The Witcher thoughts?

Inventory is a bit clunky and combat can drive some people off. Personally I think that the inventory is manageble, slightly annoying due to the lack of automatic organization options, but it won't make the game any less fun.

Combat is excellent if you ask me, but some people obviously don't like it. It's basically like diablo where you simply click to attack, but in order to prevail in combat you need to continue clicking in precice moments. The witcher does 3-5 sword hits in one attack and after that you have to click again to initiate the second attack in the chain, after which again for the third and then again for the final attack move.

Once you level up it looks pretty awesome to see him perform some incredible attack moves. Also you can instantly use 5 different magic tricks which can be level up aswell. Making the witcher a true killing machine. Slash, spell, dodge, drink potion, slash etc. It's good.

No doubt future patches will polish the inventory as an auto-arrange option should be a fairly easy addition.

Neither the combat system nor the inventory were big problems for me. The biggest hurdle were load times and frequency of such. If you're interested in a deep story, then this game is a good bet. If all you're looking for is loot and level, this won't be your kind of game. Think Planescape: Torment meets Gothic and that's The Witcher.

Inventory is a bit messy, since if you're like me and love to fiddle with the Alchemy you've got tons of various plants and ingredients you'll be carrying around all the time and the inventory isn't really all that big. Nevertheless it's not the worst I've seen and while messy it gets the job done.

Combat is great in my oppinion, it takes the typical hack&slash gameplay and just throws a wrench into the entire thing by adding timed moves, combos, magic and alchemy into the entire mix, not to mention the various combat stances and weapon types for different opponents. It's awesome, like Diablos combat went and got a PHD! Clicking as fast as you can or spamming one move wont get you anywhere here. It's not for everyone but I like it!

Anything else ya wanna know?

Yeah, Inventory does lack the auto-arrange option. a bit of a pain.

The combat is awesome, you can customize all your attacks and stuff pretty well, so, yeah, very good.

The story is very good, it's what keeps me playing above all.

One of the ebst things about this RPG thou, is the voice acting, Thou it has some little problems, it's very impressive and there's few works on voice acting in games that get close to it.

I would strongly suggest getting this game if like RPGs, and reading/listening/paying attention to what the NPCs and the books have to say. I find it to be one of the best games of this genre that I've played.

I didnt really mind the inventory system as I would just withdraw tons of stuff before I do alchemy than put it all away again and not have to worry about it that much. I ended up with tons of alchemy potions and ingredients that I hadnt used. I liked the comat, requires more effort then just clicking as fast as you can, you have to pay attention to it if you want to pull off the combos to do more damage. I liked the alchemy system but didn't use many potions, i played on the medium difficulty, and I didnt use any bombs or blade coatings either, though i used some blade coatings.

If you are going to buy you should have at least 2GB ram, or the loading times are realllly long. I have 1GB and XP and the load times were like1 to 2 minutes depending on if its a house or a huge area. Plus it autosaves after each quest step you do so especially in the 2 and 3 chapters, this adds another 40 seconds or so.

The story is well done and it is a very immersive game

I didnt really mind the inventory system as I would just withdraw tons of stuff before I do alchemy than put it all away again and not have to worry about it that much. I ended up with tons of alchemy potions and ingredients that I hadnt used. I liked the comat, requires more effort then just clicking as fast as you can, you have to pay attention to it if you want to pull off the combos to do more damage. I liked the alchemy system but didn't use many potions, i played on the medium difficulty, and I didnt use any bombs or blade coatings either, though i used some blade coatings. If you are going to buy you should have at least 2GB ram, or the loading times are realllly long.dipper145

I'm playing on Hard, and I haven't tried other difficulties, but I can tell the difference when I fight without potions/blade coatings (it's like a temporary weapon upgrade)/bombs, because you DO need them to beat some foes.

The witcher is possibly the best RPG I've ever played. Either Bloodlines or Witcher, I'm struggling to decide.

The combat mechanic is great. You just click on an enemy to initiate the attack sequence, but you have to keep on clicking on promts to keep the combos flowing. You also have to maneuver to avoid attacks when fighting multiple enemies, and can dodge and pirouette with mouse clicks. You also have an assortment of spells available, which let you get a little creative. One of the spells knocks enemies to the ground, and you can then finish off many enemies in one blow, despite their being full health. A great mechanic for a RPG. All round, this is the best combat mechanic I've ever played with in a RPG. Way better than BioWare pause and plan, way better than braindead clickfests of oblivion and Diablo 2. Just perfect.

The inventory system is okay. It would have been nice if you could automatically sort items into groups (food, drink, alchemical components, potions etc) for easy reference, as it stands you just have a ton of items all over the place. But all items are clearly labelled, so it's easy enough to do it yourself. Quest items are kept in a separate inventory compartment which means you won't lose track of important items.

The quests are great. Simply great. They're all far more engaging than simply 'go here and kill that' and every character having voice acting and personalities makes it all the better. There are simply hundreds of quests, and it makes the game huge. I'm only on chapter 2 (nearly onto 3!!) and I reckon I've spent over 20 hours playing the game. It's big.

The game has a wonderful worldly feel to it. There's tons of NPCs wandering around, all of whom have little soundbytes which change depending on the time of day or even the weather. During rain, people will run for cover and you may hear women commenting on how they don't need to water their gardens now. Wander into a tavern and you'll probably be greeting by music and merriment. Musicians and bards entertain crowds, there are fistfighting competitions to compete in, dwarven poker or you can always just get wasted. Or flirt with waitresses.

The overarching story I cannot comment too much on, given that I'm only on chapter 2. But so far it's interesting and engaging, and I want to play more to find out what happens to Geralt. Geralt is a very interesting character, he's neither hero nor antihero - but a refreshing inbetween. Moral ambiguity is such a rarity in games. You're presented with some difficult choices, and there is never a right or wrong choice, they all have consequences one way or another.

The journal is the best I've ever experineced in a roleplaying game, ever. It collects informations on a huge range of things, and it's all easy to sort through with tabs and various markers that show you when there's new information available. Quests can be sorted through their chapter or their primary or secondary importance. Many quests can also be tracked on your minimap, giving you easy to follow indicators that don't feel like spoonfeeding, but keep you from being utterly lost.

Character development is probably the biggest letdown the game has. Your primary items rarely change throughout the game, and your 'class' is already determined. Geralt is a swordsman with some light magic ability. Think of Dark Messiah's character development, only with less bredth and more depth, and you have it.

Visually the game is astounding - if you can play it on full max at a high resolution, it just looks utterly beautiful. And the over the shoulder camera makes it feel like an entirely different game altogether. Exploring is just so satisfying. It's also a mature game. A game for adults. It features violence, language, sex and nudity and themes such as terrorism and racism.

There's a little dodgy dialogue like use of the word 'babe' or english that is slightly broken, but for a game coming out of Poland this is totally overlookable. The dialogue is great for the most part. The voice acting is also wonderful for the most part, and despite the enormous number of characters, there are tons and tons of unique voices. The Witcher 1. Oblivion 0. Not all the voices are flawless, though - some accents are distinctly British or American. I prefer my accents to be non-descript in fantasy games. But it's very overlookable on the whole, especially since there's a good variety of voices and accents.

Really, if you like RPGs and aren't too finicky about character developmnt, you simply need The Witcher. It does almost everything extremely well. And what it doesn't do extremely well, it does very well. This is real Game of the Year material right here. It has great combat; a wonderful worldly feel; awesome visuals; an epic lifespan; a great number of quests; a so-far interesting overarching storyline; mature and adult themes.

Oh yeah, and naked dryads.

Yeah, Inventory does lack the auto-arrange option. a bit of a pain.

The combat is awesome, you can customize all your attacks and stuff pretty well, so, yeah, very good.

The story is very good, it's what keeps me playing above all.

One of the ebst things about this RPG thou, is the voice acting, Thou it has some little problems, it's very impressive and there's few works on voice acting in games that get close to it.

I would strongly suggest getting this game if like RPGs, and reading/listening/paying attention to what the NPCs and the books have to say. I find it to be one of the best games of this genre that I've played.

portujoel5

You can customize your attacks?! Like pretty much make up your combos?

That sounds great if that really is the case.

The witcher is possibly the best RPG I've ever played. Either Bloodlines or Witcher, I'm struggling to decide.

The combat mechanic is great. You just click on an enemy to initiate the attack sequence, but you have to keep on clicking on promts to keep the combos flowing. You also have to maneuver to avoid attacks when fighting multiple enemies, and can dodge and pirouette with mouse clicks. You also have an assortment of spells available, which let you get a little creative. One of the spells knocks enemies to the ground, and you can then finish off many enemies in one blow, despite their being full health. A great mechanic for a RPG. All round, this is the best combat mechanic I've ever played with in a RPG. Way better than BioWare pause and plan, way better than braindead clickfests of oblivion and Diablo 2. Just perfect.

The inventory system is okay. It would have been nice if you could automatically sort items into groups (food, drink, alchemical components, potions etc) for easy reference, as it stands you just have a ton of items all over the place. But all items are clearly labelled, so it's easy enough to do it yourself. Quest items are kept in a separate inventory compartment which means you won't lose track of important items.

The quests are great. Simply great. They're all far more engaging than simply 'go here and kill that' and every character having voice acting and personalities makes it all the better. There are simply hundreds of quests, and it makes the game huge. I'm only on chapter 2 (nearly onto 3!!) and I reckon I've spent over 20 hours playing the game. It's big.

The game has a wonderful worldly feel to it. There's tons of NPCs wandering around, all of whom have little soundbytes which change depending on the time of day or even the weather. During rain, people will run for cover and you may hear women commenting on how they don't need to water their gardens now. Wander into a tavern and you'll probably be greeting by music and merriment. Musicians and bards entertain crowds, there are fistfighting competitions to compete in, dwarven poker or you can always just get wasted. Or flirt with waitresses.

The overarching story I cannot comment too much on, given that I'm only on chapter 2. But so far it's interesting and engaging, and I want to play more to find out what happens to Geralt. Geralt is a very interesting character, he's neither hero nor antihero - but a refreshing inbetween. Moral ambiguity is such a rarity in games. You're presented with some difficult choices, and there is never a right or wrong choice, they all have consequences one way or another.

The journal is the best I've ever experineced in a roleplaying game, ever. It collects informations on a huge range of things, and it's all easy to sort through with tabs and various markers that show you when there's new information available. Quests can be sorted through their chapter or their primary or secondary importance. Many quests can also be tracked on your minimap, giving you easy to follow indicators that don't feel like spoonfeeding, but keep you from being utterly lost.

Character development is probably the biggest letdown the game has. Your primary items rarely change throughout the game, and your 'class' is already determined. Geralt is a swordsman with some light magic ability. Think of Dark Messiah's character development, only with less bredth and more depth, and you have it.

Visually the game is astounding - if you can play it on full max at a high resolution, it just looks utterly beautiful. And the over the shoulder camera makes it feel like an entirely different game altogether. Exploring is just so satisfying. It's also a mature game. A game for adults. It features violence, language, sex and nudity and themes such as terrorism and racism.

There's a little dodgy dialogue like use of the word 'babe' or english that is slightly broken, but for a game coming out of Poland this is totally overlookable. The dialogue is great for the most part. The voice acting is also wonderful for the most part, and despite the enormous number of characters, there are tons and tons of unique voices. The Witcher 1. Oblivion 0. Not all the voices are flawless, though - some accents are distinctly British or American. I prefer my accents to be non-descript in fantasy games. But it's very overlookable on the whole, especially since there's a good variety of voices and accents.

Really, if you like RPGs and aren't too finicky about character developmnt, you simply need The Witcher. It does almost everything extremely well. And what it doesn't do extremely well, it does very well. This is real Game of the Year material right here. It has great combat; a wonderful worldly feel; awesome visuals; an epic lifespan; a great number of quests; a so-far interesting overarching storyline; mature and adult themes.

Oh yeah, and naked dryads.

mfsa

Thanks for the great review. As for the dialogue, it seems according to various sources that the "American" Tranlsation had to be butchered due to time constraints, money, and the vulgar dialogue. Though I wonder if the UK version suffered the same fate.

I've not gotten further then the outskirts of Vizima, but I already love it. It looks great, perhaps not in terms of details of effects, but they know how to create some good atmosphere. The outdoors are pretty large, which is definatly a good thing.

Now, I honestly thought the combat to be a bit strange, I would either have gone for a more Dark Messiah like approach or the classic Diablo style. Seems to me like the developers were trying to find some middle ground there.
Now, I haven't had any problems with the combat, but I still feel it's a bit clunky, I wouldn't be surprised if the combat controls turn out to be the worst part of this game. It's still okay though, I'm (I think) level 3 or such, now. So maybe that'll all change.

The performance is fine, I've a brand new pc, and The Witcher doesn't seem that demanding. I can max everything and get 40-120 FPS. No Vsync, which kinda sucks because it definatly shows some tearing.

Overal, I'm still a bit skeptical about the combat system, but if that turns out to be bearable even during large fights, still one will be worth it.

Overall, I've got to say this is probably one of the best RPG's I've played in a long time. Way more interesting then NWN2 (which is pretty pathetic, since NWN2 was developed by Obsidian) and Oblivion. The combat system was tough to get used to, but once you get the hang of it, it's more engaging and interactive then NWN2's. The inventory system is weak, but bareable.

My biggest complaint is I ended up with the American version that cuts out a lot of the adult content. I wish I knew there was uncut version before I went out and bought the game. If you haven't purchased the game yet, go to gogamer.com and look for the unrated European import version.

id definately recommend it. great game overall from what ive played so far (had to stop...im sick at the mo and headaces +playing games=gonna have a bad time).

combat is enjoyable. initally it seems simplistic but there is a level of strategy there that made me smile (it involved a boss and many deaths before i realised where i was going wrong in the fighting). u definately need to pay attention.

story is great so far. i also like the way everything is a bit grey with player choice. in other RPGs its very clear whats the good and bad thing to do. in this though, what may seem like a good choice, might end up being a good choice, or it could end up biting u on the ass. the game is also designed so that u cant just do a quick save and load if u make a call ure unhappy with. so if u do bad then u gotta live with it.

problems? mostly technical really. the load times are quite long (devs saaid they would try to improve it in a future patch) and its a bit unstable (again hopefully fixed in a future patch). the game also needs a vsync option...the tearing im getting is pretty bad.

overall though, definately a great game.

the game also needs a vsync option...the tearing im getting is pretty bad.osan0

Agreed. I get bad tearing during the cutscenes. Chalk that up to GTX SLI though.