So I borrowed this of steve recently and i declare it a victory. I've played pleanty of games that say your choices effect the story but this is the first one i've come accross that actually has a clear impact, emphisised by Geralt stopping to reflect at certain points (like when a contact i needed to talk to got murdered and he stopped to think about how i'd made the choice to let rebels take supplies rather than stopping them)

Discuss

I'm not entirely decided on this one... I consider myself a pretty big fan of the RPG genre, but this pushes it a tad too much I think. The mechanics are terribly unintuitive and the interface reminded me of my year 11 accounting textbook. God damn. So many screens! You have combat mode. And stand-around-do-nothing mode. Combat mode has fast, medium and slow. Excessively complicated! Also have you tried making potions? Don't even bother unless you've taken the 10 week online Alchemy course. Game makes me rage thinking about it.

Soon it will dawn upon you. You're walking around from place to place killing X amount of monsters with one-click combat...

Spoiler:
	and realise you're playing a single-player MMO.

Honestly, play Morrowind. Sooo much better. And you can be a werewolf. That or Diablo 2. Both games should be on that free stuff topic I posted.

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Q: I hate my past, how can I change it?

A: Get a car, preferably a Delorean, that can generate 1.21 gigawatts of power and then hit 88 mph.

Thats the thing though, its ridiculasly complicated but at the same time really well done. combat is one click, but you need to time each click just right. As for the differant types, its pretty simple once you understand it

[/spoiler] Fast attack stance does quick but weak moves, so your enemies get little chance to attack back but its useless against heavy opponents

Strong attack stance does slow but heavy blows, so it is effective against armoured opponents but leaves you open to faster baddies

group attack stance does weak but impressive as hell moves that hit all opponents around you, great for taking out groups of weak baddies but not as effective in one on one [/spoiler]. Also, your limited in how many potions you can use because they have a toxic effect, so if you take too many too fast it has negitive effects and can even kill you

And the best part of the game is the dynamic story. You have to think before you act because a seemingly harmless choice can lead to a major change in the story later on

Spoiler:
	(i.e. I had the option to stop a group of rebels collecting supplies, but i let them go because the supplies included food for there starving men. later on the same rebels kill someone i needed for a quest)

.

All up it looks like a common hack and slash on the surface, but it takes a fair bit of stratagy, and Geralts attacks look awesome and realistic enough you don't care its one click (instead of one click = one swing, he actually chains together realistic attack sequences that include spins and kicks, he attempts to dodge and parry automatically, and it just looks incredible)

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... yeah i know there's a typo I'll fix it later

I wouldn't go as far to say that dynamic story makes a good game, and even so The Witcher doesn't really have a deep story. Nor is it told well. Sure, you can do a bunch of GRINDAN side quests, but when you are consistently performing the same nauseatingly dull tasks over and OVER, you start to forget the main story, let alone care about it.

Like when you have to kill a certain creature to collect its skull. You would assume that going out and clicking on it would suffice. No. You have to research the creature to find out where said skull is, then go kill it. Why? Why would you force the player to research? Why not just kill the creature, and learn from there?

Also, the whole varied stance this could have been replaced by the use of different keys. Seriously, the UI has the about the same friendliness as Microsoft Access and they couldn't have even simplified the combat stance?

I was hyped for this game before release, but after playing it, I was really disappointed. Maybe that just makes me a harsher critic.

"Honestly, play Morrowind. Sooo much better. And you can be a werewolf."

Am considering playing just because being a werewolf would be awesome!

Well i like it. Its got a really nice feel to it, and in the end isn't morrowwind and all them pretty much the same thing? Running around doing repeditive quests? Least in witcher it gives you direction through the game rather than aimlessly wandering the countryside.

Also seperate buttons wouldn't work, because a) One of the options is to play with the mouse only, and b) each of the six styles (strong steel, strong silver, fast steel etc.) gets powered up individually so they can't be chained together. It seems really shit on paper i know but when you actually play the game it works well. Also you can hit space to pause the game and give instructions like changing style between two baddies or drinking a potion

I'm sure anyone who has played Morrowind and Diablo would agree that they are very different lol. I would say that they are a lot less repetitive than The Witcher, for sure.

RPGs are supposed to be about exploration, don't let the usual JRPG convince you otherwise. Would you agree that Gothic 3 is a better game (I know you've played that one)?

@ Kate, yes the werewolf thing is awesome. Only thing is if someone sees you turn, and escape everyone kills you from then on. Not cool. Vampires are in there too, but the no sunlight thing sucks.

My bad for derailing.