• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

The Witcher |OT| Damn all dissonances

Brandon F said:
Something I've always wondered...what the hell is the point of the '3rd weapon slot'?

I mean the Witcher sword and Silver sword can level-up, earn abilities, and seem practical in combat. Why the hell would I ever switch to an axe or dagger? What is the point of picking those up? Just to sell?
Not really much of a point, but you can fit a second steel sword there too if you have 2 different ones with different effects. I just use the slots occasionally for selling though.
 

Dizzy-4U

Member
Played my first two hours. Finished the prologue and now I'm on chapter 1. All I can think of is fuck the story and characters....Must...Collect...All...The...Cards!!!1!!...

Seriously though, I'm really liking the game so far. Voice acting has been decent and the dark atmosphere is pretty neat.
 

antonz

Member
Dizzy-4U said:
Played my first two hours. Finished the prologue and now I'm on chapter 1. All I can think of is fuck the story and characters....Must...Collect...All...The...Cards!!!1!!...

Seriously though, I'm really liking the game so far. Voice acting has been decent and the dark atmosphere is pretty neat.

Voice acting is nice. It is a treat to have a mature RPG actually behave mature. I know reality isnt people throwing insults and cursing all the time but it just feels right compared to a Mature MMO that treats everyone like children outside of violence and the occasional sexy moment.
 
antonz said:
Voice acting is nice. It is a treat to have a mature RPG actually behave mature. I know reality isnt people throwing insults and cursing all the time but it just feels right compared to a Mature MMO that treats everyone like children outside of violence and the occasional sexy moment.

You have to remember that the game is heavily influenced by middle-ages Slavic beliefs, mythology, socio-economic situation. This is not pretty German cities, this is what villages and village people really were like - petty, uneducated (how can a farmer get an education back then?), full of superstitions and not trusting of outsiders.
 

soldat7

Member
Not bad so far. My only disappointment is the dodgy framerate on my laptop. Sometimes it's rock solid, sometimes (cutscenes especially), it's not. What can I sacrifice in order to get it under control yet still maintain my pretty picture?
 

DietRob

i've been begging for over 5 years.
Ok Guys I'm getting destroyed in this game. I think I am around level 10 ish "Rising Witcher".

I'm on chapter 2 wading through the swamp, I just picked up the Gramps quest. There is some giant man eating plant thing that comes up on the path that I'm escorting along. I cannot kill this thing.

I'm I too low level to deal with those sorts of monsters yet? Should I go and grind on some drowners for a while. Also how do I obtain the silver and gold talents? I'm pretty sure I've already maxed out all of the talents that require bronze.

I have found one recipe to create a silver talent. Is that the only way to get gold and silver talents is to create them with alchemy?

Sorry, so many questions. I'm really enjoying the game, but I'm now finding myself at a point where I am just not strong enough for it to be fun anymore.
 

Kenka

Member
RbBrdMan said:
Ok Guys I'm getting destroyed in this game. I think I am around level 10 ish "Rising Witcher".

I'm on chapter 2 wading through the swamp, I just picked up the Gramps quest. There is some giant man eating plant thing that comes up on the path that I'm escorting along. I cannot kill this thing.

I'm I too low level to deal with those sorts of monsters yet? Should I go and grind on some drowners for a while. Also how do I obtain the silver and gold talents? I'm pretty sure I've already maxed out all of the talents that require bronze.

I have found one recipe to create a silver talent. Is that the only way to get gold and silver talents is to create them with alchemy?

Sorry, so many questions. I'm really enjoying the game, but I'm now finding myself at a point where I am just not strong enough for it to be fun anymore.

Igni the ass out of it and there might be a chance of incinerate it. Equip the Silver Sword and trounce through it until you beat it. At this very moment, you will barely see any red left in your endurance bar. But you'll survive. Collect its remains, it's a trophy. You can bring it back to some guy in Vizima.

edit : you should trounce it with the silver sword AND attempt to incinerate it with Igni. Much later in the game there will be another (optional) encounter that will have you to use Igni in order to temporarily paralyze your adversary.
 

Minsc

Gold Member
soldat7 said:
Not bad so far. My only disappointment is the dodgy framerate on my laptop. Sometimes it's rock solid, sometimes (cutscenes especially), it's not. What can I sacrifice in order to get it under control yet still maintain my pretty picture?

Your laptop :p The game's just a beast sometimes.

RbBrdMan said:
Ok Guys I'm getting destroyed in this game. I think I am around level 10 ish "Rising Witcher".

I'm on chapter 2 wading through the swamp, I just picked up the Gramps quest. There is some giant man eating plant thing that comes up on the path that I'm escorting along. I cannot kill this thing.

I'm I too low level to deal with those sorts of monsters yet? Should I go and grind on some drowners for a while. Also how do I obtain the silver and gold talents? I'm pretty sure I've already maxed out all of the talents that require bronze.

I have found one recipe to create a silver talent. Is that the only way to get gold and silver talents is to create them with alchemy?

Sorry, so many questions. I'm really enjoying the game, but I'm now finding myself at a point where I am just not strong enough for it to be fun anymore.

There's two types of swamp plants, one you need to run from (it's a trophy kill later in the game - so it's better to save it for then), and another weaker type you can kill. You can tell which is which by how fast your health drops when you get plucked by it (besides of course the name of the monster, but I forget which is which).

You never really need to do any grinding in the game (and I wouldn't recommend it). There's only certain areas that stronger plant can surface, and it can't chase you so just flee from it until you're much stronger.

The silver and gold talents become available when you gain levels later on (you have a long way to go, I think I was around level 30-40 when I finished the game).


Kenka said:
Igni the ass out of it and there might be a chance of incinerate it. Equip the Silver Sword and trounce through it until you beat it. At this very moment, you will barely see any red left in your endurance bar. But you'll survive. Collect its remains, it's a trophy. You can bring it back to some guy in Vizima.

edit : you should trounce it with the silver sword AND attempt to incinerate it with Igni. Much later in the game there will be another (optional) encounter that will have you to use Igni in order to temporarily paralyze your adversary.

Can do that trophy quest in chapter 2 though? I feel like I didn't do it until later in the game when I returned to the swamp.
 

DietRob

i've been begging for over 5 years.
Thanks Minsc and Kenka.

Some great tips for defeating that awful beast. Much appreciated.

Just to clarify on the silver and gold talents bit. I don't have to create those through alchemy and they are handed out at later stages in the game?

However, if I want to I can obviously create a silver talent because I have already.
 

Kenka

Member
RbBrdMan said:
Thanks Minsc and Kenka.

Some great tips for defeating that awful beast. Much appreciated.

Just to clarify on the silver and gold talents bit. I don't have to create those through alchemy and they are handed out at later stages in the game?

However, if I want to I can obviously create a silver talent because I have already.

Gold talents come really late in the game. I am not shitting you, it's just so. Silver talents will fall shortly in your vault, don't be too hasty about it. Once you've unlocked the complete moves while punching (a silver talent), you'll have a shower of coins waiting for you each time you'll confront an adversary ('cause you'll be able to win effortlessly).

You've just seen the tip of the iceberg, This game is badassery.
 

Minsc

Gold Member
RbBrdMan said:
Thanks Minsc and Kenka.

Some great tips for defeating that awful beast. Much appreciated.

Just to clarify on the silver and gold talents bit. I don't have to create those through alchemy and they are handed out at later stages in the game?

However, if I want to I can obviously create a silver talent because I have already.

Yup, you'll get silver and gold points for leveling when you reach the higher levels, you'll still get copper with them and the gold you're given the least amount of and not until your furthest along in levels.

Edit: Twice beaten, going to have to step it up! :)
 

DietRob

i've been begging for over 5 years.
Kenka said:
Gold talents come really late in the game. I am not shitting you, it's just so. Silver talents will fall shortly in your vault, don't be too hasty about it. Once you've unlocked the complete moves while punching (a silver talent), you'll have a shower of coins waiting for you each time you'll confront an adversary ('cause you'll be able to win effortlessly).

You've just seen the tip of the iceberg, This game is badassery.

Awesome. Thanks for all the help.

I have a feeling I'm in for a great amount of badassery. I'm really loving the game so far. Was just getting a little discouraged because I seemed pretty weak. I know this game is going to rock my world. Because I'm such a small way in and I'm already very impressed with it.

Preordered Witcher 2 already. (smiley face emoticon)
 
RbBrdMan said:
Awesome. Thanks for all the help.

I have a feeling I'm in for a great amount of badassery. I'm really loving the game so far. Was just getting a little discouraged because I seemed pretty weak. I know this game is going to rock my world. Because I'm such a small way in and I'm already very impressed with it.

Preordered Witcher 2 already. (smiley face emoticon)

The plant you are talking about is a Trophy monster - each chapter has 2 of them, you get XP + gold. If you move to next chapter the monster will disappear, even if you can still visit the Swamp.

As for tactic - make a potion that makes you resistant to poison and acid, I think the recipe is in Chapter I, or you can buy it anytime in Chapter II). It will help big time with lots of monsters in the Swamp.
 
Really enjoying this game so far.

Somehow it really makes me think about my decisions and who I side with.

Just started Chapter 3 and
had to choose to save Thaler or let him get hung
and I just stood there for a while trying to actually decide what to do cause it felt like an important decision and I didn't want to make the wrong one. I don't think I've given that much thought to decisions in a game before lol.
 
I think in most instances I just went with my gut and was generally happy with the results. Although if I had read the books first I totally would have sided with
Triss instead of Shani.
Although I guess if Geralt has no memory, I could only judge by what was happening in the game anyways.
 

Geoff9920

Member
At the very beginning of chapter 3... loving the game.

Like:
• The story despite the cliché memory loss gimmick. I guess I can attribute this more to the various characters in the story more than the actual over arching plot. The whole mystery subplot from chapter 2 was something new I hadn't seen done before. I enjoyed it even if it meant dealing with the swamp, but even that I learned to eventually move about fairly quickly.
• Atmosphere - The world really makes the game
• OTS camera - the only way to play
• Mouse Combat done right

Dislike:
• equipment customization: maybe this will change later on... who knows. But my equipment doesn't seem to play a large part over how strong my character is.

I enjoy the more focused "open world" design.
 

drhankmccoyphd

Neo Member
How do I make cat potions? I have the two herbs I need and the recipe calls for strong alcohol. I picked some alcohol that's listed as a potion base from the Inn but I still can't make the potion.
 

Geoff9920

Member
mikespit1200 said:
How do I make cat potions? I have the two herbs I need and the recipe calls for strong alcohol. I picked some alcohol that's listed as a potion base from the Inn but I still can't make the potion.
The stuff you bought probably isn't a strong enough potion base. Although I think you could use it to make "White Gull" which would be a strong enough potion base to mix the Cat potion.
 
mikespit1200 said:
How do I make cat potions? I have the two herbs I need and the recipe calls for strong alcohol. I picked some alcohol that's listed as a potion base from the Inn but I still can't make the potion.

Alcohol (not every alcohol, it needs to say it can be used as a base) = 3 herb slots

Good Alcohol = 4 slots

Very Good Alcohol = 5 slots


Your base lacks the amount of slots required for Cat, or the alcohol you have cannot be used as an elixir base. In the future if you have a 3-slot alcohol and require a 5-slot one make a White Gull potion - it's an elixir base with 5 slots.
 

Toby

Member
I think I need help on combat. I keep dying at
the beast on chapter 1
Maybe I just don't understand what fighting style to use. In this fight, I continually try using the group style. With this style do I want to keep my attack focused on one enemy, or after each successful attack switch focus to a different enemy?
And for some reason I keep getting bitten or something that completely incapacitates me for something like 3 seconds. Why is this and can I stop it?
I think I just really suck at this game.
 

Atrus

Gold Member
Toby said:
I think I need help on combat. I keep dying at
the beast on chapter 1
Maybe I just don't understand what fighting style to use. In this fight, I continually try using the group style. With this style do I want to keep my attack focused on one enemy, or after each successful attack switch focus to a different enemy?
And for some reason I keep getting bitten or something that completely incapacitates me for something like 3 seconds. Why is this and can I stop it?
I think I just really suck at this game.

That's probably the hardest battle in the game for me. I basically used a couple potions including the one that makes time slow down at the start and made sure I had skill points allocated.

Basically try to go all out and use as many bonuses as you can to pass it.
 
Toby said:
I think I need help on combat. I keep dying at
the beast on chapter 1
Maybe I just don't understand what fighting style to use. In this fight, I continually try using the group style. With this style do I want to keep my attack focused on one enemy, or after each successful attack switch focus to a different enemy?
And for some reason I keep getting bitten or something that completely incapacitates me for something like 3 seconds. Why is this and can I stop it?
I think I just really suck at this game.

Use Blizzard. 1 Group Attack to get rid of the dogs. For the boss use STRONG style, even if the stupid entry tells you to use FAST style, the fight will end a lot quicker.
 

Sinatar

Official GAF Bottom Feeder
Toby said:
I think I need help on combat. I keep dying at
the beast on chapter 1
Maybe I just don't understand what fighting style to use. In this fight, I continually try using the group style. With this style do I want to keep my attack focused on one enemy, or after each successful attack switch focus to a different enemy?
And for some reason I keep getting bitten or something that completely incapacitates me for something like 3 seconds. Why is this and can I stop it?
I think I just really suck at this game.

If you put a couple of points in the first sign so that it gets the stun ability you can one shot the boss.
 
Are you using alchemy? Do you have any Swallow potions? If not, make some. You'll need some decent booze to make a good base, Cherry something Cordial, Rebis and I forget what the other ingredients are, but you have the recipe. You should have everything but the base provided you've been harvesting the corpses of the monsters you've been fighting up to this point.

Combat in general can be a lot harder without the regenerating health Swallow provides.
 

Minsc

Gold Member
Toby said:
I think I need help on combat. I keep dying at
the beast on chapter 1
Maybe I just don't understand what fighting style to use. In this fight, I continually try using the group style. With this style do I want to keep my attack focused on one enemy, or after each successful attack switch focus to a different enemy?
And for some reason I keep getting bitten or something that completely incapacitates me for something like 3 seconds. Why is this and can I stop it?
I think I just really suck at this game.

That's just one of the hardest battles in the game due to being somewhat inexperienced and the huge jump in difficulty when you get it. My advice is to just use a swallow and coat your blade and you should be good to win, just by running in very wide circles while your health regenerates - if you get hit to a point where you might even be in the slightest risk of dying, start just running away until your health regenerates back to 100% then get a few more hits in, and run in circles for regenerating, etc etc. It takes 10-20 rounds of this, but it works great, you should never take more damage than you regenerate while running away.

Also, if you're quick, you can save a game right at the start of that battle, so you don't have to re-watch the cutscene every time right before it.
 

Toby

Member
Minsc said:
Also, if you're quick, you can save a game right at the start of that battle, so you don't have to re-watch the cutscene every time right before it.
Oh, thank god. I will definitely do that. I might also try that strategy out, though it seems like it might take quite a bit of time to do.
I do have a couple of swallows. If I drink multiples of swallow, that will make my health regenerate even faster, correct?
I remember I do have a potion for some type of blade coating. I'll have to see if I have the required ingredients on hand.
Is blizzard a sign? whatever it is, I haven't heard of it yet.
I guess I am using the completely wrong style if the journal suggests fast. I'll give the strong style a try, but its tough to keep the other dogs at bay when using it.
Thanks for the help guys. A lot of good suggestions.
 
Toby said:
Oh, thank god. I will definitely do that. I might also try that strategy out, though it seems like it might take quite a bit of time to do.
I do have a couple of swallows. If I drink multiples of swallow, that will make my health regenerate even faster, correct?
I remember I do have a potion for some type of blade coating. I'll have to see if I have the required ingredients on hand.
Is blizzard a sign? whatever it is, I haven't heard of it yet.
I guess I am using the completely wrong style if the journal suggests fast. I'll give the strong style a try, but its tough to keep the other dogs at bay when using it.
Thanks for the help guys. A lot of good suggestions.

I think the only thing that stacks if you drink multiple Swallows is your blood toxicity, not the regenerative effect. I could be wrong. You might be better off with one Swallow and a Blizzard. Also equip swallow to your armor's shoulder pouch slot. That way you can just pause the game, and click on the potion icon as you would selecting a sign, weapon or fighting style.

There are two or three barghests that the beast does summon, and will continue to summon when you kill each wave. I recall reading that if you kill all but one, then he won't summon another wave and you can focus on the beast. You could try using fast style to focus on individual barghests, and then strong on the beast. I spent a fair bit of time muddling around Outer Vizima and was probably a bit over-leveled for that encounter.
 

Scipius

Member
So, I'm finally getting around to playing this; really looking forward to it. Playing the intro level for now and trying a few settings, I'm thinking of playing the game with Polish voiceovers. They seem to be better than the English ones (Triss and Geralt specifically) and the subtitling appears to be very consistent (even enemy encounter dialogue is subtitled). Anyone have any experience with it; is there something to look out for, something one might miss?
 

epmode

Member
You'll miss that guy yelling about dwarf cock every few minutes.

I liked the English dub, mostly. The major characters are pretty good if I remember correctly.
 
I think I'm near the end of the game and I'm already thinking about re-playing it through just to make different choices and see how that affects the story.

For those curious I've got about 40hours clocked up and spent a fair time doing most the side quests I could, however I did miss a few I think.

Really is a great game and I think I'll put my pre-order in for the sequel.
 

Scipius

Member
epmode said:
You'll miss that guy yelling about dwarf cock every few minutes.

Well, is that not in the subtitles then? I guess I'll need to play it until I get to a town or anywhere else where there might be incidental/environmental dialogue.
 

Micius

Member
Scipius said:
So, I'm finally getting around to playing this; really looking forward to it. Playing the intro level for now and trying a few settings, I'm thinking of playing the game with Polish voiceovers. They seem to be better than the English ones (Triss and Geralt specifically) and the subtitling appears to be very consistent (even enemy encounter dialogue is subtitled). Anyone have any experience with it; is there something to look out for, something one might miss?

I played through about 3/4 of the game with Polish voiceovers. Thought it sounded great, though there are bits where you get very dense "wall of text" subtitles. I don't think the English voiceovers were bad or anything like that, but there's just some kind of odd exotic appeal in the Polish voices for me. Kind of hoping I could play with Polish voiceovers in The Witcher 2 as well.
 

Scipius

Member
Micius said:
I played through about 3/4 of the game with Polish voiceovers. Thought it sounded great, though there are bits where you get very dense "wall of text" subtitles. I don't think the English voiceovers were bad or anything like that, but there's just some kind of odd exotic appeal in the Polish voices for me. Kind of hoping I could play with Polish voiceovers in The Witcher 2 as well.

Was that the first 3/4 or the last 3/4? Anyway, I've already seen a few glitches, but the other way around; the subtitles disappearing too quickly. That can be easily remedied by starting the dialogue again though.

I'm not a native English speaker, so I was always going to play it in a foreign language no matter what. However, playing it in Polish does seem to fit the Slavic feel of the game much better and sets it apart from most WRPGs. Even with my short playthrough in English, it was apparent some voice acting was better in the original Polish (though it may be the other way around elsewhere). In particular Triss' VA with her overly American accent sounded jarring.

I'm hoping we won't have to wait for an EE version of The Witcher 2 to do the same in that game.
 

Micius

Member
Scipius said:
Was that the first 3/4 or the last 3/4? Anyway, I've already seen a few glitches, but the other way around; the subtitles disappearing too quickly. That can be easily remedied by starting the dialogue again though.

I'm not a native English speaker, so I was always going to play it in a foreign language no matter what. However, playing it in Polish does seem to fit the Slavic feel of the game much better and sets it apart from most WRPGs. Even with my short playthrough in English, it was apparent some voice acting was better in the original Polish (though it may be the other way around elsewhere). In particular Triss' VA with her overly American accent sounded jarring.

I'm hoping we won't have to wait for an EE version of The Witcher 2 to do the same in that game.

To clarify, it was the last 3/4. I started off with default settings, decided to try out the Polish voice acting out of curiosity, and never looked back.
 
So..not to troll, but I thought the draw of this game was how mature it was. I just got a trading card for fucking a goth chick. It's still early, but so far we haven't even exceeded GTA's level of maturity.
 

Minsc

Gold Member
CaptainAhab said:
So..not to troll, but I thought the draw of this game was how mature it was. I just got a trading card for fucking a goth chick. It's still early, but so far we haven't even exceeded GTA's level of maturity.

Maturity comes mostly from having to make plot decisions that aren't easily coined to right or wrong. The cards and proportions of nearly all the women are laughable, but it does go beyond that, sometimes.

The cards won't be back for The Witcher 2, but Geralt will be Geralt, and romances are going to play their part like in the first.
 
CaptainAhab said:
So..not to troll, but I thought the draw of this game was how mature it was. I just got a trading card for fucking a goth chick. It's still early, but so far we haven't even exceeded GTA's level of maturity.
Yeah, that's one of the flaws in the game. It's a mature game in its scenarios, but the maturity constantly gets undercut by the whole card thing.
Gamer @ Heart said:
Im disappointed in the type/ amount of armor available. I love looking cool in RPGs.
Luckily that'll be addressed in the sequel. Much bigger variety of armor parts including some factional gear.
 

Tacitus_

Member
CaptainAhab said:
So..not to troll, but I thought the draw of this game was how mature it was. I just got a trading card for fucking a goth chick. It's still early, but so far we haven't even exceeded GTA's level of maturity.

Define GTA level of maturity.
 

Micius

Member
CaptainAhab said:
So..not to troll, but I thought the draw of this game was how mature it was. I just got a trading card for fucking a goth chick. It's still early, but so far we haven't even exceeded GTA's level of maturity.

Like others mentioned already, the cards are hardly what people meant when talking about the maturity level of the game. Though it is sort of sad that gratuitous sexual elements seems to be an industry standard now for lengthy RPGs. Ironic that the content that lead to the age limit for games to be raised tends to be the same content that makes a game puerile rather than mature these days.
 
Tacitus_ said:
Define GTA level of maturity.

Grand Theft Auto games contain more sex and violence than a child should be exposed to, but everything is handled in such a juvenile way that it's hard, as an adult, to find any of it compelling. When that trading card popped up in the Witcher it instantly reminded me of the Tw@t internet cafes in GTA4.

I'm only a couple of hours in, so I imagine it will get better. I was just expecting something like a George R.R. Martin book, but so far it's a lot more like Fable 2.
 
Elves vs. Humans is where the story is at it's strongest. Both sides have their positives and negatives.

And please, lets not act like George R R Martin is above the whole immature sex-story thing.
 

Tacitus_

Member
CaptainAhab said:
Grand Theft Auto games contain more sex and violence than a child should be exposed to, but everything is handled in such a juvenile way that it's hard, as an adult, to find any of it compelling. When that trading card popped up in the Witcher it instantly reminded me of the Tw@t internet cafes in GTA4.

I'm only a couple of hours in, so I imagine it will get better. I was just expecting something like a George R.R. Martin book, but so far it's a lot more like Fable 2.

The cards are nothing but a reminder of your, ehm, conquests. The story will get a lot better when you get to the city and it just gets better from there (mostly, anyways - the swamp is kinda iffy).

As others have said, the conflict between the humans (racists) and the scoia'tael (terrorists) and where you fall in between them is fantastic.The points when you have to take a side instead of being neutral are especially hard. For example, the
bank robbery scene
. Both sides have compelling arguments.. but are still wrong in some way.
 
Discotheque said:
And please, lets not act like George R R Martin is above the whole immature sex-story thing.

I used that as an example because I'm not trying to hold this fantasy video game up to the standards of a Nabokov novel. I'd be psyched if the treatment of sex in the Witcher was on Martin's maturity level. My point is that I don't even think they managed to hit that mark.

Whatever, I'm just bent out of shape because the Reverend tried to give me a ring that I was supposed to show to a bunch of important people so that they would talk to me, but since I didn't have enough inventory space he dropped it on the ground and it vanished.
 
Top Bottom