I've started playing The Witcher. No, not the good one.

kolanaki@pawb.social · 6 Jan 2025, 18:40

I really liked the first one when it was new... Up until I got toward the end and encountered a CTD bug that, if was ever fixed, I didn't know about it and gave up waiting for.

The re-release probably works fine tho... Right?

dudewitbow@lemmy.zip · 1 Jun 2025, 23:37

the first one has a standlone plot thats mostly disconnected witht eh latter two. 1's gameplay was rough, but its a decent introductory on the world and the Geralt as a form of a mentor.

It's visually a 3d action game, but plays like a top down ARPG(as it is an ARPG)

drbreen@sh.itjust.works · 2 Jun 2025, 06:53

I tried playing the 3rd one and I really couldn't get past Geralt's voice and voice acting. I couldn't stand it. Probably just me though.

fulg@lemmy.world · wrote on 1 Jun 2025, 23:23

I quickly gave up on the first. I really enjoyed the second one though, and also that some of the choices you make carry over in the 3rd one.

If I had one complaint about Witcher 3, it would be the stupid crafting system, even 200 hours in I am missing bits and pieces... I could not stand Gwent at the time and actively avoided it, but some people love it.

wolflink@sh.itjust.works · wrote on 1 Jun 2025, 23:32

I’ve played the first one briefly. I don’t remember being able to play other characters. I remember the worst part being the combat system was an absolute slog. The later Witcher games don’t have great combat systems either, but it’s at least improved with each generation.

I might go back and play the older witchers eventually but I still haven’t finished Witcher 3 despite like 200 hours in it.

dustydata@lemmy.world · 6 Jan 2025, 19:45

That's because the first one was inspired by a Baldur's gate game (they were working in localization). But it got canceled because interplay was on the brink of bankruptcy. So CDPR repurposed all the work done thus far, including most of the script, with a new license they had just bought.

Funnily enough, the mild success of the writing convinced CDPR to port the game to consoles and that also almost bankrupted them.

arbitraryvalue@sh.itjust.works · wrote on 1 Jun 2025, 23:59

Heh, I loved the first one and then I tried the second one, hated how they changed the combat, and quit.

dbtng@eviltoast.org · 6 Jan 2025, 21:00

Ya, I got the Vesna Hood escort quest while I was in the middle of killing devil hounds. I was like, "Lovely, my first slave." I was hoping this was a skyrim situation where you can tote around a half dozen unkillable allies, as long as you don't finish their quests.

Nope. She died. Fought pretty good tho. She was killin. I was almost sad. Now I want to give her some demon sword and immortality.

I don't know what the hell I read about using other characters. I was going to try that next. No such thing in my game. There's a number of 'new adventures'. So I'll see that that is. I'm doing something about a swamp.
... Brilliant. None of the voices are playing, in this extra adventure, just text dialog. Massive improvement.

eezeebee@lemmy.ca · wrote on 2 Jun 2025, 01:43

I started playing 1, but haven't finished it.

I don't think it's bad, more like it just hasn't aged very well, especially the combat. Which is the same thing I disliked about 3 despite enjoying it overall - clunky combat in a post Dark Souls world just doesn't cut it for me.

The game is alright, but I'm in no rush to go back and finish it. I hope that with 4 and the focus on Ciri they will work on improving the combat system some more.

bmebenji@lemm.ee · 2 Jun 2025, 06:42

I get that people don’t like it for a wide variety of reasons. However, there are 2 things I absolutely adore about it:

The combat. Not so much the clunky clicking, but the way it strong-arms you into engaging with the alchemy and bestiary like an actual witcher would have to. Witchers don’t stand a chance against most of the monsters they fight without those stupidly potent potions and acute knowledge of their weaknesses.
The atmosphere. The game may be ugly up close, but every single map, every environment oozes with dreary medieval vibes or swampy fantasy. I don’t even think I can say that it’s good “for a low budget game” because the atmosphere stands the test of time. The developers had an idea for how the game should feel as soon as they started designing it and it shows.

I went back to play the first 2 games before replaying the third and finally finishing CP2077 a few years ago because I wanted to see how CDPR’s skills changed, and honestly? They haven’t, at least not in regards to making a game immersive. The only thing that’s changed is the budget and scope of their games because holy hell I’ll be damned if every one of CDPR’s major releases hasn’t been among the most immersive video games ever created.

oce@jlai.lu · 6 Jan 2025, 23:10

I also tried 1 long after release and couldn't get over the clunkyness and how much studying it requires to play. But I really enjoyed the 2, I even replayed it to see the other side of the story after the big branching, which is something I almost never do with games.

sterile_technique@lemmy.world · wrote on 2 Jun 2025, 04:31

Witcher 1 is so bad it kinda goes full circle into having a certain charm.

It's like the gaming equivalent of a pug: so ugly it's cute.

...I recommend modding the fuck out of it to basically godmode blitz your way through the story so you can get on to Witcher 2 which is an actually decent game; and Witcher 3 which remains one of the best games on the market to-date.

rappe@sopuli.xyz · 6 Feb 2025, 00:33

It's been a while since I have disagreed so hard with anyone. With all due respect of course, can't really debate taste.

I disagree with the story being awful or awkward acting. Story is the best one of out the 3 (if you don't count Witcher 3's DLCs, those were superb.) and has the most innovative story quests. Also, not to spoil too much, but your decisions in that game actually affect the entire world and story a lot, what you do in act 2 can change the entire story, my mate and I had completely different stories because of what we decided in act 2, and I have to respect that. Not like that Mass Effect kind of "you were evil or whatever, which colour do you want as your ending?"

I agree, combat is terrible, engine is terrible, everything is unintuitive and clunky. I'd say for the best experience, drop difficulty to the easiest one and play for the story. Also, change voice acting to Polish, I can't stand Geralt in English in any of the games (Sorry Doug, cool guy, doesn't fit as Geralt IMO.) and the Polish really adds to the atmosphere, kinda like playing S.T.A.L.K.E.R. in Russian.

After a dwarf in the slums told me that my mother sucks dwarf cocks in hell, I haven't been the same as a person.

Good for you to give it a go even though it's pretty rough by today's standards. Totally worth it, love the game even with it's massive faults.

howrar@lemmy.ca · 2 Jun 2025, 06:41

I didn't expect my decisions to actually affect anything when I played it. Big surprise when I just clicked every dialogue option and things went poorly.

You can also load your save file into the second game and have that affect the story in minor ways, which I thought was pretty cool.

satansmaggotycumfart@lemmy.world · 2 Jun 2025, 05:30

Why not just write crash to desktop for us non-technical people?

It took me like two minutes to figure out what that meant.

kolanaki@pawb.social · 2 Jun 2025, 05:37

You haven't seen "CTD" before? You're yankin' my pizzle.

satansmaggotycumfart@lemmy.world · wrote on 2 Jun 2025, 05:37

Maybe I’ve seen it before but I had to search what it meant to refresh my memory.

x4740n@lemm.ee · wrote on 2 Jun 2025, 06:26

People can search for it online at your preferred search engine

People aren't always going to be there to answer questions people have

detren@lemm.ee · wrote on 2 Jun 2025, 06:41

And then you can do the same with the third game too. It’s really neat

detren@lemm.ee · wrote on 2 Jun 2025, 06:42

Your first point is why I often recommend playing the third game on the highest difficulty setting actually. It’s so much fun to actually use the ointments and oils and shit.

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I've started playing The Witcher. No, not the good one.