A long while ago I picked up The Witcher 2 on a whim. I needed something to play, and it looked pretty good and seemed to be recommended by quite a few people. I liked the game, but never actually ended up finishing it. It was sort of understandable without the foundation game, The Witcher, but I still felt like I was missing something. I really dislike jumping in the middle of a story. So, I put it aside and was distracted by other things.
As with probably everyone else in existence, The Witcher sat in my Steam Library for quite some time. I think I bought it for a buck fifty, perhaps two. Right now it sits at $10 dollars.
So, I just finished up with Dragon Age: Inquisition, and I was still in the mood for a bit of western RPG goodness. I had been planning on trying to buy Witcher 3 when that came out, despite not finishing 2 and never playing 3. I wouldn't have time to play those by February, W3's initial release date. But, it seems I was in luck! The Witcher 3 was delayed until May. So, I thought to myself, "Now's the perfect time for some Geralt Goodness!"
...and I tend to like playing games while seeing other people's reactions and talking to them about it, so I thought, "Perhaps now is also the perfect time for a Witcher LTTP thread!"
Here it is, NeoGAF! It's time to grab your two swords, mix some potions, get a little drunk, maybe find a girl with a flashy card, and hack and slash our way to the release of Witcher 3: Wild Hunt!
The Witcher:
Made by Polish developer CD Projekt RED, The Witcher game is based on the book series of the same name by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. It's an RPG that throws you into the role one of the few remaining Witchers. His name is Geralt of Rivia, and hunting monsters is his game. He's got a bit of a dry sense of humor and two blades; one is for fighting humans and one is for fighting monsters... oh, and he apparently just lost his memory! No, wait, come back, I swear it's good!
The game starts with a pretty brilliant intro cutscene. After that, you're found and taken to Kaer Morhen, an old Witcher stronghold. The game proper starts with an attack. You, your faithful sorceress Triss Merigold, and a few other Witchers must fight off a group of bandits called Salamandra. They're lead by a mage named Azar Javed.
Your quest, Witcher, is to seek out Salamandra, and find out exactly why they broke in and what they want with all your mutagens.
The combat is a sort of rhythmic mini-game. You choose different stances based on whether you're fighting a quicker opponent, someone bigger, or a lot of enemies. You also get two swords, one for fighting humans and another for monsters. Alchemy and potions are a big part of this game, too. You can up your recovery rate, add damage, or even slow down time to up your parry rate through the roof. Honestly, the combat's not the best, but it seems to get the job done well enough.
The rest of the gameplay is very old-school RPG. There are branching paths, depending on how you figure out the quest leads. I'm on Chapter 2 and a lot of it is almost adventure game-like. This chapter in particular is a straight up detective story. You've got to find leads and check out suspects. Lots of dialogue. It's honestly getting a bit tedious, in a way, but I'm still hanging in there and digging it. I think if you expect a lot of combat or something it's not going to satisfy. At least so far. I was also expecting some of the pacing of Witcher 2, since I played that first, and it's pretty different.
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings:
Events of The Witcher lead right into The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings. As the intro cutscene shows, and the title clearly hints at, kings are being assassinated, and Geralt is a suspect. After being let out of prison by a man named Vernan Roche, you set out on a quest to find this kingslayer.
Combat has been tweaked for Witcher 2. It's much more action-based. You can choose faster, weak attacks, or stronger, slower ones. They also added the ability to lay traps and to aim and throw ranged weapons. You can still use potions, much like the first game.
It's been a while since I played it, but the pacing was a lot quicker than the first Witcher. Dare I say it's a bit more mainstream? It still has some big choices and branching paths. I believe you can get pretty different chapters depending on who you side with, so that's pretty cool.
I'm unsure of whether I can or should play Witcher 2 on my Macbook when I get there or on the 360 like I did the first time. I think either way I'll try and use a controller. It'll probably depend on if anything at all carries over from the first game.
Witcher 3: Wild Hunt:
Apparently this game is huge. They're bragging it's 30 times larger than previous Witcher games, and 20% bigger than Skyrim. It's also a very pretty game. There's a pretty great trailer here and a 35 minute gameplay demo here. I'm excited. You're excited. Nearly everyone's excited.
So, what's your thoughts on the series? Are you replaying it before Witcher 3 comes out?
Please use spoiler tags (and mark which game).
