The Witcher -- violence, sex, and alchemy as part of your daily balanced breakfast

heheheh

This is delightful.

Just got to the Beast and I'm getting destroyed. I've done all the local quests except for playing dice and fistfighting. I might have to grind some more just to keep myself alive in this fight, keeping Abigail alive seems impossible.

I got lucky with Aard and one-shotted the Beast. Given that I had to quicksave at the beginning of the fight, reload several times and get lucky to win I fear I'm missing something about combat, but anyway on to Chapter 2.

Love how the typical early town full of quests turned out to be sordid and corrupt. Whereas the Salamadra are just thieves and murderers, they're veritable innocents.

I always play with companions since my tactics is generally to get someone else to do initial damage while I spell long distance casts from a safe distance. I also like to taunt giants to lure them toward enemy camps and watch the chaos unfold

Oops wrong thread (skyrim)

Combat-wise, I found the learning curve quite steep at first. As with the overwhelming majority of CRPGs, however, it became a cake-walk once I got past the first half.

Oh and a word of advice: avoid walkthroughs and wikis while you're playing the game, but do check them out afterwards – there is much to miss out on, which is exactly as it should be!

2xp

I’ve neglected the main W3 story in favor of side quests, contracts, and exploration and, somehow, I’ve arrived at Kaer Morhen (recommended level: 19) at level 31. Might have to bump the difficulty up to Death March from Broken Bones so I don’t stroll through the rest of the game. OTOH, I suppose outmatching everyone is appropriate considering Geralt is a literally legendary warrior at this point, after several novels and two games worth of fighting…

yeah I never felt any real guilt about being overclocked while playing. the fights aren't really the star of the game

After spending like 40+ hours in this game, I just today finally found out about how quest recommended levels affect the XP you get from them (from what I understand, if a quest is 5+ levels below your own level, you get basically no XP from it). I had been so confused to be getting like 2xp for completing lower-level quests!

And yeah, I also don't mind being completely OP in all the fights. I'm in it for the story maaaan, and the scenery.

xpost WAHT

If you want to spruce up the combat, I heard the Ghost and Enhanced Edition mods are worth checking out.

I killed a bunch of wyverns in that godawful swamp and got a sword with a name, cool

Gotta love a game in which the post-quest journal entry is "in some way, I've learned too much"

This situation with Alvin is bad. Triss is probably going to lobotomize him and Shani is dangerously naive to think he's just a kid.

Love how after chapter 2 the swamp is filled with EVEN MORE monsters. I just wanted to be a hero, why is everything getting worse?

So I had no idea that when I left the middle portion of the game (fish god etc) that I was entering one long, scripted series of encounters with no chance to forage for potion ingredients. I never really thought about what I had, I just brewed and foraged as I needed, so no stocks to fall back on. I think I'll get through it but this seems unnecessarily stressful.

Finished. My favorite part of the game was a random dwarf in Vizima who let out a frustrated "fuck" as he walked by.

I just got out of the prologue and made it to Vizima. I'm level 4 (recommended level 4) and I feel like I dicked around for waaaay longer than necessary in the first area.

general consensus is that dicking around in White Orchard is recommended. Some suggest completing all the side-quests before moving on. I didn't, but going slow in this game is a lot more rewarding than trying to speed through it

I've just got out of White Orchard too. I do get the urge to go and visit all the ? everywhere rather than following the main quest.

One q

is it better to sell all the random swords etc you get, or break them down? Or just stash everything? (haven't put anything in a stash yet)

Level scaling makes loot stupidly meaningless for the most part, including unique swords and armour.

Did you guys play the DLC packs? Better than the main quest in many respects!

Hearts of Stone is the series’ highlight imo.

Finished the main story a few days ago, and working through HoS now. I loathed those rich-kid hipster bandit-soldiers on sight and can't wait to whirly-blade through the whole pack of them. Except for Poos Peepuhs lady, she's cool.

I don't even loot anymore, even after installing a "no junk loot" mod; I get enough money from side quests and contracts, and don't really buy anything anyway. In the first Witcher, since I leveled up too much in the sewers on normal difficulty, I was powerful enough that I rarely needed anything other than a Swallow, so had tons of useless plants.

downloading Witcher 2

Restarted Witcher 3 and I'm really enjoying it. Just about to go and see the Baron which is about where I stopped a couple of years ago. Not getting too hung up on doing all the quests this time round is helping

One of the biggest annoyances in the entire game is having to repeatedly haul ass all the way from the fast travel marker at the front gate of Crow's Perch all the way up the hill into the main courtyard because they didn't just put the fast travel marker at the top of the hill to begin with! It wouldn't be so bad, but a number of missions entail going back there, so it gets tiresome.

That and accidentally lighting/extinguishing candles when you meant to loot a container next to them.

(one too many "all the way" in there)

I felt really bad about accidentally putting out someone's Aga.

So I can run Witcher 2 on my MacBook Pro ... at 1024x768 ... the screen only goes blank once every few minutes or so, and I can read small text (like objectives under the minimap) if I lean close to the screen ... I'll see how long I can deal with this, might just play Witcher 3 on my Switch.

One of the biggest annoyances in the entire game is having to repeatedly haul ass all the way from the fast travel marker at the front gate of Crow's Perch all the way up the hill into the main courtyard because they didn't just put the fast travel marker at the top of the hill to begin with! It wouldn't be so bad, but a number of missions entail going back there, so it gets tiresome.

That and accidentally lighting/extinguishing candles when you meant to loot a container next to them.

― Dan I., Monday, April 20, 2020 8:13 PM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

otm. it's really annoying, especially when you over hear the same bit of monologue over and over again

Okay, there is another bit of bystander npc "dialogue" that I love and will never get sick of no matter how often I hear it: when you run into someone, sometimes they will let out a big, nasally, Francophonic "HONNNH!" and it kills me every time

So far the music in W2 is pretty generic compared to W1. I was also hoping that getting out of the prologue meant I'd spend more time playing than in cinematics, but no luck so far.

Atmosphere-wise, it's a step down all around, but its branching paths are unparalleled in the series.

Last night, I wrapped up the main Witcher 3 quest line at 130 hours. I've got Mastercrafted Griffin and Mastercrafted Wolven Gear, and I'm level 34. I completed all of the main quests, the 'main' secondary quests, and probably about half of the witcher contracts. I failed three or four quests, ignored the question marks in Skellige and gave up on the undying werewolf in the garden storyline, because I couldn't find my way round the map.

The first twenty hours of playtime were rough. I almost quit a dozen times. I despised the design of White Orchard and the west/central areas of Velen that open at first. The fighting was hard, and I didn't understand how to use signs. The landscape design was muddy, cinematically war-ravaged, and filled with cynical and 'world-weary' characters that just seemed like bershon teenagers. I found the game .. gross and drab and leached of color. It was depressing, and not in a fun way. Only two moments kept me hanging on: visiting Keira Metz in her weird hut (when I thought 'oh! this game has colors in it!) and the stupid goat quest.

But then I got to Novigrad and ... things got better? I think that exploring the Skellige islands was my favorite part. They're so expansive and beautiful and such a contrast to the ugliness that comes at the beginning.

I haven't played with different builds yet. I invested heavily in Quen and Aard, and then the whirly rapid-attack. Potions aren't ... I haven't quiet figured them out yet. And I don't understand the adrenaline points stuff, but I have a potion of clearance, so I may play around a little.

I loved:
World-building (after Velen, anyway)
Novigrad, the most lived-in city I remember from any video game ever
All of Skellige. Pretty sure I *still* haven't visited every village on Skellige, and there are at least a few in SE Velen I haven't done more than run past
Treasure hunts for armor (I had to look up some locations)
Weird monsters (except for devourers/rotfiends)
Stumbling on random complicate caves
How the last act of the game takes you back to locations you visited like 50 hours before, and there are changes (big and small)
Oxenfurt / the fancy hidden places under the city

Did not love:
Consistent male gaze-iness
The weird direction the story takes in the last act. Portals? Space? Boring Elvish shit? IDK, I lost interest, and a lot of the ending felt slapped together.
Blah blah political intrigue blah blah
Kaer Morhan is cool, but there's not enough to do there. .
Kaer Morhan fight was boring and easy and I thought it would be better. I was also over-leveled by 4, so there wasn't much of a challenging
Map integration. Too small, too hard to follow. GPS dumb.

Hated:
First fifteen hours.
Bloody Baron quest
Witchy / Crone quest
Bad armor and weapons until act 2 made difficulty WAAAY high at first
Playing as Ciri, who always felt under-leveled or over-leveled, and too on-the-rails
Wraiths
Gwent

Gonna start DLC after a few days. Which first? Hearts of Stone or Blood & Wine?

potions are really just buffs

Start with Hearts of Stone. Blood and Wine is an epilogue.

Great post Remy. yup that was my first feeling when I started the game. 'this is so drab and depressing!', but once it gets going it's so much fun.

I liked the Bloody Baron and especially the Crones. I kind of hate Skellige as there aren't enough fast travel points and I kept having to do the same tedious journey around this enormous mountain about 4 or 5 times for some reason

I'm trying to do all the armour treasure hunts now I've completed everything but crafting the gear is super frustrating. I can't believe I still can't seem to craft a whole set of Mastercrafted gear yet for one reason or another.

I'd say the DLCs are so worth it though. Blood and Wine is like a whole new game in itself and the beauty of the new map is jaw dropping.

If you hate drabness and like color you’re going to loooove blood and wine

Is that the fairy-tale one? I'm excited. In my head the DLC are coded as "fairy tales epilogue that is difficult but fun" and "bourgeoise vampires with a good story, armor, and a lot of fetching stuff." That may be wrong.

I played this game on Nintendo Switch, so I understand the dreariness might've been exaggerated by (very) bad rendering. But man, what a rough intro to a game! I read a review on reddit or something, and it said that the (slow, brown) beginning of the game is necessary to appreciate the artistry of the latter half. To which I say: baloney. kept going mostly out of guilt that I'd spent $59 on the game, and I didn't want to waste my money. I don't think I would have continued otherwise.

@ dog latin: I am legitimately terrified of ghostly stuff, and I got freaked out during the 'wraith by the well' quest in White Orchard and couldn't sleep. Whatever, I'm a wimp. Since I didn't want to get wigged a second time, and I was already turned off by the battlefield violence and blood smears at the gates of Novigrad, I googled walkthroughs of Bloody Baron and Crones quests. I didn't really make my own choices in the game, as much as follow the script that lead to the least-freaky outcomes. For both of those quests I felt pretty anxious both at the stories themselves and that I'd *choose an unfavorable outcome* and make the game more depressing and scary. It was a weird kind of dramatic irony, but it kept me playing. After I while I (habituated? accepted? embraced?) the spookiness and realized it was mostly kind of corny, and a little tongue-in-cheek, and that's when I really started to like the game. On two other occasions I got turned-off by creepiness: the Tower of Mice story, and during the end of Hjalmar an Craite stuff on top of the mountain, where I ran into a bunch of dead things that tried to eat me in the snow. Neither was as bad as the first scare, but the gory grimness wore me down a bit.

The first twenty hours of playtime were rough. I almost quit a dozen times.

Oh god when I first encountered the wraith... no I agree with you, it's quite arresting

The words 'Fyke Island' (is that where the Tower Of Mice is?) are enough to send a shiver up my spine.

Once you get into the flow of the game though, it's a lot less creepy. For a lot of the game, I'd be investigating a room or a cavern half expecting someone or something to sneak up on me in a 'WHO DISTURBS MY SLUMBER / WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE' kind of way, but this isn't really something that happens in the game. There aren't too many jump scares. And it is a relief to get to Novigrad and see so many people after wandering the wilderness of Velen for ages.

Hearts Of Stone DLC has some of the creepiest moments of the game, but it's so imaginative and the story is really intense with some absolutely amazing twists. Blood & Wine is a lovely respite though and well worth saving for last. Geralt's 'Year In Provence', I've heard it accurately described. I think it's my favourite part of the whole game. Once I got to Toussaint I felt like I could SMELL the fields and warmth coming off the Earth. Strange to have a game that starts so drab but gradually blooms and becomes more light-hearted as it goes

How's everyone getting along with this game now?

I've managed to complete all the question marks in Toussaint, Velen,
Novigrad and White Orchard and now I'm slowly chugging through Skellige.

Hoping to achieve the medal of crafting and wearing a whole school of Witcher gear, but is it just me or is it an absolute dog to do?

I think I did everything except the question marks in the middle of the ocean in Skellige. Everyone recommends skipping those and I'm inclined to agree.

this can help you figure out which points of interest are worth pursuing (ie which aren't just smuggler's caches): https://witcher3map.com/

I'm a pathological completist so I even did those. :/

Eek. At some point near hour 120 I stopped caring about the ?s. I am 50% of the way through Touissaint, which I love, but I am pretty sure I'm not going to finish the dumb vampire story.

I've started to resign myself to the idea that my Witcher fever has passed and I'm not going to finish. I was going strong up until the pandemic--playing a few hours after work every day, seeing when I could squeeze in a few more on weekends--but it's been about three months since I've picked it up.

It's not because I got tired of the game, really--I'm near the end of the main plot, took a detour for the Heart of Stone content--but a combination of pandemic listlessness and moving in with my girlfriend took me away from regular playing, and it lost that urgency/compulsion to play it. I suppose it's like exercising or learning an instrument: once you break a regular routine/habit, it gets harder to jump back in.

I feel vaguely guilty not finishing after all the time I've invested playing and modding it. This seems to be a pattern: I think I want this big open world games like Red Dead Redemption (never finished either), though because I'm enamored with the idea of being immersed in months of game play, and I become obsessed for a good stretch, then it just tails off.

Toussaint story was my favourite of the whole thing. It really escalates and it's enormous fun by the end. I really didn't like the knight trials though. I'm not looking forward to going back and doing all those frustrating horse racing quests which I'm TERRIBLE at