RPGWatch Feature: Inside The Witcher, Part 2

We wrap up our in-depth hands-on Witcher preview with a look at the character system, combat and more:

Sooner or later in any action/RPG, you’re going to get into a fight. The Witcher uses a hybrid system that strings attacks together into long combos, with the right timing. A single click starts the first attack and as it winds to a close, another click at the right time seamlessly strings a second attack after the first to form a combo and so on. Get the timing wrong and the next stroke is aborted, giving the enemy an opening. The result is a combination of Geralt’s skills and the player’s timing.

Click to expand...

Read it here.

More information.

I'm not sure this second part came together quite the way I wanted it to, but there you go. If time permits, I may try to whip up some updated impressions from further into the game just before release.

Nice work, Dhruin.

I am certainly looking forward to this.

Unless there is a very easy mode or a way to shut off the combo system this pretty much ruins the game for me. I can't time my hits in games because I suck at it so every other time I attack I would be leaving myself open for an attack so I would be in a bad situation because of being hit so many times that I would end up getting killed quite often.

It really isn't that hard - the timing is fairly generous, and, of course there is an easy mode. If you played practically any action/RPG, you'll be able to cope with this.

What is the 'Death' consequence in the game, you didn't mention it. Are we to assume you never died!!

I love that you called the strategically placed "cat" card "one of the more tasteful examples" :lol: If that's tasteful, I blush to think of what the rest must be like...

About the "card" mini-game, is it just a cheap feature in the game (random females in the street you can engage), or is there really a mini-game, like a small quest or something to deserve the women's.. huh... Atention?

Good article. I am very much not a twitch gamer but it seems as though this is no more twitchy than Diablo which is within my range of acceptability.

I really see them losing sales unnecessarily due to not including things like Auto Chaining feature to help with non-twitch/non-hack & slash player and no Character Customization, which are easily worth the sales increase verses the time to program them.

Any chance of getting more info or a screen shot of the actual Tokens being spent?
Basicly would like to know/see more about this do we get 1 Token per quest or is it more like 5 Tokens per level?
Also are we forced to spend each point as we get it before we know (or think we know) how we will need to approach the next big fight?

Additionally didn't I read Geralt was sort of like a Vampire, yet I keep seeing references to a Wolf/Beast, like on the CS and the Necklace, or is this more Mythos we in the English speaking world have missed out on so far?

I thought the combat description sounded do-able; especially with a pause around for moments of panic. It sounds like they tried to be realistic without making it too easy. It's also nice to see somebody do something with alchemy to make it a worthwhile skill.

There look to be a number of ways that CDProjekt has tried to do things that are creative within the existing action rpg framework, and lord knows somebody needs to. I think playing a character where magic has to tie in with swordsmanship is a real divergence from the typical approach and should make it a lot more interesting than your average hack n slash attack mode.

I guess we'll all find out how good it actually does these things soon, which is good because the more I hear the more I want to play. Nice job, Drhuin.

I don't mind missing out on the babe trading cards too much, though.

Corwin said:

What is the 'Death' consequence in the game, you didn't mention it. Are we to assume you never died!!

Click to expand...

Death: you die. Reload.

I didn't die for quite some time but the opening areas are more or less a tutorial. One or two of the "set piece" fights were harder and I had to use my precious potions (now I'm out - it' s not like Diablo where you stock up on 50x health potions and guzzle them every two minutes).

In the swamp, I was getting repetitively killed, particularly by a plant thing. I eventually ran through to each "safe" area. Not sure if I just missed the right way to kill it or my build wasn't very good - or maybe you are supposed to run.

Gwendo said:

About the "card" mini-game, is it just a cheap feature in the game (random females in the street you can engage), or is there really a mini-game, like a small quest or something to deserve the women's.. huh... Atention?

Click to expand...

There are quests, so far. I've only pursued a couple of options, because it isn't a feature I'm that fussed about. Winning a local wench just required some flowers, getting a freebie deal with the local prostitutes required a quest to get rid of three groups of jerks harassing them at night. There is an "old friend" that *looks* like a full romance - several quests in and I keep dropping hints but she isn't biting. Yet. I could be wrong, though.

I wonder if the Australian version will be completely uncencored, or if I'll have to get this one from gogame.uk as well. It's sounding like a very enjoyable game. Is it really possible we'll get two great RPGs inside one year?

Acleacius said:

I really see them losing sales unnecessarily due to not including things like Auto Chaining feature to help with non-twitch/non-hack & slash player and no Character Customization, which are easily worth the sales increase verses the time to program them.

Any chance of getting more info or a screen shot of the actual Tokens being spent?
Basicly would like to know/see more about this do we get 1 Token per quest or is it more like 5 Tokens per level?
Also are we forced to spend each point as we get it before we know (or think we know) how we will need to approach the next big fight?

Additionally didn't I read Geralt was sort of like a Vampire, yet I keep seeing references to a Wolf/Beast, like on the CS and the Necklace, or is this more Mythos we in the English speaking world have missed out on so far?

Click to expand...

I really don't see them losing sales over no auto-chain. In fact, without that, combat would be rather monotonous. It's an action/RPG - everyone expects *some* action.

No character customisation I agree with but this is a conscious decision rather than lack of budget or anything. Knowing that the character variation would be limited (to stay true to the books), they chose to create a marketable, recognisable character - Geralt. Not saying I entirely agree but perhaps they think the focused marketing will bring in more than they will lose. *shrug*

Didn't I say you get three tokens per level (so far)? Not sure what different screen I can take because you simply click on the skills you can see in these screenshots when you want to spend tokens. One token = one skill (so far).

Really, they're just skill points, except you need silver and gold for higher levels.

Medallion - not a vampire or anything; I think this is just the symbol for witchers.

Heh, I was quite annoyed when I first heard about the seduce-a-wench
minigame but mostly because it created concern (like quite a few people
pointed out) about how maturely they handled all those other adult (no
pun intended, maybe) Themes that are ingrained into Sapkowski's world...

Since everything else seems to have come out OK I can easily ignore that
bit of silliness...

The NPC's AI related glitch was the worst one I have seen in gameplay vids
and is some cause for concern, but I hope they had time to work on it as Dhruin says..

Great overall preview Dhruin. You seem to have tackled exactly the things I was
most interested in learning about (especially pt1). Great to know that they were
in such a generally good shape performance/stability wise in this already a couple
of months old beta...

First, thanx for the info, Dhruin.

As for "combo" issue, reading the article, I get an impression that the term combo is rather misleading... It doesn't sound like a hectic combination of assigned buttons/keys but a series of movements gained through skills, which can be broken if the players click at a bad timing. This system sounds more manageable than combos in some console/arcade action games. Rather, just as Dhruin pointed out, it might turn out to be boring in a long term.

Dhruin said:

No character customisation I agree with but this is a conscious decision rather than lack of budget or anything. Knowing that the character variation would be limited (to stay true to the books), they chose to create a marketable, recognisable character - Geralt. Not saying I entirely agree but perhaps they think the focused marketing will bring in more than they will lose. *shrug*

Click to expand...

A predefined protagonist is not rare in story-focused RPG. Geralt does look marketable than the nameless hero in Gothic series, of which I don't feel bitter as far as it reduces the risk of a failure, but considering the setting, I think Geralt is less customizable in terms of the abilities than his counterparts in Gothic. I understand this since designers repeatedly mentioned witchers are swordsmen but I wonder if they are successful offering a variety of game-plays through skill-branches. Although support magics called signs seem to be limited, alchemy appears to offer some rewards for explorations and resource-managements.

About mini-games, I'd rather like the designers enhance the main games rather than implementing cheap mini-games. However, here we go. Although I cannot but be cynical about how the cheap porno-like mini game turns out, I hope it won't be so stupid enough to ruin the dark setting. Generally speaking, a scent of eroticism may work in this kind of setting but as far as I see the "presentations" so far, they are way too obvious and obscene. In fact, for whom should the mini-game be in the first place? If someone were happy with this kind of mini-game at all, I couldn't but feel sorry for him or her (well, depending on the orientation)... Britney might say, "Mind you, being a sex symbol is a risky business."

The decision makings in the story appears to be focused more on the character of the setting originally created by Sapkowski than on the characters of Geralt and/or NPCs different from conventional story-focused RPGs. The players are given decisions but they are not given decisions which can change the world essentially. Seeing the results of their own decisions cannot be ego-stroking since the players are not able to make difference in a long view. They cannot change the lives/destinies of Geralt and NPCs since they are left to the murky streams in the world created by Sapkowski. I am interested in how this approach turns out.

Well then we ask them to put cloaks in the girls, so puritanism wont be offended

I didn't see any mention of ranged combat. Are there bows or crossbows available or is it all melee?

Gryniaris said:

Well then we ask them to put cloaks in the girls, so puritanism wont be offended

Click to expand...

Well, I don't care for puritanism or purerism but I don't like to feel stupid when playing the game(still hypothetically speaking).

Could the combat possibly be something like it was in "Summoner"? The videos look A LOT faster than Summoner and they added a pause function, but does it feel like it did in Summoner? That would be prette awesome, because I quite liked the combat sytem there.