(Article) 'The Witcher 2' Didn't Try to Offer Endless Freedom, and That's Why It Was So Good

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(Article) 'The Witcher 2' Didn't Try to Offer Endless Freedom, and That's Why It Was So Good

As someone who was disappointed by the third game, I just came here to post this interesting article which neatly explains the crucial difference between W2 and W3. It contains some spoilers.

http://www.vice.com/read/the-witcher-2-doesnt-offer-endless-freedom-and-thats-why-its-so-good

"The official website of The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt sells the game as the ultimate fantasy of going where you want to and doing whatever you want. You "chart your own path to adventure" while you "set your own goals and choose your own destinations." It's a game that requires you to "make hard choices" in order to get to one of "multiple endings that result from choices you make throughout the game." The game is a platform for freedom.

The Witcher 2 , on the other hand, is a game that embraces the tight brutality of unfreedom. It shows what happens when people are caught making decisions they might not want to within circumstances they cannot control. In a world of games where you can do anything, it is a game that puts up blockers and blinders at every level. It tells you that you can't make choices, that you can't have freedom, and it demonstrates what happens when people are trapped. "

Any W2 fans still around here? :hatsoff:
 
it is indeed as described in that article, in tw2 Geralt is trapped, yet there are a lot of hard choices that indeed have "game-changing" consequences, but tw3 has more freedom, too much big and empty space, some choices change something, others won't cange a thing,
but im not dissapointed with tw3, i just think it has some serious flaws, but not dissapointed in general

flaws:
Iorveth is not in the game, big and empty spaces, orange lighting system, orange? really!?
 
As someone who was disappointed by the third game, I just came here to post this interesting article which neatly explains the crucial difference between W2 and W3. It contains some spoilers.

http://www.vice.com/read/the-witcher-2-doesnt-offer-endless-freedom-and-thats-why-its-so-good

"The official website of The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt sells the game as the ultimate fantasy of going where you want to and doing whatever you want. You "chart your own path to adventure" while you "set your own goals and choose your own destinations." It's a game that requires you to "make hard choices" in order to get to one of "multiple endings that result from choices you make throughout the game." The game is a platform for freedom.

The Witcher 2 , on the other hand, is a game that embraces the tight brutality of unfreedom. It shows what happens when people are caught making decisions they might not want to within circumstances they cannot control. In a world of games where you can do anything, it is a game that puts up blockers and blinders at every level. It tells you that you can't make choices, that you can't have freedom, and it demonstrates what happens when people are trapped. "

Any W2 fans still around here? :hatsoff:

More than you may think. I already posted the article in some threads. Totally agree with the author but there are more flaws in the game. TW3 didn't create a consistent story or try to create a good save import
 
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Any W2 fans still around here?

If by TW2 fans you mean people who liked the game, then yes. If you mean those who think TW2 is far above the other two games, then I fear I'm not among them.

I have a hard time buying into the thesis of the article's author when he is praising the best and most significant implementation of choice and consequence in the series, and perhaps in any AAA WRPG, for restricting the player's freedom... wait, what? That does not compute.

And while TW3 had the weakest overall main plot, I didn't feel difficult choices were lacking. There were plenty in both sidequests and the Velen arc, which was the narrative high point of the game and easily on par with anything in the previous two.
 
And while TW3 had the weakest overall main plot, I didn't feel difficult choices were lacking. There were plenty in both sidequests and the Velen arc, which was the narrative high point of the game and easily on par with anything in the previous two.
This.
I mean, even if The Witcher 2 had a really big choice that changed pretty much all the game, The Witcher 3 had a lot of minor choices that you could saw the consequences later in the game, and that made them really cool.
Great article nonetheless.
 

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Totally agree with the author. Witcher 3 is a fantastic game, but lacks a lot of the things that makes W2 the best game I've ever played.
 
This.
I mean, even if The Witcher 2 had a really big choice that changed pretty much all the game, The Witcher 3 had a lot of minor choices that you could saw the consequences later in the game, and that made them really cool.
Great article nonetheless.

Like what?
 
Although I really like Witcher 2, I do not think it is the best game of the series, it had the best writing and really hard choices that to this day I still think about even though they don't matter that much in Witcher 3, but as a game, it was too "console-ized" for me to properly enjoy it as many people do, in terms of story (even if it is murky) I think it was the most "mature" of the series and the best written by far, also enhanced by how the article puts it, it was limited, it did not give the player too much freedom therefore it preserved the storytelling strength.

I agree with the article, Open World game design really does affect storytelling potential of an RPG, no matter how much you work hard on it there will always be a weakness in the storytelling, the main story of Witcher 3 is the prime example, mainly due to cut content of course and hiccups in writing and newcomer pandering, but that is the point, giving too much freedom means the storytelling strength suffers.
 
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TW2 is definitely the best of the series in my opinion. For me the main story is the most important part in a game series like TW and TW2's pain plot was very compelling and well written throughout. I loved the linear structure, it allowed for more focused storytelling.

Still really like TW3 a lot, I wasnt really disappointed by it because CDPR already made clear that it wont be like TW2 at all. The open world (even though I never asked for it) was handled well, the side quests were by far the best of the series and probably some of the best in RPG's in general. It made care more about Geralt in general too, he felt far more human in this game.

The expansions were fantastic too. The story went downhill after finding Ciri and before that only the Baron arc was up to par to TW2.
 
easy:
The Witcher 2 was written by professionals, and it has all the elements of good mystery story: proper pacing, moral ambiguity, subversion of RPG and fantasy tropes, connected story strings, subtle character development, foreshadowing, twists, turns and all that jazz
The Witcher 3 was written by amateurs and it has little to nothing of the above (shit antagonists and poor pacing being the worst offences) and its quality begins and ends in The Bloody Baron act
 
Usually when I think about wanting to play a Witcher game, TW2 comes to mind for me before TW3. I only beat TW3 once and the ridiculous length is keeping me from playing it again and the less than stellar main story keeps me from wanting to do a main story only play through. If I play it at a slow pace it will take me months to beat. In general, I still prefer games that are in that 30ish hour time frame. You can play the game two hours a day and beat it in a couple weeks. I also think the story in TW2 was deeper and more interesting than TW3. The story in closed off worlds is always tighter and filled with more detail. In an open world game you can only put so much detail and so many quests into each town or some area of wilderness. A player probably spends more time in Flotsam than in the massive Novigrad. I know for sure that I could easily tell you where everything is in Flotsam or the temple quarter or trade quarter in Vizima are without looking at a map while I could tell probably tell you nothing about Novigrad or any of the other towns in the game (except where the Baron's keep is maybe). Smaller games are more memorable. As much as I enjoyed TW3, I think it would have actually been even better with a smaller map.
 
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I was also disappointed because of TW3. I had so much expectation in seeing how my difficult choices in TW2 impacted TW world and I didn't get to see shit. No difference in killing Henslet or not, no difference in klling Stennis or not, no difference in sendind Annais to Roche or Radovid. It doesn't even show a difference depending on wich path you chose (Iorveth or Roche). I don't even get to see how some of the characters end, what makes me sad knowing it is the last game. The story is good in my opinión but TW2 was better. I also don't see the point of making an innecesarily big map with tons of bandit camps if you give up all the other things in return. I like TW3 but as a stand alone game, not as part of the TW series.
 
Rakyand;n8660770 said:
I was also disappointed because of TW3. I had so much expectation in seeing how my difficult choices in TW2 impacted TW world and I didn't get to see shit. No difference in killing Henslet or not, no difference in klling Stennis or not, no difference in sendind Annais to Roche or Radovid. It doesn't even show a difference depending on wich path you chose (Iorveth or Roche). I don't even get to see how some of the characters end, what makes me sad knowing it is the last game. The story is good in my opinión but TW2 was better. I also don't see the point of making an innecesarily big map with tons of bandit camps if you give up all the other things in return. I like TW3 but as a stand alone game, not as part of the TW series.

Yes, the way choices from the previous games were handled in TW3 was again disappointing. There is a collection of all the (mostly small) consequences that have been found to them so far in this thread. I am not sure about it being the last game, though, after this success, there could very well be a "Witcher 4" already in pre-production, it may even continue the story with Geralt (in which case I suspect it will unfortunately ignore the choices made in Wild Hunt). After all, it has been confirmed before that another AAA game is planned after Cyberpunk 2077 to be released until 2021, and there are rumors that it is already being secretly worked on. Nothing has been revealed about this game so far, but developing two new IPs at the same time would be risky, while a Witcher sequel (even if I do not particularly want one myself) is basically guaranteed to sell 10+ million copies.
 
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sv3672;n8670450 said:
Yes, the way choices from the previous games were handled in TW3 was again disappointing. There is a collection of all the (mostly small) consequences that have been found to them so far in this thread. I am not sure about it being the last game, though, after this success, there could very well be a "Witcher 4" already in pre-production, it may even continue the story with Geralt (in which case I suspect it will unfortunately ignore the choices made in Wild Hunt). After all, it has been confirmed before that another AAA game is planned after Cyberpunk 2077 to be released until 2021, and there are rumors that it is already being secretly worked on. Nothing has been revealed about this game so far, but developing two new IPs at the same time would be risky, while a Witcher sequel (even if I do not particularly want one myself) is basically guaranteed to sell 10+ million copies.

Even if it's a TW game, it will still leave open the same arcs TW3 left. Deathmold arc open (because you can kill him in one of the rutes), Saskia's arc open too (because you can either sabe her, kill her or none,) etc... Because there are too many variables at play. Also, I doubt it will have Geralt as main carácter, Blood and Wine left Gerald's arc too closed, but maybe we can have Ciri as MC or even a new Witcher we don't know yet, it could be nice.
 
Rakyand;n8687020 said:
Also, I doubt it will have Geralt as main carácter, Blood and Wine left Gerald's arc too closed, but maybe we can have Ciri as MC or even a new Witcher we don't know yet, it could be nice.

It is always possible to find a story excuse for Geralt's return if CDPR really want to. Blood and Wine even confirmed that he survives the bad ending. A new witcher and a story that is not the continuation of Wild Hunt is what was suggested in previous interviews, and I would prefer that too, but with so much demand for a sequel, one cannot be sure. At least it would give an opportunity to bring back Iorveth. :p Anyway, this is not on topic. When it comes to open world and trying to offer freedom, I would expect a future game to follow along the same lines as TW3.
 
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