Well, it's finished now, and I'm immediately (finally!) moving to Witcher 3 next. I was about to say that the game turned out a lot shorter than I'd expected, but it still took 22 hours, and I didn't exactly obsessively seek out every possible quest. I guess that's a good thing, since I didn't even notice how long it took. Though some of those hours definitely came out of retrying some combat sections over and over again.
The game, as I'd heard, still felt rather small for an RPG. It only has 3 (or 4 depending on how you look at it) main areas, none of which are exactly massive, and the last one is the smallest of all. I felt there was rather little exploration or things to be found. But then again, if a game is deliberately aiming for a tighter focus, that's totally fine. But on the other hand this means that many of the things commonly attributed to RPGs like loot gathering, exploration, gaining new abilities and gear, are notable in their absence. Nearly all loot you gather is just crafting materials, which I practically never used. At one point I got super excited about it, since I'd gotten a crafting recipe for a really powerful set of armor which I was just some materials short of completing. But then I looked into my inventory and noticed an even more powerful armor set that was already there, and I had no idea how it even got there. I felt it made the whole resource gathering and crafting element rather moot, since none of the crafting recipes I found, or was even able to buy, were ever better than the loot I just got from quests. All the bonuses to status effect resistances also felt pointless, since I never noticed them making much difference in gameplay, if I noticed them at all.
On the story front I have to say that this is one of the best written games I've ever played. Even sidequest descriptions were interesting to read, as was all the dialogue. There never came a moment where I'd just skim through the dialogue. Right from the opening mission where you realize that the king you're protecting might be quite an asshole I was really engaged, and all the way through. The characters are multidimensional and very well realized in how no one's a total evil asshole or pure paragon.
That said, the actual story I felt was rather meandering. The initial goal of finding the kingslayer felt more and more distant as the plot focused more and more on politics, and ultimately I was left wondering how the chapters connected to each other at all. I felt the same problem was heavily present in the last Witcher book as well. During the scene where the kings negotiated and the dragon finally showed up I was barely aware about who was who and doing what for which reason. I didn't really know how it connected to Geralt at all.
But I guess much of the game's playtime comes from replaying it and making different choices. Which I'm definitely going to do, since
- Iorveth's chapter is apparently much better than Roche's
- You get to bang a succubus in said chapter
- And judging from the achievements, you can boomshakalaka with Ves as well! Bow-chica-wow-wow! Very nice!
So I've definitely got reasons to replay the game. Yeah, and also to see how the different story beats play out.
The game, as I'd heard, still felt rather small for an RPG. It only has 3 (or 4 depending on how you look at it) main areas, none of which are exactly massive, and the last one is the smallest of all. I felt there was rather little exploration or things to be found. But then again, if a game is deliberately aiming for a tighter focus, that's totally fine. But on the other hand this means that many of the things commonly attributed to RPGs like loot gathering, exploration, gaining new abilities and gear, are notable in their absence. Nearly all loot you gather is just crafting materials, which I practically never used. At one point I got super excited about it, since I'd gotten a crafting recipe for a really powerful set of armor which I was just some materials short of completing. But then I looked into my inventory and noticed an even more powerful armor set that was already there, and I had no idea how it even got there. I felt it made the whole resource gathering and crafting element rather moot, since none of the crafting recipes I found, or was even able to buy, were ever better than the loot I just got from quests. All the bonuses to status effect resistances also felt pointless, since I never noticed them making much difference in gameplay, if I noticed them at all.
On the story front I have to say that this is one of the best written games I've ever played. Even sidequest descriptions were interesting to read, as was all the dialogue. There never came a moment where I'd just skim through the dialogue. Right from the opening mission where you realize that the king you're protecting might be quite an asshole I was really engaged, and all the way through. The characters are multidimensional and very well realized in how no one's a total evil asshole or pure paragon.
That said, the actual story I felt was rather meandering. The initial goal of finding the kingslayer felt more and more distant as the plot focused more and more on politics, and ultimately I was left wondering how the chapters connected to each other at all. I felt the same problem was heavily present in the last Witcher book as well. During the scene where the kings negotiated and the dragon finally showed up I was barely aware about who was who and doing what for which reason. I didn't really know how it connected to Geralt at all.
But I guess much of the game's playtime comes from replaying it and making different choices. Which I'm definitely going to do, since
- Iorveth's chapter is apparently much better than Roche's
- You get to bang a succubus in said chapter
- And judging from the achievements, you can boomshakalaka with Ves as well! Bow-chica-wow-wow! Very nice!
So I've definitely got reasons to replay the game. Yeah, and also to see how the different story beats play out.
