Poll: I'm On The Fence About Trying The Witcher 2

[The Madman]

As for the topic at hand, I'm afraid I cannot offer much wisdom on the subject. The Witcher series has never really appealed to me. It seems like the kind of "dark" fantasy where it tries so hrd to be dark that it just makes the whole thing seem artificial and juvenile a la Warhammer 40k. Still though, I can't speak for your tastes, so do as you will.

I know nothing about Game of Thrones but from what I've seen and heard it's basically just medieval porn and violence. Seriously, every second snippet online is some perfume models posturing with naked women in the background, the whole thing just reeks of some teenage nerds power fantasy. Of course if you're into that stuff good for you I guess, you can like whatever you want...

That's what I'd say if I wanted to make a point!

Sorry but the way you phrased that just really annoyed me. You can't in one sentence admit you know nothing about it, then in the next call it juvenile and passively (I can't speak for *your* tastes) judge people for enjoying it. Having read both A Song of Ice and Fire as well as the Witcher series books which have been translated so far, they're pretty much on par with one another in most respects, maturity included. I wouldn't even be surprised if George R. R. Martin had taken inspiration from the Witcher series, though that's extremely unlikely seeing as none of the Witcher series were translated to English till 2007.

It's your basic dark medieval setup. The Witcher is slightly more fantasy and lighthearted than Game of Thrones, but they both share similar themes and style as well as a penchant for showing the messier side of medieval times. Personally I'd say Scott Lynch is better than both of em, but that's just me. Either way don't be so quick to dismiss!

As for the game? It's good. Witcher 2 is definitely an improvement in most ways over the first game and in terms of actually being, well, a game is much more accomplished. Good story, interesting characters, great soundtrack, fun gameplay, stunning visuals, and a ton of replayability. Can't complain really! Neither Witcher nor Witcher 2 are among my all time favourites but they're definitely among the best rpg I've played in recent years.

Witcher 2 is probably most remarkable for how malleable it is. Even having played the game twice, once when it came out and once when the enhanced edition was released, I still feel like there's more the game has to offer. Even just talking to friends they've still done stuff I didn't even know you could in the game.

Pretty damned impressive and definitely worth at least giving a try.

 

[Geth Reich]

"I finished Dark Souls twice."

(Spits out milk) Jesus Christ dude/dudette! I couldn't even get past those motherfucking stone gargoyles!

I had The Witcher 2 for the Xbox 360-now I'm not sure if this was a major issue with the console version or if I had just tripped over a black cat that day but my copy was seriously buggy. And I mean seriously: quests were impossible to complete because certain areas were empty of quest NPCs, people would ask me to follow them and then just stop, frozen for whole in-game days and the potion system was inaccessible. I had to fight the first boss a dozen infuriatingly difficult times because the potion system would simply not work meaning I couldn't drink the special anti-boss potion that I had jumped through numerous hoops to aquire. Also the stealth sections were awkward as feth and I couldn't go 5 seconds without a guard spotting me because Gerald didn't feel like crouching or indeed sneaking about.

On top of all that the game's beginning is very lacklustre in my opinion: after an interesting opening flashback the game gets bogged down in a rustic backwater town in the middle of some boring marshland where you run errands for ignorant peasants and fend off giant scorpions.

However!

The universe is quite engaging, everyone is a hilariously racist tosser, some of the characters are absolutely brilliant (Roche springs to mind) and the chance to be a murderous bigot against non-humans instead of the usual Fantasy tone of sucking up to the arrogant scum was extremely refreshing. Alas, I was just not having enough fun to justify the money I spent on it, so I traded it in. Having read on the wiki what happens next, I regret that decision.

So basically, Yatzhee was right-if you can grit your teeth and slog on through the first chapter the game does get so much better.







(Sigh) Just my bloody luck to give up on a game that has some serious fetish fuel at the end.....

 

[Lord Garnaat]

As for the topic at hand, I'm afraid I cannot offer much wisdom on the subject. The Witcher series has never really appealed to me. It seems like the kind of "dark" fantasy where it tries so hrd to be dark that it just makes the whole thing seem artificial and juvenile a la Warhammer 40k. Still though, I can't speak for your tastes, so do as you will.

I know nothing about Game of Thrones but from what I've seen and heard it's basically just medieval porn and violence. Seriously, every second snippet online is some perfume models posturing with naked women in the background, the whole thing just reeks of some teenage nerds power fantasy. Of course if you're into that stuff good for you I guess, you can like whatever you want...

That's what I'd say if I wanted to make a point!

Sorry but the way you phrased that just really annoyed me. You can't in one sentence admit you know nothing about it, then in the next call it juvenile and passively (I can't speak for *your* tastes) judge people for enjoying it. Having read both A Song of Ice and Fire as well as the Witcher series books which have been translated so far, they're pretty much on par with one another in most respects, maturity included. I wouldn't even be surprised if George R. R. Martin had taken inspiration from the Witcher series, though that's extremely unlikely seeing as none of the Witcher series were translated to English till 2007.

It's your basic dark medieval setup. The Witcher is slightly more fantasy and lighthearted than Game of Thrones, but they both share similar themes and style as well as a penchant for showing the messier side of medieval times. Personally I'd say Scott Lynch is better than both of em, but that's just me. Either way don't be so quick to dismiss!

As for the game? It's good. Witcher 2 is definitely an improvement in most ways over the first game and in terms of actually being, well, a game is much more accomplished. Good story, interesting characters, great soundtrack, fun gameplay, stunning visuals, and a ton of replayability. Can't complain really! Neither Witcher nor Witcher 2 are among my all time favourites but they're definitely among the best rpg I've played in recent years.

Witcher 2 is probably most remarkable for how malleable it is. Even having played the game twice, once when it came out and once when the enhanced edition was released, I still feel like there's more the game has to offer. Even just talking to friends they've still done stuff I didn't even know you could in the game.

Pretty damned impressive and definitely worth at least giving a try.

My apologies, I didn't mean to sound rude. In all honesty I don't really know why I enjoy the Song of Ice and Fire series and not the Witcher, even though admittedly the two seem to handle similar subject matters. The only the thing I can think think of is that perhaps I find Game of Thrones to be more... realistic. For the lack of a better term.

It's just that the dark qualities of that series just seem like something that actually can happen, where some people are rude and downright evil but there's also honorable and good characters and actions to balance it out. My problem comes when something goes so far with being dark that it just crosses a line, and the whole thing comes off as trying too hard, which is a feeling that I get from what I've seen of The Witcher 2. I imagine that sounds silly, but I'm not sure I could immerse myself in something like that, and Lord knows that immersion is vital to a game like The Witcher 2.

 

[00slash00]

Now to clarify, The Witcher 2 sounds like a good game but a few mechanics sound intimidating to me. The difficulty isn't the problem, I finished Dark Souls twice but I'm not the one to talk about it so watch Yahtzee's review of the game. I hope you, the Escapists can give me a reason to play it.

you seem to be treating yahtzee like a serious reviewer, and thats your first problem. his videos are meant to be entertaining. i mean he played the first witcher game for like 2 hours before he decided it sucked, and that was one of my favorite rpgs since baldurs gate. yes, buy the witcher 2. also buy the witcher and the witcher books (the ones that have been translated anyway). its an amazing series

 

[Skin]

Unbearable fetch questing. Combat starts out fun, turns into a roll-a-thon and mind numbingly boring. Locations are meh, leveling is super-meh.

But it has a solid story and some of the best characters in gaming.

 

[K1CKER]

Now to clarify, The Witcher 2 sounds like a good game but a few mechanics sound intimidating to me. The difficulty isn't the problem, I finished Dark Souls twice but I'm not the one to talk about it so watch Yahtzee's review of the game. I hope you, the Escapists can give me a reason to play it.

uhm... people think Yahtzee makes "reviews" ?

he makes COMEDY, and he`s pretty stupid when it comes to actual REVIEWS. if I remember correctly he even complained you can`t skip cinematics, witch you actually CAN if you can figure out how to press a mouse button, too hard for Yahtzee "the reviewer" I guess.

bottom line, if you like RPG games Witcher 2 is one of the best. helps a lot if you have a really good PC though, the game is demanding.

 

[The Madman]

My apologies, I didn't mean to sound rude. In all honesty I don't really know why I enjoy the Song of Ice and Fire series and not the Witcher, even though admittedly the two seem to handle similar subject matters. The only the thing I can think think of is that perhaps I find Game of Thrones to be more... realistic. For the lack of a better term.

It's just that the dark qualities of that series just seem like something that actually can happen, where some people are rude and downright evil but there's also honorable and good characters and actions to balance it out. My problem comes when something goes so far with being dark that it just crosses a line, and the whole thing comes off as trying too hard, which is a feeling that I get from what I've seen of The Witcher 2. I imagine that sounds silly, but I'm not sure I could immerse myself in something like that, and Lord knows that immersion is vital to a game like The Witcher 2.

I can't think of a single honourable or 'good' character in the Ice & Fire series that survives the first book. Indeed it's why I stopped reading that series about 2/3 of the way through the fourth book and haven't bothered with the TV series: It's too depressing.

If you've never read the books here, let me spoil it for you; everyone is either dead, miserable, or in one persons case, both by the fourth book.

The Witchers setting is much more lighthearted by comparison. Oh there are still issues of racism and inequality. Sexism, violence, bigotry and bias. But at least Geralt isn't beheaded at the end of the first book in front of his children, who themselves spend the next three books being tortured by being thrown into progressively worse situations one after another. And while he's certainly got his downsides such as being a blatant womanizer as well as a bit of an asshole, at least Geralt still tries to be a good person which is what in the books makes him an endearing character. The books also deal heavily with the concept that he's a genetically modified freak created to fight monsters in a world where the monsters are just as likely to be the humans he's supposed to protect as the literal beast hiding in the woods. A theme that while generally played straight is also used for a few more quirky scenario when succubus and trolls get involved.

So no, the Witcher doesn't take itself too seriously. I'd have thought that was obvious the first time they start cracking Lord of the Rings jokes. Even if you don't like the games if you're a fan of G.R.R.Martin you should at least borrow 'The Last Wish' from the local library if they have it. Collection of Witcher short stories, a pretty good read, and you just might find yourself enjoying them!

 

[cojo965]

Now to clarify, The Witcher 2 sounds like a good game but a few mechanics sound intimidating to me. The difficulty isn't the problem, I finished Dark Souls twice but I'm not the one to talk about it so watch Yahtzee's review of the game. I hope you, the Escapists can give me a reason to play it.

you seem to be treating yahtzee like a serious reviewer, and thats your first problem. his videos are meant to be entertaining. i mean he played the first witcher game for like 2 hours before he decided it sucked, and that was one of my favorite rpgs since baldurs gate. yes, buy the witcher 2. also buy the witcher and the witcher books (the ones that have been translated anyway). its an amazing series

Trust me I don't find Yahtzee to be that either but when he explains a game and it comes across as difficulty by mechanics not by design does it seem to be time to take him somewhat more seriously. What do I mean by difficulty by design? Think Dark Souls. The game's mechanics are easy to learn, but difficult to master. On the other hand The Witcher 2 has mechanics that sound hard from the get-go, that is difficulty by mechanics.

 

[00slash00]

Now to clarify, The Witcher 2 sounds like a good game but a few mechanics sound intimidating to me. The difficulty isn't the problem, I finished Dark Souls twice but I'm not the one to talk about it so watch Yahtzee's review of the game. I hope you, the Escapists can give me a reason to play it.

you seem to be treating yahtzee like a serious reviewer, and thats your first problem. his videos are meant to be entertaining. i mean he played the first witcher game for like 2 hours before he decided it sucked, and that was one of my favorite rpgs since baldurs gate. yes, buy the witcher 2. also buy the witcher and the witcher books (the ones that have been translated anyway). its an amazing series

Trust me I don't find Yahtzee to be that either but when he explains a game and it comes across as difficulty by mechanics not by design does it seem to be time to take him somewhat more seriously. What do I mean by difficulty by design? Think Dark Souls. The game's mechanics are easy to learn, but difficult to master. On the other hand The Witcher 2 has mechanics that sound hard from the get-go, that is difficulty by mechanics.

ah. well the first witcher game was a little like that. alchemy was easy to understand but in order to get various monster parts you needed you had to find books about them so you could research their anatomy. i mean it made sense but it felt needlessly complex in the beginning, but you got used to it rather quickly

 

[Sectan]

I bought it and had my fun with it. I only played through it once and quit. The potions and oils are neat, but half the time I'd be pissed off because a big boss fight appeared with no hint and I was left with a shitload of helpful potions sitting in my pack while I kept dying, clicking resume, getting hit by an attack as soon as the loading screen faded, getting killed by said attack. Rinse and repeat. I really liked the story. If you can get it at a discount I'd pick it up just to try it out.

 

[Jandau]

First of all, if you take ANYTHING in a Zero Punctuation review seriously, you are doing it wrong. The whole point of that show is to mock a game as much as possible, not provide actual objective information. I love ZP, but I do not base my gaming decisions on it...

As for the game, try it, it's awesome. And no, it's not too hard, the mechanics aren't too complicated, assuming you have a functioning brain and an attention span longer than a goldfish. Seriously, it's a great game and a solid challenge, try it out.

 

[Warachia]

I didn't like it but that was mainly because of the mechanics, and the game feels really bureaucratic for some reason, there's a way to do everything and only that way, and it lost a lot of it's charm for me as soon as I realized I was only going to be able to play the game they way it wanted me to, not that the game told me what that way was.

I suppose it's because I got too used to organic games, games where the objective is somewhere, and you have the tools or skills or can use the environments in different ways to reach that objective (a good example would be Of Might and Magic: Dark Messiah, Thief 2), whereas the Witcher 2 might as well be dragging you with a leash around your neck, you can't do these things until you do these, or you can't use this skill because of that and so on.
The menus are terribly designed (I really can't stress this enough), and you have to go through them to do almost anything non combat related, instead of giving you a simple menu where you can craft and drink potions instantly now it's more like filling out then filing a form: sit down, meditate, select potions, create potions, select materials, *Geralt's animation*, go up one step, drink potions, drink potion, *Geralt's animation* back, back, back, and now you have returned to the game, and you have to watch the animation every single time he uses something.

On the plus side, the characters seemed well done even if I didn't like them, and the story is intriguing, but the thing that got me to quit was when the game started acting up in the worst ways, because the game (for me anyway) is terribly broken, occasionally the game feels you don't appreciate it enough, so it randomly disables everything except the dodge move, if you use it everything works for a second, then it doesn't work any more and you have to dodge again, and there is no fix for this other than buy a controller and hope that works. There are also major problems in the combat to, there is a parry move that you can only do when the game lets you, and unless you do it in the tutorial your enemy is invincible, however your game sometimes decides it won't let you use it for the fight you are in, so the prompt never appears, if this happens in the tutorial I mentioned, you are screwed, and just like the previous bug there is no fix for this.

 

[Instant K4rma]

I appreciate the game's approach of telling a sprawling, epic story, but damn, I despised the gameplay/combat. I felt like the combat really took away from the entire experience, really. Great characters, fantastic aesthetic design, and a clunky, uninspired combat system. For me, it was a serious let-down.

 

[Xdeser2]

The Witcher 2 is an example of an RPG done well...

and thats all the praise I can put on it. Dont get me wrong, its well worth a nice playthrough, but dont be expecting the second coming of Christ, as some people claim it is. :/

 

[Andy of Comix Inc]

The game has actually been patched since Yahtzee played it. It has a really helpful tutorial and the difficulty has been balanced out and it's overall a better game. And, like many have said, Yahtzee's existence (by his own admittance) is to criticize and pick apart games, as apposed to outright review them and provide balanced recommendation.

Honestly, though, here's the thing. You say you're on the fence about trying The Witcher 2. Here's what I recommend: pirate it. No, no, don't pirate it like that. I mean, find it, demo it for yourself, and if you like it, buy it. There might actually be a demo. Hold on.

...okay, if your bandwidth is good enough, you can <link=http://www.gaikai.com/games/witcher-2-enhanced-edition>play it at Gaikai. So you might want to try it out there? And if it's not, I... well, I don't recommend, but for demonstration purposes, I'd find a torrent of it and "pirate" it. Just play the first few hours, and if you like it then buy it. If you don't, delete it. I'd see no harm in that - the guys who made it, made it DRM-free for a reason.

The Witcher 2 is an example of an RPG done well...

and thats all the praise I can put on it. Dont get me wrong, its well worth a nice playthrough, but dont be expecting the second coming of Christ, as some people claim it is. :/

I think most people love it because CD Projekt Red is quite possibly the most consumer-friendly, fan-honouring and respectful company in the business today. They've handed out so many free games, their customer support is nothing short of astounding, and the amount of free content they've added to all their games - the kind of stuff other companies would charge for - is... unfathomable. The business of The Witcher 2 is worth loving the game for, even if the game itself is merely good/great (as apposed to, y'know, perfect. It's a solid 8/10).

 

[Agow95]

If your unsure just rent or borrow it at first, then if you dislike it you've only wasted a small amount of money.

 

[The Ubermensch]

If you like story driven games like Bioware style story driven games, don't play this. It will ruin every game you play after it.

If you take your time with the alchemy... its not a straight up hack and slash though the setup suggests that it is, the joy in the gameplay comes from planning ahead; for that is what a witcher is. You have a hostile that you haven't seen before, you go research him, collect some poisons that are supper effective and then set your traps. Its a thinking man's game.