Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

[disKret]

This is literally the first RPG game where I dont reload if the outcome of my decisions is not what i've expected to be.

[Khaldun]

Yeah, absolutely. The outcomes are always interesting and character-enriching. I also think the game pretty much takes the Bioware model of good/bad and burns it in a trash fire. "My" Geralt is a pretty distinctive version, in my own thoughts--he gets really pissed if you trick him, he has tons of sympathy for the little people and for certain monsters, he's fairly trusting, but each of the quests is done so well that I don't have to metagame think about what "my" version would do, it's a very organic, in-the-situation kind of decision, always, and I'm never thinking about what I need to do in order to get some kind of in-game power-up or benefit. I don't need that kind of motivation to want to do the stories.

I'm really amazed at how good the writing is even on trivial mini-quests. I was racing across Skellige to deal with some wraiths at a lighthouse and there's some sheperd shooting at sirens with a bow, so I stop to help him out. I was thinking, "Hey, that's odd, I haven't seen NPCs just spontaneously fighting monsters on their own like that" and then when the sirens are dead, there's actually a brief dialogue where Geralt says, "Hey, good shooting" and the kid says, "Hey, gotta learn to shoot those fuckers, they're always going after sheep", or something to that effect.

There must be at least 150 characters who have distinctive enough personalities in the game to be memorable on their own, who don't feel just like Tough Guy #1.

[Montague]

So is there any carrying over of saves and decisions in Witcher I and II?

I got this free from the new video card I bought and when I went to install it I found I had Witcher I and II on GoG that I must've bought on a sale or Humble Bundle or somesuch. I usually don't like starting a sequel cold so I installed Witcher I and gave it a try. Good God...

Is there any point to suffering through this janky gameplay and wretched voice-acting in I? Or is it like II where I heard it gets better after the tutorial?

[jakonovski]

All Witchers are excellent games, the jank is just a setback.

[Gimfain]

So is there any carrying over of saves and decisions in Witcher I and II?

I don't find that playing witcher 1 is that important, but you will lose out on a bit if you never played witcher 2 since many of those characters are around in witcher 3. There are a few minor details that are carried over from saves but the game allows you to simulate witcher 2 saves in an early conversation during witcher 3.

[MournelitheCalix]

So is there any carrying over of saves and decisions in Witcher I and II?

I don't find that playing witcher 1 is that important, but you will lose out on a bit if you never played witcher 2 since many of those characters are around in witcher 3. There are a few minor details that are carried over from saves but the game allows you to simulate witcher 2 saves in an early conversation during witcher 3.

If memory serves you get a slightly better pair of swords as well to start with importing W1 games to W2.  I noticed no impact from my W2 choices save an NPC that may or may not be around to help you During the Seige.  That was kind of dissappointing to because of how strong the Iorveth path narrative was in W2.

[Tebonas]

A word of warning, crafting is broken in 1.05. Every crafted item is flagged like a potion (you can't craft one if you already have one in your inventory), making some recipes impossible (like Superior Swallow which needs 2 Vitriol). Just drop the crafted item to the floor, craft the second one and pick the first one up again as a workaround.

[MournelitheCalix]

So I am on my third play through of the Witcher 3, and this time on "Deathmarch" going full alchemist. I am at the beginning in "White Orchard" specifically on the "Lilac and Gooseberries" quest line and not being in a hurry I looked at the rest of the environment I skipped through on previous play through.  I noticed opposite to the nilfguardian commander in the ruin a wall that could be broken apart with Aard.  So I platformed up the castle exterior, confirmed you could aard the wall down, and went looting the body/container I saw behind the locked porticullis.  It contained a key called "Scratchy key".  This key opens the porticullis.  When I opened it an event played where a nilfguardian patrol comes back decimated, many soldiers on stretchers and then on an operating table two doctors talk about amputating a knee from another soldier and giving him something to bite  down upon so he doesn't bite off his tongue.


I was wondering if anyone else came across this event and I was wondering if it was somehow connected to the quest where you get and decide what to do with a medicine box.  If so man, what better evidence that this game has been lovingly crafted to make choices matter.  Kind of brings back planescape torment type discoveries.

[Khaldun]

Ah, so that's what's wrong with the crafting. Was driving me nuts.

[jakonovski]

One thing that's bothering me: the consequences of choices can be too random because you have no idea whether killing a Schlorfbader is preferable to killing a Gegelbonger. Geralt is supposed to be good at his trade.

 

[rk47]

You mean you can accurately put sentient monster's actions in a book like they'd stick to it all the time, regardless of the circumstances?
The Bestiary has all the facts like their physical strengths, weakness, method of manifestations, and other witcher science related text.
How you want to deal with it, whether with bombs that are not even on the list, or signs that are highly recommended, is up to you.

[jakonovski]

No, I want finding out info as a gameplay mechanic. Like they already have CSI Witcher, but I want it with results that inform upcoming choices instead of being a glorified breadcrumb trail. I know it's a higher standard than most games out there, but CD Projekt is clearly capable of it.

[Khaldun]

Except some choices can't be informed by witcher skills. Take the hunt for the leshen, if you've done it. There's an ethical question there that's not resolvable by knowing more about the monster--though Geralt's witcher knowledge means he sees the ethical problem coming very early on.

[Tebonas]

Usually I hate when I don't know which choice is the optimal one, but for some reason it works in the Witcher 3. Maybe its the character of Geralt. He gives more of a fuck than he should according to the side effects of his mutation, but thats still remarkably little. Having a soft spot for the weak, beying loyal to his few friends, and hating lynch mobs (rooted in his own past) are his only motovations beyond "Killing monsters for gold". Get into this mindset and it works.

[Lakov_Sanite]

That fucking cabaret questline.....I really got emotional to the point where my decisions were too hasty

[Phildo]

I just did that one last night.  Figured I would bang one or two quests out quickly after dinner, and I did not see that coming at all.

[Khaldun]

I love the look of mingled boredom and existential dread that some of the shopkeeper NPCs get when you ask them to play Gwent.

[jakonovski]

Maybe they could just add a "how the fuck should I know?" option that just rolls a dice. 

[Ginaz]

If you have VIP status with Greenman Gaming (no idea how I got it) you can buy this for $36 US right now.

[Trippy]

VIP just means you have an account.

[Paelos]

VIP just means you have an account.

That's the kind of VIP I can get behind.

[Khaldun]

I've been enjoying this sufficiently that I decided to do  a second playthrough (partly because I couldn't finish the Gwent thing due to having started it too late) and wow, some of the outcomes on major questlines are REALLY different if you make different choices. I did the Crones content very differently this time early on and the end result really startled me--I found out that I got the comparatively "happy" outcome the first time.

By the way, I'm not sure why everyone thinks the Witcher world is nothing but bad people who have bad endings to their stories. A lot of the people on Skellige are comparatively benign and likeable and you can definitely improve their lives; the mastersmithing quests help out two likeable people who are in difficult situations; and so on. And some folks are just plain complex, neither bad nor good, in interesting ways.

[Paelos]

Yeah it's like humanity. It's not all shitty outcomes. It's just that most outcomes are shitty. 

[Wasted]

I know I'm late, but I just finished the main storyline for this and wow this game is great.  A bit slow at the start but once things picked up I neglected most of the side quests and exploring to just interact with the main characters and the story just pulled me along, to the point I could barely wait to play again when I had to stop for trivial things like work and sleep.  I hadn't been that drawn into a game for a long time.  Trying to decide now If I want to start a new game on the hardest difficulty or do the new game +.

[Lucas]

I'm holding off a proper playthrough because I decided to immerse myself into the lore even more by reading the books; I almost finished the second collection of short stories, then onward to the main series of novels. Boy, Yennefer is an annoying bitch (and a hot one at that, yes  )

[Miasma]

I took last week off as vacation and needed something to do so I bought this game, I didn't want to buy it at launch because they seem to need at least three months to fix all the bugs.  I like it but the very forced "hey you tried to be a nice guy so we're going to throw an absurd twist in to make your choice have dark consequences" shtick is tiresome.  The game is pretty but not very diverse, it's mostly the same graphics everywhere.  The exploration winds up being one of four outcomes every time, if I wasn't so ocd I'd just stop caring about all the damn question marks on the map.

It's a distant third to other comparable games like skyrim and inquisition.  Distant fourth if we widen the category enough to throw in gta five.

Third or fourth is still great through, I'd tell anyone to buy it.

Edit: I had to cheat to find it enjoyable though.  Twenty damn crowns as a reward for a half hour long quest?  That wouldn't even cover the repair bills.  And with so much combat it's absurd you don't just regenerate to full health after battles.  I can't imagine how much damn water and raw meat I'd have had to consume by now...  And why can I kill an underlevelled wyvern with a few sword swings but any level two idiot with a shield has to be wailed on forever or I have to roll around him until I get behind and attack?

Yeah so my "tell anyone to buy it" would be have a large, "must be on PC and download the console cheats" caveat.

Edit2: Oh and fuck Gwent.  Did anyone playtest that shit?  Why does it tell me whose turn it is every time with a big time wasting popup, I know it's his turn if I just played a card ffs.  And if I'm simply trying to get through a game quickly the enter button doesn't work the first five times I mash it to play a card.  And holy hell do other people have radically better decks, I'd have to spend dozens of hours playing innkeepers in the hope of finding one of those strength ten cards.  Or the strength zero spy cards...  The first time I saw someone use a battle horn card that just doubled the whole row's strength my jaw dropped at how ridiculous that is.
SubEdit3: Oh damn Gwent again, I just found out the damn Scorch card doesn't kill strength 10 enemies so I lost because it killed my damn trebuchet...

[PalmTrees]

Skellige and all the damn aquatic question marks cured (overloaded) my ocd, still made a pretty good dent.

[Khaldun]

The thing is that Gwent is pretty easy to beat once you get the basic schtick, but yes, innkeepers with decks that the million-dollar swells back in the Big City would and have killed for seems kind of like meeting bandits in TES: Oblivion dressed in daedric armor.

I do wish a few of those Skellige question marks way the fuck out there were more unique. Feels like a serious downer to spend all the time getting to some little rock only to find it's some shitty average thing.

[Ruvaldt]

Edit: I had to cheat to find it enjoyable though.  Twenty damn crowns as a reward for a half hour long quest?  That wouldn't even cover the repair bills.  And with so much combat it's absurd you don't just regenerate to full health after battles.  I can't imagine how much damn water and raw meat I'd have had to consume by now...

As for the quest rewards, I'm overflowing with money in my playthrough and all of the cash I receive is basically useless.  I haven't had any issues with coin and if they gave me any more it wouldn't matter.  Halfway through the second chapter and I had over 10k.  And you can regenerate pretty much instantly after a battle by meditating if you want to.  All of your health comes back even with one hour of meditation.

[Tebonas]

The Autoheal via Meditation doesn't work on the higher difficulty setting, though.

[Ruvaldt]

You could just turn the difficulty down then.  It stands to reason that if you want autohealing after combat/with meditation you would also want a lower difficulty setting.

[Tebonas]

I know, that was meant as information for you. Money is slightly less useless at higher difficulties where you at least have a minor money sink with healing items. Not that it ultimately matters, though.

[Druzil]

I just finished this over the weekend finally and really enjoyed the last 12 hours or so.  I have some issues with the movement, combat, inventory, crafting... but I found the story quests so compelling I let that little stuff slide a bit.

I guess that's where it stands with me as far as Skyrim.  I  think the game play in Skyrim is more fun/diverse and you can do more 'crazy stuff' in Skyrim which keeps it entertaining but overall I thought the story in Witcher 3 and the story quests in Witcher 3 were much better.

[Lucas]

Hey, look behind you!! A 17GB patch!! (Required to play the first, upcoming expansion):

http://www.gog.com/news/the_witcher_3_wild_hunt_patch_110

Thirteen page-long changelog.

[Hawkbit]

The new DLC is getting very good reviews. I'm finishing up Mad Max and I think I'll dive into this game for reals this time. Looks to be a commitment.