A certain atmosphere may be imposed through writing, storytelling techniques and dialogues.
Which aren't
gameplay.
DS focused on several things, like C&C and... that's pretty much it, because it's combat was shit, compared to other TB RPGs (like ToEE).
And character customization that's several times more deep and complex that anything The Witcher has, a fusion and training system that's much more complex than The Witcher's Alchemy, and a much bigger need for preparation. Also, you seem to forget Role Playing Games are about building characters, basicaly. Which is the entire point of Shin Megami Tensei games. What options has The Witcher about building characters, again? Compare that to the many
completely different skill sets you can give both the characters and the demons, freely mixing and matching into whatever you want to try. If you are talking about preparation, how come you don't mention
Devil Survivor's Build Options, and that's just for skills and not for racials and the like, many of which you can only equip a limited amount of times on your group and the best of which you need to go out of your way to get, but actually mention The Witcher's drink a potion before combat begins and then click click click through the battle?
And, again, when talking about how good or bad a game is I'm only talking about
gameplay. Story, setting, graphics, animation, music, etc is unimportant. The only important thins is
gameplay, as in the challenges the game provides you with and the tools you get to defeat them. Nothing else matters to whether the game is good or bad. And, again, you talk about something, and then fail to see how other game, you believe to be worse, actually has more detail and depth on it that the one you are defending. You, sir, are a damned storyfag. Go play Bioware games and leave us be.
Sounds like preparation to me (munchkinism also springs to mind).
But you were saying that preparation made the game hard, when the fact I never needed to prepare for a battle outside one of the first ones indicates the game kept being easy. It's not my fault if you fail at games and upon seeing a long list of potions decided to not prepare them all in case you ever need one of those. Also, read again what I said: Most oils and potions where useless, or at least not needed. I only used a handful, and always of the same ones. I ended the game with two of the inventory rectangle thingies full of stacks of oils and potions and bombs I
never used, not even
once. Impressive.
Again, the game isn't challenging. You prepare nine of each potion as soon as it becomes available, then use those that will make the current combat a non issue. No reloads needed, no challenging
what do I need to use now? Then, after the battle, go and prepare enough potions and oils to recover those you wasted on the battle. Again, you are saying a game's challenging when I only died a couple of times on a set piece and then once on two or three bosses? That's bullshit, and easy. If the game gives us alchemy and then using (or abusing) alchemy makes the game easy, then the game's easy, as
when you are using all the tools the game gave you all challenge disappears.
Yeah, the fact that it has one of the most impressive alchemy systems ever and a large cast of monsters that require different tactics to beat only supports your opinion.
The Witcher's alchemy system isn't impressive. Many other (better) games have also reagent based alchemy or spellcasting, and those are actually
hard games even when you are playing them as intended and using all the crap you can get to give you and advantage.
+ music
+ atmosphere
+ alchemy
+ writing (I liked the writing and atmosphere overall, due to the aforementioned "commonplace" factor)
+ - story and main quest
++ sidequests
- combat system
Considering the Combat System is what you spend most of the gameplay time doing, yes. It is a pretty awful game. Atmosphere, writing, story, sidequest, etc, are bullshit when talking about
gameplay. You spend the game doing two things: Getting crap to make potions and killing monsters. The former is, basicaly, inventory puzzles without the puzzle. The later is click click click. Awesome game.
Edit:
@ ElecTriCotter
Sure, but usually C&C is just something that affects the story. You may get a couple different dialogues, a couple different scenes, maybe make a battle slightly harder or easier, but it does not change the game a whole lot. I do concede that in some cases where actual C&C can give you diferent endgame scenarios with diferent challenges, switch bosses to other different ones, give you access to diferent skill sets, etc, the C&C is part of the gameplay, as depending on what you chose your gameplay will be dramatically different.
In most games, however, and The Twitcher included, the C&C is just there as a way to get some diferent scenes, a diferent romantic subplot, a maybe a diferent dialogue somewhere. It isn't affecting the gameplay, just the story itself.
