True. You won’t see the whole story until you play it twice. Which is worth doing (and it’s not very long - any single playthrough is in the 20-30 hours range, less if you know what you’re doing). Still, jumping directly into Witcher 3 is definitely viable and even recommended at this point. :)
Make a save at the end of the first act, and you won’t have to replay the entire game.
I finally managed to play The Witcher 1 all the way through back in the winter of 2012–before starting a playthrough of Witcher 2 on the 360–and thoroughly enjoyed it, even so.
I’ve played both second acts in The Witcher 2, and loved those as well…but here’s the thing. Last year I wanted to make a different choice in Act 2, and went back to a save to play through to the end, and I think I lasted about 2 hours and just couldn’t do it. As rich and full as The Witcher 2 felt at the time, going back from The Witcher 3, it just feels so constrained and blocky now.
I think I did replay parts of W2 to see some of the alternate paths, but I’m not sure I replayed enough to see everything. In the first play through I pick the choices that felt right to me. Sometimes it doesn’t feel right to go back and take another path. Sometimes save frequently so if there is a big decision I can at least try another choice if I’m curious.
Gotta admit some of the posts dissuading from Witcher 1/2 bother me a bit. Sure the games are much smaller, less refined than TW3, but if anyone cares about atmosphere, characters, exploration, story…then they are still absolutely worth experiencing. Just gotta have open mind I guess?
To me it feels like dissuading people from watching Terminator 1 because Judgement Day exists - yeah it is bigger, more refined, better, but T1 is still fantastic and worth watching for its own qualities.
Terminator doesn’t have shitty controls though.
^
The Witcher 1 is nigh-unplayable. I bounced off it 3 times before just cranking it down to easy so that I didn’t care and enjoying the story, but that’s asking a lot of anyone. Especially since in the big picture of the trilogy almost nothing that happens means much of anything (other than maybe stuff with Triss).
I’d definitely say to give Witcher 2 a shot, but it’s been a while it might not be as good as I recall, though I recall it being pretty damned good. It’s a different animal than 3 though.
I struggle to understand how either of the two first games have shitty controls or are nigh unplayable. What is unplayable about WSAD and mouse ? If they were unplayable, would they get so much acclaim and sold copies ? Or is this your standard internet hyperbole.
You can put a steering wheel in the car but if the differential doesn’t work properly you’ll curse out the designer/mechanics in the first corner. Both Witcher 1 and 2 suffer heavily from poorly synced animations and hitboxes/damage model. The games wanted to be action games and dice rolled rpgs at the same time and the end result was catastrophic. And let’s not forget the camera that was for some reason tied to Geralt’s waist?? Who does that, seriously. And for some reason Geralt in W2 turned his back on the enemy if you pressed down on LS. What. Also, camera tracking is apparently fucking voodoo for CDPR, 3 games now and they still haven’t got it right. For all their talk about how they wanted souls-like combat it sure seems like they’ve never actually played any of those games.
I get that you like these games, I think most of us do, but gameplay is pretty far down the list of things that appeal about them.
I will grant that hitboxes could be better, although in the first game in particular they don’t matter much since the combat is not direct input driven anyway. I admit I didn’t even notice the rest of the stuff you are talking about. Camera being tied to waist? What ?
It’s funny, I finished first two Dark Souls games, and enjoyed combat in Witcher 3 more anyway. And have no problem going back to TW1/2 and playing them today still.
Look up some W1 and W2 vids and watch how often you can’t see Geralt’s feet. A lot of the time you don’t even see his knees, even in combat. I don’t know if timestamps work so check at 1m16s in this vid:
The combat in W1 is just horrific. It’s basically QTEs, only you also have to click all the time as well. The story and choices made that game amazing in spite of it’s terrible combat mechanics.
W2 didn’t bother me. I recall it being pretty good for the most part even, though not as good as W3.
I don’t why that should bother me. I finished TW1 and TW2 three times each and not once was I annoyed with the camera in them. I guess ymmv, but the hyperbole about unplayableness is real.
Yes, it is a rhytm clicking. It is a holdover from Neverwinter nights engine. But you don’t click all the time, you just time it. And as you unlock new combos and signs, it gets more and more spectacular to watch. It is not a complex system, it is too passive, sure, and I definitely did not play the game for its combat, but I didn’t mind it either. Very far from unplayable or horrific. Such loaded terms.
I quit the game at least 3 times because of the combat.
I know people who will never play The Witcher 3 because of the gameplay and especially combat of The Witcher 1.
It’s fucking horrific. Nothing about it feels good or is enjoyable. If you made a game based on that combat system it would be one of the shittiest games I’ve ever played.
I have played The Witcher 2 twice to the end. I have 159 hours in TW3. You couldn’t pay me to play TW1 again. I didn’t even remotely consider a replay even though I liked the game overall and there were so many choices to make. I wanted a new save game for TW2 where I did things different. Hell, I wanted to see how differently things would play out. I still didn’t consider replaying the thing for an instant.
That isn’t a loaded term. It’s the truth. The combat in that game is complete shite. I’m glad it didn’t bother you, but LOTS of people don’t play the series at all because of the first one. It’s so bad that it keeps people from playing the best game ever made.
I pretty much feel the same as ShivaX - but on the upside the Witcher games are often on sale dirt cheap, so it’s pretty easy to give them a shot and find out for yourself.
If you haven’t got round to playing W2 or W1 yet, I doubt now is the time to start, given 3 exists and there’s no major ‘continuation’ aspect. If you make it through the massive third game and it’s large and excellent DLCs and you still thirst for more, go back and try 2 and then if you’re still in love try 1.
Maybe for some people 3 is just too big, or the open world aspect not what they want. In that case maybe 2 would fit the bill better.
As noted, it’s easy to try them out and see how the swordplay works for you if that’s a big deal, though all these games take a little while to get used to IMO. I admit Geralt’s knees have not until now been a big focus of my witching. I’ve been doing it wrong!
I played through W1 and W2 before W3, and I am glad I did. W1 does have some serious flaws, chiefly combat and the endless back-and-forth trips to the swamp. I addressed these by setting the game to easy-mode, then installing a teleport mod ;) The story was worth it.
W2 is a very good game right out of the box.
I bounced off of W1 twice due to the swamp. The third attempt I bumped the difficulty up to hard and had a blast with the game since I was forced to get good and properly utilize potions, oils, stances, and signs, as well as being more mindful in combat. I’m glad they changed the combat up in the sequels, but I enjoyed it for what it was. I still wouldn’t skip W1 completely. Playing through Chapter 1 doesn’t take too long I think and it’s a pretty good introduction to the series.
This is what I tell people too.
I enjoyed Act 1 a lot. Act 2 introduces the swamp and stuff, and I couldn’t find my way around. But Act 1 is totally worth playing anyway, it lets you play through a major quest and a few sidequests, it’s like a game all on its own.
You can’t start The Witcher 3 until you’ve be collected all sex cards in The Witcher. Sorry.