The Witcher

[Nenjin]

The acting in the cutscenes gets leagues better after the tutorial. Seriously, that was biggest turn off for me in any RPG ever, was listening to Trist's and the other Witchers voice actors painfully try to sound alarmed/concerned at the random junk that occurs in the tutorial.

Afterward though, it all smooths out to be one of the better RPG experiences I've had. The dialog may not be *quite* up to Dragon Age's.....but the game as a whole is better.

On money, I found I had plenty until it was time to buy new armor. Then you'll be back to having empty pockets again.

 

[Fedorov]

One thing I'd like to point out, in this game, your choices have none or almost none consequences except one:

Spoiler!

siding with humans, non humans, or remaining neutral

 

[Nenjin]

Kinda sorta, not really.

Spoiler!

The first time you get into Vizimia proper, and you're dealing with the bandits/robbers, how you execute the investigation can lead to certain people being dead before you've had a chance to deal with them. The Scoiatel/Templar decision is also made in several places in the game, not just at the mid point when they force you to take a side. Interrupting their smuggling operations in Chapter 1 gets mentioned later on as people go over the list of things you have or haven't done. How you treat specific characters in dialog sequences may have immediate, or long-term implications too, from making it impossible to get through certain dialog choices with them, to making them unfriendly to you for the remainder of the game. The choice to kill or not kill Vincent when you discover he's a werewolf has a reasonably big impact, as you can get the werewolf item or not, have Vincent around later or not...There's the Mistress of the Night Quest too. If you don't side with Abigail, she won't be there way later in the game to help you, reducing your options for solving a few quests.

While everything eventually boils down to the Scoiatel/Templar/Compassionate Witcher choices, you make those choices everywhere in game.

I think Witcher lived up to its claim that what you do or say is important. Sometimes I think fans hear that and expect something like a procedurally generated storyline with 1,000,000 iterations, where one choice completely changes the whole outcome of the game. That's never been realistic, even in old JRPGs where you have 30 characters and a storyline designed to have 30 endings.

Bottomline though, I remember doing a lot of reloading during Witcher because I would say or do something and it would close as many doors as it opened.

 

[Fedorov]

Bottomline though, I remember doing a lot of reloading during Witcher because I would say or do something and it would close as many doors as it opened.

I did a lot of saving and reload to see what changed, but as I saw no effect, I kinda stopped caring and just went forward. The little or zero effect that a choice may have is not enough to make me re-play the game. Not even the most important choice.

 

[Nenjin]

Like I said, it's not perfect. I won't replay Witcher to see what it could have been like with different decisions either.

But it does a good job of at least making the people you deal with feel like they're reacting to your decisions, that you own at least some of the choices made in game because you're reminded of them later on. That's better than what a lot of RPGs promise in this department.

 

[SheepDip]

The decisions throughout the game don't have any major effect on what you have to do as such (as it's basically the same situation but with you on different sides), but decisions dictate what you have to do, and what missions are open to you and how you get them.

For example

Spoiler!

Choosing Siegfrieds help with the Cockatrice gives you access to things without having to bribe guards or waiting until you get the city signet ring.

Berengar can be learnt about several ways, depending on who you side with inside Kaer Morhen. If you don't kill Berengar he helps later. Or you can kill him and use his stuff for him.

And there are numerous other quests you can completely skip depending on how you've played and what side-quests you have done, check out a wiki if you're interested.

As we all know by now, I'm a big fan - the decisions you have to make, whilst they can't necessarily change the outcome don't dim the feelings involved imo.

 

[doomis]

Damn, I can't wait to get back to my pc and enjoy this little beauty. Tried playing it on my crappy laptop while I am on vacations, but quited after a few minutes since I don't wanna ruin it

Btw which way do you guys play it (that sound a bit funny )? WASD or with the mouse mostly?

 

[=GG= Mr Moe]

Loaded this up again with all the patches thru 1.5. Never did the last chapter due to a hard drive failure almost two years ago. Starting from scratch and playing thru till The Witcher 2 comes out and its something to do while waiting for ROHOS

 

[Reddog]

Loaded this up again with all the patches thru 1.5. Never did the last chapter due to a hard drive failure almost two years ago. Starting from scratch and playing thru till The Witcher 2 comes out and its something to do while waiting for ROHOS

^^^
What he said, except I have finished the game and got the neutral ending (all I know is my gut says maybe).

Now I am going to play again and be a complete manwhore bastard.

 

[=GG= Mr Moe]

Well I finished this last night (ended up with the order ending) and I must say it was very enjoyable. They did a nice job with the game. I might even consider playing it again and going for a different ending if "The Witcher 2" wasn't coming out. That one I will definitely be picking up!

 

[Reddog]

I just pre-ordered Witcher 2 on GoG, their price and extras is just too hard to refuse :IS2:

 

[SheepDip]

I lost my bleedin' savegames so I have to start again >.< (as saves can be imported).