Fuck The Witcher 1. Seriously. (rant)

[IceForce]

Fuck this game. Fuck everything about it. Fuck the combat, fuck the quests, fuck the story, fuck the characters and their stiff 2007 faces, fuck the UI, fuck the generic, boring visual design, fuck the level design, fuck the repetition, fuck the pointless economy (I didn't even mention that; the amount of times you need money for anything can be counted with one hand), fuck the mechanics hinting at depth (like being able to give people gifts) that end up fucking nowhere. Fuck even the slightly good parts for giving me hope that this colossal turd might get better. I'm not touching this shit ever again, not unless someone pays me a triple digit salary by the hour. I'm done.

*drops mic*

ugh, I'm inclined to agree. I played through the game too a while back, and it was one hell of an unpleasant slog that I never wish to repeat.

Uninteresting locations, boring characters, stilted and disjointed dialogue, clunky mechanics and combat, uncompelling story, unengaging quests, unintuitive UI, ugly visuals, ...I could go on and on and on.

If anyone hasn't played this game and wants to see it through (for story reasons or whatever), do yourself a favor and watch an LP on youtube. It will save you a world of hurt.

The only saving grace about this mess is that the devs obviously listened to feedback, because the next 2 games in the series are a lot LOT better.

 

[wulf3n]

Enjoyment of the first Witcher game is directly proportional to how much one was willing to put up with to get what was uncommon among games at the time of its release.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

It definitely didn't age well. But at the time when it was released it was all the rage for a reason. The visuals were actually not bad for that type of game, it was quite long, difficult, it had different and quite large hub worlds for the time, great music, unique atmosphere, a more realistic choices and consequences system than most RPG's etc. It had a lot going for it so it was a lot easier to forgive so many of its real shortcomings. Nowadays every flaw sticks out like a sore thumb.

 

[maninahat]

I ricocheted right off of this game. I tried it up until the first actual town, wherein I got tremendously bored of the tedious combat, the 10 bear ass quest design, the clunky UI, the superfluous buff system, and the irritating characters. Geralt comes off as a dreary tryhard who is simultaneously hated by everyone yet somehow adored by all women. Almost every NPC is contemptibly vulgar or obnoxious in a way that feels utterly unrealistic. I can't remember what was the last straw: either it was the premise of a prostitute being payed in flowers, or it was the time in which the in Geralt, the instant he entered a house, got hit by an ambush that sent him staggering backwards through the wall and into the glitchy black space between worlds.

 

[Silence]

It definitely didn't age well. But at the time when it was released it was all the rage for a reason. The visuals were actually not bad for that type of game, it was quite long, difficult, it had different and quite large hub worlds for the time, great music, unique atmosphere, a more realistic choices and consequences system than most RPG's etc. It had a lot going for it so it was a lot easier to forgive so many of its real shortcomings. Nowadays every flaw sticks out like a sore thumb.

It also had the bug with which you got finish the game in about 5 minutes or less.
As I remember, it was all the rage because it was about as buggy as Two Worlds.

 

[Emanuele Ciriachi]

I remember playing this with the Combat Rebalance mod at the hardest difficulty. Yes, I was that much masochistic.

But anyway I still like it very much to this day. It requires some investment, but it's still a cornerstone of western RPGs despite its limitations.

 

[Emanuele Ciriachi]

Best Neverwinter Nights mod out there.

This guy gets it.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

Geez...I played through it about 5-6 years ago now, but it was nowhere near as unpleasant as many are saying here. Aside from a buggy quest in a cave taking a few attempts to trigger complete I had a pretty pleasant time with the game. To be honest I enjoyed it more overall than the sequel, which only had better graphics/controls going for it imo. It felt like a smaller, more streamlined and linear game than the original, and they tried to put in too many cinematic trimmings.

I've yet to play 3, but have fond memories of Witcher EE for sure. Maybe because it felt like a true PC RPG and I knew it was rough around the edges going in from reviews, but I mostly remember it having a great story, characters, music and locations that made it feel lived in and charming.

 

[Anti Nudist Cupcake]

Witcher 1 being so bad is a big reason why I never played Witcher 3. Putting all the other criticisms aside, I just can't give a fuck about Geralt. The games (1 and 2) couldn't make me give a fuck about a single thing.

I'm hearing a lot about how it gets better later on but I don't see why I should be the one to be putting in hard work to enjoy the game, it's the job of the game to hook me from the start.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

I'm already enjoying Witcher 2 much much more than the first. Like people said, nearly every complaint I had has been addressed and fixed. I actually know what the plot is about now. Characters have proper introductions and distinct motivations. The combat system doesn't suck donkey ass. The gameplay is no longer 80% trudging the same terrain. Conversations have tension and stakes. The character models no longer look like comical fish people. And my God, the visuals! The game looks absolutely incredible for 2011. The lighting is simply amazing to look at. Though it is quite clear that the level of fidelity is achieved by sacrificing draw distance. For the most part it's disguised rather well, but anything more than 50 ft away still blurs into an indistinct fog and it's quite hard to ignore.

But there's new problems too, the combat, rather bafflingly, still being the biggest one. It's much more satisfying now that player input actually feels like it matters, but it's like this: it's Dark Souls combat, but without the ability to block 100% damage, no crowd control, rolling doesn't give you I-frames, and with 10 enemies all coming at you at once. The very first combat encounter outside the prologue chapter had at least 12 enemies coming at me at once, with the combat system giving the player tools to manage maybe 3 at a time. What sense does that make? I also didn't like how the game rather condescendingly decides the recommended difficulty level based on a combat challenge that's immediately thrown your way after an insanely long tutorial where all the mechanics are dumped on you at once.

 

[B-Cell_v1legacy]

I'm with you 100% OP

I love Witcher2 and Witcher 3 is one of the best games Ive ever played (first game to ever make me shed a tear *no homo*)

come on my friend, what is so emotional about witcher 3? its story and characters are incredibly boring and dull. geralt of rivendale is too robotic, ciri and yen are utterly boring characters.

 

[Zombie Proof]

I'm with you 100% OP

I love Witcher2 and Witcher 3 is one of the best games Ive ever played (first game to ever make me shed a tear *no homo*)

come on my friend, what is so emotional about witcher 3? its story and characters are incredibly boring and dull. geralt of rivendale is too robotic, ciri and yen are utterly boring characters.

My friend, you simply don't operate on a level that can grasp the dramatic and literary nuances The Witcher 3 excels at, much less understand how said nuances resonated with me emotionally. I believe that any attempt to explain these nuances will only confuse you and frustrate me so I'll just leave you to ponder and muse.

 

[Nick Cave]

But there's new problems too, the combat, rather bafflingly, still being the biggest one. It's much more satisfying now that player input actually feels like it matters, but it's like this: it's Dark Souls combat, but without the ability to block 100% damage, no crowd control, rolling doesn't give you I-frames, and with 10 enemies all coming at you at once. The very first combat encounter outside the prologue chapter had at least 12 enemies coming at me at once, with the combat system giving the player tools to manage maybe 3 at a time. What sense does that make? I also didn't like how the game rather condescendingly decides the recommended difficulty level based on a combat challenge that's immediately thrown your way after an insanely long tutorial where all the mechanics are dumped on you at once.

Here're the ways to make the combat bearable (even fun):

Use Quen, and only Quen, ALL the time. Seriously, it's so much better than the other ones it's note even funny.

Treat the combat like Two Handing light armor Dark Souls, anticipate attack, dodge away, strike his ass off. This works well for basically every enemy in the game.

Try to avoid backstabs, because that's how you get oneshot.

Ignore memes about traps and "preparing yourself before every encounter", this is a blatant lie which is still being repeated. Potions are nice but almost never vital, that said, they do last for quite a long time and dies give decent buffs (rook gives 10 % extra damage on swords, to give you an approximation of their power, nice, but not immediatly noticeable or vital), so I do recommend using them.

The hardest part will be when you're in a forest fighting monsters called "nekkers" and especially "Endregas", there's a side mission about killing "Endrega Queens" which is the hardest fight in the game, after that it gets easier, and it gets very easy by the lategame.

Also, I do recommend doing the sidemissions, aside from the monster contracts they're all fun and rewarding in ways (in such a way I was a a bit confused by the reception for Witcher 3's side quests, since they were already great in 2).

Other than that, pay attention to the storytelling, the politics do get genuinely complex in the latter part of the game. Other than that, you're good to go.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

But there's new problems too, the combat, rather bafflingly, still being the biggest one. It's much more satisfying now that player input actually feels like it matters, but it's like this: it's Dark Souls combat, but without the ability to block 100% damage, no crowd control, rolling doesn't give you I-frames, and with 10 enemies all coming at you at once. The very first combat encounter outside the prologue chapter had at least 12 enemies coming at me at once, with the combat system giving the player tools to manage maybe 3 at a time. What sense does that make? I also didn't like how the game rather condescendingly decides the recommended difficulty level based on a combat challenge that's immediately thrown your way after an insanely long tutorial where all the mechanics are dumped on you at once.

Here're the ways to make the combat bearable (even fun):

Use Quen, and only Quen, ALL the time. Seriously, it's so much better than the other ones it's note even funny.

Treat the combat like Two Handing light armor Dark Souls, anticipate attack, dodge away, strike his ass off. This works well for basically every enemy in the game.

Try to avoid backstabs, because that's how you get oneshot.

Ignore memes about traps and "preparing yourself before every encounter", this is a blatant lie which is still being repeated. Potions are nice but almost never vital, that said, they do last for quite a long time and dies give decent buffs (rook gives 10 % extra damage on swords, to give you an approximation of their power, nice, but not immediatly noticeable or vital), so I do recommend using them.

The hardest part will be when you're in a forest fighting monsters called "nekkers" and especially "Endregas", there's a side mission about killing "Endrega Queens" which is the hardest fight in the game, after that it gets easier, and it gets very easy by the lategame.

Also, I do recommend doing the sidemissions, aside from the monster contracts they're all fun and rewarding in ways (in such a way I was a a bit confused by the reception for Witcher 3's side quests, since they were already great in 2).

Other than that, pay attention to the storytelling, the politics do get genuinely complex in the latter part of the game. Other than that, you're good to go.

Thanks for the tips, since I came back to ***** about the combat some more. I didn't do either of the sidequests you mentioned since the game neither told me how to blow up the nekker nests, nor where the endrega queens were. The quest with the drunk troll was fun though.

But the combat. It's kind of astonishing how the combat fails two games in a row for almost the exact opposite reasons: In the first game the system was shit, but the encounters were mostly fine. Here the system is great, and the encounters have so far been shit. Giant monsters aside, bosses can be stunlocked to death with ease, yet any group of normal enemies larger than 4 will spell death within 30 seconds. I'm at the part where you're supposed to clear the Flotsam watchtower of enemies, and it's fucking impossible. Nothing works: bottlenecking, using signs, riposting, blocking, dodging, trying to get more fighting room... and all good anything does is get me killed, since the enemies always attack in groups and Geralt always takes damage no matter what he's doing. It's kind of staggering how the devs have crafted this intricate system with beautiful animations and lots of depth, and yet fail to understand its strengths on such a foundational level by throwing subtlety and pacing out the window and spamming the player with enemies. And the gap between Normal and Easy difficulty is massive: on easy you can basically buttonmash your way to victory, and on Normal you die in like 5 hits. Where's the balance here?

 

[Zombie Proof]

It's been a minute since I've gone through Witcher 2 but there are some stuff in the combat tree that will help worlds. The one that stands out in my memory is the perk that allows you to travel greater distances when you roll. Try investing in some of those. I don't remember having any of the problems with the combat or (large) group management that you're mentioning.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Since it's highly unlikely that you'll be replaying The Witcher 2 after you're done, I want to give you a crucial piece of advice for enjoying the game after Flotsam. At the end of Act 1 before you leave Flotsam you'll have to make a choice that will determine the entire second act (location and missions are unique). When the time comes to make a choice - choose Iorveth's path. It's so much better than Roche's path.

Oh and, you need bombs (like Grapeshot) to destroy nekker nests. Cedric (the alcoholic elf just outside Flotsam) can help you out with that.

 

[cowabungakid]

Wow. Just stumbled upon this thread and...thank God, I knew I can't be the only one. Agree 100% with OP, just that I gave up on the game for good after 8-10 hours. Witcher 2 didn't annoy me quite as much, which was nice...and then I read all these reviews about how completely amazing 3 is, and I just didn't trust them. Not for a loooong time, because I liked neither 1 nor 2. Turns out Witcher 3 is the best RPG I have played and likely will ever play in my entire life. For heaven's sake, it made me reload an 8 hour old save file when I learned the consequences of a decision I made, a game has to be fucking brilliant if I'm that invested in the story. But Witcher 1 can go die in a car crash.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

Since it's highly unlikely that you'll be replaying The Witcher 2 after you're done, I want to give you a crucial piece of advice for enjoying the game after Flotsam. At the end of Act 1 before you leave Flotsam you'll have to make a choice that will determine the entire second act (location and missions are unique). When the time comes to make a choice - choose Iorveth's path. It's so much better than Roche's path.

Too late for that I'm afraid. I chose Roche without a second thought. I like him. Iorveth's just a violent, racist asshole. But now I apparently do have a reason to replay the game, which is nice.

 

[Zombie Proof]

Since it's highly unlikely that you'll be replaying The Witcher 2 after you're done, I want to give you a crucial piece of advice for enjoying the game after Flotsam. At the end of Act 1 before you leave Flotsam you'll have to make a choice that will determine the entire second act (location and missions are unique). When the time comes to make a choice - choose Iorveth's path. It's so much better than Roche's path.

Too late for that I'm afraid. I chose Roche without a second thought. I like him. Iorveth's just a violent, racist asshole. But now I apparently do have a reason to replay the game, which is nice.

I did the same my first time around hahahahahaha. Started replaying it again not so long ago so I'll be picking Iorveth this time.

Prepare to hear "OOORDRIIIIIIIN...OOOOOOOOOOOORDRIIIIIIIIIIIIIN!" an aweful lot lol

 

[Ralancian]

The Witcher 1 is garbage I know many people who gave up with it and tossed it aside ever to pick up the series again. I only completed it out of sheer bloody mindedness for completeionist sake before starting Witcher 3.

Witcher 2 is alright I'm not a fan but I can see why some people really dig it.

Witcher 3 however is a work of art a gold standard in RPG storytelling and pacing.

And I forgive CDPR for all that its quite clear playing Witcher 1 that where they ended is what they originally wanted. It just took three iteration to make it 'work'. However will I ever play or touch Witcher 1 again? Hell no.