Witchers and ramblings.
After a rather annoying and lengthy updating process, I believe I've now gotten every needed component and software on my laptop up to date. I was surprised by how many songs I ended up having in my hard drive. Those number in tens of thousands. It's been funny using Winamp's shuffle to play songs in random order, and so far Winamp's telepathy has been as exceptional as always: it has always managed to find a proper song for whatever mood I happen to be in. Good stuff. I'm kinda sad that I didn't get to see the final ice hockey match between Finland and Sweden; it would've been cool to hear if Winamp's random playlist would've played fitting songs during the match. Oh well. Another year, perhaps...
I've also been pleased by how smoothly Age of Empires 2 seems to work in Win7 with very few adjustments (even though it does crash occasionally and has some creepy colours in some maps). I don't know why I'm having such a hard time with AoE2 campaigns when I finished StarCraft and the original AoE with hardly any effort. Maybe it's because the enemy is constantly spamming its forces? Although I'm playing in the ordinary difficulty setting, the AI is still a lot more aggressive than SC's or AoE's enemies ever were (even SC's insane AI seems easy in comparison to AoE2's easier AI). If there's one thing I'm glad about, though, it's that the AI no longer spams priests: those were so annoying in the original AoE (I can still hear their ululu sounds in my nightmares after all these years).
Another game that works quite well after a bit of patching is Deus Ex. I was unhappy (understatement of the year) when my earlier savegames were deleted, but I intend to play though the game and get past the point where I lost the saves. I try not to consult FAQs although I'm terribly tempted to do so because I'd want to find out which weapons are the best ones to customize for a stealth/pacifist approach. I'm leaning on upgrading my pistol and crossbow with all sorts of goodies so that I can have effective non-lethal takedowns.
I think I'll also utilize a glitch so that I can spare both my "evil" buddy Anna Navarre and the terrorist Lebedev in a crucial turning point mission. I heard that killing Anna then and there will make later parts of the game easier but I wish to RP as much as a pacifist as I can. So far I've only taken terrorists and druggies out with batons and tranquilizer darts, and I find sneaking up on enemies a lot more rewarding than just gunning them down. It's fun hearing enemy chatter when they get more and more paranoid when you take them down one by one. I wish the AI was more clever in some places like in Thief, but it has managed to surprise me occasionally, so I guess that's a good thing.
What I don't like is that the game rewards you with extra exploration points if you do certain things out of order. For example, finding your office before your superiors tell you where it is will grant you some much needed exp, but how on earth are you supposed to know that? Sometimes I wonder if I've missed dozens of potential exp gains simply because I've followed the plot closely in proper order. Some of the choices are quite difficult too, such as whether to side with drug dealers or a local gang. My morality wouldn't allow either choice because both look like bad apples to me, but that also means I'll miss a lot of exp for not working for them. Choices, choices...
Speaking of Deus Ex, I noticed that Deus Ex 3's system specs aren't insane and my laptop might be able to run it after all. Hurray! Perhaps once I finish DE1, I might try DE3 because it looks really promising. The trailer track was pretty epic, and apparently the rest of the OST will be similar (which I hope). Although many hardcore DE fans have complained about the changes in DE3, I've personally enjoyed the neo-Renaissance cyberpunk feel which the game has. It looks really pretty, and I wonder how they've managed to keep the specs down. The cutscenes by Square-Enix look really pretty (and gritty) too, complementing the neo-noir feel. I wonder how many connections DE3 will have to DE1 because it's a prequel. Perhaps we'll get to see pre-augmentation Gunther and Anna? That'd be swell. In fact, I just took a look at some leaked gameplay, and the first scenes have Bob frickin' Page (from DE1) in it. Yayyayyay! Looks very promising indeed...
I'm itching to install Baldur's Gate 2 and actually play through it this time because I've never finished it. The problem is that it's such a massive game and I wonder if it'll have compatibility issues with Win7 so I've postponed playing it. I do want to play it because I've heard so many good things about the game. Sadly I don't have Throne of Bhaal expansion but I think the main game will keep me occupied for quite some time. I just wanna hear Jim Cummings as Mingsk. Gotta love his chatter with his miniature giant space hamster pet. ^_^
Perhaps I should just play through AoE2 and DE1 first although both of those games have lots of content too (seriously, the size of DE1 levels so far has been insane, and apparently it gets even more outrageous later in the game). I also need to get off my ass and actually finish Final Fantasy 5 too. So far I'm in Galuf's castle where I found a nice glitch where I can quickly level up my characters' classes by using a certain blue magic spell on the tough enemies in the basement. That's saved me a lot of hard work so I'm not considering it cheating. The battle on the big bridge was quite neat and quite fitting for its epic music track. ;P
Sometimes life can be full of surprises. I had no knowledge of the Witcher except that it was a computer game based on a series of Polish fantasy books which feature a witcher (superhuman monster slayer) named Geralt of Rivia. The premise looked interesting, but I never bothered buying the first game.
I happened upon a few early the Witcher 2 gameplay segments, and those looked promising but nothing exceptional. However, at that point the Witcher 2 had already been ingrained in my mind, but it took a few months before I stumbled upon Toegoff's Youtube Let's Play of the Witcher 2. I watched the first ep and got hooked. Although Toegoff was pretty funny playing through the game, what also interested me was the prologue which looked surprisingly innovative and thrilling. I was also intrigued by the difficulty curve of the game as well as its world.
Anyway, I still don't know what eventually was the thing that really triggered my actions, but when I visited a local store, I ended up in the gaming department where I saw the Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings box. After a bit of hesitation, I decided to buy it. Perhaps it was my curiosity, maybe just a random idea that suddenly popped up. Whatever the case, it turned out to be one of the best blind buys since Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns.
Before I continue my Witcher tale, allow me to link to a few marvellous vids about the Witcher 2.
First the thematic trailers:
Disdain & Fear. Well interwoven scenes and great Finnish music (a nice remix of the original song, in any case) in the background. The lyrics are also poignant (particularly now that I've advanced further into the story and have figured out how exceptionally the song fits into the story). Here are the full lyrics translated into English:
Hedningarna - Vargtimmen (Hour of the Wolf)
Oh I shouldn't si(ng) sing shouldn't a shouldn('t)
Oh I shouldn't si(ng) sing shouldn('t)
Oh neither rejoice joice at all at all
Oh neither rejoice joice at all at all
Deep inside the heart lurks
Betrayal and the lies
In what way could I speak to be
Not only mild but wise?
I can't undo what has been done
Nor can I change my name
Before you have forgiveness won
Bite the head off of your shame
I swear I never wanted to
Cause you harm or hurt
But the way that I look now
Would force my eyes to avert
I am you offending
The night is suspending
The sinner is awake
It's the hour of the wolf
I told you that I loved you
And it's very true
But there is someone else
Instead of only you
I could gobble up her
With drooling jaws her take
Nothing can stop me from it
If just for its own sake
In my loneliness --
And no one else will know
My love is for the both of you
That's the cause of all my woes
Without punishment and
With no regret?
Knowing this at least:
It's the hour of the beast
Oh I shouldn't si(ng) sing shouldn't o lailai
Oh neither rejoice joice at all at all
Oh I have darling darling wandering wanderin'
Oh I have loved loved walkin'
May I come to you now
But for just a little while?
Luther has gone home and
I'll kiss your face and smile
Then I'll make my mind up
There is yet a little time
I know exactly what I'm doing
It's my life and it's my crime
Up until this day of days
I thought myself as a lamb
And when I change my ways
That will be what I am
I'm giving up it all
My ultimate downfall
The morning sun's glow
Will chase off the wolf!
I'm kind of freaked out about how much that song (which describes Geralt of Rivia and his woes in the Witcher 2 remarkably well) also fits my tGA character Refan's current predicament as well. Anyway, let's get back to the other Witcher trailers...
Love & Blood. This one has nice foreshadowing of the game's shocking events. It's interesting how many spoilery scenes they put in this one, but without playing the game you won't know the context of those scenes and how exactly they relate to the twists in the story.
Hope. Definitely the most emotional Witcher 2 trailer and my favourite of the three trailers. Can't go wrong with Chopin (gotta love that string arrangement near the end).
And here are some spoilery but great W2 vids:
A sad twist! This one was quite a touching moment (proving that even jerks have a heart of gold) even though I saw it coming a mile away. Long live the king.
Facing the Kayran! A battle with QTEs. This was a surprisingly easy battle for me but it was fun, and that's what matters in the end. Still, I felt sorry for the poor beast. He(?) is kinda cute in a grotesque way.
Confronting the Kingslayer! This was one of the most enjoyable boss battles I've played in a long while. I love bosses who use your tricks against you... and this one had a good plot to back it up, too.
And now, some thoughts about the game itself so far:
Installing the retail vanilla version of this game was a nightmare. You have no idea how long it took me to get it working properly. I had to install a specific patch fixing this problem, and then I immediately installed the stabilizing 1.1 patch on the same go. Thankfully Google was my greatest helper in this bug-slaying session worthy of the Witcher himself.
After I got the game installing properly and working, I had to tone down the settings because apparently my video card couldn't quite handle the beautiful graphics of this game. Thankfully the rest of my specs were up to par so this lack of graphic power didn't render my gaming experience obsolete even though I had to use the lowest settings and switch resolution to 640x480 to get it working in large battles. Surprisingly enough the game doesn't look terrible even in these low settings (although it's still a far cry from the beauty of ultra settings which I looked at in Youtube vids). However, to me performance is more important than visual stuff so I was content with playing the game with my limited hardware.
And boy what an experience the game has been! The prologue turned out to be one of the most interesting prologues I've played in a long while. It has a clever frame story (it takes place during an interrogation where you recall events from the previous day when you and King Foltest's forces assaulted La Valette castle where the king's bastard children were kept imprisoned) where you get to choose which order you tell the story in. However, it's advisable to recount the story chronologically because otherwise the difficulty curve might be too much. I like this interactive element, and your choices in dialogue during the entire prologue WILL affect the rest of the game quite dramatically.
This game's tutorial is a bit of a hit&miss, though. I'm possibly a special gamer because I always read the manual before doing anything. This helped me considerably during the prologue because without the manual's advice I probably would've died a lot more. The actual in-game tutorial isn't that helpful unless you learn to access your in-game journal to re-read the helpful tutorial bits. If you don't learn to access the journal, tough luck and have fun dying a lot.
Yes, I said dying a lot because this game is quite difficult in the beginning even on "mere" normal difficulty. I personally didn't have too hard a time with it until the battle against six guards at once (in a very narrow courtyard) which was the only frustrating part of the prologue for me. However, that battle really forces you to use everything you've got (and everything you've learned) in order to survive because the combat is unforgiving. If you screw up too much, you'll die.
You must drink potions BEFORE entering a battle, and you won't regenerate health in combat unless you've drunk a specific potion. You can't drink too many potions at once because of their high toxicity so you must be strategic about which potions to use. If the enemy backstabs you, you take double damage so you must protect your back at all times. Using your signs (basically your spell arsenal of five signs which range from a shield to brainwashing an enemy to fight for you), blocking, potions, oils (which grant weapons different bonuses for a limited period of time), evading, and throwing daggers and bombs is essential for survival in this game.
Although some of the combat can be a bit clunky, I personally enjoyed its ferocity. It forces you to think when even two or three enemies can provide you with a challenge even later in game. Knowing when to use signs, evade and block is crucial, and you also got to keep an eye on your vigor meter and wait for it to refill (it takes time and blocking and using signs both use vigor so you must be careful which one to use at a time). I suppose normal difficulty might be too easy because often I haven't had to bother with oils and potions in regular combat on normal difficulty once I gained new, deadly abilities. However, large mobs and bosses still give me trouble if I haven't prepared beforehand, so I guess that balances things out. I might consider playing through the second time with hard difficulty just for kicks. And no, I won't touch the insane difficulty (which means that if you die even once in game, the game's over) because I'm no fool.
The game offers replayability not only plot-wise (more about the choices later) but also via the skills and abilities. You can discover secret abilities by doing stuff in the game world (e.g. setting yourself on fire enough times will grant you a boost in protection against incineration). There's also a neat skill tree which has four paths: witcher (where you start), swordsman, mage and herbalist. You can only level up to lvl 36 if I recall and you can update each tree's abilities twice, so that forces you to specialize. Do you want to maximize special skills in a specific path, be a jack of all trades or something in between? I've personally focused on a mixed swordsman/mage path and tried to take what I consider the best abilities of each. I wonder whether this has been a good strategy, but we'll see. Mutagens also add replayability and customization. Certain unlocked skills in the skill tree have dots where you can add one mutagen. I think in one playthrough you can only access 5 or so mutagen slots so you have to choose wisely which mutagens to use because there are many varieties. One mutagen might affect your strength or critical effects so great care must be given to choosing which mutagen to use because the choice is permanent.
I was impressed how much your choices really affect the story. Many choices aren't clear cut (as in black&white good vs. evil) because many villains are noble and many heroes are bastards (both literally and figuratively). For example, a definitely evil guy actually has some pet the dog moments such as when he claims you're not a mutant but a human like everyone else, and the horrifically brutal commander of a guerrilla force actually has noble, sympathetic goals).
I'm currently in Chapter 2 and already my choices affected several outcomes in the story. Apparently the game has 16 different endings depending on the choices you've made during gameplay, so that's quite impressive. I might check out all 16 endings after my second playthrough just to see all the different variations. For example, in the prologue you can persuade your rival to drop his weapons or kill him or kill him and his men. Likewise you can be an ass to the villains and heroes through dialogue choices, be opportunistic or (mostly) altruistic, cheat on your girlfriend, have different motivations for your quest, or overall play a magnificent bastard who plays everyone against each other like a fiddle. I don't know if it affects the plot how much of a dick you are to your allies in the beginning but if that too affects the plot, I'll be greatly impressed.
I chose to play a mostly straight hero/knight in shining armor because that was kinda sweet in a mostly crapsack world where the story takes place in (although I did shag my comrade when my girlfriend was absent because hey, witchers are promiscuous and need to get laid from time to time too, and the chick really needed to relax in Geralt's arms ;D). The way how you can develop your relationship with your main love interest Triss is also nice although I'm sad that another love interest from the first game has apparently been dropped for no reason. Would it really have hurt the developers to include that other chick in the plot too? What if someone chose that chick in W1 only to find out that they can't meet/shag her anymore in W2. That's kinda unfortunate if you ask me. However, Triss has a nice personality and I haven't played the first game so having her around doesn't irk me. She's exactly what a love interest should be like: strong, pretty, intelligent, witty, great sense of humour...
I also like the Nilfgaardian ambassador who's polite, and yet I can't help but think he's a villain because he serves a villainous nation. What I like about him is that he's always civil and downright friendly, yet he asks lots of questions in order to find out what you're up to, and whether you answer or not doesn't matter because he can confirm his suspicions even from your silence, which I thought was a great touch and shows how skilled diplomats really are in reading one's mind via body language. The Kingslayers, the eponymous "villains" (I hesitate to call them that because they so far seem to have rather noble intentions in mind even though their methods are kinda brutal), have also been interesting so far because they're mysterious and their leader is charismatic and badass with a sensitive side and machiavellian wit.
The plot gets really political and you're forced to get your hands dirty as the game progresses. For example, I'm forced to aid a jerkass king in order to track down the Kingslayers (and because I can't let evil spirits take over the world even though getting rid of the spirits will allow jerkass king to invade my friend's friends). You can play a racist (or speciesist, whatever) or try to be neutral or actually support minorities like elves against humans. Sure, the plot does dictate the direction somewhat but the way you reach certain goals isn't too well-defined so there's room for exploration. Sooner or later you'll have to choose sides, though, and that's gonna be a difficult decision, lemme tell ya. It's also fascinating how much behind-the-scenes plotting there is. You have the four northern kingdoms, the Nilfgaard Empire, the sorceresses, the nonhuman rebels, the dragons, the kingslayers and ambitious individuals all trying to dominate each other whether subtly or openly. Heck, even you can be a backstabbing bastard if you want to so only the monsters are "honest" in that they only try to eat anyone they come across.
I also like how some of the quests subvert your expectations. For example, you see an elven girl in distress, about to be killed by angry soldiers who claim she's killed their comrades. Because you know the humans in town hate elves and see a girl in distress, your male knight mentality states that you gotta save the poor damsel. So you investigate and find out dead bodies of soldiers with arrows sticking out of them. So, did the girl know about this or not? You can lie (claim that monsters killed the soldiers) to save the girl or tell the truth which likely leads to her hanging. If you choose to lie to save the poor girl, she'll invite you to a private romantic meeting where her rogue friends ambush you and it turns out the girl was in fact in collusion with the real murderers. You can then either spare the girl who promises to leave (and seems to keep her word) or kill her for her treachery. The different permutations on how many ways this quest can end are quite many, and it shows that damsels in distress can also be backstabbing bitches in the game's crapsack world. Always question everyone's motives and never trust anyone. Even your closest friends do questionable things behind your back (being part of a conspiracy you're hunting down!). I like this kind of moral greyness, and in some cases you just have to trust your gut feeling (whether to believe ghosts or their possible murderers).
Then there are the infamous major plot turnabouts. During chapter 1 there are two times where you'll have to make crucial choices and choose sides. During the first choice you can either help humans or elves, which affects the plot quite a bit. During the second choice you have to choose again, either staying with the party you chose first or "betray" them and choose the other, which once again affects the plot. I ended up choosing the humans (Vernon Roche) twice although I intend to try the elf path (Iorveth) on my second playthrough. This fateful decision-making was cool but it also had some problems which I'll detail later in this post.
So, overall I like the detailed environments, good dialogue, mostly great voice acting (there are a few bad VAs but they just add charm to the whole deal, IMHO), secret abilities which you have to discover yourself, thrilling and strategic combat, grey choices, intricate plot, memorable characters (Geralt, Foltest, Roche, Iorveth, Letho and Triss ftw) and engaging music (I particularly like the alluring vocal theme of the Sorceresses). This game has a lot going for it, and the last time I had so much fun was with Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns.
Are there any cons, then? Well, certainly. The game's not perfect but the points I'll make below can be considered nit-picking. I'll list them anyway, though, because I want to be thorough and I like to share my views on how to make a great game even better (in case any CDProjekt people happen to stumble upon this entry, which I doubt but still...):
1) The major choice thing in chapter 1 is kind of rigged, IMHO. Although the choice is supposed to be grey, I couldn't help but side with the humans (Roche's path) for certain reasons: a) Roche believed in me when no one else would and helped me escape from the dungeon, b) he provided me with valuable intel and was a decent enough buddy. Compare this with Iorveth who a) I assumed until the last minute was nothing but a crazed extremist, b) saved my life but only to figure out what the Kingslayer was up to, and c) I was sort of honour-bound to aid him if things turned ugly. Although I sort of understand siding with Iorveth's elves, the fact is that Roche spent a lot more time with Geralt, thus earning his trust, whereas with Iorveth it wouldn't make sense to INITIALLY side with him and BETRAY Roche during the battle.
Of course you might argue that things get a bit muddy during the second choice in chapter 1. I mean, if you aided Roche capture Iorveth during first choice, you might feel guilty for betraying Iorveth so you might want to help him escape from the prison barge. This I might understand because that would fit into Geralt's personality better than initially siding with Iorveth. However, would Geralt really do so when he's already aided Roche once? That's hard to say, and I'd need to read the novels to know for sure whether Geralt would do so. I do intend to try this path (that is first choice Roche second choice Iorveth) just to see how Roche reacts to my "betrayal". But let's move on...
2) The repeating scripts. I understand it's not possible to have dozens of conversations for one NPC, but sometimes it really irks me to hear them discuss the same thing over and over again every day I visit them. This is definitely nit-picking but it'd be awesome if there was more variety in dialogue. I understand it'd be costly, though, so I'll let it slide. However, the dialogue with important NPCs saves the day, obviously, as they're much more detailed.
3) Weird scripting. Why is the storyteller telling stories in his home's bed in the middle of the night when you get inside? Wouldn't his wife shut him up? Other quirks like this happen in some other places too. Also, why do the NPCs seem perfectly ok for you to invade their home in the middle of the night and welcome you. I'd tell a witcher to piss off if he broke into my place to loot stuff.
4) Too few voice actors. It didn't take me long to figure out that one guy plays like a dozen parts in this game. It's kinda annoying, especially when random NPC reminds me of a villainous NPC not only in voice but also in character model. More variety here, please.
5) Where's the friendly fauna? Sure, the world's full of monsters who kill you and other monsters, but have they hunted deer etc. to extinction? All I can see are birds and possibly insects when I visit plains and forests. It'd be awesome to see herds of some animals which you could kill for fun or for their hides (which you could sell on the market). It'd also be awesome to see the monsters hunt those animals to feed their young.
6) More monster interaction. Why do the monsters only attack you or attack other monsters? It'd be cool to see nekkers actually have some dark rituals or see the endrega feed their young or something like that. Now it's painfully apparent that these monsters only exist to be killed; we don't really see them do their own stuff much (except eat fallen soldiers every once in a while).
7) More monster types. Although the monsters in the game are balanced and have variety, it'd be cool to see more of them. As much as I like endrega or rotfiends, it wouldn't hurt to have more monsters of different types. Slavic mythology is full of creatures that they could use, and it'd make it fun to guess which monster you'll bump into next. Now the only surprises come in dungeons or during quests when you meet some unique monsters in thrilling battles (or they ambush you like the earth elemental in a rotfiend-infested cave).
8) More rain and rainbows. Ok, this is silly but I've rarely encountered rain in my game. It just might be bad luck, but still. And it'd be cool to see rainbows after rain (if these do exist but I haven't noticed, please hit me with a trout and point out some evidence to prove me otherwise). Also, why can't I see lightning bolts in the sky during thunder? It'd be so awesome to see lightning flash and illuminate the darkness for the briefest moment when a rotfiend suddenly rises and attacks you.
9) Only white people? Ok, this is likely a geographical thing because the northern kingdoms probably don't have any black or Asian-looking people. Too bad, though, because it'd be awesome to see different ethnicities. Thankfully the whites do have different cultures (Kaedwenis seem heavily inspired by Scottish, for example) so that remedies things somewhat.
10) More choices. Seriously. If I want to side with a villain and massacre everyone, the plot should let me do so no matter how much bitching I'd have to hear. Now the plot dictates some events (for example, I would've wanted to spare a specific villain but the game wouldn't let me). The lack of choice in some scenes breaks the illusion. I do understand it would've required even more tweaking in storyline to let this happen, though, so oh well.
11) Jumping! Why does the game allow me to jump only when I perform special attacks or I find a special ledge to climb up/down? Why can't I bunny jump? It'd be awesome to use jumping to perform daring strikes and cross waste-long blockades which even a baby should be able to cross. It's insulting when Geralt can't cross a small fence simply because he can't jump.
12) More quests. This will likely be remedied in future DLCs but so far I wouldn't mind seeing even more quests (although there are quite a few already). One mere extra quest in DLC isn't enough, CDProjekt. I don't mind if adding new quests takes time, though, as long as the results are as compelling as the charming Troll Trouble DLC quest. Also, if the rumours about chapter 3's short length are true, you guys at CDProjekt might want to expand that a bit and add additional quests to make that chapter longer.
13) Locked doors? Are these there simply to make sure that Geralt won't access certain areas? Why bother putting doors in places which you can't access? Why not have simply a wall there? I understand one door because it introduces some quest-important people in chapter 1 (from the Woe to the Vanquished quest) but what purpose do the other locked doors serve? Those are driving me nuts!
14) Weird glitches. Sometimes when you speak to some people out of order the quest indicator goes nuts. E.g. when I talk to Roche during the Conspiracy Plot quest, it doesn't show what I need to do next so unless I've paid special attention to the journal before, I'll be stuck. This is likely a bug but it needs to be fixed ASAP because it might potentially confuse people.
15) The frickin' doorways. Ok, I understand the need to use these to make loading town maps more bearable but they're so annoying, especially when a friendly NPC slams the door shut right in front of your voice (a good example is in AngryJoe's Witcher 2 review). Please get rid of the doorways or at least allow seamless entering to make it more bearable. It wears you thin when a guy slams a door in your face 100th time in a row. This is very minor nitpick, obviously, but still...
16) More romantic options, and I don't mean more whores because we have enough of those already. Right now it seems you basically have two romantic options per path (I might be wrong about Iorveth's path because I haven't played through it yet). I understand Triss is important, but it wouldn't hurt to be able to romance more girls (or guys) more deeply than just shag-a-night way. This would require some heavy scripting, though, so I guess it'll never happen. At least we have Ves, though, even though I hope her story will be more interesting than it has been so far.
17) Make the herbalist skill tree more relevant. Seriously, right now choosing swordsman or mage is much more beneficial because they offer better skills. I guess herbalist is there for hardcore players because most of its skills won't be of much use unless you know what you're doing? And I see no point in berserk mode. Or perhaps I should be a masochist and choose the herbalist path in next playthrough to see if it's truly ok or not.
18) Please tone down Quen. Oh gosh, Quen sign is such a kill app in normal difficulty. You can practically become invincible even in its first upgrade. I dare not think how powerful the SECOND upgrade is because the first one is already a game-breaker. Ok, I admit I have to use it against large mobs (when my computer lags) but for the most part I avoid using it because it's too powerful. It makes even boss fights easy: just spam Quen and you'll win. The only downside to Quen is that you can't regenerate vigor while you use it but that's kinda moot when it protects you from damage (and REFLECTS IT BACK AT OPPONENT) anyway. Aard and Quen are such a gamebreaker combination in this game. Sheesh.
Ehhh... that's pretty much it, I guss. So yes, despite those minor flaws which I mentioned earlier, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings is definitely worth playing. And yes, you don't have to read the novels or play the first game to grasp the story although it apparently helps. I could follow the story fine even though I was a newcomer to the series in this game. It's on my "game of the year" list, and it was one of the best blind buys I've had in my time. It's rare to find a game so enjoyable, but it's nice how the gameplay, story, world and characters have gotten me interested in it. Good job, CDProjekt. Go, Poland!
And now for tGA-related matters... the Seven Sisters representing the seven sins!
I was having a boring moment (a time before I got my hands on the Witcher 2, that is) so I decided to fool around with a few custom FE portraits and turned them into seven succubi who might represent the seven sins of tGA world. Yes, this was done for fun. It's kinda sad that these aren't regular portraits because some of the stuff in them is downright gorgeous. I particularly like Avarice's headdress, Pride's hair and Wrath's overall look. I wish I knew the original artists but oh well...
I gave them red, demonic eyes and green armor and darker skin colour (and made some minor modifications to each) to show that they represent the female-dominated Eastern Horde. I think this little task force would fit well into that particular army of demons, right?
I also happened to find a nice piano version of a pretty theme from Atsuhime series. For those who don't know (or who happen to be interested), I used this theme as a basis for restructuring a certain poem for a post in tGA RP's chapter 5 (which dealt with the antihero Belial's funeral). In other words you can basically sing the poem to the tune of the song if you want; I've tried it, and it mostly works (just a few kinks but nothing too serious). The post I'm referring to (if you want to see the lyrics, they're in italics) is this one. And yes, the piano version is quite nice although I still prefer the series's actual orchestral version.
Also, the post made me remember what an ass Duke Koschei Dravaris is in this scene. The guy basically orchestrated Belial's assassination and yet during the funeral he has the nerve to troll everyone by pretending to act like a good, sincere friend of Belial's. What I also like about the post in retrospect is how it shows some character motivations, has a few twists and also alludes to multiple subplots which bloom in later chapters. Let's count them just for fun:
1) Khalid turns out to be Belial's son, which comes as a shock to him because he wasn't aware of it.
2) Desdemona expected to inherit Belial's fortune but got trolled by Belial beyond the grave, so she starts manipulating Marcus to get what she wants (this has BIG repercussions later on).
3) Dravaris manipulates Daven by promising to help save his friends.
4) The Master (one of the major villains of the Godslayer saga) is attending the funeral with the heroes and has set his plans in motion, but the heroes are unaware who he is (he IS one of the heroes but we don't know which one yet).
5) Waldheim, despite kind of hating the old coot Belial with whom he had an intense rivalry, actually shows that deep inside he respected him all along and is kinda saddened that he can no longer bicker with Belial. Yeah, he's sad. A little. Kind of. The grumpy old man does have a heart, after all. Aww.
6) Ferron is manipulating Unithien's naïve outlook to further his plans.
7) Refan & Ax shipping. And yes, this is teasing because it doesn't end in a way you'd expect if you've read later posts. =P
It's also nice in retrospect that the actual lyrics of the song/poem fit the text which follows them. For example, "Bright light/set my heart aflight" used when people lit Belial's funeral pyre. Some of these are more literal uses, but others are more symbolic... like Unithien being a prisoner of her faith without realizing it.
And speaking of tGA's current chapter, so far so good. We've finally freed Zeranafska (about time; that chick has spent ages in that temple) and the plot thickens in Vanna where I've had lots of fun RPing a bisexual villain (sort of). It's actually too interesting RPing the Vanna stuff so I've had to force myself not to focus too much on it for now because it shouldn't be the main focus. I guess it's just that I'm used to RPing Refan and because Refan is now working for the villains (kind of), my focus automatically tries to shift to the baddie side to show what's going on. Then there's the Ronove stuff which I've really enjoyed because Ronove's such a fun and complex character to RP... especially now that he's become a villain. It's just fun teasing what his motives and plans are and what he really has in mind. However, AK's recent post about a mysterious figure with a sword got me thinking whether he intends his hero to actually confront Refan. It's just my speculation, though, but I wonder who the mystery person is. That's also one of the excuses I've had for not introducing Refan in this newest chapter (chapter 10) yet. And I'll try not to RP Ronove too much for now as much as I'd like to because he'll have his chance to shine later.
I'll also have to figure out how to proceed with the Antigonus subplot. For instance, I don't know how many heroes know of his existence at the moment. I could assume that all the Alliance heroes in Alent know it by now but it's possible Khalid kept it secret. In any case, his plot will definitely be the hardest one to write. I know his motivations, I know his plans, but his interactions with people will prove to be the most difficult. He kinda began as a deus ex machina character to quickly resolve a drawn-out plot in another city but I quickly realized the potential he had while he was impersonating Belial. And I wanted to have a Belial expy in the story, darn it, because I missed the old bugger since I killed him off yet I didn't have the heart to resurrect him because that would've cheapened his dramatic death. Thankfully Antigonus isn't Belial Lite or even an exact copy because he's a different character with different goals. If Belial was an antihero, I guess you might consider Antigonus an anti-villain? It's actually really hard for me to classify Antigonus for now because interactions with characters might force me to adapt my planned subplot for him (and adapting is fun, mind you, because it tends to result in an overall better story and RP). But yeah, Antigonus and his "lackey" Thrax are fun to write about too even though they'll need some time to grow on me. Maybe those few decades in paradimensional exile turned Antigonus into less of a jerk. Or maybe not. =P
Speaking of problems, I have no idea what to do with the Shyralis and Glaurung/Vaetris subplots because those weren't mine to begin with. The Glau/Vae thing is relatively easy because they're not connected to any major plot right now so they can be ignored for now if needed. However, the Shyr stuff is more alarming simply because I need to figure out what to do with her exactly. She wanted to mindrape Marcus once they were reunited, but Marcus has also grown balls by now so will he arrest her, or will she turn him into her mindless slave again? I'd be uncomfortable with either option because I'm not fully aware of Shyr's full motives because she ain't my character. I guess we could keep things in status quo by claiming that Marcus doesn't imprison her yet because he wants to figure out what she's after and only pretends to be his fool or something crzy like that, but dunno. It's a tricky choice, really. I guess I should ignore the fact as long as possible.
And that reminds me that there's also the whole Skye debacle. How am I gonna make it make sense? To summarize, she was assumed dead, later find out her family had been kidnapped, found out that Marcus was in fact a fake Marcus who was her old foe the Shadow (it's a long story, just go with it), she joined Dylas's dissident faction because she felt he'd be better suited to ruling Remon and because he opposed the church which had kidnapped her family, then the zombies struck and she was chosen to aid a bunch of loyalist mages to find the real Marcus and she agreed both because she didn't want to be executed and because she had found out that her family was likely travelling with Marcus. Also, she assumed the Shadow had in fact been kind of in league with Shyralis so she distrusted Shyr and wanted to hear the truth from Marcus's lips. However, once she finally found Marcus, she learned that her husband (who happens to be Refan) had already left, and Marcus stopped her from going after her. *takes a deep breath*
And that's pretty much it so far. Now the questions are: will Skye still aid Marcus, what are her feelings for Shyralis, what is she gonna do with the whole Refan betrayal thing? Finding answers to those three core questions will be crucial for her story arc, and I want to make her actions plausible in context. I just wish Jojo was still around to RP her because I miss her enthusiasm. Still, Skye's role in not only Refan's story arc but also a few others' story arcs is so big that I don't want to ditch her. Besides, I wouldn't want to miss an opportunity to mine on the triangle drama between Ax, Skye and Refan. I don't want to imagine what'll happen when/if Skye finds out what Refan's been doing with Ax in her absence...
Last but not least, here's a link to an almost surreal crossover parody music video. Michael Bolton as Jack Sparrow... and a few other characters. Seriously, it's so over the top parody that I can't help but laugh. "Now back to the good part!"
Yours,
Mikko
I've also been pleased by how smoothly Age of Empires 2 seems to work in Win7 with very few adjustments (even though it does crash occasionally and has some creepy colours in some maps). I don't know why I'm having such a hard time with AoE2 campaigns when I finished StarCraft and the original AoE with hardly any effort. Maybe it's because the enemy is constantly spamming its forces? Although I'm playing in the ordinary difficulty setting, the AI is still a lot more aggressive than SC's or AoE's enemies ever were (even SC's insane AI seems easy in comparison to AoE2's easier AI). If there's one thing I'm glad about, though, it's that the AI no longer spams priests: those were so annoying in the original AoE (I can still hear their ululu sounds in my nightmares after all these years).
Another game that works quite well after a bit of patching is Deus Ex. I was unhappy (understatement of the year) when my earlier savegames were deleted, but I intend to play though the game and get past the point where I lost the saves. I try not to consult FAQs although I'm terribly tempted to do so because I'd want to find out which weapons are the best ones to customize for a stealth/pacifist approach. I'm leaning on upgrading my pistol and crossbow with all sorts of goodies so that I can have effective non-lethal takedowns.
I think I'll also utilize a glitch so that I can spare both my "evil" buddy Anna Navarre and the terrorist Lebedev in a crucial turning point mission. I heard that killing Anna then and there will make later parts of the game easier but I wish to RP as much as a pacifist as I can. So far I've only taken terrorists and druggies out with batons and tranquilizer darts, and I find sneaking up on enemies a lot more rewarding than just gunning them down. It's fun hearing enemy chatter when they get more and more paranoid when you take them down one by one. I wish the AI was more clever in some places like in Thief, but it has managed to surprise me occasionally, so I guess that's a good thing.
What I don't like is that the game rewards you with extra exploration points if you do certain things out of order. For example, finding your office before your superiors tell you where it is will grant you some much needed exp, but how on earth are you supposed to know that? Sometimes I wonder if I've missed dozens of potential exp gains simply because I've followed the plot closely in proper order. Some of the choices are quite difficult too, such as whether to side with drug dealers or a local gang. My morality wouldn't allow either choice because both look like bad apples to me, but that also means I'll miss a lot of exp for not working for them. Choices, choices...
Speaking of Deus Ex, I noticed that Deus Ex 3's system specs aren't insane and my laptop might be able to run it after all. Hurray! Perhaps once I finish DE1, I might try DE3 because it looks really promising. The trailer track was pretty epic, and apparently the rest of the OST will be similar (which I hope). Although many hardcore DE fans have complained about the changes in DE3, I've personally enjoyed the neo-Renaissance cyberpunk feel which the game has. It looks really pretty, and I wonder how they've managed to keep the specs down. The cutscenes by Square-Enix look really pretty (and gritty) too, complementing the neo-noir feel. I wonder how many connections DE3 will have to DE1 because it's a prequel. Perhaps we'll get to see pre-augmentation Gunther and Anna? That'd be swell. In fact, I just took a look at some leaked gameplay, and the first scenes have Bob frickin' Page (from DE1) in it. Yayyayyay! Looks very promising indeed...
I'm itching to install Baldur's Gate 2 and actually play through it this time because I've never finished it. The problem is that it's such a massive game and I wonder if it'll have compatibility issues with Win7 so I've postponed playing it. I do want to play it because I've heard so many good things about the game. Sadly I don't have Throne of Bhaal expansion but I think the main game will keep me occupied for quite some time. I just wanna hear Jim Cummings as Mingsk. Gotta love his chatter with his miniature giant space hamster pet. ^_^
Perhaps I should just play through AoE2 and DE1 first although both of those games have lots of content too (seriously, the size of DE1 levels so far has been insane, and apparently it gets even more outrageous later in the game). I also need to get off my ass and actually finish Final Fantasy 5 too. So far I'm in Galuf's castle where I found a nice glitch where I can quickly level up my characters' classes by using a certain blue magic spell on the tough enemies in the basement. That's saved me a lot of hard work so I'm not considering it cheating. The battle on the big bridge was quite neat and quite fitting for its epic music track. ;P
Sometimes life can be full of surprises. I had no knowledge of the Witcher except that it was a computer game based on a series of Polish fantasy books which feature a witcher (superhuman monster slayer) named Geralt of Rivia. The premise looked interesting, but I never bothered buying the first game.
I happened upon a few early the Witcher 2 gameplay segments, and those looked promising but nothing exceptional. However, at that point the Witcher 2 had already been ingrained in my mind, but it took a few months before I stumbled upon Toegoff's Youtube Let's Play of the Witcher 2. I watched the first ep and got hooked. Although Toegoff was pretty funny playing through the game, what also interested me was the prologue which looked surprisingly innovative and thrilling. I was also intrigued by the difficulty curve of the game as well as its world.
Anyway, I still don't know what eventually was the thing that really triggered my actions, but when I visited a local store, I ended up in the gaming department where I saw the Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings box. After a bit of hesitation, I decided to buy it. Perhaps it was my curiosity, maybe just a random idea that suddenly popped up. Whatever the case, it turned out to be one of the best blind buys since Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns.
Before I continue my Witcher tale, allow me to link to a few marvellous vids about the Witcher 2.
First the thematic trailers:
Disdain & Fear. Well interwoven scenes and great Finnish music (a nice remix of the original song, in any case) in the background. The lyrics are also poignant (particularly now that I've advanced further into the story and have figured out how exceptionally the song fits into the story). Here are the full lyrics translated into English:
Hedningarna - Vargtimmen (Hour of the Wolf)
Oh I shouldn't si(ng) sing shouldn't a shouldn('t)
Oh I shouldn't si(ng) sing shouldn('t)
Oh neither rejoice joice at all at all
Oh neither rejoice joice at all at all
Deep inside the heart lurks
Betrayal and the lies
In what way could I speak to be
Not only mild but wise?
I can't undo what has been done
Nor can I change my name
Before you have forgiveness won
Bite the head off of your shame
I swear I never wanted to
Cause you harm or hurt
But the way that I look now
Would force my eyes to avert
I am you offending
The night is suspending
The sinner is awake
It's the hour of the wolf
I told you that I loved you
And it's very true
But there is someone else
Instead of only you
I could gobble up her
With drooling jaws her take
Nothing can stop me from it
If just for its own sake
In my loneliness --
And no one else will know
My love is for the both of you
That's the cause of all my woes
Without punishment and
With no regret?
Knowing this at least:
It's the hour of the beast
Oh I shouldn't si(ng) sing shouldn't o lailai
Oh neither rejoice joice at all at all
Oh I have darling darling wandering wanderin'
Oh I have loved loved walkin'
May I come to you now
But for just a little while?
Luther has gone home and
I'll kiss your face and smile
Then I'll make my mind up
There is yet a little time
I know exactly what I'm doing
It's my life and it's my crime
Up until this day of days
I thought myself as a lamb
And when I change my ways
That will be what I am
I'm giving up it all
My ultimate downfall
The morning sun's glow
Will chase off the wolf!
I'm kind of freaked out about how much that song (which describes Geralt of Rivia and his woes in the Witcher 2 remarkably well) also fits my tGA character Refan's current predicament as well. Anyway, let's get back to the other Witcher trailers...
Love & Blood. This one has nice foreshadowing of the game's shocking events. It's interesting how many spoilery scenes they put in this one, but without playing the game you won't know the context of those scenes and how exactly they relate to the twists in the story.
Hope. Definitely the most emotional Witcher 2 trailer and my favourite of the three trailers. Can't go wrong with Chopin (gotta love that string arrangement near the end).
And here are some spoilery but great W2 vids:
A sad twist! This one was quite a touching moment (proving that even jerks have a heart of gold) even though I saw it coming a mile away. Long live the king.
Facing the Kayran! A battle with QTEs. This was a surprisingly easy battle for me but it was fun, and that's what matters in the end. Still, I felt sorry for the poor beast. He(?) is kinda cute in a grotesque way.
Confronting the Kingslayer! This was one of the most enjoyable boss battles I've played in a long while. I love bosses who use your tricks against you... and this one had a good plot to back it up, too.
And now, some thoughts about the game itself so far:
Installing the retail vanilla version of this game was a nightmare. You have no idea how long it took me to get it working properly. I had to install a specific patch fixing this problem, and then I immediately installed the stabilizing 1.1 patch on the same go. Thankfully Google was my greatest helper in this bug-slaying session worthy of the Witcher himself.
After I got the game installing properly and working, I had to tone down the settings because apparently my video card couldn't quite handle the beautiful graphics of this game. Thankfully the rest of my specs were up to par so this lack of graphic power didn't render my gaming experience obsolete even though I had to use the lowest settings and switch resolution to 640x480 to get it working in large battles. Surprisingly enough the game doesn't look terrible even in these low settings (although it's still a far cry from the beauty of ultra settings which I looked at in Youtube vids). However, to me performance is more important than visual stuff so I was content with playing the game with my limited hardware.
And boy what an experience the game has been! The prologue turned out to be one of the most interesting prologues I've played in a long while. It has a clever frame story (it takes place during an interrogation where you recall events from the previous day when you and King Foltest's forces assaulted La Valette castle where the king's bastard children were kept imprisoned) where you get to choose which order you tell the story in. However, it's advisable to recount the story chronologically because otherwise the difficulty curve might be too much. I like this interactive element, and your choices in dialogue during the entire prologue WILL affect the rest of the game quite dramatically.
This game's tutorial is a bit of a hit&miss, though. I'm possibly a special gamer because I always read the manual before doing anything. This helped me considerably during the prologue because without the manual's advice I probably would've died a lot more. The actual in-game tutorial isn't that helpful unless you learn to access your in-game journal to re-read the helpful tutorial bits. If you don't learn to access the journal, tough luck and have fun dying a lot.
Yes, I said dying a lot because this game is quite difficult in the beginning even on "mere" normal difficulty. I personally didn't have too hard a time with it until the battle against six guards at once (in a very narrow courtyard) which was the only frustrating part of the prologue for me. However, that battle really forces you to use everything you've got (and everything you've learned) in order to survive because the combat is unforgiving. If you screw up too much, you'll die.
You must drink potions BEFORE entering a battle, and you won't regenerate health in combat unless you've drunk a specific potion. You can't drink too many potions at once because of their high toxicity so you must be strategic about which potions to use. If the enemy backstabs you, you take double damage so you must protect your back at all times. Using your signs (basically your spell arsenal of five signs which range from a shield to brainwashing an enemy to fight for you), blocking, potions, oils (which grant weapons different bonuses for a limited period of time), evading, and throwing daggers and bombs is essential for survival in this game.
Although some of the combat can be a bit clunky, I personally enjoyed its ferocity. It forces you to think when even two or three enemies can provide you with a challenge even later in game. Knowing when to use signs, evade and block is crucial, and you also got to keep an eye on your vigor meter and wait for it to refill (it takes time and blocking and using signs both use vigor so you must be careful which one to use at a time). I suppose normal difficulty might be too easy because often I haven't had to bother with oils and potions in regular combat on normal difficulty once I gained new, deadly abilities. However, large mobs and bosses still give me trouble if I haven't prepared beforehand, so I guess that balances things out. I might consider playing through the second time with hard difficulty just for kicks. And no, I won't touch the insane difficulty (which means that if you die even once in game, the game's over) because I'm no fool.
The game offers replayability not only plot-wise (more about the choices later) but also via the skills and abilities. You can discover secret abilities by doing stuff in the game world (e.g. setting yourself on fire enough times will grant you a boost in protection against incineration). There's also a neat skill tree which has four paths: witcher (where you start), swordsman, mage and herbalist. You can only level up to lvl 36 if I recall and you can update each tree's abilities twice, so that forces you to specialize. Do you want to maximize special skills in a specific path, be a jack of all trades or something in between? I've personally focused on a mixed swordsman/mage path and tried to take what I consider the best abilities of each. I wonder whether this has been a good strategy, but we'll see. Mutagens also add replayability and customization. Certain unlocked skills in the skill tree have dots where you can add one mutagen. I think in one playthrough you can only access 5 or so mutagen slots so you have to choose wisely which mutagens to use because there are many varieties. One mutagen might affect your strength or critical effects so great care must be given to choosing which mutagen to use because the choice is permanent.
I was impressed how much your choices really affect the story. Many choices aren't clear cut (as in black&white good vs. evil) because many villains are noble and many heroes are bastards (both literally and figuratively). For example, a definitely evil guy actually has some pet the dog moments such as when he claims you're not a mutant but a human like everyone else, and the horrifically brutal commander of a guerrilla force actually has noble, sympathetic goals).
I'm currently in Chapter 2 and already my choices affected several outcomes in the story. Apparently the game has 16 different endings depending on the choices you've made during gameplay, so that's quite impressive. I might check out all 16 endings after my second playthrough just to see all the different variations. For example, in the prologue you can persuade your rival to drop his weapons or kill him or kill him and his men. Likewise you can be an ass to the villains and heroes through dialogue choices, be opportunistic or (mostly) altruistic, cheat on your girlfriend, have different motivations for your quest, or overall play a magnificent bastard who plays everyone against each other like a fiddle. I don't know if it affects the plot how much of a dick you are to your allies in the beginning but if that too affects the plot, I'll be greatly impressed.
I chose to play a mostly straight hero/knight in shining armor because that was kinda sweet in a mostly crapsack world where the story takes place in (although I did shag my comrade when my girlfriend was absent because hey, witchers are promiscuous and need to get laid from time to time too, and the chick really needed to relax in Geralt's arms ;D). The way how you can develop your relationship with your main love interest Triss is also nice although I'm sad that another love interest from the first game has apparently been dropped for no reason. Would it really have hurt the developers to include that other chick in the plot too? What if someone chose that chick in W1 only to find out that they can't meet/shag her anymore in W2. That's kinda unfortunate if you ask me. However, Triss has a nice personality and I haven't played the first game so having her around doesn't irk me. She's exactly what a love interest should be like: strong, pretty, intelligent, witty, great sense of humour...
I also like the Nilfgaardian ambassador who's polite, and yet I can't help but think he's a villain because he serves a villainous nation. What I like about him is that he's always civil and downright friendly, yet he asks lots of questions in order to find out what you're up to, and whether you answer or not doesn't matter because he can confirm his suspicions even from your silence, which I thought was a great touch and shows how skilled diplomats really are in reading one's mind via body language. The Kingslayers, the eponymous "villains" (I hesitate to call them that because they so far seem to have rather noble intentions in mind even though their methods are kinda brutal), have also been interesting so far because they're mysterious and their leader is charismatic and badass with a sensitive side and machiavellian wit.
The plot gets really political and you're forced to get your hands dirty as the game progresses. For example, I'm forced to aid a jerkass king in order to track down the Kingslayers (and because I can't let evil spirits take over the world even though getting rid of the spirits will allow jerkass king to invade my friend's friends). You can play a racist (or speciesist, whatever) or try to be neutral or actually support minorities like elves against humans. Sure, the plot does dictate the direction somewhat but the way you reach certain goals isn't too well-defined so there's room for exploration. Sooner or later you'll have to choose sides, though, and that's gonna be a difficult decision, lemme tell ya. It's also fascinating how much behind-the-scenes plotting there is. You have the four northern kingdoms, the Nilfgaard Empire, the sorceresses, the nonhuman rebels, the dragons, the kingslayers and ambitious individuals all trying to dominate each other whether subtly or openly. Heck, even you can be a backstabbing bastard if you want to so only the monsters are "honest" in that they only try to eat anyone they come across.
I also like how some of the quests subvert your expectations. For example, you see an elven girl in distress, about to be killed by angry soldiers who claim she's killed their comrades. Because you know the humans in town hate elves and see a girl in distress, your male knight mentality states that you gotta save the poor damsel. So you investigate and find out dead bodies of soldiers with arrows sticking out of them. So, did the girl know about this or not? You can lie (claim that monsters killed the soldiers) to save the girl or tell the truth which likely leads to her hanging. If you choose to lie to save the poor girl, she'll invite you to a private romantic meeting where her rogue friends ambush you and it turns out the girl was in fact in collusion with the real murderers. You can then either spare the girl who promises to leave (and seems to keep her word) or kill her for her treachery. The different permutations on how many ways this quest can end are quite many, and it shows that damsels in distress can also be backstabbing bitches in the game's crapsack world. Always question everyone's motives and never trust anyone. Even your closest friends do questionable things behind your back (being part of a conspiracy you're hunting down!). I like this kind of moral greyness, and in some cases you just have to trust your gut feeling (whether to believe ghosts or their possible murderers).
Then there are the infamous major plot turnabouts. During chapter 1 there are two times where you'll have to make crucial choices and choose sides. During the first choice you can either help humans or elves, which affects the plot quite a bit. During the second choice you have to choose again, either staying with the party you chose first or "betray" them and choose the other, which once again affects the plot. I ended up choosing the humans (Vernon Roche) twice although I intend to try the elf path (Iorveth) on my second playthrough. This fateful decision-making was cool but it also had some problems which I'll detail later in this post.
So, overall I like the detailed environments, good dialogue, mostly great voice acting (there are a few bad VAs but they just add charm to the whole deal, IMHO), secret abilities which you have to discover yourself, thrilling and strategic combat, grey choices, intricate plot, memorable characters (Geralt, Foltest, Roche, Iorveth, Letho and Triss ftw) and engaging music (I particularly like the alluring vocal theme of the Sorceresses). This game has a lot going for it, and the last time I had so much fun was with Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns.
Are there any cons, then? Well, certainly. The game's not perfect but the points I'll make below can be considered nit-picking. I'll list them anyway, though, because I want to be thorough and I like to share my views on how to make a great game even better (in case any CDProjekt people happen to stumble upon this entry, which I doubt but still...):
1) The major choice thing in chapter 1 is kind of rigged, IMHO. Although the choice is supposed to be grey, I couldn't help but side with the humans (Roche's path) for certain reasons: a) Roche believed in me when no one else would and helped me escape from the dungeon, b) he provided me with valuable intel and was a decent enough buddy. Compare this with Iorveth who a) I assumed until the last minute was nothing but a crazed extremist, b) saved my life but only to figure out what the Kingslayer was up to, and c) I was sort of honour-bound to aid him if things turned ugly. Although I sort of understand siding with Iorveth's elves, the fact is that Roche spent a lot more time with Geralt, thus earning his trust, whereas with Iorveth it wouldn't make sense to INITIALLY side with him and BETRAY Roche during the battle.
Of course you might argue that things get a bit muddy during the second choice in chapter 1. I mean, if you aided Roche capture Iorveth during first choice, you might feel guilty for betraying Iorveth so you might want to help him escape from the prison barge. This I might understand because that would fit into Geralt's personality better than initially siding with Iorveth. However, would Geralt really do so when he's already aided Roche once? That's hard to say, and I'd need to read the novels to know for sure whether Geralt would do so. I do intend to try this path (that is first choice Roche second choice Iorveth) just to see how Roche reacts to my "betrayal". But let's move on...
2) The repeating scripts. I understand it's not possible to have dozens of conversations for one NPC, but sometimes it really irks me to hear them discuss the same thing over and over again every day I visit them. This is definitely nit-picking but it'd be awesome if there was more variety in dialogue. I understand it'd be costly, though, so I'll let it slide. However, the dialogue with important NPCs saves the day, obviously, as they're much more detailed.
3) Weird scripting. Why is the storyteller telling stories in his home's bed in the middle of the night when you get inside? Wouldn't his wife shut him up? Other quirks like this happen in some other places too. Also, why do the NPCs seem perfectly ok for you to invade their home in the middle of the night and welcome you. I'd tell a witcher to piss off if he broke into my place to loot stuff.
4) Too few voice actors. It didn't take me long to figure out that one guy plays like a dozen parts in this game. It's kinda annoying, especially when random NPC reminds me of a villainous NPC not only in voice but also in character model. More variety here, please.
5) Where's the friendly fauna? Sure, the world's full of monsters who kill you and other monsters, but have they hunted deer etc. to extinction? All I can see are birds and possibly insects when I visit plains and forests. It'd be awesome to see herds of some animals which you could kill for fun or for their hides (which you could sell on the market). It'd also be awesome to see the monsters hunt those animals to feed their young.
6) More monster interaction. Why do the monsters only attack you or attack other monsters? It'd be cool to see nekkers actually have some dark rituals or see the endrega feed their young or something like that. Now it's painfully apparent that these monsters only exist to be killed; we don't really see them do their own stuff much (except eat fallen soldiers every once in a while).
7) More monster types. Although the monsters in the game are balanced and have variety, it'd be cool to see more of them. As much as I like endrega or rotfiends, it wouldn't hurt to have more monsters of different types. Slavic mythology is full of creatures that they could use, and it'd make it fun to guess which monster you'll bump into next. Now the only surprises come in dungeons or during quests when you meet some unique monsters in thrilling battles (or they ambush you like the earth elemental in a rotfiend-infested cave).
8) More rain and rainbows. Ok, this is silly but I've rarely encountered rain in my game. It just might be bad luck, but still. And it'd be cool to see rainbows after rain (if these do exist but I haven't noticed, please hit me with a trout and point out some evidence to prove me otherwise). Also, why can't I see lightning bolts in the sky during thunder? It'd be so awesome to see lightning flash and illuminate the darkness for the briefest moment when a rotfiend suddenly rises and attacks you.
9) Only white people? Ok, this is likely a geographical thing because the northern kingdoms probably don't have any black or Asian-looking people. Too bad, though, because it'd be awesome to see different ethnicities. Thankfully the whites do have different cultures (Kaedwenis seem heavily inspired by Scottish, for example) so that remedies things somewhat.
10) More choices. Seriously. If I want to side with a villain and massacre everyone, the plot should let me do so no matter how much bitching I'd have to hear. Now the plot dictates some events (for example, I would've wanted to spare a specific villain but the game wouldn't let me). The lack of choice in some scenes breaks the illusion. I do understand it would've required even more tweaking in storyline to let this happen, though, so oh well.
11) Jumping! Why does the game allow me to jump only when I perform special attacks or I find a special ledge to climb up/down? Why can't I bunny jump? It'd be awesome to use jumping to perform daring strikes and cross waste-long blockades which even a baby should be able to cross. It's insulting when Geralt can't cross a small fence simply because he can't jump.
12) More quests. This will likely be remedied in future DLCs but so far I wouldn't mind seeing even more quests (although there are quite a few already). One mere extra quest in DLC isn't enough, CDProjekt. I don't mind if adding new quests takes time, though, as long as the results are as compelling as the charming Troll Trouble DLC quest. Also, if the rumours about chapter 3's short length are true, you guys at CDProjekt might want to expand that a bit and add additional quests to make that chapter longer.
13) Locked doors? Are these there simply to make sure that Geralt won't access certain areas? Why bother putting doors in places which you can't access? Why not have simply a wall there? I understand one door because it introduces some quest-important people in chapter 1 (from the Woe to the Vanquished quest) but what purpose do the other locked doors serve? Those are driving me nuts!
14) Weird glitches. Sometimes when you speak to some people out of order the quest indicator goes nuts. E.g. when I talk to Roche during the Conspiracy Plot quest, it doesn't show what I need to do next so unless I've paid special attention to the journal before, I'll be stuck. This is likely a bug but it needs to be fixed ASAP because it might potentially confuse people.
15) The frickin' doorways. Ok, I understand the need to use these to make loading town maps more bearable but they're so annoying, especially when a friendly NPC slams the door shut right in front of your voice (a good example is in AngryJoe's Witcher 2 review). Please get rid of the doorways or at least allow seamless entering to make it more bearable. It wears you thin when a guy slams a door in your face 100th time in a row. This is very minor nitpick, obviously, but still...
16) More romantic options, and I don't mean more whores because we have enough of those already. Right now it seems you basically have two romantic options per path (I might be wrong about Iorveth's path because I haven't played through it yet). I understand Triss is important, but it wouldn't hurt to be able to romance more girls (or guys) more deeply than just shag-a-night way. This would require some heavy scripting, though, so I guess it'll never happen. At least we have Ves, though, even though I hope her story will be more interesting than it has been so far.
17) Make the herbalist skill tree more relevant. Seriously, right now choosing swordsman or mage is much more beneficial because they offer better skills. I guess herbalist is there for hardcore players because most of its skills won't be of much use unless you know what you're doing? And I see no point in berserk mode. Or perhaps I should be a masochist and choose the herbalist path in next playthrough to see if it's truly ok or not.
18) Please tone down Quen. Oh gosh, Quen sign is such a kill app in normal difficulty. You can practically become invincible even in its first upgrade. I dare not think how powerful the SECOND upgrade is because the first one is already a game-breaker. Ok, I admit I have to use it against large mobs (when my computer lags) but for the most part I avoid using it because it's too powerful. It makes even boss fights easy: just spam Quen and you'll win. The only downside to Quen is that you can't regenerate vigor while you use it but that's kinda moot when it protects you from damage (and REFLECTS IT BACK AT OPPONENT) anyway. Aard and Quen are such a gamebreaker combination in this game. Sheesh.
Ehhh... that's pretty much it, I guss. So yes, despite those minor flaws which I mentioned earlier, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings is definitely worth playing. And yes, you don't have to read the novels or play the first game to grasp the story although it apparently helps. I could follow the story fine even though I was a newcomer to the series in this game. It's on my "game of the year" list, and it was one of the best blind buys I've had in my time. It's rare to find a game so enjoyable, but it's nice how the gameplay, story, world and characters have gotten me interested in it. Good job, CDProjekt. Go, Poland!
And now for tGA-related matters... the Seven Sisters representing the seven sins!
I was having a boring moment (a time before I got my hands on the Witcher 2, that is) so I decided to fool around with a few custom FE portraits and turned them into seven succubi who might represent the seven sins of tGA world. Yes, this was done for fun. It's kinda sad that these aren't regular portraits because some of the stuff in them is downright gorgeous. I particularly like Avarice's headdress, Pride's hair and Wrath's overall look. I wish I knew the original artists but oh well...
I gave them red, demonic eyes and green armor and darker skin colour (and made some minor modifications to each) to show that they represent the female-dominated Eastern Horde. I think this little task force would fit well into that particular army of demons, right?
I also happened to find a nice piano version of a pretty theme from Atsuhime series. For those who don't know (or who happen to be interested), I used this theme as a basis for restructuring a certain poem for a post in tGA RP's chapter 5 (which dealt with the antihero Belial's funeral). In other words you can basically sing the poem to the tune of the song if you want; I've tried it, and it mostly works (just a few kinks but nothing too serious). The post I'm referring to (if you want to see the lyrics, they're in italics) is this one. And yes, the piano version is quite nice although I still prefer the series's actual orchestral version.
Also, the post made me remember what an ass Duke Koschei Dravaris is in this scene. The guy basically orchestrated Belial's assassination and yet during the funeral he has the nerve to troll everyone by pretending to act like a good, sincere friend of Belial's. What I also like about the post in retrospect is how it shows some character motivations, has a few twists and also alludes to multiple subplots which bloom in later chapters. Let's count them just for fun:
1) Khalid turns out to be Belial's son, which comes as a shock to him because he wasn't aware of it.
2) Desdemona expected to inherit Belial's fortune but got trolled by Belial beyond the grave, so she starts manipulating Marcus to get what she wants (this has BIG repercussions later on).
3) Dravaris manipulates Daven by promising to help save his friends.
4) The Master (one of the major villains of the Godslayer saga) is attending the funeral with the heroes and has set his plans in motion, but the heroes are unaware who he is (he IS one of the heroes but we don't know which one yet).
5) Waldheim, despite kind of hating the old coot Belial with whom he had an intense rivalry, actually shows that deep inside he respected him all along and is kinda saddened that he can no longer bicker with Belial. Yeah, he's sad. A little. Kind of. The grumpy old man does have a heart, after all. Aww.
6) Ferron is manipulating Unithien's naïve outlook to further his plans.
7) Refan & Ax shipping. And yes, this is teasing because it doesn't end in a way you'd expect if you've read later posts. =P
It's also nice in retrospect that the actual lyrics of the song/poem fit the text which follows them. For example, "Bright light/set my heart aflight" used when people lit Belial's funeral pyre. Some of these are more literal uses, but others are more symbolic... like Unithien being a prisoner of her faith without realizing it.
And speaking of tGA's current chapter, so far so good. We've finally freed Zeranafska (about time; that chick has spent ages in that temple) and the plot thickens in Vanna where I've had lots of fun RPing a bisexual villain (sort of). It's actually too interesting RPing the Vanna stuff so I've had to force myself not to focus too much on it for now because it shouldn't be the main focus. I guess it's just that I'm used to RPing Refan and because Refan is now working for the villains (kind of), my focus automatically tries to shift to the baddie side to show what's going on. Then there's the Ronove stuff which I've really enjoyed because Ronove's such a fun and complex character to RP... especially now that he's become a villain. It's just fun teasing what his motives and plans are and what he really has in mind. However, AK's recent post about a mysterious figure with a sword got me thinking whether he intends his hero to actually confront Refan. It's just my speculation, though, but I wonder who the mystery person is. That's also one of the excuses I've had for not introducing Refan in this newest chapter (chapter 10) yet. And I'll try not to RP Ronove too much for now as much as I'd like to because he'll have his chance to shine later.
I'll also have to figure out how to proceed with the Antigonus subplot. For instance, I don't know how many heroes know of his existence at the moment. I could assume that all the Alliance heroes in Alent know it by now but it's possible Khalid kept it secret. In any case, his plot will definitely be the hardest one to write. I know his motivations, I know his plans, but his interactions with people will prove to be the most difficult. He kinda began as a deus ex machina character to quickly resolve a drawn-out plot in another city but I quickly realized the potential he had while he was impersonating Belial. And I wanted to have a Belial expy in the story, darn it, because I missed the old bugger since I killed him off yet I didn't have the heart to resurrect him because that would've cheapened his dramatic death. Thankfully Antigonus isn't Belial Lite or even an exact copy because he's a different character with different goals. If Belial was an antihero, I guess you might consider Antigonus an anti-villain? It's actually really hard for me to classify Antigonus for now because interactions with characters might force me to adapt my planned subplot for him (and adapting is fun, mind you, because it tends to result in an overall better story and RP). But yeah, Antigonus and his "lackey" Thrax are fun to write about too even though they'll need some time to grow on me. Maybe those few decades in paradimensional exile turned Antigonus into less of a jerk. Or maybe not. =P
Speaking of problems, I have no idea what to do with the Shyralis and Glaurung/Vaetris subplots because those weren't mine to begin with. The Glau/Vae thing is relatively easy because they're not connected to any major plot right now so they can be ignored for now if needed. However, the Shyr stuff is more alarming simply because I need to figure out what to do with her exactly. She wanted to mindrape Marcus once they were reunited, but Marcus has also grown balls by now so will he arrest her, or will she turn him into her mindless slave again? I'd be uncomfortable with either option because I'm not fully aware of Shyr's full motives because she ain't my character. I guess we could keep things in status quo by claiming that Marcus doesn't imprison her yet because he wants to figure out what she's after and only pretends to be his fool or something crzy like that, but dunno. It's a tricky choice, really. I guess I should ignore the fact as long as possible.
And that reminds me that there's also the whole Skye debacle. How am I gonna make it make sense? To summarize, she was assumed dead, later find out her family had been kidnapped, found out that Marcus was in fact a fake Marcus who was her old foe the Shadow (it's a long story, just go with it), she joined Dylas's dissident faction because she felt he'd be better suited to ruling Remon and because he opposed the church which had kidnapped her family, then the zombies struck and she was chosen to aid a bunch of loyalist mages to find the real Marcus and she agreed both because she didn't want to be executed and because she had found out that her family was likely travelling with Marcus. Also, she assumed the Shadow had in fact been kind of in league with Shyralis so she distrusted Shyr and wanted to hear the truth from Marcus's lips. However, once she finally found Marcus, she learned that her husband (who happens to be Refan) had already left, and Marcus stopped her from going after her. *takes a deep breath*
And that's pretty much it so far. Now the questions are: will Skye still aid Marcus, what are her feelings for Shyralis, what is she gonna do with the whole Refan betrayal thing? Finding answers to those three core questions will be crucial for her story arc, and I want to make her actions plausible in context. I just wish Jojo was still around to RP her because I miss her enthusiasm. Still, Skye's role in not only Refan's story arc but also a few others' story arcs is so big that I don't want to ditch her. Besides, I wouldn't want to miss an opportunity to mine on the triangle drama between Ax, Skye and Refan. I don't want to imagine what'll happen when/if Skye finds out what Refan's been doing with Ax in her absence...
Last but not least, here's a link to an almost surreal crossover parody music video. Michael Bolton as Jack Sparrow... and a few other characters. Seriously, it's so over the top parody that I can't help but laugh. "Now back to the good part!"
Yours,
Mikko