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[Deified Data]

The latest trailer for Wild Hunt got me all giddy, and I figured it was time to get myself caught up on this franchise in preparation. I only built my PC a few months ago so this is the first time it's really been an option.

I haven't started yet, but figured I'd ask if there's anything (spoiler-free) that a first-time player needs to know. I've heard the first game's systems can seem a little archaic but considering I've only been playing RPGs from the early 2000's lately I doubt I'll be too turned off by that.

Any essential mods or patches to take note of? Game-breaking bugs or missables? Early-game brick walls that you know will frustrate a first time player?

I'll post my impressions as I play.

 

[Jedi2016]

Early-game brick walls that you know will frustrate a first time player?

The Beast. I lost track of how many tries it took me.

 

[daviyoung]

Green dog will fuck you up.

 

[Deified Data]

Damn but that was a badass opening cinematic.

 

[Danielsan]

Funny. I started the game for the first time as well yesterday. Currently in Act 2. Really digging it. And the Beast is an asshole for sure. Took me 3-4 tries. Potions (and dodging) are key.

 

[BakkaGames]

There's not much you need to know. But there are two mods I highly reccomend. The Texturen Mod and the Hi-Res Characters Models pack.

 

[kazebyaka]

Just finished playing it for the first time yesterday. It's enjoyable for its atmosphere, music and story. It looks hideous, performance is one of the worst ever, combat is monotonous clicking over and over with some super-long takedown animations and silly somersaults. Can definitely recommend playing on very easy, because you will get tired of combat pretty soon.

 

[Deified Data]

I don't suppose starting on hard is a good idea. Can you change difficulty on the fly?

 

[NeoGiff]

I began playing this for the first time a year ago, and as soon as I managed to finally defeat The Beast (I'm pretty sure I spent most of the fight laming it out by running in wide circles), I took what I planned to be a short break...help me delve back in, GAF, I love the lore. The first two books are sitting on my bookshelf, too.

 

[footfunghi]

Just finished playing it for the first time yesterday. It's enjoyable for its atmosphere, music and story. It looks hideous, performance is one of the worst ever, combat is monotonous clicking over and over with some super-long takedown animations and silly somersaults. Can definitely recommend playing on very easy, because you will get tired of combat pretty soon.

Sad but true. Nevertheless, atmosphere, music and story are definitely worth it. So take your time and enjoy the world and the story.

I don't suppose starting on hard is a good idea. Can you change difficulty on the fly?

There is no such option in the game, but maybe there is a mod.

 

[ref]

Just finished playing it for the first time yesterday. It's enjoyable for its atmosphere, music and story. It looks hideous, performance is one of the worst ever, combat is monotonous clicking over and over with some super-long takedown animations and silly somersaults. Can definitely recommend playing on very easy, because you will get tired of combat pretty soon.

I guess I'm the odd man out that liked the combat... the combat and the animations coupled with the epic fighting music kinda made me feel like a badass.

I also think it still looks fine, not fantastic, but still holds up decent. Performance not sure what kinda system your running, but my 670 ran the game hilariously easy.

To OP:

Enjoy the game, really try and take in the atmosphere. The soundtrack is really fantastic.

 

[injurai]

The Beast. I lost track of how many tries it took me.

Yeah, huge unfair difficulty spike.

 

[kazebyaka]

I guess I'm the odd man out that liked the combat... the combat and the animations coupled with the epic fighting music kinda made me feel like a badass.

I also think it still looks fine, not fantastic, but still holds up decent. Performance not sure what kinda system your running, but my 670 ran the game hilariously easy.

Enjoy the game, really try and take in the atmosphere. The soundtrack is really fantastic.

phenom x6, gtx 570, 10-50fps on any settings. That's with all pretty mods, of course, I wouldn't play without them at all.
on my other rig, which is i5-4570 and gtx 780 it's very unstable too, especially during special effects like magic and fire.

 

[SuperSonic1305]

Currently on my 2nd playthrough on hard. Got lucky on the beast with a knockdown and one hit kill. Game gets dramatically easier after Act 2 so i'm home free.

 

[ref]

phenom x6, gtx 570, 10-50fps on any settings

That's really strange, is the game known for having poor performance on that card or anything? If I remember correctly, I maxed it out and applied AA through inspector when I played and like I said, barely made my system sweat @ constant 60.

670 is more powerful than 570, but not an insane amount, a 570 should be able to max it out extremely easily @ 60.

 

[Salsa]

whenever you get stuck/bored in it and feel like not playing it anymore feel free to jump to 2 really

1 is a great game, but it's not really representative of what the series is now. 2 is really really different, and it has a nice recap of 1 so don't feel like you HAVE to play through all of em if all you want is get up to speed on 3

 

[Phlebas]

Tried the game awhile back, the combat was so obnoxiously bad that I gave up within two hours.

 

[Jay Shadow]

I guess I'm the odd man out that liked the combat... the combat and the animations coupled with the epic fighting music kinda made me feel like a badass.

I liked the animations, but realized after a while that the combat controls made me feel much less badass than what was happening on screen.

 

[Zakalwe]

Brilliantly unique game with an incredibly strange atmosphere. Hope you enjoy it.

 

[Sinatar]

People are claiming the beast is hard? Aard stuns it, if you hit it while stunned you auto kill it. It literally takes 2 seconds.

 

[Blinck]

phenom x6, gtx 570, 10-50fps on any settings. That's with all pretty mods, of course, I wouldn't play without them at all.
on my other rig, which is i5-3570 and gtx 780 it's very unstable too

Wow that's very very strange...the game is extremely old you should be able to max it out at 60fps with a 570 without even sweating.
I'm guessing it's one of the mods that is terribly optimized and not the game.

 

[Dominic_Shade]

Though the Beast -- the Chapter One boss -- can be a fairly tough foe if fought head-on, even he has a chance of being stunned by the Aard Sign, the very first spell Geralt acquires in the game. A stunned enemy can always be instant-killed, so I guess my first piece of advice is this: use Aard whenever possible. Even a player who has no intention of upgrading his Signs can benefit from what is essentially a free instant-kill.

Other pieces of advice:

-Talk to as many NPCs as you can -- even the generic ones. Chapter 1 in particular features a number of generic villagers who can grant you monster knowledge in exchange for certain items, which is a far better deal than having to lay down the money for a monster tome. Which leads to my next point:

-Monster knowledge is one of the most important resources you can gather; acquiring knowledge of a given enemy will let you harvest unique materials from its corpse. Such materials can be used in alchemy or can be sold off for orens (the currency in the game). If you ever have the chance to learn more about monsters, whether from an NPC or by purchasing tomes, take advantage of it ASAP

-Preparation is key. Geralt can readily drink potions in the heat of combat (a feature that unfortunately is removed in the sequel), so it's always worth it to carry many different kinds of potions so you can be prepared for as many situations as you can. Potions can buff Geralt in a number of ways including increasing his parry and dodge rate, his damage, his endurance regeneration, and his health regeneration. Speaking of:

-In particular, it's a good idea to carry a large stock of the Swallow potion, one of the few reliable healing items in the game. Don't be frugal with them either, as the Swallow will merely increase the rate of health regeneration instead of instantly refilling a chunk of Geralt's health. If it looks like you're heading into dangerous territory, dunk down a Swallow; it should last you the entire trip and then some.

I'll provide more if I think of them, but these are my immediate suggestions. Most of all, have fun with the game! The Witcher 1 lasted me a healthy 30 hours my first time through. I hope you enjoy the ride.

Spoiler

siegfried for life yo

 

[dab0ne]

People are claiming the beast is hard? Aard stuns it, if you hit it while stunned you auto kill it. It literally takes 2 seconds.

Yeah that's what I did. Took me a couple deaths before I tried it but the fight was over before it began after I'd stunned the SOB.

 

[Servizio]

You can also put out the summoning fires during the Beast fight with Aard if you want to face him one on one. It makes it a lot easier.

 

[Adam_Roman]

I just started playing this half an hour before this thread went up. I don't know if I can continue. It's so dated, and the plot seems so bland. Is it fine to skip right to The Witcher 2, or should I read over the plot of the first beforehand, or try to tough it out through the first?

 

[Exuro]

Wow that's very very strange...the game is extremely old you should be able to max it out at 60fps with a 570 without even sweating.
I'm guessing it's one of the mods that is terribly optimized and not the game.

It's most likely the cpu. It's a single threaded game and needs some oomph from a single core.

The game runs choppy on my i7 920 at times, specially during rain.

 

[Salsa]

I just started playing this half an hour before this thread went up. I don't know if I can continue. It's so dated, and the plot seems so bland. Is it fine to skip right to The Witcher 2, or should I read over the plot of the first beforehand, or try to tough it out through the first?

just play 2

pretty much everything that people complained about in 1 (mainly the combat) is changed for the better and it has a sufficent recap of what happens in 1

 

[captainnapalm]

I remember it being very long, and getting better as it went on.

And just like in 2, investing in the magic sign that lets you stun enemies makes combat pretty easy after a while.

 

[chaosblade]

I thought Witcher 1 was pretty enjoyable, it just doesn't start off on the right foot. The combat isn't great, but once you get used to it you can blow through encounters pretty easily, probably mindlessly if you are playing on the easy difficulty.

The story and lore are definitely the highlights of the game, and they pick up pretty well as the game goes on.

 

[Grayman]

Part 1 does get better as it goes but is a very long and dense game. If you pickup all the plants you can you should be in a very good position potion wise so that you can drink swallow before most encounters and have other potions ready for the hard fights.

If you do well at the dice poker game you shouldn't have money problems ever. Late in the game there are some sword upgrades that seemed like go read a guide material.

 

[Fahrenheit]

There's not much you need to know. But there are two mods I highly reccomend. The Texturen Mod and the Hi-Res Characters Models pack.

Didn't even know Whitcher had mods. Gonna try these out when I play through 1 and 2 again to prepare for 3. Any more mods I should look into?

 

[MrTeachwell]

Personally I'd recommed the full combat rebalance mod. It makes it so that you are rewarded for using the correct style/buffs against certain monster types (which you can learn about somewhere in the game i believe).

Other than that early on sometimes you'll need to run instead of fight or wait until daytime to go out questing because things can get nasty at night. Also read information about the monsters as you'll learn how to best deal with them. I remember an early cave/dungeon I went into having these super tough beasts inside that just slaughtered me until i figured out the correct buff to put on my sword to deal with them.

Also if you ever get completely stuck, as in a quest requires an item and the game has glitched you in some way don't be afraid to use the witcher save editor to just drop that item into your inventory. I remember it happened to me at one point.

 

[Krappadizzle]

There's not much you need to know. But there are two mods I highly reccomend. The Texturen Mod and the Hi-Res Characters Models pack.

This. Played TW1 for the first time about 6 mos. ago and these+ two swords on back mod were the ones I used and had a great time. Enjoy the swamp!

 

[El_Chino]

How would this run with the Intel HD 4600 iGPU?

 

[sunofsam]

I don't suppose starting on hard is a good idea. Can you change difficulty on the fly?

There is a mod that gives you a couple potions, drink one and game difficulty goes up, drink the other and it goes down. Can't remember the name but it is a popular one so you should find it easily enough.

 

[Origami Superman]

The Witcher 1 is incredible. 2 is good as well, but 1 was so much more memorable to me.

 

[warheat]

The Beast

Spam Agni and instakill when it stunned.

 

[Typographenia]

The "Stuff That Makes Geralt's Life Easier" mod is essential in my book.

http://www.mediafire.com/?l7qs4flm2grmdqb

The storage system is a pain since you must always return to a bar/inn, and the mod lets you carry/store items on the fly. Additionally, you can meditate anywhere to level up instead of having to track down a fire. Finally, you can use cateye (see in the dark) anytime because a Witcher already has that ability. They shouldn't have to use a potion for it.

Instructions are in the txt file. Have a great time playing this amazing game. : )

 

[dekline]

I can't believe you could just stun the beast. I forgot how I ended up killing it, but I stopped playing that game for well over a month because of that motherfucker.

 

[Cimarron]

I am currently playing The Witcher 2. I tried the first but the control scheme turned me off.

 

[JaseC]

The Witcher 1 is incredible. 2 is good as well, but 1 was so much more memorable to me.

I'd agree with this. There's a perpetual sense of gloom that punctuates the rain-slick world of the original that doesn't really translate over to the comparatively bright and vivid world of the sequel. The dated visuals of the original actually work in its favour, funnily enough.

 

[Windam]

The mod Stuff that makes Geralt's life easier is absolutely essential. Meditate anywhere, access item storage from anywhere, turn Geralt's ability to see in the dark on/off at any time.

Also, use Igni. A lot. You can kill pretty much everything by just leveling it appropriately and then spamming it.

This. Played TW1 for the first time about 6 mos. ago and these+ two swords on back mod were the ones I used and had a great time. Enjoy the swamp!

Nobody enjoys that fucking swamp. ;___;

Spoiler

Do you know where little Dryads come from?

 

[Jibbajabbawockky]

The Witcher 1 is a very good game, even if the combat is hit or miss and the visuals are a bit dated.

At least get to Vizima before really judging the game too harshly one way or the other. The opening bits before Vizima are a slog to get through and the game opens up nicely in Vizima.

You could definitely skip right to The Witcher 2 and not miss a whole lot but The Witcher 1 has a ton of very cool quests and some very cool story elements that you'd really miss out on. If the combat is bothering you that much, just play it on easy for the story and world building- it's worth it.

 

[sueil]

Witcher 1 is such a better rpg than 2. The gameplay can be a big turn off to people but it really pays off. It even has it own pair of twin bros.

 

[Elor_Nocudee]

People here hated the combat?! i don't normally play RPG's with a mouse & keyboard but i enjoyed the hell out of it, timing my mouse clicks to deal the most damage was fun to me. That combat system has encouraged me to play older RPG's of its type (normally play RPG's only on consoles) that i've missed, classics like Baldur's Gate & others.

Crossing over to the combat found in The Witcher 1 to TW2 was a painful change at first, took me awhile to adapt to it.

 

[Typographenia]

Windam's got the right idea!

 

[Sajjaja]

just play 2

pretty much everything that people complained about in 1 (mainly the combat) is changed for the better and it has a sufficent recap of what happens in 1

Eh, #1's combat is not as bad as people make it out to be. It's perfectly manageable. I enjoyed it. Though TW2 combat is much better, TW1's combat was just fine and it worked.

 

[molnizzle]

I started this the other day after watching the TW3 trailer. I had already played the shit out of TW2, but never touched the original.

It seems... rough. But still enjoyable since I already have a connection to the characters. Now that I have a decent Xpadder profile it's not too bad playing on the couch. I did set it to easy though, I'm only here for the story.

 

[Anon67]

Such a boring game, IMO. Combat is pretty horrid, most characters are pretty meh, and the story is barely memorable. Got to Act 3 and couldn't stand it anymore. Aren't the alchemy potions basically cheats to help you out with the bad combat? Because that's what it feels like. And it's also hard to get immersed into the world mostly because of the rough animations and graphics.

And the Beast literally took seconds to beat. Stunned and one shoted him in one try. Pretty anti-climatic.

 

[BigTnaples]

Awesome game, loved every second that I played until I hit the swamp. Then I got bogged down there for so long that I have up, and started TW2 without finishing it.


I NEVER start a sequel before finishing it predecessor, TW being the solitary exception.

Is a good game though and I regret being unable to complete it.