The Witcher: Enhanced Edition

The invulnerable NPCs were bad enough. The GUARDs NPCs respawning for no reason after you kill them somewhat soured the mood. But the worst part was some unkillable, completely invincible bounty hunter coming after you for ENJOYING a game. WTF is wrong with the devs ??? You can't decide how to play the game you need to do as the devs want you to ... can't kill NPCs LOL It's worth playing for the story but then move on. Or just read the book.

The game started off pretty strong with an exciting opening and once it explained how the combat system worked, I was pretty into it; people complain about the combat a lot, but honestly, it's not bad. Fighting is a bit more engaging, because instead of just mindlessly clicking on enemies, you have to pay attention to what you're doing; this results in combat that isn't just trading numbers. The research and alchemy stuff is cool, too; you can read books that teach you about monsters and how to brew different concoctions to help you out in battle. Problem is that your potions are toxic, even the ones that heal you or help resist poison; they have this neat system that you're actively punished for using. I could live with that, because I very rarely use consumable items in games, anyway; I just got unbelievably bored with it all. Witchers are monster hunters that alter themselves with mutagens, and that is SO cool! It'd be even cooler if I didn't spend more time having the game drag me into talking to people, only to tell me that I didn't have enough information to talk to them after a long conversation, and to come back when I've properly prepared; why did it insist I talk to them right away, then? For that matter, if Geralt hates politics and is a monster hunter by trade, then why am I getting so involved in politics and spending hours and hours without even a mention of a monster, much less a fight? The writing's not that good, either; conversations are often incoherent, and lead places that don't jive with the dialogue option I'd chosen. I remember choosing a seemingly innocuous option that led to a sex scene followed by a collectible nude card. In any other game, this might be weirdly misogynistic, but I started to lean into the absurdity of it all, like you would with something like Duke Nukem or .hack, but even that wasn't enough to keep me going in the end.

I played The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt first on steam like 20 hours. I will buy it later again here, when it's on sale and I thought, Oh yes in the meantime I can play witcher 1 and 2. Big fail! The controlling in Witcher 1 is horrible. no Gamepad, no open world, no good explaining where to go next. After Quests where I can't find this herbs for Abigail I quit that game. you see on map where you can buy the herbs but the npc? searching the whole time and no success... What I want to say is: Don't think if you love Witcher 3, the first game is something for you too. It's like Witcher 3 is in upper class and the first Witcher game is like... oh god... no words for that... Controlling and Gameplay are so bad, it can be a great offturn... Witcher 2, I don't know yet, but what I know is: I will stay on Witcher 3! Can't wait to buy it here on sale, cause I want to play it more on gog.com for supporting the team. The Witcher 1 I don't play in the next time. maybe never again. Rarely seen such a frustrating controlling and gameplay...

I'm trying not to go in depth, but in brief I avoided this series until now, due to the reputation for titillation and being excessively 'grimdark'. I actually found Witcher 2 to be a much bigger offender than this game. This game was juvenile enough that I played through the whole thing and enjoyed most of my time in the world. But in brief, my problem with this game is not the 'power fantasy' part of it, where you are enjoying a young boy's fantasy of every female character in the game wanting to get into your pants. Or the sex cards. My problem is the other side of it - OK, you're playing through a power fantasy, all the women want you and are dressed in revealing clothing, fine! But why does it all seem so miserable? Why are women constantly getting called or calling each other b****es and s**ts and w***es? Why is almost every woman in a position of 'power' disrespected and called sexual slurs? Is that a key part of the fantasy? Is it hard to imagine women choosing to sleep with you if they also feel valued and respected for things beyond their sexuality? Or is this all for the sake of realism? And does it make sense to argue that it was 'for the sake of realism' when we are also fighting magical monsters and shooting fire from our hands?

Crashes every 15-20 minutes on Win 10. Literally unplayable.