The Tough Business of Witchering Gets Cinematic

[teh_gunslinger]

In Dragon Age my character's city elf cousin got raped by the son of the local human lord because he knew he could get away with it.

In The Witcher 2 everyone treated my supposed mutant outcast like he was just one of the lads. Even the peasants, seen above acting with fear and suspicion, were pretty friendly.

I suppose interpretation is everything. I played one of the woodsie wood elves in Dragon Age: Origins (whatever they were called) and it seemed like a pretty good life. Everyone was happy, well-fed, seemed to be enjoying life, King Whatshisnuts was quite nice to me, the whole works. In The Witcher, the fear, mistrust and flat-out racism struck me as far more palpable, not to mention that whole war thing going on between them. The story was a bit of a mess, at least until the Enhanced Edition, but I thought it did a far better job of capturing the "feel" of an ugly, divided world than Dragon Age.

You guys seem to be talking about different games...that is, Witcher 2 vs Witcher 1. The people in Witcher 1 are all racist assholes, yeah, but Witcher 2's peasants seem more or less accepting of Geralt's presence. I get the feeling that most of the rude ones are rude to everyone, not just Geralt.

Here's another take on the treatment of Geralt in W2. Some spoilers probably, so you are warned, dear reader.

In the first town you enter the town with one of Foltests assassins and his mates. You then proceed to punch out the local tyrant and magistrate and prevent him from hanging people. That might well explain why people take care to not piss you off. You are in a position of power.

In the army camp you again arrive with Roche and you also save Demavend and nob around with the kings and ambassadors. I'm not surprised that common soldiers tread carefully around what basically is a stranger who has gotten on good terms with their king.

In the city with Jorveth half their ideology is embracing that people are different. Saskia is all for tolerance.

In the final act, people are perhaps preoccupied with the meeting of the powers of the north.

 

[ms_sunlight]

A good swear is like the edge of a blade. To much use and it grows dull and loses its sting. It is the most apparent in the game when the curse activates and we get the short of Geralt and whoever he is with at the time seeing the sky darken. There is a swear there, but it has no impact because it has been used as every third word until then.

You've never been to Glasgow, have you?

Seriously, that's one way to use swearwords but it's not the only way people actually do use swearwords. I never felt that the swearing in either Witcher game broke immersion. (The crappy combat and ropey voice action in TW1 did, on occasion. TW2 on the other hand is superb, a bright, bloomy hellish playground I really lost myself in. I do however have some issues with both games from a feminist perspective.)

 

[James Crook]

In the army camp you again arrive with Roche and you also save Demavend and nob around with the kings and ambassadors. I'm not surprised that common soldiers tread carefully around what basically is a stranger who has gotten on good terms with their king.

Pardon me for intruding like this, but wasn't Demavend said to be dead at the beginning of the game or somewhere at the end of the prologue? He was the king of Aedirn, right? But the military camp in Act 2 was Kaedwen's, wasn't it?

 

[teh_gunslinger]

In the army camp you again arrive with Roche and you also save Demavend and nob around with the kings and ambassadors. I'm not surprised that common soldiers tread carefully around what basically is a stranger who has gotten on good terms with their king.

Pardon me for intruding like this, but wasn't Demavend said to be dead at the beginning of the game or somewhere at the end of the prologue? He was the king of Aedirn, right? But the military camp in Act 2 was Kaedwen's, wasn't it?

You're right. I'm of course talking about the rather large bearded fellow in Act 2. Couldn't have sworn his name was Demavend. It's Henselt though. Apologies for that brain fart.

 

[James Crook]

You're right. I'm of course talking about the rather large bearded fellow in Act 2. Couldn't have sworn his name was Demavend. It's Henselt though. Apologies for that brain fart.

Oh, yeah, Henselt, that fat pig that went and got himself cursed by his witch right-hand lady...

 

[teh_gunslinger]

You're right. I'm of course talking about the rather large bearded fellow in Act 2. Couldn't have sworn his name was Demavend. It's Henselt though. Apologies for that brain fart.

Oh, yeah, Henselt, that fat pig that went and got himself cursed by his witch right-hand lady...

Yea, he really was quite an unpleasant fellow. Like so many people in that world.
I sometimes regret not letting Roche do him in after that whole business with Ves.

 

[Zer_]

A good swear is like the edge of a blade. To much use and it grows dull and loses its sting. It is the most apparent in the game when the curse activates and we get the short of Geralt and whoever he is with at the time seeing the sky darken. There is a swear there, but it has no impact because it has been used as every third word until then.

You've never been to Glasgow, have you?

Seriously, that's one way to use swearwords but it's not the only way people actually do use swearwords. I never felt that the swearing in either Witcher game broke immersion. (The crappy combat and ropey voice action in TW1 did, on occasion. TW2 on the other hand is superb, a bright, bloomy hellish playground I really lost myself in. I do however have some issues with both games from a feminist perspective.)

The world of The Witcher is very sexist to begin with. I do like that they toned down the sexism in TW2 when comparing it to the first game, but it's still present enough to remind you that the world you're in isn't a very pleasant one. The swearing was kept pretty much the same between the first and second game. Again, the swearing is also part of the books.