The Witcher

[Eeezee]

I've been falling out of gaming in general due to the deluge of mediocre titles recently. I still need to play Mass Effect, but I'm running out of good options here!

Is The Witcher worth my time and money? All I know about it is what I've seen in Yahtzee's review.

Is it fun?

 

[Dorkenstein]

I really enjoy it.

 

[FirewolfX]

Yes, good buy....many reviews out and about, and the Enhanced Edition addresses the main "issues" with the game when originally released. It also adds much more content.

While Yahtzee's reviews are very funny--, they're way overdone and not a very good review source (in my own ridiculous opinion!)

 

[Eeezee]

Originally posted by: FirewolfX
Yes, good buy....many reviews out and about, and the Enhanced Edition addresses the main "issues" with the game when originally released. It also adds much more content.

While Yahtzee's reviews are very funny--, they're way overdone and not a very good review source (in my own ridiculous opinion!)

Yes, I agree - I'd never use Yahtzee as the sole source of knowledge on a game because I know he's going to bring out the worst in everything

 

[Zenoth]

It's decent enough yes, but nothing spectacular, it can be fun, good entertainment it is.

 

[TidusZ]

Honestly, I played it for a long time, maybe 20 hours, I forget what act I got to I think the third, and then I just sorta lost interest. It's a decent enough game, but its extremely long and it couldn't hold my interest for the entire time. I found the combat fairly boring, the story somewhat mediocre, and overall the game was above average but I think there's much better choices out there. It's sorta similar to say kotor or mass effect although both of those games are considerably better.

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: TidusZ
Honestly, I played it for a long time, maybe 20 hours, I forget what act I got to I think the third, and then I just sorta lost interest. It's a decent enough game, but its extremely long and it couldn't hold my interest for the entire time. I found the combat fairly boring, the story somewhat mediocre, and overall the game was above average but I think there's much better choices out there. It's sorta similar to say kotor or mass effect although both of those games are considerably better.

I had to laugh when I read this. The Witcher extremely long? Well, its longer than KOTOR and definitely longer than Mass Effect. But, then again, you could beat Mass Effect twice in a single weekend without cracking a Monster Energy Drink. The Witcher probably boasts about 48 hours or so of gameplay, if I had to guess based on my play through, though I haven't fully completed the Enhanced Edition yet, which added more quests.

The Witcher had an excellent storyline, easily the equal of Baldur's Gate, though it still fell short of the perennial champion Torment.

The combat in The Witcher was fairly simple, but then again, so was the combat in Diablo, you simply kick on the enemy. The Witcher, at least, has a good story with interesting characters to balance it out. As I've said before, combat should never be the sole, primary focus in an RPG.

I'd rate The Witcher slightly higher than KOTOR1 because of the moral decisions, the mature content, and the D'jinni Editor, and light years better than Mass Effect. Heck, the only thing that Mass Effect can boast over the Witcher is straight graphics.

In short, the answer to both the OP's questions is Yes. Yes, its worth your time and money, and yes its a good game. One of the better games released in the last 12 months.

I, for one, look forward to The Witcher 2 and CDProject Red's next project, whatever that may be. Though they haven't announced a Witcher sequel, with the sales and rave reviews of The Witcher, you know they are working on something.

 

[Kromis]

You bet your ass

 

[ubercaffeinated]

the enhanced version is awesome. i'm finally on act 5, and i've been following the neutral path. this game is awesome and will rank pretty high up there in my list.

 

[mooncancook]

Great game, maybe that's why it's still selling for $50 at most B&M stores.

 

[DefRef]

Originally posted by: Bateluer
you could beat Mass Effect twice in a single weekend without cracking a Monster Energy Drink.

I can't remember how long it took to beat Mass Effect on the 360, but it wasn't any "single weekend" game. I remember it took 54 hours to beat KOTOR and I think I put in 30-35 hours on ME to finish it once and I didn't get the achievement for completing the majority of the game. GTA IV was 60 hours over 2-1/2 months for me and that was only 65% completion. I've never understood the whole speed run mentality in which people expect a parade for racing thru a game as quickly as possible, the devs intended gaming experience be damned. Woohoo! You beat [game name here] in 10 hours. That and $5 will get you a coffee at Starbucks.:roll:

As for The Witcher, I'm into the 2nd Act and liking it, though it's turned into a bit of a FedEx quest grind and combat difficulty has ramped up a bit much. Also, I think there's a glitch in the potion making system which causes your ingredients and the potions to be wasted if your inventory is full; instead of giving a warning, it just burns your precious ingredients and gives you no option of dropping something. Sucks.

 

[imported_protoz]

Try the demo and see for yourself if it's for you. I loved the game.

 

[Denithor]

Pick up the regular edition at Amazon for about $15, download the extended edition stuff free from their website, google "uncensor witcher" if you want to get the nudie cards & bloody finishing moves (I saw a head lopped off and go rolling away last night).

I'm nearing the end of chapter 1 and loving it. Best RPG I've played in a few years.

 

[Fayd]

Originally posted by: DefRef

Originally posted by: Bateluer
you could beat Mass Effect twice in a single weekend without cracking a Monster Energy Drink.

I can't remember how long it took to beat Mass Effect on the 360, but it wasn't any "single weekend" game. I remember it took 54 hours to beat KOTOR and I think I put in 30-35 hours on ME to finish it once and I didn't get the achievement for completing the majority of the game. GTA IV was 60 hours over 2-1/2 months for me and that was only 65% completion. I've never understood the whole speed run mentality in which people expect a parade for racing thru a game as quickly as possible, the devs intended gaming experience be damned. Woohoo! You beat [game name here] in 10 hours. That and $5 will get you a coffee at Starbucks.:roll:

there are people who have beat Baldurs Gate 2 in less than 1.5 hours.

i dont know why people bother either. personally, i love some aspects of the games i play to the point that i will explore every single facet of them. if i dont, then why did i buy the game?

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: DefRef

Originally posted by: Bateluer
you could beat Mass Effect twice in a single weekend without cracking a Monster Energy Drink.

I can't remember how long it took to beat Mass Effect on the 360, but it wasn't any "single weekend" game. I remember it took 54 hours to beat KOTOR and I think I put in 30-35 hours on ME to finish it once and I didn't get the achievement for completing the majority of the game. GTA IV was 60 hours over 2-1/2 months for me and that was only 65% completion. I've never understood the whole speed run mentality in which people expect a parade for racing thru a game as quickly as possible, the devs intended gaming experience be damned. Woohoo! You beat [game name here] in 10 hours. That and $5 will get you a coffee at Starbucks.:roll:

I beat KOTOR1 in about 26 hours or so the first time I played through it, and I did every available side quest I could for the light side.

Mass Effect took me about 8 hours to beat, and that was completing nearly every side quest I could. I didn't bother with the gathering quest because there didn't seem to be any practical reason to and every planet was almost exactly the same. Not exactly much incentive to try. My main goal after playing through the first time as a combat oriented Shepard was to play through as a biotic oriented female Shepard and see what all the press fuss was bout with the lesbian thing with Liara.

Perhaps Mass Effect 2 will expand on it, but if I can get the same experience with 10 minutes on Wikipedia, then I'll pass.

 

[Liet]

You're right, the collection quests in Mass Effect were totally pointless. Superfluous... added to justify the effort they put into the terrain graphics and vehicle physics.

Overall I'd say Mass Effect could have been decent, but the devs decided to keep it "accessible" (I spit on accessible) and so it wound up being a hollow console RPG.

Witcher was enjoyable, but several issues really bugged me. One was the nonsensical writing and verbal responses that were absolutely baffling. Another was the terrible inventory system. I'm looking forward to trying to EE when I have time for it, because I hear at least the dialogue was fixed.

 

[jonks]

Originally posted by: Bateluer

Originally posted by: DefRef

Originally posted by: Bateluer
you could beat Mass Effect twice in a single weekend without cracking a Monster Energy Drink.

I can't remember how long it took to beat Mass Effect on the 360, but it wasn't any "single weekend" game. I remember it took 54 hours to beat KOTOR and I think I put in 30-35 hours on ME to finish it once and I didn't get the achievement for completing the majority of the game. GTA IV was 60 hours over 2-1/2 months for me and that was only 65% completion. I've never understood the whole speed run mentality in which people expect a parade for racing thru a game as quickly as possible, the devs intended gaming experience be damned. Woohoo! You beat [game name here] in 10 hours. That and $5 will get you a coffee at Starbucks.:roll:

I beat KOTOR1 in about 26 hours or so the first time I played through it, and I did every available side quest I could for the light side.

Mass Effect took me about 8 hours to beat, and that was completing nearly every side quest I could. I didn't bother with the gathering quest because there didn't seem to be any practical reason to and every planet was almost exactly the same. Not exactly much incentive to try. My main goal after playing through the first time as a combat oriented Shepard was to play through as a biotic oriented female Shepard and see what all the press fuss was bout with the lesbian thing with Liara.

Perhaps Mass Effect 2 will expand on it, but if I can get the same experience with 10 minutes on Wikipedia, then I'll pass.

I've played through ME three times. I like to take my time and do everything first time through, and it took about 25 hours or so. If you want to rush through and do main story only you can definitely beat it in a weekend. But length aside, the combat was awesome, albeit too easy even on the highest difficulty setting. Since KOTOR3 will go MMO (no interest) I'll be anxiously awaiting ME2.

Witcher combat is, well, lacking. Great story and fun game nonetheless, but fights are tedious.

I don't get the rush mentality either. I took over a week to beat Warhead, playing in 30-60 minute increments, constantly reloading and trying maps with different strategies. Let's face it, you're not playing it for the story but for the combat. Sure I could have beat it in a day but for what, a cookie? Want my moneys worth and I got it.

 

[Harmattan]

The answer to the OP's original question is: yes, this game is well worth your time. Best RPG to come out in the past 2 years IMO.

As for the Enhanced Version, I've played both and can report:

- Inventory system is vastly improved. Ingredients can not be organized, thank you God.

- Graphics are improved subtly over the original, although I thought the original looked great

- Two additional stories are short, but very fun. All in all, the game will take you 25-35 hours to complete depending on how many quests you fulfill and XP you gather.

- The dice mini-game is actually a challenge now. Not sure how I feel about this since, in the original, it was a quick way to earn money and focus on questing. Now, I've found I try to avoid the mini-game.

- The dialogue has been cleaned up and expanded (even though I thought the original's was very good despite some quirks)

 

[InCrYsIs]

One of the best RPGs I have ever played. It actually provoked me to by the book it was based on.

 

[adlep]

I am loving the game. Even the music is nice, especially in the Act IV.

 

[skace]

I played Witcher and Mass Effect back to back, that was an enjoyable month

 

[Martimus]

The game is a little slow to start with, but it is a very good game. I am still playing the Enhanced Edition, and have never played the original, but it doesn't have any of the issues that I heard from the original. The dialog is very good (the translations are much better and actually make sense now), and the load times aren't bad at all. The combat is something that took me a few times to figure out. You have to hold down the mouse button while Geralt does his moves, then click again to do combination moves.

I haven't made it through the second act, and I am already planning out how I will play my second time through the game. It seems that your actions really have an affect on what happens throughout the game. It is pretty fun.

 

[NYHoustonman]

Originally posted by: skace
I played Witcher and Mass Effect back to back, that was an enjoyable month

Same XD, with the DLC for Mass Effect and EE for The Witcher, I got around to playing through both again... Great games.

Originally posted by: Martimus
You have to hold down the mouse button

Just a quick fyi, you don't have to hold the mouse button down, just click when it prompts you too .

 

[Joemonkey]

yeah if you hold down the mouse button, how exactly would you click it when the flaming sword appears? quick let-go-and-click ?

 

[Martimus]

Originally posted by: Joemonkey
yeah if you hold down the mouse button, how exactly would you click it when the flaming sword appears? quick let-go-and-click ?

Yeah. That is how I have been doing it. When I don't hold it down, he stops as soon as I let go. Maybe it is a bug? The third act graphics are all jacked up, so I wouldn't doubt it is bugged somewhat.