The Witcher

[Mouzafphaerre]

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[OverKnight]

I picked it up a few days ago. I'm just happy that's there a decent RPG for the PC that isn't a two year old port off a console.

I'm enjoying it, good graphics, decent story line so far, and a rather "continental" approach to sex that isn't found in rather chaste RPGs like KotoR.

I'm still struggling to acclimate to the combat system, I've never been a good timing player. One of the reasons I prefer strategy games is the ability to ponder a move, build up your forces and then unleash unstoppable hell only when ready. I've bounced between the OTS and Isometric perspectives. The first doesn't show enough of the environment during combat, and the second has camera angle issues in tight quarters. The jury is still out on combat, but I think I'd prefer a click and forget method with a standard "behind the party" camera.

Another issue is load times, specifically that there are no sub levels. If you enter a house in a village, when you exit it takes the same amount of time to load the village as when you started the level. This is a detriment to immersion. On the plus side, this encouraged me to finally upgrade my PC's memory.

Cut scenes seem to afflicted with stuttering. I turned down some of my settings and turned off grass, and that seemed to solve most of the problems, or at least enough where I wasn't missing important plot developments.

Still despite these issues, the game is better than 90% of the drek out there.

[Sarathos]

Well I am pretty sure thats its out in Oz but I havent had a chance to grab a copy, I have seen trailer and looks very promising.

Btw, has anyone here read the book series that its based on?

[TinCow]

Btw, has anyone here read the book series that its based on?

I looked it up, since the universe is interesting, but according to Wikipedia, the main novels have not been translated into English and my Spanish is far too rusty for lengthy reading.

[Sarathos]

The main novels have not been translated into English and my Spanish is far too rusty for lengthy reading.

Yeah I know I read that too, only the last one is and I think thats where they are basing the game. Pity though I think they would be a good read.

[cegorach]

The short stories (two volumes) and the Witcher novels (5 volumes) are very well used in the game with much effort put to make the fans of Sapkowski happy.


As far as I know only the first volume of short stories has been translated to English, but more will follow FOR SURE - the game seems to be great success so it is more than probable.





Personally I enjoyed the world of Sapkowski's stories and most likely I will read them all again soon - it has been almost 10 years since I have read any of these.

[frogbeastegg]

The books are meant to be hitting English shelves in early/mid 2008.

I've got my copy, all I need now is the time to play it. It's a nice production; embossed card sleeve for the DVD case and a prodigious manual

[Xiahou]

I got my copy yesterday and managed to get in a couple hours of playtime. I immediately installed the patch before attempting to play. When I went to review the video settings, I saw that everything had already defaulted to max quality, so I stuck with it. I have yet to see a single crash and the game has been running pretty smoothly.

Combat is nothing to get excited about one way or the other (so far). But overall, I'd say it's an enjoyable game with a mature theme that's seldom seen in games.

[Bob the Insane]

Got this a while ago but only installed it last night...

I was thoroughly impressed... Excellent visuals (really puts NWN and even NWN2 to shame IMO) and controls. Engaging story, great fun...

I have Assassins Creed, Crysis and The Witcher on the go at the moment and I got to say it was The Witcher I was up late playing last night...

[Sarmatian]

This game is a gem. An upolished gem, but a gem nonetheless. I just started playing, I'm still in the first chapter. There are some blunders, like huge loading times (although CDProjekt promised a patch to fix that pretty soon), some nonconvincing parts of the story (Geralt seems totaly disinterested about his past, even when he meets people who knew him before he "died") and such stuff. The storytelling is not of Bioware quality, but all these flaws fade when compared with the good things. Towns actually look alive, buildings are scaled properly, eye candy is great and maybe most importantly, the dark medieval atmosphere is represented properly.

I'm really shocked that gaming sites gave it an average review, emphasizing the bad side while overlooking the good side. But it can probably be explained with the fact that CDProjekt didn't pay for a review...

Anyway, take it from a guy who enjoys rpg games, and played just about every rpg game that came out in the last ten years, this is a game worth having if you have even the slightest interest in rpgs.

[Kekvit Irae]

The English translation was butchered from the original Polish. There is FAR less dialogue explaining the story and sidequests than the original.

I played it to the end of Chapter 1, then left it alone for a few weeks to play things that are infinitively more interesting, then picked it up again tonight to play some of Chapter 2 in the sewers. I wasn't impressed.

[AggonyDuck]

Well the game slowly gets better with each chapter and the ending is thought-provoking to say the least. So I'd advise to stick with it if you have the time to actually play it.

[Husar]

The English translation was butchered from the original Polish. There is FAR less dialogue explaining the story and sidequests than the original.

Hmm, maybe I should try the german version then.
Wanted to get the english version from here but we usually don't butcher the translations IMO. It's cheaper on that site though than anything I could get in stores here. Yes, that includes shipping.

Of course there is a chance that you mean english as in US english? Since we established before that the british english version is less butchered.

[AggonyDuck]

The english translation should be the same in both versions, but that said I was content with the dialogue provided.

[Kekvit Irae]

Ducky is right, both versions are the same in regards to dialogue. And besides, I'm playing the UK version of the game, not the censored US version.

I'm really having a hard time enjoying The Witcher. I don't know if it's a balancing issue, or if my skills are assigned wrong, but it seems I can cleave through lesser minions with great fervor, whereas I get torn up by bosses or minibosses such as the cockatrice in the beginning of Chapter 2. Heck, even the Beast in Chapter 1 killed me a few times before I got lucky. I'll have to give it another go when I'm done enjoying Beautiful Katamari, Warriors Orochi, and the various sex mods in Oblivion.

[Phatose]

You are making heavy use of potions before the big battles, right?

I'm not far in, but I am enjoying it. Small bites though, cause that load times are very painful indeed.

Is it just me, or is ore completely useless? By the time I got enough together for a sword upgrade, I had found something better just laying around

[AggonyDuck]

Well the Beast is propably the hardest boss to beat in the game. Against the rest you can prepare against properly. Especially Alchemy plays a huge role here. When I played I noticed a couple of things.

Fighting Styles:

You only really need to buff up the Strong Styles and Group Styles. Most bosses can be beat with Strong Style + Aard Sign/different bombs, while most of the weaker opponents can be cut down with the group styles.

Signs:

Here I'd say Aard sign is a must. It really helps in battles from both groups to bosses. For example I managed to 1-hit KO the Beast thanks to it. Igni can also be very powerful if you bother to increase your sign intensity by intelligence, places of power and potions. Some skills in Quen can also come in handy.

Alchemy:

Alchemy will make or break you in the Witcher. So do take your time to create those potions, oils and bombs, because preparation is usually necessary to defeat any stronger foe and having the right combination of potions is essential. I especially like the fact that Potions have toxicity, which actually forces you to decide which potions you're going to use. That said you've got to love the Quen Sign + White Raffard's Concoction (?)+ White Honey combination. If you stock up enough you can virtually keep up fighting for a very long time.

[cegorach]

Hmm, maybe I should try the german version then.
Wanted to get the english version from here but we usually don't butcher the translations IMO. It's cheaper on that site though than anything I could get in stores here. Yes, that includes shipping.

Of course there is a chance that you mean english as in US english? Since we established before that the british english version is less butchered.

Probably it would be a good idea - most likely the have based the german translation on the Witcher novels published in Germany some time ago so the original flavour wouldn't lose too much.

[Mouzafphaerre]

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Not to be a spoiler but, I'm told that the Czech (pretty close to Polish AFAIK) translation was butchered too.
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[cegorach]

Hmm that is strange Sapkowski's novels (about the Witcher) were translated to Czech years ago - strange they didn't use the opportunity - it would be so easy...

Hell... maybe they will learn for Witcher 2 or any expansion which surely will follow the success of this game.


EDIT - Polish and Czech are similar, but any translation is not without certain hazards.. to say the least a number of words has extremely different (and sometimes offensive) meaning and it is very easy to create an unintended comedy of the most grim or tragic situations because both languages seem work perfectly as parodies of each other...

[Bob the Insane]

Okay, a little help here please...

The Beast is kicking my butt... I have had no real issues in any fights up to now, but after numerous tries it is clear that I must have missed something in my preperation for the fight (of which I admittedly did little)...

I am playing on medium...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I elected to take the witch's side against the villagers if that makes any difference

[AggonyDuck]

Siding with the witch makes the whole the Beast thingy a lot harder. I personally struggled for a long while with the battle. From what I've read there are a couple of alternatives to deal with it. The first is to hope that you get lucky with the Aard sign and manage to knockdown/stun it and then follow up with a coup de grace. The other option is to concentrate on the hounds that attack Abigail and protect her. She should keep healing you every now and then, which should be enough to allow you to battle against the beast, especially if you have drunk a Swallow potion. Additionally there's one skill you can purchase that makes you immune to pain when intoxicated, which is very useful for this battle. Either way it's a frustratingly hard battle.

[Bob the Insane]

Thanks...

[Xiahou]

RE: The Beast

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

First thing- you don't need to keep Abigail "alive" during the fight with the beast. If she gets knocked down, she'll be up and alive again for the next segment. For me, the fight got alot easier once I realized I didn't need to protect her.

I thought the Beast was kinda cheesy, so I decided to get cheesy to beat him. I drank a swallow, a tawny owl, and started running in circles around the flaming ring until both bars (health/endurance) were full. Then I turned around and hit him with a flame sign and ran again til my health was full. Rinse and repeat until he's dead. In my case, when he was 3/4 dead, I switched signs and managed to stun him, but I could've kept on with the same tactic and killed him the other way too. If you get agony on you and get stunned, it's because you ran too close to the flames. Don't do that.

I think the easiest thing to do would've probably been to make the spectre oil (whatever its called) and use that on your blade to pwn him. But, I didn't have the foresight to learn to make oils prior to the battle, so it wasn't an option for me.

Incidentally, another time saver I found it that you can actually pull off a quicksave right before the fight with the Beast starts, so you don't have to keep watching the cutscenes over and over if you die.

I've gotta say, after playing this game for awhile longer, my opinion of it has only improved since my earlier comments. A thoroughly enjoyable game.

[Kekvit Irae]

After playing it more, I have come to the conclusion that I totally gimped my skills. I may have to restart, and I HATE Chapter 1. :(

[Papewaio]

How's the eye candy?

[Kekvit Irae]

It's pretty good. Not as visually stunning as Oblivion, but the makers have put a lot of thought into making Geralt's attacks look good. You often stare in amazement at how finesse he is when you chain your attacks, especially when you upgrade your combat skills.

[AggonyDuck]

After playing it more, I have come to the conclusion that I totally gimped my skills. I may have to restart, and I HATE Chapter 1. :(

Well the Bronze Talent skills can be gimped to be honest. You'll get a lot more of them in the process of the game. It's the Silver and Gold Talents that are more critical in the end.

[Bob the Insane]

Got past the Beast basically the same way as Xiahou...

It's funny how what seemed impossible is now pretty easy...

Got into the city and again they have achieved a much more lived in, real feel to the place than NWN/NWN2 managed...

[Somebody Else]

The group attack is quite handy against the Beast, and other bosses where there are lots of minions around - as it seems to have more attacks the more enemies are around, with sufficient enemies, not a single attack can be landed on you because everything keeps getting hit. It's when you're down to 2 enemies that there's a problem - then a bit of aard is always handy to stun/coup-de-grace one of your assailants. Fighting humans is easier - igni them - enough will be standing around screaming in flames for you to deal with the rest fairly easily.

Oh, and always swallow a swallow. If things get really nasty, blizzard helps a lot. Of course, if you have the potions, and the preparation time, take a whole cocktail (don't forget to use albedo potions so they stack better).

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Only on medium, but the final boss (Wild Hunt) I took down in seconds, having taken swallow, tawny owl, shrike (damages those that damage you - handy against hard hitting enemies), moon rise (I forget the name - the one that doubles hp), the one that increases critical hits, possibly a couple of others. And oiled up my blade. Heh, I was hitting him with strings of 400+ damage.

Generally, I don't tend to bother with the fast style - group for large masses, strong for individuals - if they're hard to hit, flame them - the resulting pain will slow them down enough to whack. Or just knock 'em down and give them a coup de grace.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Another handy spell - Quen - the shield spell. Whilst battling the striga, I found that, charged up, it can result in dealing back a lot of damage - I was almost worried I'd kill it by accident. And that was only at level 2 of the spell...