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Witcher 2

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  • ArveragusArveragus Member Posts: 62
    @alannahsmith
    As far as I am aware two books have been released in English translation so far namely The Last Wish and The Blood of Elves. They are quite interesting and readable but not so compelling that you would have a burning desire to re read them. In that context I am comparing them with Tolkien which might be a bit unfair. As far as both Witcher games were concerned I thought that they were fun to play with combat requiring tactical preparation and the role playing elements having the ingredients of choice, moral ambiguity and resulting consequences. The games certainly deserve a third instalment.
    alannahsmithSily
  • roboticsunroboticsun Member Posts: 42
    zwadek said:

    this "long animation to drink a potion" is a reflection of meditation, witch was present in books. these potions weren't just potions of superior healing, or oil of speed, that (eg. in BG) get work in seconds. in novels witcher had to wait until alchemical elixir kicked into bloodstream, so he meditated. that is why there was such an animation.

    then I would probably suggest that make portions less needed or last much longer in the game. Game mechanics like these will only turn people away. I consider myself as one with good patience but still felt it was annoying.

  • Kitteh_On_A_CloudKitteh_On_A_Cloud Member Posts: 1,629
    Gotta agree with @roboticsun here. Sorry, but if I have to watch a long animation every time my character drinks a potion, it might eventually make me bored and start disliking the foresight of having to go into battle. Things like these are better being described in stories. Maybe there should be a little timer of 10 seconds before the potion takes effect instead.
  • zwadekzwadek Member Posts: 156
    edited October 2012
    i don't argree that animation will turn people away. some of them like it, some don't. it's like eleveator animation when changing floors in mass effect or like animation of casting spell in BG. are these 2-3 seconds really that long? keep in mind, that you can't use elixirs in battle, and when there are monsters nearby, and elixirs last long - so they are not "potions". when you are going into the woods or into the sewers, where there gonna be monsters or even boss is coming, you use an elixir and meditate. then, you probably clean half of the sewers, so you don't use them as frequently as eg. healings potion in BG (sometimes every two or three rounds)
    @Kitteh did you even played the game?
    Sily
  • trinittrinit Member Posts: 705
    ugh, mass effect elevator... i started to mildly hate it after 90th ride.
    Moomintroll
  • ArveragusArveragus Member Posts: 62
    @ trinit
    I have to agree with you about the mass effect elevator. It was not a great joy to have your team standing around pointlessly for several seconds waiting for arrival at the designated floor. In the context of the Witcher however my recollection in relation to the potions was that the meditation process kicked in on resting or levelling up and also when you created a potion by mixing some particularly gruesome and unappetising ingredients, I think that hanging around while the potion was being made was fair enough. When the potion was drunk, the requisite side effects were reflected by the visual side of the game. Much in the same way as when Geralt drank large quantities of beer or spirits his vision and mobility were impaired. I had no real problem with that either - a simple example of cause and effect!
  • LadyRhianLadyRhian Member Posts: 14,694
    I liked the Witcher novels. The both of them that were translated into English have such an... elegiac feeling to them. Geralt knows that the time of the Witchers is almost done, and his time is almost done as well. The Witchers have been so successful that monsters are few and far between. And the Witchers are seen by most ordinary people as monsters as well. The mutagenic herbs and potions that turn people into Witchers (and give them the white/silver hair and golden eyes, makes them less than human to ordinary people, and with the dearth of monsters, the Witchers are viewed as unnecessary in a "Maybe we should kill them off, too" way. But most people are afraid of the Witcher's skill at swordplay, and would prefer to have someone else do the killing. And reading the books left me with a feeling of loss, that something good would be lost out of the world when the last monster, and the last Witcher, was gone. I never had that feeling from a standard Western Fantasy novel before. I imagine that this has something to do with the society that Andrjez Sapkowski was born in, that his Eastern European upbringing had influenced his fantasy world.
    SilyAnton
  • ArveragusArveragus Member Posts: 62
    @LadyRhian
    I agree that the books did have a different feel to the standard fantasy novel. This was also reflected in the games with choices having to be made by Geralt in relation to supporting humans or supporting the dissident but oppressed elves and dwarves. Coupled with standard hostile or contemptuous human reaction towards Geralt as a mutated human or witcher the question that sprung to mind was "what is the nature of a man?" Incidentally you might be pleased to hear that a third novel called The Time of Contempt is being published in hardback in June 2013 and in paperback in July 2013.
  • LadyRhianLadyRhian Member Posts: 14,694
    @Arveragus That will be something I am looking forward to!
    image by Cylestya on Deviant Art
    SilyArveragus
  • Google_CalasadeGoogle_Calasade Member Posts: 80
    The Witcher 2, I loved it. GREAT game, one of the best that I've played. I wasn't crazy about the QTEs, but that would be about my only gripe in regards to it. I also very much enjoy the books. Top notch all the way around.

    Now, I gotta get back to BG:EE! :)
  • Dr_AtomicDr_Atomic Member Posts: 50
    edited December 2012
    This is probably going to come off as more negative than I intended, but I simply could not get into The Witcher 2 at all. I kept finding myself uttering the Eight Deadly Words: "I don't care WHAT happens to these people." That problem is compounded by how the game simply tries way, way too hard to be "Dark, man! Dark!" Obviously your mileage will vary on this point, but I was constantly rolling my eyes at how Geralt couldn't seem to swing a sword without hitting someone who's either swearing like a wounded pirate or saying something like "Hey, remember that time when we raped/murdered/slaughtered an entire village? Good times, mate!" It got to the point where I wanted to throw up my arms and cry, "Yes, Witcher, I get it! You're GRIMDARK! What the hell do you want, a cookie?"

    And Geralt simply bored me as a protagonist. I feel like I've seen him dozens of times before - the brooding, cynical, world-weary hero who speaks in a gruff monotone and has to do the right thing in spite of himself...it's so stale at this point.

    Maybe it's just because I've been exposed to authors like George R. R. Martin, Glen Cook, and Joe Abercrombie, but I find this whole "dark and gritty" fantasy bit to be completely overplayed at this point, and every bit as cliched as the "farm boy finds the magic sword and defeats the dark lord" that it originally sought to subvert. The Witcher doesn't offer anything I haven't seen before.

    As for the idea that The Witcher 2 is inherently superior because it is "adult", I'm reminded of a quote by C.S. Lewis:

    "Critics who treat adult as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about being adult is a mark of really arrested development. When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up."
  • Google_CalasadeGoogle_Calasade Member Posts: 80
    edited December 2012
    @Dr_Atomic, TW 2 does offer some things you haven't seen before (whether your blindness to them is because you didn't finish the game or just developed an early bias on it, I don't know). The sad part is the game didn't grab you with a unique and dark world that I do not find cliched (and I'm a fantasy author who has read the authors you mentioned along with a great many more - including Andrzej Sapkowski who wrote the Witcher stories on which the games are somewhat loosely based). Not every game is for everyone, but sadly, you've missed the boat on one of the best games to come out . . . ever. Any game that changes an entire act based on the player's choices and contains sixteen different endings is a good one in my book, though those are not the only things that made TW 2 spectacular. The only real fault I could find with TW 2 has to do with the QTE. Everything else - from the characters to the truly impressive game engine CD Projekt created - was incredible. Moreover, the term "adult" as it applies to the Witcher has to do with the story lines and also the content and the subject matter presented in the games. It is not used towards approval. At least, I do not see it that way. I would say calling it "adult" is an excellent way of warning about adult subject matters such as rape, racism, drugs, abuse, prostitution, and a myriad of other subjects you won't see in many other RPGs.
    Post edited by Google_Calasade on
    SilyArveragus
  • CluasCluas Member Posts: 355
    i couldn't play this game, some kind of bug with mouse control. It looks so good though. My brand new PC is too weak, that's annoying :(
  • Kitteh_On_A_CloudKitteh_On_A_Cloud Member Posts: 1,629
    Well, grimdark themes seem to be in fashion as off lately. Games can't have simple happy endings anymore. Makes me want to read a book instead of feeling even more miserable when playing a game.
  • CzarnyCzarny Member Posts: 42
    edited December 2012
    "Well, grimdark themes seem to be in fashion as off lately. Games can't have simple happy endings anymore. Makes me want to read a book instead of feeling even more miserable when playing a game."
    ...because books are never grimdark and they all have happy endings :D

    C'mon, mate, the universe of the Witcher and Geralt himself were conceived in 1980's Poland, which was as grimdark as it gets without being a third world country. The first book came out in 1992, making it a (superior, methinks) contemporary of ASoIaF, so I wouldn't say the sentiment is 'in fashion as off lately', because while the game is recent it sets out to capture the dark and gritty feel of the original and in that respect is nothing short of brilliant.

    I respect that you don't like grimdarkness and you're fed up with it. But it saddens me to see that you'll miss such great characters and plots because of that ;(
    Google_CalasadeSily
  • Kitteh_On_A_CloudKitteh_On_A_Cloud Member Posts: 1,629
    @Czarny: I never said that books are never grimdark. Please don't put words in my mouth, thanks. And from what I've heard and read concerning the Witcher 2, I have decided to not buy/play the game. This concerns mainly the sexual themes in the game, and knowing sexuality is quite a sensitive subject to me, I thought it to be better to leave the game alone for those who enjoy to have the opportunity to bang every female character present in the game. Just my opinion. Thus far I haven't had the feeling I've missed anything, and I doubt that will change. Happy happiness. :p
  • Dr_AtomicDr_Atomic Member Posts: 50

    Well, grimdark themes seem to be in fashion as off lately. Games can't have simple happy endings anymore. Makes me want to read a book instead of feeling even more miserable when playing a game.

    Then you might want to stay away from modern fantasy. George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire,, Joe Abercrombie's The First Law trilogy, Glen Cook's Black Company, anything Richard Morgan writes...grimdark fantasy is all over the place.

    You know how the film Airplane! took the piss out of disaster films, so that no one could take them seriously afterwards? Someone needs to do a similar piss take to the "dark and edgy!" fantasy that's been filling up bookshelves as of late.

  • Google_CalasadeGoogle_Calasade Member Posts: 80
    edited December 2012
    Grim and dark themes in fantasy is nothing new. Tolkien is a good example (parts of LOTR are very dark), but even before him there was the godfather of sword and sorcery Robert E. Howard (late 1920s/early 1930s, the creator of Conan and Kull, among others). In fact, almost all medieval based fantasy is dark and grim and that is how it should be because the very nature of the world on which it is based is dark and grim. Fantasy typically includes a touch of horror as well (Stephen King and Clive Barker are prime examples, though their stories are obviously not of a medieval time frame). Right now I'm trying to think of fantasy that is not grim and dark and the only one that pops right into my mind is Narnia. I would not hold out much hope were I you that grimdark will leave fantasy. Fantasy tales would be fairly mundane without darker subject matter from which conflicts arise.
  • DeadstarDeadstar Member Posts: 20
    I'm currently playing The Witcher Enhanced Edition and I am loving it! How close is the second one to the story of the first? Is it a direct sequel or years later? Also, is it better than the first one?
    Sily
  • Google_CalasadeGoogle_Calasade Member Posts: 80
    edited December 2012
    @Deadstar, TW 2 picks up not long after the first one. How TWEE ends will give you a good idea what TW 2 is about (assassins of kings). I can't say enough good things about either Witcher game (both are in my top 5), though to be honest I prefer the second. It is simply gorgeously made and has a great story as well. There is also more role playing in TW 2.

    SilyArveragus
  • scriverscriver Member Posts: 2,072

    @Czarny: I never said that books are never grimdark. Please don't put words in my mouth, thanks. And from what I've heard and read concerning the Witcher 2, I have decided to not buy/play the game. This concerns mainly the sexual themes in the game, and knowing sexuality is quite a sensitive subject to me, I thought it to be better to leave the game alone for those who enjoy to have the opportunity to bang every female character present in the game. Just my opinion. Thus far I haven't had the feeling I've missed anything, and I doubt that will change. Happy happiness. :p

    That's a shame, really, because the game that lets you bang every woman is the first one. Witcher 2 is a lot more austere when it comes to bangitude. And, neither of them forces you to bang everyone possible. It's completely possible to play it as a normal mutant freak who doesn't suffer from nymphomania. ;)
    Arveragus
  • LythunylLythunyl Member Posts: 30
    I have no idea how either TW 1 or 2 gets away with it's treatment of sexuality and I'd expect a lot more pitchforks than I've actually seen. Regardless, considering that that doesn't bother me personally too much, I'd say it's on a very short list of greatest RPG's this side of BG, BG2 and PS:T. The amount of influence you have on the story is outstanding and the grimdarkness is not really of the 'Woe is me, I must seeketh vengeannce while looking spooky and mysterious" as personified so perfectly sterotypically by DA2's Fenris.

    The only complaint I have is that the game balance is pretty awful, as it's ridiculously hard early on, then becomes rather trivial near the end of the game. Talent trees and spell choices are also pretty much divided into correct and wrong choices. But then, I'm playing a game where one class can stop time, wipe out half the screen, then cast a spell that lets him repeat the process, so yah.
  • AntonAnton Member, Moderator, Mobile Tester Posts: 513
    edited December 2012
    Sily
  • MadhaxMadhax Member Posts: 1,416
    The only thing that really annoyed me about Witcher 2 was how the combat got easier as I gained levels. They didn't scale it well. The first couple bosses are MUCH more difficult to take down than the final couple.
  • SilySily Member Posts: 91
    @LadyRhian

    Too soft, but still good... thank you for that link! At least I had a good laugh. :)
  • LadyRhianLadyRhian Member Posts: 14,694
    @Slly I still laugh at Yahtzee Croshaw's original review of the First Witcher.
    SilyMoomintrollDr_Atomic
  • SilySily Member Posts: 91
    edited December 2012
    Since we're going a bit off-topic (Witcher inspired music), I absolutely -MUST- post the following work of art, which I consider so very beautiful.


  • LythunylLythunyl Member Posts: 30
    Madhax said:

    The only thing that really annoyed me about Witcher 2 was how the combat got easier as I gained levels. They didn't scale it well. The first couple bosses are MUCH more difficult to take down than the final couple.

    First couple of bosses? I had more trouble with the equivalent of packs of kobolds than with amything in the last part of the game.

  • Dr_AtomicDr_Atomic Member Posts: 50
    I don't often agree with Yahtzee, but he was spot on about the game's "misguided pretensions of maturity" by having everyone constantly swearing like wounded pirates. I didn't get very far in the first game, but in the second it's absolutely obnoxious.
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