The Witcher: A Retrospective Review

[ZGRDaniel]

In anticipation for The Witcher 2 in a few weeks, I posted a video Retrospective Review of The Witcher.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OV4ujdJKnhs

Let me know what you think!

[ithinkthatsall]

The best Witcher video review I've ever seen, you've said almost everything that should be said, but I don't agree with you at some points:
-Easy fighting, spamming Signs - you propably played at the easy difficulty level. As far as I know, hard makes it almost impossible to beat some of the opponents without serious buffs like some more alchemy, oils, increased magic etc.
-The 'dark' setting isn't all that dark IMO. I would rather call it naturalistic, it looks not like Middle-Earth, more like medival Europe. You can't say first chapter was too dark and the third one has some nice look too (Vizima is just great).
-You forgot to mention one thing - living world. This was the first time I saw people hiding from rain in a video game and it was HUGE!
-Voice acting may be actually bad, but I've played only the polish version which is really decent. Maybe you should have tried playing the game with subtitles? I bet it would give you more of a 'west (I meant east, I was typing in a hurry ;P) european' feel.
I know the second's game voiceovers WILL be much better, because of some changes that were made to perfect it. I belive The Witcher 2 will end the era of RPGs we know.

P.S. If you like The Witcher's setting, you're gonna love the books, starting with The Last Wish.

[ZGRDaniel]

Actually I played on the middle difficulty setting and always had a few potions active... That made spamming spells and battles trivial.

[ithinkthatsall]

It's great you've picked up the game anyway. Looking forward to your TW2 review as well. Subscribed!

Edit: Okay, after watching the video for the 3rd time ;) I wanted to say the 'spells' aren't so powerful. Mages in the world of The Witcher aren't fireball-casting berserks (Dragon Age II?) and Geralt as a witcher uses only the really simple ones called signs. Just a note for people who would want to play as a spellcaster in this game ;)

[ZGRDaniel]

And typically when I play RPGs, I play as a mage haha... I love me some fireballs.

[Excifer]

I agree on a lot of what was said in your review. Granted that I'm also playing the game at a later stage in the game's lifespan. My computer wasn't strong enough to play it when it first came out, and aside from a bit of lagging and stuttering, my computer can at least get me through the entire game without any bugs that break the experience.

The game has a unique setting. Although it is a fantasy world, it treads on a fine line between fantasy and reality. Living in a world that is persuaded by drugs, violence, and sex sounds awfully familiar. I wonder why . . .

All in all, the game was good and despite the flaws that I personally experienced, it was enough to persuade me to get The Witcher 2. I also hear that it will have Steamworks benefits exclusive to Steam. So we get the achievements and the Cloud. :D

[ithinkthatsall]

I agree on a lot of what was said in your review. Granted that I'm also playing the game at a later stage in the game's lifespan. My computer wasn't strong enough to play it when it first came out, and aside from a bit of lagging and stuttering, my computer can at least get me through the entire game without any bugs that break the experience.

The game has a unique setting. Although it is a fantasy world, it treads on a fine line between fantasy and reality. Living in a world that is persuaded by drugs, violence, and sex sounds awfully familiar. I wonder why . . .

All in all, the game was good and despite the flaws that I personally experienced, it was enough to persuade me to get The Witcher 2. I also hear that it will have Steamworks benefits exclusive to Steam. So we get the achievements and the Cloud. :D

I bet there won't be any Clouds here :/

[skelter192]

I bet there won't be any Clouds here :/

Steam Cloud in Witcher 2? It's been confirmed.

[Lavec]

-Voice acting may be actually bad, but I've played only the polish version which is really decent. Maybe you should have tried playing the game with subtitles? I bet it would give you more of a 'west (I meant east, I was typing in a hurry ;P) european' feel.

I can't agree more with that. English voices are terrible but if you play with Polish or even French the voice acting is much better, you can feel it even if you don't understand a word of it. And of course turn on English subtitles. I wish all games allowed this form of customisation of voice language, and interface/subtitle language.

I must say though, English voice-overs have come a long way in the last few years. Perhaps because the English seldom dubbed foreign movies that there wasn't the skill base in the actors guild but that seems to be changing with the games and animation industry expanding.

That said if the Witcher 2 voices have an american accent I'll be forced to play in a European language anyway. I've never been able to immerse myself in a game set in the old world where everyone has an american accent.

[Hyetal]

That said if the Witcher 2 voices have an american accent I'll be forced to play in a European language anyway. I've never been able to immerse myself in a game set in the old world where everyone has an american accent.

Yeah, man, I'm totally there with you. I mean, ♥♥♥♥, there ain't no way and no how them elves and dwarves back in the day were tossin' around wackadoo American accents.

Way to stick up for realism, bro.