The Witcher - Interview @ GameSpot

Revealing that The Witcher is "essentially" in beta, GameSpot has a new interview with CD Projekt's Michal Madej:

GS: Just how flexible is the story? Are there still the multiple endings? How much replayability is there? Can you have dramatically different experiences if you play through the game and make different choices?
MM: The Witcher has three separate endings, and the ending you see will be tied to the choices made in the game. Differences between the alternate endings are huge and concern many aspects of the gameworld. The player will have to make a lot of tough choices that will put the lives of friends and foes in danger; and in the end, the player's allegiances and decisions will determine more than just Geralt's destiny.
In a single play-through, it's only possible to learn about 60 percent of Geralt's available skills, giving players the opportunity to enjoy the game in a different way in subsequent adventures. The differences in character "builds"--the different ways you can customize your character--are very visible. But this is just an additional feature. Replayability, above all else, is based on the possibility of making different choices each time.

Thanks to Melvil and our resident tiger Sammy.
More information.

Meh, three different endings? Meh… Meh, I say!

Originally Posted by Morbus
Meh, three different endings? Meh… Meh, I say!

That's a lot more than most games have nowadays.

Re:
[We want to get the attention of gamers who are interested in a deep story and the consequences that come along with making tough decisions throughout the game.]

….subjectively speaking, this is what i want. The graphics, combat, magic, women etc are all just fine - but it's the storyline and it's variations of trickery, deceit and deceptive dilemma's that my gaming soul seeks.

A running beta suggests all development is running smoothly, i can't wait.

Isn't the release date pretty close, Wulf? All I can remember is "summer" 07. I know something is happening in June, but I think that's the English publication of some of Sapkowski's work. I also am getting antsy for this one.

@Morbus, I would say that the "meh" factor depends a lot on how good the endings really are -- how well they're written, how they really tie into choices made along the way, and so on. I'd much rather have three solid endings than a dozen lame ones.

@magerette,
I've always followed "game.uk's" release info as seen here…
http://www.game.co.uk/ViewProduct.as…=10&mid=331120

When the page is 'pale' (no box shot) and short of confirmed release info it can still vary nearer to the date.
Their past variable release dates such as Oblivion and G3 were spot-on, so i'll guess 14-sept-2007 here in uk looks solid at the moment.

With the gameplay potential that The Witcher posesses, i envisage a seperate forum here, maybe and hopefully a WitcherWatch - who knows - but it's too early to predict just yet.

I just sincerely hope and pray that the first English previews are portrayed in a mature and well respected fashion and not by some idiotic backstreet guttersnipe with "look at me" mentality.

At least, I'm tired of escapist treatment of fantasy world than any other expectable cliches. And yes, I guess I have good reasons that make methirsty for deeperand interesting themes and characters. The world by a writer regarded as more than a fantasy novelist is nota bad start considering the current popurality of escapist fantasy.

ditto.
I'm stoked about Witcher.

Another preview http://www.computerandvideogames.com….php?id=165133

Originally Posted by Morbus
Meh, three different endings? Meh… Meh, I say!

Yeah, but :

Differences between the alternate endings are huge and concern many aspects of the gameworld. The player will have to make a lot of tough choices that will put the lives of friends and foes in danger; and in the end, the player's allegiances and decisions will determine more than just Geralt's destiny.

To me, the impact of the endings is more important than the number of them.

I've heard all this hype before, but in most cases the endings are still only affected by a few, simple choices of good or evil near the end. I will definetly play The Witcher as soon as possible, but I'm not expecting too much as far as endings go.

"Endings"

O.k..so we know the consequences of choices will trigger one of the three endings…it's just a guess but imagine…

Ending one……is easy..the normal default for dummies.
Ending two……is difficult and takes some thinking out.
Ending three….is almost impossible, needs an analytical brain.

Which one would you try for by choice and dilemma within the game-play……would any other kind of reward make you try for the next difficulty ending knowing you finished on the easy for dummies level? - would you call it quits after the first run?

Maybe I'm confusing the Witcher with another game, but I seem to remember an interview way back where CDP said the endings would basically come in the good, evil or neutral flavors. Someting along the lines of you could either help the good guys, join the dark side, or be out for numero uno only and let the two sides duke it out themselves and see what happens when the dust settles.

Originally Posted by Wulf
would you call it quits after the first run?

I know I will call it quits after the first run, no matter if an ending is a matter of "brains" (very doubtful that it will be… I don't think that pressing 1, 2 or 3 for any of the dialogue choices requires too much brains to be honest ) or good/neutral/evil.
Due to time constraints and a constant flow of new games, I'm permanently playing catch up so three endings is a complete waste of time for me personally and for about 90% of the other people who don't replay or never even finish their games, too.
That is especially true if the triggers for the endings are "hidden" along the way (as they said, they want to prevent people from making save games to reload and try something else because obviously everyone nowadays has so much time that it's no problem to go through a game multiple times ).
Anyway, if I would only have to replay a part (couple hours… five max) near the end, I might consider it but go through the whole game again and hope to pull the right strings for another ending the next time around? Forget it. Not gonna happen, unless this is like the bestestestestestest game evah. Which we will have to wait'n'see to find out…

You mustn't take my endings suggestion too directly, of course its to do with dark light and grey areas…those are the dilemma's.

You get a good explanation re the 'Elf and the Crates' quest where all isnt as it first appears. There will always be an easy route to finish a game as well as the difficult one - - - so which is the easy one heh - - dark or light - - or grey?

Good strategic saves will always help i suppose. For me i will go for gold on the first run….in a slow and careful manner as always. "Wulves" have a sense for these things.

In one interview they said that the path to one ending may become closed quite early in the game, iirc.

Originally Posted by Wulf
"Endings"
Ending one……is easy..the normal default for dummies.
Ending two……is difficult and takes some thinking out.
Ending three….is almost impossible, needs an analytical brain.

That's a great idea! Instead of the typical good, bad and the ugly, this system rewards the die-hard fans. No game has yet implement this much more complex system! I could only think of one drawback…it is in conflict with publishers' financial goal

As for the "outputs" of theplayer's choices, I read a similar comment by a dev around good, evil and neutral cliche, which made me wonder about its coherence with the theme of moral ambiguity. Later, devs showed a video of three ways to get through a gate with nice, nasty and neutral approaches, which confirmed my concern. However, the elf mission seems more of offering three dimentional view to the world, making me feel better. About the suggestion on the endings, personally, I'd rather see various interestingoutputs to satisfy my curiosity than a trick to satisfy hardcore factor. If someone like the game enough he will learn many more outputs simply by spending his time with it.