Witcher Will I like The Witcher?

The Witcher
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Icefire

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I see the Witcher EE on sale at Atari.com for ten bucks. I tried the demo and did not care for it. Whenever I see the words "story-driven" I think of when I was watching a friend play FF7 on the ps2. It was more of a movie than a game to me, with tons of cutscenes and then a few segments in which you "played" by clicking the attack you wanted to use, watch the result, and back to cutscenes. Was dreadful to me,(only my opinion). The demo gave me the same feeling, but in case I am wrong I am asking. I play arpg's. I play them all. By far my favorite genre, but I also liked BG 1 and 2, ID 1 and 2, arcanum, arx fatalis, and am currently playing divinity 2. The combat in the demo was dreadful, just waiting for the sword icon to turn and then clicking. Is the whole game like that? Is it more cutscene than gameplay? I am a person who actually cares very little about the story in a game, if at all. I want to play. If I want a story, I will read a book. So some opinions will be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.
 
Given the history you mentioned I would suggest you indeed buy the book and read it. ;) At least one and maybe a few more of Sarkowski's books have been translated into English since the release.
I haven't played enough of it yet to talk about the whole game, but I think if you didn't enjoy the demo you'll hardly like the game.
 
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I have played the whole game and it is a bit railroaded and cutscene driven but not nearly as bad as your examples. The middle of the game has some good combat and reasonable freedom but it does get quite linear at the end. You can turn off the sword icon hints by selecting hard, which isn't that hard really.
 
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I didn't like the demo either, and it wasn't until about a year later that I decided to give the full game a try. Now I consider The Witcher to be among the top ten crpgs I've ever played.



The combat in the demo was dreadful, just waiting for the sword icon to turn and then clicking. Is the whole game like that? Is it more cutscene than gameplay?

You need to play the game on "Hard". That icon is only present on Normal difficulty, which is too easy anyways. There are very few cutscenes in The Witcher.
 
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But does the combat actually get more involved than clicking at the right time? Are their combinations of skills and moves that can be strung together in sequence for differing effects?
 
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the demo sucks, dont judge the rest of the game by it. I was only playing the game in the first place because I got a deal on it, and all the cool kids were doing it. As it turned out, once the game opened up I realized that it was of the best games I'd played in a long time. I really enjoyed it.

the combat does get better as you get more abilities and all that. A lot of the areas are really well designed and fun, and I liked the npcs. Personally, act IV was a once-in-a-gaming-lifetime xperience for me - truly unforgettable.

And well, what is it like 14.99 now? You havnt got a whole lot to lose...
 
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But does the combat actually get more involved than clicking at the right time? Are their combinations of skills and moves that can be strung together in sequence for differing effects?

Yes... and no. You *can* actually play and win by simple timed clicking, especially at Normal or Easy difficulty. That gets tedious very fast, especially since some fights will take very long as you gradually whittle down the enemies while (successfully) avoiding damage. (GothicGothicness hated the combat for this reason.)

But you don't *have to.* If you explore the different combat styles, Signs, potions, oils, and bombs, combat becomes way more varied and way more effective, but also riskier. And a lot more fun. The key to the fun was (for me anyway) when I realized that most enemies have a weakness which leaves them momentarily incapacitated, at which point you can pull a finishing move to insta-kill them. To exploit the weakness, you have to know what you're facing, and how to cause it, using the right Sign, bomb, oil, or fighting technique for the occasion; there's no magic button that works for everything.

IMO the game is flawed in that it doesn't really push you very hard to do this exploration -- if you don't bother reading the bestiaries and figuring out what Pain, Bleeding, Stun, Incineration etc. actually mean and what cause them, you'll just keep mindlessly hacking, and the game lets you get away with it. But them's the breaks.
 
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So there ARE some tactical choices having value based on the situation, which varies. Excellent! The demo certainly did NOT give that impression, much.
 
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So there ARE some tactical choices having value based on the situation, which varies. Excellent! The demo certainly did NOT give that impression, much.

You only know the three basic combat styles and one Sign in the demo, so, no. Once you get another sign or two and a few alchemical recipes, it does get more interesting.

Although you *can* play with the demo in slightly more varied ways, e.g. experiment with vaulting over your opponents in combat and such. Once you get the Aard sign, you can also do a stun-finish combo finishing off the weaker enemies.
 
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I agree with Prime Junta - Combat in the witcher can be interesting, but you have to invest some effort yourself to make it so - if you are lazy, the combat becomes little more than a chore you wade through, and at least on average difficulty, it is absolutely no problem to win the game by simple timed button clicking. If you have the motivation to explore the options the combat offers (especially on hard) it becomes a lot more interesting.
 
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I now do remember using the stun combo with the sign. But that was late in the demo, and it wasn't usable all the time. Wasn't even much variety at that but better than just click timing.
 
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On Hard difficulty, You pretty much have to utilize Alchemy and Signs along with your sword, or there's quite a few battles where you're going to get stomped on a consistent basis.
 
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Thanks for posting this OP ... saved me $10 :)

Combat makes or breaks an rpg for me, and I now remember the loathing of the demo.
 
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Thanks for posting this OP … saved me $10 :)

Combat makes or breaks an rpg for me, and I now remember the loathing of the demo.


A lot of people originally loathed the demo. Like some here have already stated, the demo does a poor job of representing the quality of the full game.
 
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I ordered it. The price is right and while it may not be my favorite game, I think I can get ten bucks worth of enjoyment out of it. But maybe like JDR it will surprise me and be one of the best I've played. We will see. Thanks for the input. Greatly appreciated.
 
Thanks for posting this OP … saved me $10 :)

Combat makes or breaks an rpg for me, and I now remember the loathing of the demo.
Did you read the other posts in this thread?
 
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I think I can get ten bucks worth of enjoyment out of it. But maybe like JDR it will surprise me and be one of the best I've played. We will see.
Be sure not to rush, and do read a lot. The real fun for me started in Act 2. Before that I felt kinda lost and/or overwhelmed.

Also, if you are like me and prefer to play particular, specialized classes, you need to accept the fact that you are really playing a Witcher. This means: Melee + Magic (+ Alchemy). You can lean towards one direction a tiny little bit, but I wouldn't call that specialization. It's all about being a Witcher. Good lore, though.
 
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Combat is certainly the weakest part of the witcher. I find it worse than diablo's. The annoying thing is sometimes the camera will jerk just a little but that is more than enough to break your combo.
 
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Also, if you are like me and prefer to play particular, specialized classes, you need to accept the fact that you are really playing a Witcher. This means: Melee + Magic (+ Alchemy).

My favorite class to play in any type of rpg is a "Battlemage" type character. so I think that will be easy to do. However I have never used or taken "alchemy" as a skill, so that's going to be new to me. Hopefully not too difficult to pick up on.
 
the demo sucks, dont judge the rest of the game by it. I was only playing the game in the first place because I got a deal on it, and all the cool kids were doing it. As it turned out, once the game opened up I realized that it was of the best games I'd played in a long time. I really enjoyed it.

the combat does get better as you get more abilities and all that. A lot of the areas are really well designed and fun, and I liked the npcs. Personally, act IV was a once-in-a-gaming-lifetime xperience for me - truly unforgettable.

And well, what is it like 14.99 now? You havnt got a whole lot to lose…

This is interesting…Act IV is actually where I got bored and stopped playing. All the momentum at the end of Act III was brought to a screeching halt…I felt like I was back in Act I tediously running around doing pointless busywork.

Does it pick up again?

Anyway it was still worth the $20-30 or so I paid for it.
 
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