I'm about two hours into the first Witcher. I really like it, but I got distracted. I'm going to play more soon though, I really like it.
Immersing Myself in The Witcher's World
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 On 06/18/2013 at 04:32 AM by Blake Turner See More From This User » |
Well I'm on holidays from University at the moment, having finished the last of my exams and assignments and whatnot. So what shall I do with my rather large amount of free time? Well, I decided I was going to immerse myself into a universe! A universe that spans two games (soon to be three) and seven books. That's right, it's The Witcher universe!
The Books
Well, I'm not reading all of the seven books, seeing how only three of the fuckers have been translated to English, and I only have like three weeks off. However, I did manage to stumble upon one book, and download the other because no one in Australia stocks the damned thing and I will be buggered by a horse before I import a series of short stories from overseas! So I torrented the ebook. Don't look at me like that, I already bought one book and two games in the universe, I'm a touch broke. And I figured with the metric shit ton of awards, a movie, a tv series, a bunch of graphic novels and two games I'm betting this Polish bastard couldn't fit in his own house because it's filled with all of the Orens he's getting from royalties!!!
Anyway, I started reading the series of short stories, and they were so bloody good I ended up buying the ebook on Amazon. You deserve to be rich Andrzej Sapkowski, you beautiful bastard! Seriously, from the first short story I was sold. It should be familiar to anyone who's played the first game, as the final fight is the pre menu cutscene. The dialogue is so well written, and the action scenes are among the best I've read in modern fantasy! Most of them seem to be darker versions of common tales, or at least some elements in them. The second short story is Beauty and the Beast with rape and Vampires.
I haven't started reading the novel yet, as the short stories take place before it and are heavily hinted at in the novel, but from what I can gather it involves the history of the Scoia'tel, and other awesome stuff like that. I highly advise you to read them!
The Witcher
As I will tell you in the next section, I've finished The Witcher 2 twice now, and I've started up a third playthrough, however, I had never finished the original. Hell, I'd never gotten past the first chapter. The story wasn't as immediately compelling, the voice acting is a bit shit, the combat was a bit weird, and the quests were kind of boring in places.
Well, I'm finally jumping in properly, and this time I'm enjoying it. The combat still isn't amazing, but I'm enjoying the lore and atmosphere, and the monster variety is about 10000000 times the second game. This focuses more on monster hunting, which witchers are known for, rather than the political intrigue of the second game. The politics are still there, and it's still a very deep plot, but its focus is very different.
Overall, I still prefer the second game, but this is well worth a play as well. Very faithful to the books.
The Witcher 2
This is my second favourite rpg of this generation. Story wise, it takes the cake, but gameplay wise it plays second fiddle to Dark Souls for me. However, the world and plot in this game a simply staggering, and the visuals still make my jay drop. I still haven't seen textures this impressive in another game since!
As I said before, I'm on my third playthrough of this game, and I'm STILL discovering things! This is truly a testament to rpg design, and the fact that it comes from an indie company is even more staggering! If you haven't played this game yet - you're an idiot. Go play it now. Yes, the tutorial sucks, I know. If you have played it, you know exactly what I'm talking about.
Anyway, I'm off now to read some more of The Last Wish. See ya guys!
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