Stranger In A Strange Land
I just finished the lighthouse contract for Jorund and the next thing I know I'm fighting those 2 annoying punks. Yet for some reason, the writers of this quest decided to take all control away from the player and have you get easily knocked down for like 10 seconds by some random punk. Despite the fact that I have beaten every single fist-fight in the game up to this point, even earning the achievement for winning a fight without getting hit once, I can't seem to avoid being knocked down by this guy.
The fact that no matter what you do, you are railroaded to watch Jorund die, and then take part in an entirely stupid quest chain where you're railroaded the entire time is severely disappointing. After all the other great quests in the game where player choice matter, having my hand forced in this quest feels cheap, and like the writer couldn't come up with any better alternative solutions to add in so you have to play this quest how THEY want you to play it.
I wouldn't mind so much if it was that I had lost the fight and things proceeded to happen as they did, but the fact that even if you do a perfect counter to the attack the guy throws, the second it touches you it puts you in that stupid cutscene and knocks you down for 10 seconds. Like really, you can win a fist-fight with a rock troll, but this 1 little scrawny skelliger manages to knock Geralt to the ground for long enough that they can kill the other guy? That's just really poor writing and has truly disappointed me.
At this point, I have lost all desire to play the game because no matter what I do, I HAVE to play through this little story as the writer wanted me to, with no choice for myself. Every time I load up and hit continue, I'm thrown into that part of the game. And if I want to load a previous save that means not turning in the contract for having cleared the lighthouse, which is stupid. I may just end up having to load an earlier save and ignore this part of the game, but I'll keep that in mind when they release paid DLC. Don't feel like spending money on something if there's going to be stupid railroading like this.
This was a really bad design decision and it makes me just not want to play anymore. I've read posts on other sites with people who feel the same, and some have even pointed out the the little favor quest that you have to do afterwards could have been put into it's own little side-quest instead of pigeonholing the player into this really stupid quest where you're forced to play how the writer wants.
Not to mention the fact that it's completely different than what would actually happen to Geralt, because more than likely he would just use Axii to calm the two idiots or, you know, not get knocked down by a love-tap from a random punk after having beaten a troll in a fistfight.
There's been other things in the game that I've disliked, but I've easily gotten past that. Railroading in a game where choice is supposed to matter a lot and is supposed to be a big part of the game is just poor design and severely disappointing.
Edit:
I want to link to this Reddit post I found about this quest http://www.reddit.com/r/witcher/comments/37f1bq/spoilers_really_bothered_by_this_quests/
The user at the bottom points out 4 different things his character could have done in the quest to solve it alternatively, but you can't do any of them because the game FORCES you to do what it wants.
I just finished the lighthouse contract for Jorund and the next thing I know I'm fighting those 2 annoying punks. Yet for some reason, the writers of this quest decided to take all control away from the player and have you get easily knocked down for like 10 seconds by some random punk. Despite the fact that I have beaten every single fist-fight in the game up to this point, even earning the achievement for winning a fight without getting hit once, I can't seem to avoid being knocked down by this guy.
The fact that no matter what you do, you are railroaded to watch Jorund die, and then take part in an entirely stupid quest chain where you're railroaded the entire time is severely disappointing. After all the other great quests in the game where player choice matter, having my hand forced in this quest feels cheap, and like the writer couldn't come up with any better alternative solutions to add in so you have to play this quest how THEY want you to play it.
I wouldn't mind so much if it was that I had lost the fight and things proceeded to happen as they did, but the fact that even if you do a perfect counter to the attack the guy throws, the second it touches you it puts you in that stupid cutscene and knocks you down for 10 seconds. Like really, you can win a fist-fight with a rock troll, but this 1 little scrawny skelliger manages to knock Geralt to the ground for long enough that they can kill the other guy? That's just really poor writing and has truly disappointed me.
At this point, I have lost all desire to play the game because no matter what I do, I HAVE to play through this little story as the writer wanted me to, with no choice for myself. Every time I load up and hit continue, I'm thrown into that part of the game. And if I want to load a previous save that means not turning in the contract for having cleared the lighthouse, which is stupid. I may just end up having to load an earlier save and ignore this part of the game, but I'll keep that in mind when they release paid DLC. Don't feel like spending money on something if there's going to be stupid railroading like this.
This was a really bad design decision and it makes me just not want to play anymore. I've read posts on other sites with people who feel the same, and some have even pointed out the the little favor quest that you have to do afterwards could have been put into it's own little side-quest instead of pigeonholing the player into this really stupid quest where you're forced to play how the writer wants.
Not to mention the fact that it's completely different than what would actually happen to Geralt, because more than likely he would just use Axii to calm the two idiots or, you know, not get knocked down by a love-tap from a random punk after having beaten a troll in a fistfight.
There's been other things in the game that I've disliked, but I've easily gotten past that. Railroading in a game where choice is supposed to matter a lot and is supposed to be a big part of the game is just poor design and severely disappointing.
Edit:
I want to link to this Reddit post I found about this quest http://www.reddit.com/r/witcher/comments/37f1bq/spoilers_really_bothered_by_this_quests/
The user at the bottom points out 4 different things his character could have done in the quest to solve it alternatively, but you can't do any of them because the game FORCES you to do what it wants.
Last edited:
... you cannot dodge Fate. Geralt cannot avoid all hits, if you look at all the scars he have.