repell lesser monsters, can be nice so you aren't constantly attacked by trash mobs such as drowners in some areas, though you might miss on some alchemy components.

Heck, it's on my list of must replay... So little time...

 

[MetalCraze]

Could anyone give me some tips on how to hit the good quests as quickly as possible?

First you have to download good quests. Unfortunately the Perfect Edition didn't come with a single one.

 

[Tardvapor]

I'm kind of there with you, I want to get into it but just can't.

I got to chapter 2 (or 3, can't remember) and haven't picked it up since, and I can't really decipher why.

Based on a recommendation I read somewhere I set the combat to hard in the beginning. Big mistake. I don't like the combat system much at all, and may restart on easy or medium sometime to speed things up a bit, that might be the key. The story is intriguing and the dialogue seems pretty solid. Give it a shot until you get into the city and just focus on the quest "The Investigation" and you can ignore everything else if you want to.

 

[racofer]

Uninstall it, go to a porn site and have the same result (actually much better imo).

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

It depresses you that the game is long? So you are one of these types who are giving the industry ideas about 'games are too long!!'.

Did you know about save games? Marvellous things really. They allow you save the game any time, and restart from that point. Incredible I know, but true! That way, you don't have to prepare a toilet/seat combo, drip feed apparatus, lose your job and prepare to sit there playing a game for months! (not that the Witcher takes months, where did you hear that rubbish?).

 

[MetalCraze]

Loading in the Witcher takes months.

 

[racofer]

It depresses you that he's depressed about the game being too long? So you're one of those people who are giving the industry ideas about "games are too short!!'.

 

[Gragt]

Took me a month to play the game at a leisury pace and do all I could find. Not that long but it has a fair bit of content.

 

[ushdugery]

Man you are all bitches I did a speed run on that shit 30 hours no stopping got myself a fucking redbull drip if you weren't such bitches you'd play proper games that have a year of playtime in them and finish them in an hour.

 

[SpaceKungFuMan]

It depresses you that the game is long? So you are one of these types who are giving the industry ideas about 'games are too long!!'.

Did you know about save games? Marvellous things really. They allow you save the game any time, and restart from that point. Incredible I know, but true! That way, you don't have to prepare a toilet/seat combo, drip feed apparatus, lose your job and prepare to sit there playing a game for months! (not that the Witcher takes months, where did you hear that rubbish?).

Married attorneys don't have a hell of a lot of free alone time. I can probably play the game a maximum of 5-7 hours a week. Maybe on a lazy weekend I can get in more time. So yes, it will take months to finish an 80+ hour long game. I actually do think games are getting too long now. Maybe its a function of being older and having less free time, but Mask of the Betrayer felt like the perfect length. I'd love it if more games cut the filler that pads out the game time and gave concentrated experiences. Portal is better in 5 hours than almost any game of the past few years is in 20 or 40 or 100.

I'd like to focus my original request, since I haven't gotten many responses. Are there areas where quests just aren't that interesting? For example, are all of the side quests (other than the bounty quests) in the area outside the city worth doing, or do you just get money/items? At this point, I don't give a damn about getting "in game" rewards. I only want to do quests because the quests themselves are worthwhile irrespective of the carrot dangled in front of you.

 

[Tigranes]

Ok, so you want to finish the Witcher without taking ages, you want to get all the good bits and not waste time.

-> Skip all bounty quests and such. Should be pretty easy to spot.

-> My memory is fuzzy but I think Chapter 1 didn't have that much gonig for it other than the main arc.

-> Chapter 2 & 3 (in the city) are by far the longest and biggest bits; they're also pretty good.Do stuff in here. Take the time to talk to Shani and the women (not necessarily for t3h sexzors, either). You shouldn't try to watch the clock and rush through here though, because you'll just end up getting frustrated and not enjoy it so much. It was designed for a lot of roaming in/out the city I think.

-> From memory, there isn't so much good quests outside the town, except for the big ones. I also ended up running past a lot of enemies, cause otherwise it's silly. Which means if you forgot one fedex quest in a swamp, don't bother.

-> Ch4/5 (endgame) is shorter and more linear, so go for the jugular.

 

[SpaceKungFuMan]

Ok, so you want to finish the Witcher without taking ages, you want to get all the good bits and not waste time.

-> Skip all bounty quests and such. Should be pretty easy to spot.

-> My memory is fuzzy but I think Chapter 1 didn't have that much gonig for it other than the main arc.

-> Chapter 2 & 3 (in the city) are by far the longest and biggest bits; they're also pretty good.Do stuff in here. Take the time to talk to Shani and the women (not necessarily for t3h sexzors, either). You shouldn't try to watch the clock and rush through here though, because you'll just end up getting frustrated and not enjoy it so much. It was designed for a lot of roaming in/out the city I think.

-> From memory, there isn't so much good quests outside the town, except for the big ones. I also ended up running past a lot of enemies, cause otherwise it's silly. Which means if you forgot one fedex quest in a swamp, don't bother.

-> Ch4/5 (endgame) is shorter and more linear, so go for the jugular.

Thanks for the suggestions. I guess I'll try to avoid all bounty quests, set combat on easy (the combat is TERRIBLE in this game) and try to clear the first chapter fast. It's not that I want to rush the game. It's more that I don't want to waste any time on content that isn't worthwhile (like the bounty quests or fetch quests). When I was younger I was happy to do any number of crappy quests to get a numerical advantage in a game, but now I want to get a good "value" for my playtime.

 

[MetalCraze]

You won't be getting much of it out of TW. It is a pretty mediocre game and somewhat bad as a RPG - err too linear, poor writing, plot holes, MMO-like secondary quests and all.

 

[Bloodeyes]

Play something else.

 

[Worm King]

Skyway, Volourn and DU should stop fucking around with TW. We already know your loving opinions, you don't have to repeat in EVERY thread about TW. These moaning troll fuckers are the reason why I don't visit threads about some particular games, because they all go in to the same direction.

 

[Witchblade]

I finished the original Witcher with long loading times and all in about a week, -did all quests, including bounty and sex card quests. Admittedly I did start off on medium, so that I could have a bit of guidance to get into the timing for the combat. On this setting, the combat is pretty easy and rather fun, you get used to it in about 15 mins. or so.

Don't listen to the bitches. It's a nice game, as long as you are not expecting a Fallout 1/2 clone. It's more of an Adventure/ RPG/Action hybrid, and the story and setting makes it worthwhile. The leveling and alchemy systems are also nice in that they are a change from the run-of -the mill stuff.

But to really cut your time down and still experience the main story: cut out sex and bounty quests, and play on "medium" difficulty.
Hm. I automatically do grinding in all my RPG's, so I suppose one could even recommend "easy" difficulty, as that would negate the need for exp. from bounty quests and grinding, because even on "medium" you might have to reload one or two times when fighting certain bosses, if you don't grind. I'm not sure how much challenge you would still get on "easy", but it sounds as if you just want to get through the game asap.

The "enhanced" patch, fixes the long loading times.

 

[Wyrmlord]

It depresses you that the game is long? So you are one of these types who are giving the industry ideas about 'games are too long!!'.

Did you know about save games? Marvellous things really. They allow you save the game any time, and restart from that point. Incredible I know, but true! That way, you don't have to prepare a toilet/seat combo, drip feed apparatus, lose your job and prepare to sit there playing a game for months! (not that the Witcher takes months, where did you hear that rubbish?).

I think he meant, "It takes so damn long for anything good to happen". His complaint is that the game is boring.

@SpaceKungFuMan
Don't you think it's better to leave it? It has only bored you until now. Why bother with it any further if it is not doing anything for you? More hours of boredom will mean even less value for money that you spent on it - so better to stop playing the game so that it is not even a bigger waste of time and money for you.

Follow the 15 minute rule - if the game does not entertain you within the first 15 minutes, stop playing. The game is supposed to work for you, not you for the game.

 

[Zhuangzi]

I've got a bit of a confession myself.

I bought The Witcher: Enhanced Edition, was pumped about it, and then I started playing.

Shortly after the Prologue, I just stopped. It didn't seem fun. The dialogue wasn't interesting. The world didn't seem interesting. I was defending some crappy village and then walking around going into huts and suchlike. I feel guilty because I really haven't given the game a chance, but I paid $60 Aus for something and I've spent 2-3 hours playing it.

Am I crazy, or just prescient? :wink:

 

[Tigranes]

If it's not fun for you, stop playing. No problem.

If you have fun, keep playing.

It has only bored you until now

No, what?

 

[Witchblade]

Well, you're not supposed to spend a week on the prolugue and chapter 1, you know?

Those are just to ease you into the cool timed combat, magic and alchemy systems.

If you think Chapter 2 and onwards is boring, you definitely suffer from ADD.
If you think Chapter 3 and onwards is boring, you are obviously too dumb to understand what is going on.
Sad for you, you're missing out.

 

[Kthan75]

The Witcher is an enjoyable experience, don't listen to the naysayers.

I understand your problem, I can usually play less than 8 hours a week also. I started TW one year ago and I finished it in about a month (a couple of long weekends helped) doing pretty much everything.
Besides the bounties, there are some things you can skip, with pros and cons:

- if you play on Easy, you don't need to worry too much about Alchemy, getting ingredients, etc (this took quite a bit of time for me on Medium, as I was always making sure I am stocked up with potions). That said, on medium I found combat and alchemy usage to be quite well balanced, so you may miss out on something
- you can avoid the minigame quests (dice poker and fighting in bars), which can take some time as well; but those can actually be fun, especially the fighting. And without Dice Poker you won't be able to afford the more expensive gear, but it's not a game stopper by any means.
- you can avoid also trying to collect all the sex cards (you're bound to get some anyway).

As it's been said, the city quests can be quite interesting, so I wouldn't try to optimize there, as it cuts from the experience. But anyway, when you get a quest and it looks like a simple "kill that monster" thing, you can decide yourself if you're up to it. One thing you can do is to get all the possible quests, you'll find that as you progress in the main quest it's easy to finish several tasks at once when you're going to a specific place.

So, enjoy!

 

[Witchblade]

Follow the 15 minute rule - if the game does not entertain you within the first 15 minutes, stop playing. The game is supposed to work for you, not you for the game.

If I had to follow that rule, I would not have played Baldur's Gate *yawn*, and definitely not NWN2 *megayawn* Country fair, anyone? Fetching pelts for your guardian, anyone? Same goes for Fallout 2, and probably a good few other games, too.

 

[mondblut]

I don't have much time to play games anymore

Me neither (in fact, I haven't played *any* game since new year yet), but somehow I don't feel the genres whose primary virtue is size and content (300 hours, anyone?) should bend to accomodate for my needs to work, go out et cetera.

There is a whole world of so-called "casual games" for the married attorneys. If RPGs are too long for you, consider changing your playing interests.