Review The Witcher reviewed right here, at the Codex

[Claw]

That was a great review. It really makes me want to go and order TW right now, even though I'm not sure it'll run on my system. I just want to play it so much.

Not terribly funny, though. I'd give this review an 8.5/10.

 

[Annonchinil]

Just one question, what is the structure of the game like, Baldur's Gate?

 

[cardtrick]

I have absolutely no idea what that question means . . . and I will not respond.

 

[MountainWest]

I have absolutely no idea what that question means . . . and I will not respond.

Aha, praise corrupts the insecure indeed. It seems our dear old Cardtrick has gone all megalomaniac on us. Even I - a mere Swede with the English skills of an illiterate chimpanzee - yes, even I fathom the question concealed behind Annanonchinils trainwreck of a sentence. He clearly asks whether The Witcher features an interstellar rodent of the subfamily Cricetinae or not.

No, Annonchinil, there be no spacehamsters in The Witcher. I'm sorry.

 

[FrancoTAU]

I never understood the posters here with such specific needs in their RPGs. In the golden era of RPGs we had Ultimas, Wizardries, Gold Box AD&D, etc all bringing a different take on RPGs. But for some reason we have people who either want their games to all be just like Fallout or just BG2ish.

That's the big reason that I'm so excited about the indie market right now. AoD is going to be Fallout-ish, Broken Hourglass is BG2ish, Eschalon & Spidersoft is Ultima 3-5ish, Frayed Knights & Grimorie (heh) is Wizardy-ish, Ashes & Dhargul are Ultima 7ish, Scars of War is Daggerfall-ish, etc. Even better, most of these indy devs are adding a twist to the original inspirations.

I dunno, go blackball a good game because you can't change their gender or you have a predefined personality. Stay a Turn based nazi. It's such a narrow minded childish view to have.

True dis.

Though I'm not sure who, specifically, you're replying to in this thread.

I guess Jasede got me started on the rant with his complaint about having to be Geralt was a big turnoff. It was really directed at the board in general though. I love you still Jasede, you silly manboy you.

 

[Jasede]

Heheh. I bet you at least realized that I was mostly being silly. I luv all kinds of RPG, be it the Gothic "this is your role, do something meaningful with it" kind, the "mega-oldschool party based dungeon crawl" kind or even the "Fallout"-likes, and everything in between. Though for some reason I can't have fun with jRPGs anymore; I blame age. Now off to play Might & Magic 1, a game delightfully free of consequences, choices, meaningful dialogue, etc, but instead, full of dungeons you have to map yourself, a nasty interface (protip: get the Mac version) and ridiculously hard beginning. That's the stuff!

 

[Aditya]

A fantastic review, covering almost all that I liked (and disliked) about the game. Moreover, its written without using "f**k" in every other sentence, retaining professionalism and decency. Good read indeed. Thanks.

 

[Paranoid Jack]

If I interpret your questions meaning correctly....

**** Warning some slight spoilers you have probably already read elsewhere. ****

The game has some fairly large levels but they can be somewhat confining so don't expect it to be like that other sand-box game with the extremely shallow Disneyland type game-world. This game opens up in stages that are story driven and it actually feels alive. They did a great job over-all with only a few things that could have been done better but don't subtract too much from the whole experience.

The Outskirts is just after the Prologue and is an area with several other smaller areas attacked to it. Once inside the city walls the different sections of Vizima are fairly good sized with lots to do and explore. There are also some very scenic areas outside the city. Again the environments and their beauty lends itself to the immersion. You have two swamp areas to explore outside the city... which are both good sized but handled differently as to their layout and terrain. There are barriers like brush/trees/rock formations that are the walls forcing you to stay inside the designated area. I feel this was handled quite well and have no complaints with the level lay-outs.

You can enter into some buildings/crypts/caves but that causes another load. But the doors of other buildings will just have a locked status assigned and there is no lock-picking in The Witcher. Oh, when you enter a crypt or new part of the map it loads and if you just triggered something in the plot it will auto-save also. Thus the complaints about the long loads/auto-saves.

Geralt can't jump or climb in most cases. So you will have to follow a normal path to get from point A to B and it may require a longer out of the way route but I didn't find this annoying once you understand the limitations to his path-finding or movement abilities.

You just have to start every new game not expecting it to be like every other game you have played. Which can be a problem for some. I think that is the main reason most people (including a few reviewers) got annoyed during or before Act I.

They ( the poor reviewers and click-fest gamers) expected this (The Witcher) to be something it wasn't. And we all know from the Gothic series that European gamers and developers like deviating from the norm when it comes to combat and the interface. And I truly appreciate the fact that they do. Who wants to play the same game over and over again with different story elements and newer graphics?

Go into it and every game with an open mind. Learn the movement and combat... which is different depending on your camera view and difficulty setting. Don't expect it to be a click fest. It's far from it. You click and wait. Some of the combo moves require as long as five seconds (or more) to execute before you click again. Due to the beautifully done combat animations this is not a bad thing. It's very well done and group fighting was handled particularly well... better than any game to date.

Anyway back to structure. You will find lots of areas (locked doors/locked bar/barriers) that you can not reach or get into. Some will open as the game/story progresses. This not only forces you to recheck (explore) places like the sewers multiple times. The only down-fall to this is (well if you don't have ADD ) that a few areas of the game have specific creatures you will need to finish quests or to gather ingredients. Once you have explored those areas and if you kill those creatures or that single creature they will never respawn.

It adds to the replay value but may slightly annoy some people. Either way there are only a few of those instances that I came across in my first play through. So if you explore that area kill that creature and do not have the knowledge to harvest those body parts you are screwed. But that is a minor issue. Barely worth mentioning.

Also as you progress in the story elements new characters will begin to appear in areas you have already seen and covered. Again do not expect this game-world to remain stagnant. After you access the second section of Vizima spend some time (enjoy yourself) and revisit parts you have already seen. You will be rewarded with new vendors who carry more and different book for example.

Speaking of that... I won't be certain until I replay the game again. But I did replay the Prologue and Act I after learning the basics about the game to include character development. I wanted to direct my points into steel instead of silver for what ever reason. Anyway I found two characters in the Outskirts Inn on my second run through that were not there on my previous visits. One had a quest I hadn't seen before which directed me to deliver a package to somebody inside the city walls. And the other had a load of books I was more than happy to buy. I spent all my money on books and bribes early on.

Which leads me into this. I didn't feel a need to buy any weapons through out the game. I loved the diversion from the "phat loot" syndrome so many Western games have. But later in the game when I had so much money I just wanted to spend some I did use some of my coin on sword enchantments and upgrades. Which made the combat easier. To upgrade or enchant approach a friendly blacksmith and his inventory will show the weapons your items and coins can purchase. You then loose the items and coin required.

As far as combat goes I loved it but I'm not sure if it felt too easy because of my character build. I played on medium difficulty. Maxing out intelligence, max strength, and with max Ingi sign. I focus foremost on raising intelligence to gain access to more potions. And I figured higher strength would increase Geralts damage and it did. Plus the flame sign was just the most fun to use with the widest benefits all around in my opinion so that is why I focused my talents on those. I plan on replaying the game on the most difficult setting.

Hope this helps for those of you still deciding on the purchase. And if you have an old machine that can run NWN it will most likely run The Witcher though your video card and RAM will be the deciding factor as to how well it looks and plays.

No time to proof read the Boss (at least she thinks so) is asking me to help put up the X-mas lites. Peace.

 

[miles foreman]

cardtrick, you're in the US? Where did you purchase your European version? I ask this because I've been leery about buying the US version because of stuff that's been cut. And I want to masturbate to drawings of boobs.

 

[Paranoid Jack]

GoGamer.Com is based in Cali and has the Import. Not sure on the pricing at the moment but it was fair when I purchased my copy before the NA release.

Edit: Here are the three version they offer: http://www.gogamer.com/searchresults.ht ... yId=444758

Has anyone bought the Collector's Edition and if so is it worth it? It doesn't appear to be worth the extra thirty bucks but they don't go into great detail.

 

[Madman]

if monster book and art book is at the same quality as in polish CE, than it is definitely worth of buying. Especially art book, great stuff!

 

[cardtrick]

I used GoGamer too. I imagine there are other options, though; maybe Ebay?

 

[miles foreman]

Thanks guys, I'll give it a go.

Oh, and cardtrick: the screenies you used for combat are really dark, you maybe might want to update it with some better shots. The other pictures are great though.

 

[cardtrick]

Yeah, they definitely are dark. Unfortunately, I lost my savegames in a hard drive crash, so I probably won't take any more screenshots. I don't think it's really a big deal, but if someone else wants to submit some combat shots, maybe one of the editors (Calis?) would put them in.

 

[The Internets]

The only other thing I'd address would be the slow beginning. The Kaer Morhen section was terrible, and the outskirts could have had a denser scatter of interaction, since I seemed to spend an inordinate time running back and forth along roads without the ability to go cross country, but admittedly it was never dire enough that I felt like giving it up.

I just wanna go ahead and second all of the above. Though I wonder if anyone here has ran through it a second time, Kaer Morhen that is, and had a different take the second time through?

When I think back on that section, most of my frustration came from the overwhelming feeling I had, as if I stepped into this giant world that didn't really care if I was there at all.

Of course that's one of the keys to this games greatness, but honestly, it's just so different from most games these days, where hand holding is the rule, not the exception.

 

[Nael]

The only other thing I'd address would be the slow beginning. The Kaer Morhen section was terrible, and the outskirts could have had a denser scatter of interaction, since I seemed to spend an inordinate time running back and forth along roads without the ability to go cross country, but admittedly it was never dire enough that I felt like giving it up.

I just wanna go ahead and second all of the above. Though I wonder if anyone here has ran through it a second time, Kaer Morhen that is, and had a different take the second time through?

Yes. There's a fairly big consequence for how you handle the prologue.

*SPOILER*
































If you don't go help Triss in the Laboratory and instead choose to stay and fight the Fearbringer thing Azar Javed ends up stealing more than he would have if you had gone with Triss. The consequence for this is that you end up having to fight mutant dogs in the very first chapter. I never saw these in the game until Chapter V I believe when I played it through the first time, and helped Triss. Another consequence of this is that Vaermir or whatever the old guy's name is gives you a red meteorite for helping him out instead of Triss.

 

[Annonchinil]

If I interpret your questions meaning correctly....

**** Warning some slight spoilers you have probably already read elsewhere. ****

The game has some fairly large levels but they can be somewhat confining so don't expect it to be like that other sand-box game with the extremely shallow Disneyland type game-world. This game opens up in stages that are story driven and it actually feels alive. They did a great job over-all with only a few things that could have been done better but don't subtract too much from the whole experience.

The Outskirts is just after the Prologue and is an area with several other smaller areas attacked to it. Once inside the city walls the different sections of Vizima are fairly good sized with lots to do and explore. There are also some very scenic areas outside the city. Again the environments and their beauty lends itself to the immersion. You have two swamp areas to explore outside the city... which are both good sized but handled differently as to their layout and terrain. There are barriers like brush/trees/rock formations that are the walls forcing you to stay inside the designated area. I feel this was handled quite well and have no complaints with the level lay-outs.

You can enter into some buildings/crypts/caves but that causes another load. But the doors of other buildings will just have a locked status assigned and there is no lock-picking in The Witcher. Oh, when you enter a crypt or new part of the map it loads and if you just triggered something in the plot it will auto-save also. Thus the complaints about the long loads/auto-saves.

Geralt can't jump or climb in most cases. So you will have to follow a normal path to get from point A to B and it may require a longer out of the way route but I didn't find this annoying once you understand the limitations to his path-finding or movement abilities.

You just have to start every new game not expecting it to be like every other game you have played. Which can be a problem for some. I think that is the main reason most people (including a few reviewers) got annoyed during or before Act I.

They ( the poor reviewers and click-fest gamers) expected this (The Witcher) to be something it wasn't. And we all know from the Gothic series that European gamers and developers like deviating from the norm when it comes to combat and the interface. And I truly appreciate the fact that they do. Who wants to play the same game over and over again with different story elements and newer graphics?

Go into it and every game with an open mind. Learn the movement and combat... which is different depending on your camera view and difficulty setting. Don't expect it to be a click fest. It's far from it. You click and wait. Some of the combo moves require as long as five seconds (or more) to execute before you click again. Due to the beautifully done combat animations this is not a bad thing. It's very well done and group fighting was handled particularly well... better than any game to date.

Anyway back to structure. You will find lots of areas (locked doors/locked bar/barriers) that you can not reach or get into. Some will open as the game/story progresses. This not only forces you to recheck (explore) places like the sewers multiple times. The only down-fall to this is (well if you don't have ADD ) that a few areas of the game have specific creatures you will need to finish quests or to gather ingredients. Once you have explored those areas and if you kill those creatures or that single creature they will never respawn.

It adds to the replay value but may slightly annoy some people. Either way there are only a few of those instances that I came across in my first play through. So if you explore that area kill that creature and do not have the knowledge to harvest those body parts you are screwed. But that is a minor issue. Barely worth mentioning.

Also as you progress in the story elements new characters will begin to appear in areas you have already seen and covered. Again do not expect this game-world to remain stagnant. After you access the second section of Vizima spend some time (enjoy yourself) and revisit parts you have already seen. You will be rewarded with new vendors who carry more and different book for example.

Speaking of that... I won't be certain until I replay the game again. But I did replay the Prologue and Act I after learning the basics about the game to include character development. I wanted to direct my points into steel instead of silver for what ever reason. Anyway I found two characters in the Outskirts Inn on my second run through that were not there on my previous visits. One had a quest I hadn't seen before which directed me to deliver a package to somebody inside the city walls. And the other had a load of books I was more than happy to buy. I spent all my money on books and bribes early on.

Which leads me into this. I didn't feel a need to buy any weapons through out the game. I loved the diversion from the "phat loot" syndrome so many Western games have. But later in the game when I had so much money I just wanted to spend some I did use some of my coin on sword enchantments and upgrades. Which made the combat easier. To upgrade or enchant approach a friendly blacksmith and his inventory will show the weapons your items and coins can purchase. You then loose the items and coin required.

As far as combat goes I loved it but I'm not sure if it felt too easy because of my character build. I played on medium difficulty. Maxing out intelligence, max strength, and with max Ingi sign. I focus foremost on raising intelligence to gain access to more potions. And I figured higher strength would increase Geralts damage and it did. Plus the flame sign was just the most fun to use with the widest benefits all around in my opinion so that is why I focused my talents on those. I plan on replaying the game on the most difficult setting.

Hope this helps for those of you still deciding on the purchase. And if you have an old machine that can run NWN it will most likely run The Witcher though your video card and RAM will be the deciding factor as to how well it looks and plays.

No time to proof read the Boss (at least she thinks so) is asking me to help put up the X-mas lites. Peace.

Thanks, I am definitely more excited about the game now but before I go I have two more questions about the game that I will try to phrase better.

One, I know there are generic MMO quests in the game, but how many 'investigation' (or similar) type quests are there in the game similar to the ACT II example used in cardtrick's review? Are the solutions to them logical or stat based?

Two, if there is no phat lewt to sell for money, no phat lewt that is higher than your level, monsters don't drop money and you don't have the necessary journal entry for alchemy ingredients, is exploring areas for the simple sake of exploration enjoyable or instead since some quest necessary mobs may not reaspawn actually damaging to the game experience?

As for my laptop it can run NWN (1) but it is certainly not gaming grade, although it does have two gigs of ram. However my processor is an AMD Turion at 1.6Ghz and my GPU is a nvidea 6150go (128mb). I know its poor but it allows me to play my wargames, turnbased strategy titles and some RTS games like CoH (I prefer my shooters LAN at net cafes, and their 10 hour campaigns are cheaper at an hourly rate). I was expecting it to be able to play future RPG games as well but it seems that the system req's for them have dramatically increased to FPS like levels.

I will have a new rig soon, when the 8800GT finally becomes released here. Should I wait for that? Does the games atmosphere scale back with the settings?

 

[Suchy]

Yeah, they definitely are dark. Unfortunately, I lost my savegames in a hard drive crash, so I probably won't take any more screenshots. I don't think it's really a big deal, but if someone else wants to submit some combat shots, maybe one of the editors (Calis?) would put them in.

Here's a few combat shots I took. Not much brighter, but still a little bit brighter:
http://soundscapes.cozywebhost.com/stuf ... er/w17.jpg
http://soundscapes.cozywebhost.com/stuf ... er/w18.jpg
http://soundscapes.cozywebhost.com/stuf ... er/w19.jpg

 

[deuxhero]

Cardtrick submitted an excellent <A
<blockquote>The Witcher is one of the first games . . . well, ever . . . to actively hype its choices and consequences.

Acctualy Deus Ex did it, look below the title on the box/jewel jase

"Real conspiracies, Severe Consequnces, Intense Action Role-Playing"

 

[The Internets]

Two, if there is no phat lewt to sell for money, no phat lewt that is higher than your level, monsters don't drop money and you don't have the necessary journal entry for alchemy ingredients, is exploring areas for the simple sake of exploration enjoyable or instead since some quest necessary mobs may not reaspawn actually damaging to the game experience?

Absolutely enjoyable. When you explore new areas you'll always find new stuff to do, and by the middle of the third act you'll find your quest journal has about a dozen unresolved tasks for you to do--all of them interesting. For me, lewt doesn't even factor into this game--it's better than that. The story, atmosphere, all done in a way to make that mindless grind of loot collection utterly beneath you.

As for my laptop it can run NWN (1) but it is certainly not gaming grade, although it does have two gigs of ram. However my processor is an AMD Turion at 1.6Ghz and my GPU is a nvidea 6150go (128mb). I know its poor but it allows me to play my wargames, turnbased strategy titles and some RTS games like CoH (I prefer my shooters LAN at net cafes, and their 10 hour campaigns are cheaper at an hourly rate). I was expecting it to be able to play future RPG games as well but it seems that the system req's for them have dramatically increased to FPS like levels.

I will have a new rig soon, when the 8800GT finally becomes released here. Should I wait for that? Does the games atmosphere scale back with the settings?

Yes, wait. This game, although great, should benefit hugely from the 1.2 patch and beyond, which is the primary reason me and my Quad-Core Intel and 8800 GTS haven't played it for three weeks now--I'm waiting on that patch.

 

[Section8]

Acctualy Deus Ex did it, look below the title on the box/jewel jase

"Real conspiracies, Severe Consequnces, Intense Action Role-Playing"

It also said "Will you be the charismatic master manipulator, the shrewd and stealthy tactician, or the deadly avenging angel?"

 

[Paranoid Jack]

"One, I know there are generic MMO quests in the game, but how many 'investigation' (or similar) type quests are there in the game similar to the ACT II example used in cardtrick's review? Are the solutions to them logical or stat based?"

Trying to be as vague as I can be as not to ruin anything.

I would say there is the one investigation quest. And it takes longer than some care for. Though I enjoyed it. Also the entire main plot is something of an investigation in itself to find who is behind the events of the Prologue. Other quests could also be considered investigatory.

For the most part the solutions are logical or self explanatory as you progress along the main story-line. But on occasion the poorly translated lines or tone of the dialog ruins the immersion.

There are no stats that effect dialog options. Just your actions preformed during your progression. And those actions can effect a lot. Only those who have played the game through completely several times would be able to point them out.

 

[Texas Red]

I just finished TW while siding with the nonhumans. The game is so awesome on so many levels its almost funny. This is the RPG messiah we all have been waiting for. A bunch of Polish noobs got everything right on their first try. Seriously, my words fail do describe how great TW is.

Now all we need to worry about is the chance of CDProject falling to the dark side. The current engine, the combat system, graphics etc. still hold much, much potential.

The combat may sound simplistic but damn, its great. I never even get tired of whacking those low level monsters that dont pose a threat to me.

CDProject, I want to have your children!