The Witcher Enhanced Edition (Director's Cut) - Discussion Thread

[Ethan_Hunt]

Yes, I know. It's awfully late to be creating this thread, but it had to be done. I'm getting the GoG Director's Cut edition as I type. Just like Demon Souls and Dark Souls, I have only been watching it's gameplay videos, but held back on playing it. It's a shame having completed The Witcher 2, I wasn't able to bring myself to play this game, which fans say is better than the sequel. That's probably about to change now.

Well then, let's get on with it. I can't promise I'll be starting it immediately, but it's definitely going in my "to-be-played" list. Ergo, this thread needs to be present, in case I need some assistance. I plan to play this using a Xbox 360 controller mapped via Pinnacle game profiler. Not sure how this would work out, but I can't afford to stick to the mouse and keyboard anymore; I just can't! Not to mention having to play it on a big screen LED doesn't even remotely compare to the puny 24" inch monitor. That said, I need to know what mods can be safely applied to this game to make it look better. The GoG director's cut would be v1.5, if I'm not mistaken and moddb says that the texture mod does not work with it. So what can I apply?

Also, lay out some start up combat tips. The sign system seems to be the same and the potion crafting and consumption too, I assume. What about the quests? Is it the same as Witcher 2? How is the map? Is it helpful in tracking your quests?

 

[jc36lect3r]

It plays a lot differently than Witcher 2. The camera can be pulled back pretty far, giving a wider view of the environment. The combat is based on chaining moves, but it looks fluid. The runes are meh. And then there are the tarrot cards for Gerralt's many "conquests". It's good, but Witcher 2 improved it in almost every way.

 

[ALPHA17]

@Ethan_Hunt these are the main differences --

• CAMERA:
  This is a major change in part two, where the camera is a fixed over the shoulder 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] person view of the world, the original title had an isometric system with three different levels -- FAR, NEAR and OVER-THE SHOULDER.
  
• COMBAT:
  The combat is based on three stances OR postures, namely STRONG, FAST and CROWD CONTROL and their application depends on the enemies you face and their numbers. This applies to Silver Sword tree as well. Runes take a back seat because they were simply not as effective OR strong as they are in the sequel. Potions could be taken on the fly and you have a dedicated quick-potion key in-case you end up in a pickle. This is one place where I feel the game has retarded, also the potion limit was not fixed to any explicit number as long as you kept the toxicity low you could imbibe x number of potions. Another point toxicity did not fall unless you rested.
  
  In the sequel the action has been slanted towards a more visceral and taut depiction of melee-combat and the runes have become significantly more effective at the cost of a more rigid potion system.
  
• RESTING & MEDITATION:
  In the original you needed to be near a lit fireplace / hearth / camp-site to rest and heal, brew potions. Also you could only visit your skill tree to invest points then which were talent based not singular token based, there were 3 levels of talents -- BRONZE, SILVER and GOLD. At different positions in the game x number of talents were provided in pool to be distributed between three stances of fighting (different for STEEL and SILVER) + four different attributes of DEXTERITY, INTELLIGENCE, ENDURANCE, STRENGTH + five signs.
  
  There were certain potions that would grant you further extra talents and unlock certain blocked skills if imbibed at the appropriate times.
  
• DECISIONS:
  The overall decision and consequence system was more ambiguous and darker than the sequel but is broken if certain actions are not carried out at certain times in the game.
  
  Overall it is a tie because the production values are persistent and the side-quests in the second title are better tied into the events and bring out more about Geralt's character.
  
• MAP & JOURNAL (QUEST system):
  The sequel and prequel share a very heavy and powerful Journal system that catalogues all The Witcher encounters as you traipse around masquerading as him in the world. Only difference is that unlike the prequel killing monsters does not reveal a whole lot about them you must read tomes on the subject to realize the same.
  
  Quests can be segregated on various terms, e.g., completition, level, chapter it was given, relevance.
  
  The Journal in the original offers a lot more detail on certain types of ingredients.

Finally to sum all this up, it is naïve to state that one game is better than the other duh.. duh.. duh. Both games complement each other well and you can clearly trace the advances and trade-off's that CD PROJEKT RED had to engage in to get the sequel to what it is.

Hope you enjoy the game and Safe Journey's Gwynbleidd.

 

[dinjo]

How do u play shooters then ?

 

[Ethan_Hunt]

CAMERA: This is a major change in part two, where the camera is a fixed over the shoulder 3rd person view of the world, the original title had an isometric system with three different levels -- FAR, NEAR and OVER-THE SHOULDER.

Camera shouldn't be a problem for me, unless I get jumped by a massive horde. From the videos that I have seen, it has a reasonable distance from over the shoulder.

COMBAT: The combat is based on three stances OR postures, namely STRONG, FAST and CROWD CONTROL and their application depends on the enemies you face and their numbers. This applies to Silver Sword tree as well. Runes take a back seat because they were simply not as effective OR strong as they are in the sequel. Potions could be taken on the fly and you have a dedicated quick-potion key in-case you end up in a pickle. This is one place where I feel the game has retarded, also the potion limit was not fixed to any explicit number as long as you kept the toxicity low you could imbibe x number of potions. Another point toxicity did not fall unless you rested.

The stances part is a bit tricky. You have to stike when the sword glows and each strike advances into the next batch of combos, right? Does it ever turn into a free form strike mode, similar to the strikes in Witcher 2? How effective is the defense in this game? Parry moves?

RESTING & MEDITATION: In the original you needed to be near a lit fireplace / hearth / camp-site to rest and heal, brew potions. Also you could only visit your skill tree to invest points then which were talent based not singular token based, there were 3 levels of talents -- BRONZE, SILVER and GOLD. At different positions in the game x number of talents were provided in pool to be distributed between three stances of fighting (different for STEEL and SILVER) + four different attributes of DEXTERITY, INTELLIGENCE, ENDURANCE, STRENGTH + five signs.There were certain potions that would grant you further extra talents and unlock certain blocked skills if imbibed at the appropriate times.

This is a bit confusing. What exactly do you mean by 'talent'?

MAP & JOURNAL (QUEST system): The sequel and prequel share a very heavy and powerful Journal system that catalogues all The Witcher encounters as you traipse around masquerading as him in the world. Only difference is that unlike the prequel killing monsters does not reveal a whole lot about them you must read tomes on the subject to realize the same. Quests can be segregated on various terms, e.g., completition, level, chapter it was given, relevance. The Journal in the original offers a lot more detail on certain types of ingredients.

Good! So it's not that different from the sequel. I can live with that. Are there progress sensitive quests? As in those that need to be concluded before a certain part of the game, else you loose it.

How do u play shooters then ?

With a gun.

 

[ALPHA17]

The stances part is a bit tricky. You have to stike when the sword glows and each strike advances into the next batch of combos, right? Does it ever turn into a free form strike mode, similar to the strikes in Witcher 2? How effective is the defense in this game? Parry moves?

This is a bit confusing. What exactly do you mean by 'talent'?

Good! So it's not that different from the sequel. I can live with that. Are there progress sensitive quests? As in those that need to be concluded before a certain part of the game, else you loose it.

No, it never ends up as the combat as in the sequel. The game needs you to keep chaining the attacks till the end of combat else the flow breaks and you start from the lowest level of strike rating. In low levels of difficulty the icon of attack glows notifying you of an impending juncture to continue the strikes and on highest difficulty you have to guess by the sound cues and sequence of strikes.

Also no parrying, your STRENGTH and DEXTERITY statistics affect the amount of damage you take, damage you shrug, chance of inflicting / receiving a critical hit and dodge attacks outright. Usage of certain potions further reinforces OR undermines these qualities / temporary statistic changes.

Talent is like the level-up tokens that we accrue in The Witcher 2, in the original instead of just one token you got a pool of talents (3 levels -- BRONZE, SILVER and GOLD) because of the more varied and diverse skill-tree(s) that you have to maintain. E.g. --
at the start of the game you will be granted three BRONZE talents to expend in the initial level up's, later you will get two BRONZE + one SILVER, next you get three SILVER's and finally towards the final acts you start getting two -->three GOLD talents to expend. This is how the system works.

Yes there are a handful of progress related quest threads in the game which are dependent on your actions and dialogue interactions with certain characters.

Any more queries, shoot and I will try to answer to the best of my knowledge. Cheers!

 

[ALPHA17]

@Ethan_Hunt another difference I forgot to cover was the Inventory system.

It is slot based and not weight capped. So the game has 3 different slots for different items --

• Weapons, Runes, Bombs and Potions / Armour gets one large slot
• Raw ingredients and miscellaneous items are placed in another slot
• Quest based slot, where all quest sensitive items go. Be wary that certain side-quest items get grouped in the miscellaneous slot and might be lost if you do not keep that in mind.

Finally there is a quick-slot for potions as mentioned earlier that responds to a hot-key.

Hope this helps, Cheerio!

 

[rakesh_ic]

no matter what people opine about this.. but this is the most varied and the (right on target and most fluid) combat that i have ever played.

None of the other games with varied combat was so smooth.

Though its tricky, it certainly is fun if u get a hang of it. I expected the combat to remain in witcher 2 which dint happen

 

[Ethan_Hunt]

@ALPHA17: Fantastic! That's probably good enough to get me started. I'm tempted to try it, right after I'm done with Halo 4. I would love to try out a dark themed game right now. How long should it take me to complete it on a normal run?

 

[ALPHA17]

Fantastic! That's probably good enough to get me started. I'm tempted to try it, right after I'm done with Halo 4. I would love to try out a dark themed game right now. How long should it take me to complete it on a normal run?

How much did you expend on the first title?

Depending on the difficulty, amount of side-quests you engage in ~50 -->60 hours.

Also, decision making in the original is a lot more ambiguous so no playthrough will end up as the same unless you learn and explicitly make certain choices the way that they are. This includes side-quests and other elements in the game such as dialogue and interaction with certain NPC's.

 

[Ethan_Hunt]

How much did you expend on the first title?

You mean Witcher 2? Both play-through must have easily involved around 50 hours, probably a bit less, as I just re-loaded the decision save point for Iorveth's path.

Depending on the difficulty, amount of side-quests you engage in ~50 -->60 hours.

Also, decision making in the original is a lot more ambiguous so no playthrough will end up as the same unless you learn and explicitly make certain choices the way that they are. This includes side-quests and other elements in the game such as dialogue and interaction with certain NPC's.

That's quite a huge commitment. But I'm sure it will be worth it, provided I get used to the game mechanics.

 

[ALPHA17]

You mean Witcher 2? Both play-through must have easily involved around 50 hours, probably a bit less, as I just re-loaded the decision save point for Iorveth's path.

That's quite a huge commitment. But I'm sure it will be worth it, provided I get used to the game mechanics.

Yes, the thing is in The Witcher the decision moments are not so flagged out, in the sense that the moment you make a certain choice things roll fast and making a save in advance is not such a sure-shot solution. Because the path OR major story narrative is fixed to one end but who and how it is attained changes quite a lot.

Some NPC's do not survive OR may-not survive depending on the choices you make. And they are mentioned OR appear in The Witcher 2 in quite substantial roles.

Just forgive the inflexibility of combat and the dissonant nature of resting and you are going to have a fun ride @Ethan_Hunt. Cheerio!

 

[Ethan_Hunt]

@ALPHA17:

I had committed to begin this title and as promised, here I am! Not sure if it's the right time to be starting off with it though, since Dead Space 3 and Metal Gear Rising are releasing this month, but I'm sure they can wait.

Got the game installed last night and after watching the glorious intro cut-scene, it got my adrenaline running. Once in the game, I was give 2 choices; The Witcher and New Adventures. I was a bit confused out here, so chose the Witcher option. Picked the mouse + keyboard options and OTS camera. At first, I tried to make it work with the X360 controller (via Pinnacle Game Profiler), but it was pretty apparent that the game was made to be played with keyboard and mouse. So ditched the controller.

Off the bat, I love this game. After the bumpy start with the wonky combat system (which I was about to rage quit), I did a little research, learned more about the stances and now understand how they work. Once I got the grasp of the basic gameplay mechanics, it didn't take me much time to be reeled in on the storyline, which is kick-ass by the way. I called it a night after I managed to beat the Frightener. Resumed it this morning and was completely absorbed in exploring Vizima. Met up with me ol' chum, Zoltan along the way. Glad to see a familiar face from the sequel. For now I'm on the main quest 'of Monsters and Men'. Fended off the Barghests and lit all the shrines. Now off to find Abigail the White Myrtle she needs. It seems the area is very restrictive in terms of exploration. I wanted to head out to the location of a side quest (?) from Declan Leuvaarden; Dead Hand of the Past. I could see the indication the map, however, I was unable to ventures into that area from below the bridge due to an invisible wall. From where do I access this cave for this quest?

I have a few other questions. Is there a pause option during a cut-scene? Is it worth investing talents in the Intelligence skill tree? When do we unlock the rest of the signs? Are bonfires the only way to meditate?

 

[ALPHA17]

I wanted to head out to the location of a side quest (?) from Declan Leuvaarden; Dead Hand of the Past. I could see the indication the map, however, I was unable to ventures into that area from below the bridge due to an invisible wall. From where do I access this cave for this quest?

I have a few other questions. Is there a pause option during a cut-scene? Is it worth investing talents in the Intelligence skill tree? When do we unlock the rest of the signs? Are bonfires the only way to meditate?

For that quest, keep going down till the end of the bridge from the main town road and when you reach the two grumpy Bridge guards who stop you from crossing turn left and keep going. You will need the CAT potion to get this quest done properly the cave is dark.

No pause option in a cut-scene as far as I recall.

Yes, you will need intelligence to figure out the various ingredients and higher levels of the SIGN's.

SIGN's are unlocked from various different stones of power which you encounter in your travels and quests.

Yes an active bonfire / fireplace is the only place you can meditate at.

 

[Ethan_Hunt]

For that quest, keep going down till the end of the bridge from the main town road and when you reach the two grumpy Bridge guards who stop you from crossing turn left and keep going. You will need the CAT potion to get this quest done properly the cave is dark.

Do I need to go through that door to access the cave? I was informed by the guard that the gates were shut as a part of the quarantine from the plague. However, one of the guards asked me if I had spoken to the Reverend a if he had given me something. At the time, I hadn't visited the Reverend and bluffed that I had. Obviously, that didn't do me any good. Now that I have the required object from the Reverend, I can get past that gate.

No pause option in a cut-scene as far as I recall.

Bummer!

Yes, you will need intelligence to figure out the various ingredients and higher levels of the SIGN's.

SIGN's are unlocked from various different stones of power which you encounter in your travels and quests.

Yes an active bonfire / fireplace is the only place you can meditate at.

Check, check AND check!

 

[ALPHA17]

Do I need to go through that door to access the cave? I was informed by the guard that the gates were shut as a part of the quarantine from the plague. However, one of the guards asked me if I had spoken to the Reverend a if he had given me something. At the time, I hadn't visited the Reverend and bluffed that I had. Obviously, that didn't do me any good. Now that I have the required object from the Reverend, I can get past that gate.

No no not through Mikul's gate.

The other gate which comes if you keep going down from the Chapel towards the gate and the Mill. Turn left there and keep heading till you see a cave.

 

[Ethan_Hunt]

Yeah. I figured that out later on while scoping that area out for the third time. So stupid of me to not notice it the first time round.

Anyway, I completed that side quest and gave Declan's deceased friend a "decent" burial. Also managed to complete Monster of the Lake and gathering 10 Barghest heads to complete Abigail's contract quest.

 

[ALPHA17]

Yeah. I figured that out later on while scoping that area out for the third time. So stupid of me to not notice it the first time round.

Anyway, I completed that side quest and gave Declan's deceased friend a "decent" burial. Also managed to complete Monster of the Lake and gathering 10 Barghest heads to complete Abigail's contract quest.

Did you take the wine for the bar-maid? =P

Spoiler: Burial

Did you get to meet the King of the Wild Hunt?

 

[Ethan_Hunt]

Did you take the wine for the bar-maid? =P

No, I didn't! I just complemented her. :unsure:

Spoiler: Burial

Did you get to meet the King of the Wild Hunt?

Yes I did. However,

Spoiler: Burial 2

I denied the existence of fate. The first time I was forced to fight Leo's ghost. I know this King of Wild Hunt makes an appearance in the second game too and asks me these questions. I don't really understand it's significance. Does this have something to do with the book's storyline? What is his it's purpose?

 

[ALPHA17]

No, I didn't! I just complemented her. :unsure:

Yes I did. However,

Spoiler: Burial 2

I denied the existence of fate. The first time I was forced to fight Leo's ghost. I know this King of Wild Hunt makes an appearance in the second game too and asks me these questions. I don't really understand it's significance. Does this have something to do with the book's storyline? What is his it's purpose?

Ah! Did she offer you anything once you escort her home OR you did not escort her home?

About the King of the Hunt suffice to say keep a close tab on the dialogues you use with him and certain NPC's.

Any other issues please bump me.