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Author Topic: The Witcher  (Read 5418 times)

est

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The Witcher
« on: 30 Jun 2008, 22:27 »

So.  I bought the Witcher on sale the other week.  I am still trying to figure out whether this was a waste of my money or not.

After I installed it I immediately installed the latest patch for it, as I had been reading bad stories regarding its stability.  Updated to patchlevel 1.3, and so far I have only had one CTD, which is pretty good compared to some stories I'd read.

But that's not my problem.  My problem is that the game basically feels like it's going through the motions of being a game.  I guess.  The interactions you have with other people are so distant and clunky that I don't really give a shit about any of them.  Regardless of whether you are being a good guy or not Geralt is such a turd in his conversations that I don't give a shit about him either.  While the multi-click combo combat system sounds good in theory in reality it feels as clunky and badly-implemented as the dialog.  If you are fighting one person then it's boring "click click click" ok dead.  Two people, not so bad.  You push one over with air & coup de grace them, then "click click click" on the remaining dude.  With 3 or more enemies sometimes just being able to click on the right dude is difficult, as the targeting is all manual and the clicking is not very accurate.  You click on one enemy only to find yourself turning around to hit another because the game thinks you've targeted some fucker behind you. 

Having some kind of target lock system would alleviate that particular combat problem almost entirely, but even with the three different fighting styles fighting still really fucking boring. Am I supposed to use different weapons for different type of monster? (I don't have the silver sword yet)  The axe and the dagger seem totally pointless.  I was hoping that maybe some enemies would be weak against a certain type of weapon so that they'd be useful (other than "steel for humans, silver for monsters")

I've just unlocked the second Ard, so maybe that will make things a little more interesting, but then again maybe not.  I got into my first fight after getting the fire Ard, set some pleb dude on fire with it and he completely ignored it and kept attacking me while his health went down.  Now, I am not sure about you guys, but I was expecting him to maybe I dunno, run around clutching his face screaming "OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUCK I AM ON FIRE, OH FUCK IT ALL TO HELL" instead of nonchalantly continuing to attack m while his face melted off.

I addition to all this, the people's reactions to you and the underlying story elements feel contrived.  In no other game have the quests seemed so transparent about sending me hither and yon on errands to waste my time.  Or maybe it just seems that way because the combat isn't really all that fun?  I don't know.  I guess what I mean is that when the Reverend sent me on the quest to light the candles during the night I knew it was just a bullshit thing to throw devil dogs at me.  Then I intervene to save that girl and it becomes an escort mission too.  Somehow I know this was meant to happen.  Why?  Because the final shrine is next to her fucking mother's house.

Maybe I'm being too harsh, or maybe the game gets better later, I dunno.  Who else has played it?  'm in the Outskirts at the moment, does it get better once you get inside the city?
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KvP

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Re: The Witcher
« Reply #1 on: 30 Jun 2008, 23:20 »

I had the same problems you did, really. I think the Witcher is duller at its best than Oblivion was at its worst. It's just an out-and-out failure.

You get the Silver sword when you leave the outskirts. It works better against monsters.

Yeah, the secondary weapons (dagger, axe) are useless at the beginning, but as you get further into the game you get other things, like the dagger can be replaced by a useful torch, and you also get powerful alternative weapons, like a gladius-type sword that works well against human opponents and has extra properties (stun, etc.)

The combat never really gets any better. And as you go on you'll find that inventory management is going to be a major problem.

You're not being too harsh. Honestly if you don't like it at this point in the game then you're not going to like it later. The biggest problem for me, which you've touched upon, is that the quests are not woven into the storyline very well at all, and they're fucking dull. Escort, fedex and collection missions, all of them, throughout the entire game. You might have been able to overlook them, if only there weren't so goddamn much of it. There's 80 HOURS of this shit. It's so disgustingly bloated, padded to the extreme. If the combat and the quests don't bore you to tears the constant sprinting across maps will. I gave up on the game after about 25 hours, and I had just gotten into Chapter 2. I think there are at least 7 chapters (the outskirts are the "prologue").

Now, there may, may be some hope. You've probably noticed the awful translation and VA. Well, sometime in the next few months they'll be releasing a huge-ass patch that replaces all the dialogue and voicework in the game with newer, presumably better content. However, Geralt will still pretty much be tantamount to a walking, talking styrofoam penis, and the female characters would still make fuckin' Frank Miller squeamish (apparently the only thing keeping women off of any and all dicks in this universe is a fear of pregnancy).
« Last Edit: 30 Jun 2008, 23:23 by KvP »
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Re: The Witcher
« Reply #2 on: 02 Jul 2008, 10:39 »

Est, just play Fable instead.
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Re: The Witcher
« Reply #3 on: 03 Jul 2008, 20:09 »

I have The Witcher on my comp but it is extremely slow and jerky, so much so that it just isn't worth playing. Would a patch help this or do I just need to upgrade a few things with my computer?
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Re: The Witcher
« Reply #4 on: 03 Jul 2008, 21:42 »

Might help if you told us what kind of computer you're using.
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KvP

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Re: The Witcher
« Reply #5 on: 03 Jul 2008, 21:59 »

You need a pretty high-end computer to play it. My year-and-a-half old computer couldn't handle the cutscenes at all and the gameplay was choppy. My new custom-built could handle it, but I've soured on it, so fuck it.
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Re: The Witcher
« Reply #6 on: 03 Jul 2008, 22:34 »

Might help if you told us what kind of computer you're using.

 :oops: um, it's an '02 Windows XP, 2.67 GHz, 2 Gigs of RAM
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est

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Re: The Witcher
« Reply #7 on: 03 Jul 2008, 22:50 »

An '02 PC is 6 years old.  That point is obvious, but dude.  6 years old.

If it's 6 years old I am guessing that 2.67ghz is a P4.  What graphics card you using?  Depending on the graphics card you could probably get away with a graphics card update and playing it on low detail/res settings.

Alternatively you could save your money and some frustration not play it.  Your call!
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Re: The Witcher
« Reply #8 on: 03 Jul 2008, 23:29 »

I doubt you'll get it to run on that.
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Re: The Witcher
« Reply #9 on: 05 Jul 2008, 14:50 »

An '02 PC is 6 years old.  That point is obvious, but dude.  6 years old.

If it's 6 years old I am guessing that 2.67ghz is a P4.  What graphics card you using?  Depending on the graphics card you could probably get away with a graphics card update and playing it on low detail/res settings.

Alternatively you could save your money and some frustration not play it.  Your call!

I know it's really old but a lot of work's gone into it, ultimately I'd of course like to upgrade it but I'll probably be using it for a couple more years at least.
the only games I've extensively played on it are the original roller coaster tycoon and jetpack, tasks that it handles just fine, of course :-P

I'm not sure about the graphics card, where do you find that out? (my penchant for missing the obvious details is showing)

I already own a burnt copy of it, so only frustration is a factor.
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Re: The Witcher
« Reply #10 on: 05 Jul 2008, 18:05 »

Est, just play Fable instead.

This. Peter Molyneux's only failure in this game is that he didn't manage to make the piss-poor boring-ass game it probably would've been if he'd actually created the game he envisioned.
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Re: The Witcher
« Reply #11 on: 06 Jul 2008, 04:03 »

Ok, I will try it.  I think I've seen it in bargain bins.
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Re: The Witcher
« Reply #12 on: 06 Jul 2008, 04:32 »

Fable's not great, but it's worth a play through.
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Re: The Witcher
« Reply #13 on: 06 Jul 2008, 11:37 »

If you have a 360 you can just buy it on Live Marketplace as an Xbox Original.
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Re: The Witcher
« Reply #14 on: 06 Jul 2008, 21:47 »

Yeah, but you can generally get the Lost chapters for really cheap as well. I'm not real sure why they didn't just release that version on Marketplace in the first place.
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Re: The Witcher
« Reply #15 on: 07 Jul 2008, 21:47 »

'm in the Outskirts at the moment, does it get better once you get inside the city?

Bewbs?

KvP is right, it gets a little more interesting once you're in the city, have all the signs and are leveled up somewhat, but as Yahtzee said months ago, it's like MMO grinding without the dubious advantage of flaunting your stuff in Ironforge (or wherever it is the kids are hanging out these days.)  The patch is supposed to have made a huge difference so I shudder to think what it was like before.

I ended up ditching it a little over half-way through and am now playing ... internet chess.  Seriously, a few more days and I get my King's Indian Attack up to level 22.
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