The Witcher - CD Projekt SP - PC

[Bunk]

The Witcher in a nutshell is a mature action RPG made by some company I've never heard, using Bioware's Aurora engine. Upon seeing that it was made in Aurora I was a little hesitant, as for every KotoR, there's been a NWN2. It only took a few minutes of the tutorial level to put my mind at rest though. Hell, these guys even got the OTS Camera right, something NWN2 still hasn't managed after 20 patches.

The Good: the combat and controls were reasonably well explained and easy to pickup. The game is beautiful, and has the details I expect in modern RPGs, like full voice over on all the NPCs and a very detailed journal system. While it's classified an Action RPG, it still has elements like a detailed inventory and character progression to make it feel like an RPG. I can tell early on that if I want to make a gimpy mage out of my Witcher, the game will let me. The real winning point for me though was talking to a Blacksmith and asking him if he had been helping out the local terrorists. He promptly told me to piss off and wouldn't deal with me anymore. It's nice to see a game where I have to think about the conversation, as opposed to it just being a "click to learn more" thing.

The Bad: Load times. Loading areas and saving the game are annoyingly long. It becomes especially bad when trying to duck in to small buildings in a town to look around, and having to reload the area each time. Otherwise, a few minor gripes. Lots of running from place to place, the odd weird animation hiccup that makes you stand there like a tool, minor ui annoyances.

This is a mature game, and even includes bad language and the appearance of naughty bits from time to time (one of the side goals in the game appears to be to bed as many maidens as possible). It also includes some rather glorious "finishing moves" that include a hearty amount of blood. Note, I am playing the uncensored Euro version, which can be direct downloaded from Atari's UK site. The American version apparently protects us from the naughty bits. In summary though, this is one of those games for people who love the Bioware style of RPG, and are looking for a game targeted at Adults.

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Buy it.

[Rasix]

I'm in to Chapter 3 now.  Enjoying this quite a bit and the load times are a lot better with the current patch, still borderline criminal, but tolerable.

My major gripes have been with the unresponsiveness of the UI at times.  The game early on likes to dump you in a room with a bunch of baddies and it can take Geralt forever to draw his sword.  Also, the fist fighting is pretty terrible, and the UI tends to get rather unresponsive during that. 

And anyone please know how to turn off the motion bob when running? It's driving me batty.  It makes the game feel choppy and is just completely unnecessary. <insert general gripe about the killer swamp plant>

Still, the plot's fun (even if it gets a bit fudged up and tangled in chapter 2), the combat is pretty good, the setting is great, and the variety of stuff to do keeps me playing much longer than I should.  The amount of quests is just killer for a quasi-OCD completionist. Heck, even looks decent with the recent comp upgrades I've made.

[Belle Elegant]

I am up to chapter II and am really enjoying it.  It grabbed my interest in a way that Oblivion never did.  Some parts are hilarious, like the barmaid taking time hit on Geralt while a kid rolls around in agony right behind her.  I also like the feeling that no matter what choice I make, there will be consequences.  The graphics are amazing and so far the cut scenes are enjoyable.

The only gripes I have are the same as others, mostly the load times.  But all in all, I have to say it is the best RPG I have played this year.

[Ironwood]

It IS fun.  You have no excuse not to get this if you even remotely like CRPG.

Plus, Tits.

[schild]

Tried playing again a bit today. GUI still unbearable.

Edit: Which is a shame. I can tell it's a fantastic game through and through. :(

[JWIV]

It IS fun.  You have no excuse not to get this if you even remotely like CRPG.

Plus, Tits.

I've got this on order and just waiting for the damn game to arrive.  And yes, I ordered the non-Puritan version.

[Tebonas]

There is something completely unorthodoxly funny when you enter a village where the one sister loves a man the other sister marries. You think there might be a quest in it to sort that out for all the lovers involved, except you just pull out a big ass diamond ring to lay one of the sisters and move on to greater glory (specifically writing a letter to your one true love you will return to after your adventuring days).

Really, now with the improved load times the game is damn near perfect (you get used to the UI just like you did get used to Gothic).

[Mazakiel]

The GUI's not perfect, I'll easily admit that, but I'd hardly call it so bad to make the game not worth playing.  There's only one time it caused me any serious issue, and that was fighting the plant things, and there are several ways to cope with that.  You're missing out on one of the best games in forever. 

[schild]

You're missing out on one of the best games in forever.

Now, while I can tell it's a fantastic game, seeing that in a thread where maybe 2 or 3 people played Persona 3 makes it not such an impressive statement.

[bhodi]

You're missing out on one of the best games in forever.

Now, while I can tell it's a fantastic game, seeing that in a thread where maybe 2 or 3 people played Persona 3 makes it not such an impressive statement.

Not true. I bolded the important bit.

[schild]

You're missing out on one of the best games in forever.

This was the important part.

In forever? 2008 was a fucking mosh pit of incredible games.

[Mazakiel]

No argument there, it's been a great year for games.  All I'm saying is, the Witcher's up there among the top.  And I've played most the games that've been raved about, here at least.  Several of them had their quirks that were annoying at times, but they were worth getting through, just like the cranky UI is for the Witcher.  As far as narrative experiences go, there are few games I would place up against the Witcher.  I'm not saying it's 'the best' overall, but it's in the top group. 

[Sky]

I can't think of the UI that would stop me from playing a good rpg. I played all three Gothics, for crissakes. I'm not done with the Witcher yet, but unlike Bioshock, I'm certain I will finish it, especially with load times being tolerable now.

[Phildo]

FYI, my computer is less than two years old and I have to play this at the absolute lowest graphics settings or it totally chokes during combat, cutscenes and just about everywhere else.  Between that and the load times, I've yet to beat the tutorial mission.

[Bunk]

My computer isn't exactly bleeding edge. AMD Dual Core 4600, GF7900 GT, 2 Gigs Ram - and it runs the game very smoothly. Two year old PCs might be pushing it, but it doesn't require a beast of a machine.

Schild, I'm really curious what it is about the UI that's bugging you so much. The only real annoyance I've found is in looting things, the cursor isn't where I expect it to be. And I'm playing completely in OTS view, which I would think would be the most annoying as far as UI goes, since you have to hold down a button to unlock the cursor from your view. Mind you, I'm constantly comparing it to NWN2, which had a dungpile UI in comparison, in my humble opinion.

[Trippy]

FYI, my computer is less than two years old and I have to play this at the absolute lowest graphics settings or it totally chokes during combat, cutscenes and just about everywhere else.  Between that and the load times, I've yet to beat the tutorial mission.

You must have a gimp computer. Mine just passed its 3 year birthday (A64 X2 3800+, 7800 GT) and it plays it fine.

Schild, I'm really curious what it is about the UI that's bugging you so much.

Well I just started playing but the "hunt the combat hot spot" already fucking annoys me. And damn can you make the combat icons any smaller?

[Samwise]

The only part of the UI I've had any problem with is the inventory management.  And that's only because I don't have enough space to carry everything I want to carry (like 50 different potion components) so I'm constantly right at my carrying limit and every time I find something I want to keep I have to shuffle through the inventory to find something to drop.  If the inventory was 3x bigger it'd be less of a problem.  Or if it automatically grouped items by category (potion components, food, trinkets, valuables, potions/buffs, etc).

(edit) The bigger "fun barrier" in The Witcher, for me, is the amount of running back and forth and battling through random spawns that you have to do.  But that's pretty standard CRPG fare.

[KallDrexx]

FYI, my computer is less than two years old and I have to play this at the absolute lowest graphics settings or it totally chokes during combat, cutscenes and just about everywhere else.  Between that and the load times, I've yet to beat the tutorial mission.

That's a shame, but the game does seem pretty intensive at some points.  Before I got laid off my work machine was a great gaming machine (4GB ram, XP pro, duo core 2.4Ghz, fast SATA HD and an 8800) and a lot of the tutorial cutscenes were choking (regular gameplay ran fine).  Didn't have any performance issues with the other cutscenes, but then again I only got up to chapter 2 before I got laid off and lost my main comp to game on.

[Phildo]

My PC's not exactly gimped, but I'm sure I need to disable some crap that I have running in the background before trying again.  Just wanted to mention that the game can have some performance issues for other people with older PCs.  I can still play the game OK, but I can't use the OTS mode and that seems to take a lot away from the gameplay.

It's also worth noting that this is the first new game I've purchased that has really taxed my system, although I haven't picked up any of the super high-end games for PC in a while.

[Samwise]

Before I got laid off my work machine was a great gaming machine

 

[KallDrexx]

Before I got laid off my work machine was a great gaming machine

 

Yeah, having to ditch your computer to move internationally and then being given that machine to work on and being allowed to do gaming + private stuff on it until late at night is  until you end up unemployed in which you are then 

But I digress. 

Meanwhile, I was just remembering how awesome the artists are who made the characters in Witcher.  Each one is extremely detailed and it made the cutscenes (at least on high settings) even better to look at. 

[Moaner]

I've been playing this for 3 days now and I felt the need to post my man-love for the game.  If I had played this back in November it very well might have made my top 20 list.  I'm currently on chapter 3 and am no where near bored which is unusual for me with games of this length. 

Also, I just finished up book 2 of the Abhorsen trilogy by Garth Nix.  After playing The Witcher I can't help but hope someone, one of these days, makes an Abhorsen game.  I'd absolutely love running around and playing necromancer.  The fiction would make it quite easy too considering the long line of Abhorsens.  Also, paperwings!

[eldaec]

Yahtzee review:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/zeropunctuation/2831-Zero-Punctuation-The-Witcher

He says it's a MMORPG, but without other players.

[Rasix]

Yahtzee review:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/zeropunctuation/2831-Zero-Punctuation-The-Witcher

He says it's a MMORPG, but without other players.

Yah, already discussed here: http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=11144.210

It sure brought out the "hey, I didn't like this game either" crowd.

[rk47]

i can say the same thing about Oblivion, Hellgate etc.
The dude is not a serious reviewer, did it for lulz imo