The Witcher vs Mass Effect: Geralt slashes Shepard!!!

[Henk_Falb]

Thanks Pana.. I'm reserving opinion on Dragon Age for now, it might 'look' the same.. It might 'smell' the same, but whats gameplay going to be like?!I'm looking forward to magic not being fire and forget, or needing magic defenses up b4 magic happens... The fact that a spell can influence another already cast excites me...I just hope it goes a bit beyond "blizard puts out fire storm thingie"...3 or 4 characters I can live with, it's the picking 3 or 4 from a roster of '50' for each mission that spoils the fun for me...

 

[planewalker]

How can you even begin compare Mass Effect with The Witcher? The former is just a high-budged game originally made for console, which already says a lot about it. I liked the action and cinematics, but as far as RPG elements go, it was pretty lukewarm. The morality (Paragon/Renegade) had no influence on the story. There were a couple of big decisions to be made (especially at the end), but we'll have to wait for Mass Effect 2 to see their consequences. Armor, weapons and mods were overabundant, and you start with all weapons ==> no real sense of progression. Plus, the "uncharted planet" missions with the Mako were tedious, detracting you from the main plot, and there were only three or four different maps that kept repeating themselves through every sidequest.Mass Effect has some interesting character development, I'll grant it that, but then so has The Witcher. I still think it's in no way superior to CD Projekt RED's brainchild.

 

[reaper004]

Havn't felt the need to post much recently due to the lack of threads which require an intelligent response or draw immediate attention. This one does both I adore both Mass Effect & The Witcher. They're both the epitome of what an RPG should be, in my honest opinion. Difficult moral-based choices, a large selection of class skills and feats, a very immmersive environment and very convincing dialogue. They were both very good games. While I do perfer the graphic style of The Witcher to that of Mass Effect, the latter clearly has better graphics (But not by far, it was originally designed for a console after all, thus the developers are some-what limited). Although the combat in Mass Effect is much more difficult than that of The Witcher's, and the AI is much more intelligent. They don't just bull-rush at you. You must observe the situation and adapt. The Witcher, on the other hand, made me much more immersed with its adult storyline (Not implying the sex scenes either), they did express a lot of real-world issues in the game (Racism, Politics, etc). All in all, I'd say both games are on-par with each other. They both do everything very well, but one may do something a little better than the other. It balances out.

 

[dalegt4]

i have mass effect on the xbox 360 and the witcher on my pc and i have to say i think they are both fantastc games. in different ways as stated, mass effect has fantastic cinematics and when decisions come to choose people over others it gives the sense of damn, who do i save? this is good i think in a game, as it gives a sense of being involved in the game.the dialogue is smooth and quick paced on ME too i find, although there is one major flaw on ME that i found and dont realy like, i have played and finished ME 3 times on the 360 and i found that no matter what happend in the dialogue and verbal scenes there is realy only one outcome no matter what you say and it is rather linear in that aspect of the game.i have only just completed aact 1 of the witcher and am half way through act2, and i think its fantastci, totally different to my usual games and its very immersive, much like ME in taht aspect.but like stated above, actions have consiquences rather than a predetermined outcome that no matter what you say or do will happen.this is a very good part of TW that i think makes the story, although not better in every way, but more immersive in ways than ME as you have to think of the outcome of your action.although i think the ending of ME is fantastic and i cant wait for ME2 to come out.so now to finish TW to see what the ending is all about on this!both games, amazing

 

[serdinq]

Mass Effect? I read ton of stuff enough for me to never buy it. I found highly suspect a game with no demo.

 

[dalegt4]

i too thought this as i am only usually a fan of FPS and racing sims, however mass effect i bought and it does take a while to get into, theres no denying that, it truely is a great game and a fantastic looking game too, the character modeling on cutscenes is nothing short of outstanding.however the landscapes leave a lot to be desired, not in the aspect of graphics, far from it, but in terms of when you are doing sub missions for instance, you travel to a planet, which consits of 3 places to explore, an anomaly, a bunker and a downed ship say... now you get a distress call, you visit the planet, and it looks nigh on identical and the building that you have to go in looks pretty much identical to the said one on the last planet, not ruining the game, but making it a little samey to play and made me want to not bother doing the sub missions the 3rd time round and instead i just concentrated on the main objectives, this game is good, and it got me into more of the alike games, however i just saw the witchers box and bought it, i hadnt even heard about it as i only just got a good spec'd pc 3 weeks ago, so more pc gaming shall occur. again though, ME is a great game, just not for everyone as with all other games.

 

[serdinq]

Well ok I don't play fps since a long time and never liked racing games. I'm surprised how The Witcher succeed to attract many action players. Well that's fine, thanks tastes differ, that adds diversity. I doubt I could like Mass Effect even if it's a great action game.

 

[thurauh1]

hEY, GUYS, HELP ME PLEASE, i CANNOT KILL THE QUEEN OF KIKIMORS. WHAT TO DO. IF SOMEBODY HERE ANSWER PLEASE....

Try asking in the story and quests forums...You might have better luck there.

 

[username_2060624]

Story of The Witcher is more original (and better), while the story of ME is riped of Freespace 2 (this is for example the "prototype" of Saren: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hf0yfv2fHyw , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hf0yfv2fHyw , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hf0yfv2fHyw , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hf0yfv2fHyw , and THIS IS NOT ONLY SIMILARITY to FS2 story).Anyone tough enough to defend ME storyline? ;D

 

[Lightzy]

Everything about the Witcher is better written, prettier and nicer than Mass Effect.Except for the actual GAMEPLAY and COMBAT, which in ME is terribly fun and in witcher is a bucket of condensed turd.Which means in the end Mass Effect is the better game by far.I wish RPG makers would just remember they're making GAMES and not interactive storybooks with meaningless charts for 'character advancement'.There are tons of good combat systems out there that could only benefit from skill/character development. regular FPS, jedi knight2, tekken, etc etc etc.

 

[bearded_bard]

Mass Effect has a customizable main character and a party, which are two big assets for me.The Witcher, however, has MUCH, MUCH better sidequests. In Mass Effect, the main plot is great, but the secondary missions are a lot of repetitive "go to planet XYZ, find a bunker and kill everybody". It gets tiresome. The sidequests in the Witcher are simply more varied, creative and fun.So, overall, it's a draw between two great games.

 

[shadow0429]

I'd say Mass Effects because the gameplay hasn't got any awkwardness on it.

 

[goatman455]

One thing I REALLY liked about Mass Effect was that it really gave me the feeling I was Shephard and has his power. I do really feel like an outcast in the Witcher, but I think it is harder to pull off in a space game, I mean how many good Sci-Fi RPGs are there? Not to mention it gave you quite a bit of open endedness which I think is the Witcher's biggest weakness (even though it is open ended within chapters it would have been nice to be able to explore a huge game world a la Oblivion). They are both fantastic games and two that no RPG fans should be without.Still, the pure detail of The Witcher is amazing, it is something that given their breadth, Oblvion and Mass Effect just couldn't do.

 

[ifandbut]

I agree with most of what has already been said. Mass Effect had great combat (lots of strategy on higher difficulty) but repetitive side quest, Witcher side quest ave alot of story with them but the combat is repetitive and low on strategy. Graphics are dead even. Mass Effect looks better (better shadows and detail textures) but Witcher has more detail (does not have "generic bunker 2" feel like ME does). I cant say about the story because I did not finish Witcher (got to act 3 and found out the EE was coming out so I said I would just wait for that) and Mass Effect is part 1 of 3. Conversations are dead even to, Mass Effect has the conversation wheel which (imo) is the best addition to RPGs since they added voice overs. The wheel states a feeling but does not show you exactly what you will say. A perfect example of Mass Effect is early in the game. You are talking to a scientist and a crazy person is near you and keeps saying random shit as you are trying to get information from the scientist. One option the wheel says "Shut him up". I thought you would just tell the scientist to shut up the crazy person, but instead you punch the crazy person out. The Witcher, however, does the cause and effect thing better. In Mass Effect your decisions dont affect the story in any major way and they all fall into the typical "nice guy" and "jack ass" but in The Witcher every choice that I got to had not clear good or bad.In the end I think The Witcher just barely edges out Mass Effect due to the choices you can make, however the jury will reconvene once Mass Effect 2 comes out.

 

[goatman455]

That is true, I like those gray choices better, but punching that guy out was hilarious, then you convince the women he will be fine ("I guess you're right").I think that just shows the Witcher is more 'hardcore' (I hate that term, sounds violent or something, which in turn sounds fake) and Mass Effect is catered more toward everyone, or the casual gamer.Edit: Almost forgot, Mass Effect allows you to chose a class, but The Witcher has a more fleshed out class. Breadth vs. Depth.

 

[infernox3470]

Mass Effect has better cutscenes and more interesting and better developed characters(imo, about halfway to 2/3 through actII) but The Witcher has much more depth, especially with the alchemy and leveling systems which are both fantastic.So far, the choices in Mass Effect while far more bipolar were a lot harder to make. In the Witcher a lot of the decisions are often small things, which isn't neccessarily a bad thing( this is just from my experience just undr 10 hours into the game ofc) but in Mass Effect, you really felt the impact of those decisions. So, small summary:Mass Effect:-Better cutscenes-Well developed party members-Powerful decisionsThe Witcher:-Great world, feels alive and allows me to enjoy a fantasy setting(I dislike fantasy most of the time as it's often too cheery, good vs evil and actually prefer sci-fi)-Awesome alchemy and leveling systems, lots of depth and variety-Lots and lots of stuff to do without getting too generic

 

[Maerd.298]

I just completed the Mass Effect and have to say about the subject:The winner between them is clearly is The Witcher even without EE.Here is why by components...Let's start with the RPG elements:1) Main story: The Witcher (with the knock out)Story in the Witcher is original, has nice twists of the plot, complex interaction with the NPCs, player can choose sides, which don't have clear moral aspect, choices made in the game affect the future game play.Story in the Mass Effect is banal and repetitive from many previous games; no significant twists of plot, right from the prologue we know who is the main evil guy whom we meet in the final fight, your choices don't matter except for the altruism/selfishness stat that gives you nothing at all, dialog choices do not branch, you are mildly pushed to ask about everything, the main quest is very short.2) Role playing system: The WitcherThe system of skills in the Witcher is quite diverse and you have to plan your development, you make your own 'class' as you desire. Alchemy is very well made, necessary and useful.The system of skills in the Mass Effect predetermined by the 'class' and your development doesn't matter because your enemies are always made to match your level, which makes it less important.3) World exploration: The WitcherThe world in the Witcher is very detailed and there is no place that looks the same (even caves and huts looks different). Each location has the unique feeling and style. Though the unlimited free exploration is not possible.The world in the Mass Effect is larger but the uniqueness exists only along the main quest, which also sometimes raises the suspicions of the copy paste (i.e. corridors in many occasions looks exactly the same). The locations are very ascetic on details, a lot of the same boxes placed around only for the sake of hiding behind them because the game expect you to fight in that particular place creates a feeling of unnaturality. The planets all look alike and traveling on them in the Mako is very repetitive. All buildings on those planets are the blatant copy paste with bunch of boxes put inside in the different configurations. All starships that you board looks like there is only one type of the starship in the whole human fleet and it doesn't matter if it's a freighter or a frigate. 4) Side quests: The WitcherThe side quests in the Witcher are more various and well made than in the Mass Effect, in which you almost always have to kill somebody in the standard bunker on the far away planet. There are nice side quests in the Mass Effect but very few.5) Inventory: Even (both poor)The original Witcher had very poor user interface for inventory and a poor method of picking up objects. The Witcher also had a very annoying desire to sheath the sword all the time when you don't need it. The Mass Effect has tons of equipment that can fall from your enemies but it's all generic and basically text based. While you can have a new gun you don't have a feeling that you have it, just stats of your gun changed, nothing more. The game forces you to pick all the staff that lay around or convert it in to the omni-gel, which you have to do one by one in a very repetitive and boring process that requires a lot of mouse clicking. The game's buy/sell interface is very poor: you don't see the parameters of what you sell right away, you are unable effectively compare the stats of the items that are not mounted on your character. Items in the inventory are not sorted well like in the Witcher but at least the Witcher has a visual representation of them while the Mass Effect doesn't have.So, as an RPG The Witcher is a clear winner.Lets go to the technical execution...6) Bugs and problems: Mass EffectThe Witcher (original) crashed more often than Mass Effect for me. Yes, Mass Effect also crushed and had one place where it crashed all the time if you choose certain actions. But overall Mass Effect was very polished and ran smoothly.7) PC/NPC Models: Mass Effect The Witcher has many quality models but repetitiveness and overuse of some of them were too flashy. Mass effect has all the NPC characters different with very good facial animation. Gestures during conversation looked convincing. Ability to create your own look is always a nice touch though taking a character from the books in the Witcher left that option out. 8) Graphics: The WitcherThe Witcher has very impressive set of graphic features that makes people drop their jaws if they see it on the full details. Special effects are done very well.Mass Effect in general is very good but on full details dynamic shadows look not good. Textures on the walls and the ground are very primitive (monotone colored walls, gray floor etc.). Terrain on the planets is very poor, just the relief and nothing else. Some special effects are very impressive, while other don't.9) In game action animation: Even (both excellent)Motion captured sword play is really impressive in the Witcher, finishing moves and limbs flying around adds the bonuses to the game. Mass effect has excellent animation of finding the cover and shooting from around the corners. 10) Combat: Even (both good)Combat is OK in both games but both have flaws. In the Witcher all your enemies rush at you like kamikazes, in Mass Effect indestructible RPG-proof boxes are positioned everywhere for you to use, which in places looks totally out of place and stupid, and enemies cannot hide properly behind the corner and being shot dead in the finger/antenna that stick out of the corner.11) Sound: Tastes differ but I personally like the Witcher score more, the music is more complex there and sets the mood perfectly. I'm gladly listen the sound track to the Witcher after I already finished the game but I turned the music off in the Mass Effect.12) Cut scenes and animated movies: The WitcherThe intro and outro in the Witcher are just a masterpiece of multiplication. The cut scenes are very well done. The only bad detail is a repetitiveness of the animation during the boat travels.Mass effect has also excellent cut scenes but their level of complexity and the plain amount of time and work put into it is noticeably lower than in the Witcher.As you can see the Witcher wins an the majority of the categories. The only problems of the Witcher were related to the bugs and related problems, which just shows that the Bioware is just much more established company to allow itself not to rush the game towards release.

 

[cutter73]

First off, I'm an older gamer so a lot of what I like about role playing games dissappeared a few years ago from the mainstream. I've played the Baldur's Gate series over and over again as well as Planescape: Torment and several others. I started losing interest in most RPG's around the time Morrowind came out. At first I loved the game, but after I got over the initial enjoyment I didn't even finish the game until the mod community saved it for me. Oblivion was simply unplayable to me (which I know puts me squarely in the minority) due to my hatred of level scaling and several other issues I had with the game. I plan on retyring it again with intense modification but I don;t forsee it ever becoming one of my favorites. Basically I like RPG's with depth, party interaction with interesting NPC's and a kind of sweeping epic story that makes me feel compelled to advance the game just to see what happens next.All that said, if I had to pick between Mass Effect and Witcher then Witcher wins hands down. Mass Effect is a nice game, but I don't really see all that much role playing involved in it. To me, it's a tactical shooter with an above average story that does succeed in keeping me interested. The side missions are atrocious IMO as they all are generally the exact same layout. I just quit doing any of them after the upteenth "land on planet, drive to bunker and kill everyone" scenario. Which brings me to my intense hatred of the bouncing rubber ball that they call Mako and try to pass off as a vehicle. Like I said, the main story is done really well but in the end it failed the one test I have that makes a game one of those special games. I could play awhile, quit, and not come back to it for days. There was just nothing about it that compelled me to keep playing the way some other games have done.Witcher, on the other hand, I couldn't put down. I don't think it has the depth of Planescape or the epic sweep of the Baldur's Gate series, and I tend to think of it more as an action RPG than a true RPG. There is no party interaction since Geralt travels alone and I thought the sex card quests were a bit overblown and somewhat unrealistic. I have no problems with romantic entanglements since several of my favorite games employ those, but I just thought most of them in Witcher were shallow and geared towardsa differnt audience than I fit into. And yet, even in spite of all these things that generally turn me off of a game Witcher hooked me from the start.Geralt is an intriguing character and the world is very interesting. It's also a lot darker than most RPG settings and I loved it for that as well. The ability to choose what factions to support and then have your choice actually affect the game was also a huge selling point. While I have already said I didn;t care for most of the sex card quests, the romantic choices involving Triss and Shani were very well implemented IMO. You actually began to prefer one over the other as you got to know them without a choice being forced down your throat through dialogue. The game didn't set one choice up as the correct one but left it to the players personal inclinations. A lot of games talk a lot about offering these kinds of choices but then either subtley of blatantly point the character towards one choice as the "right" one through the story. Wicther avoided this and really offered true choice that was dependant on the player. It was the ability to make these choices throughout the game that really got me. Save the witch or burn her, join the Squirells, the Order or stay neutral. For the first time in several years I actually found myself actually stopping to think about the decisions I was making rather than just picking options.This is the kind of freedom I really want in a game, not the kind of sandlot freedom I found in Oblivion where you could become the head of every guild, faction or anything else. To me, freedom involves choices and choices have negative as well as positive impacts.I always thought choosing to support one faction should involve being unable to interact positively with other factions that are at odds with it.I was surprised how much Witcher appealed to me. It didn't have some of the major attractions for me that other RPG's have had in the past. But it made me not care. I found myself loving the game for its own merits rather than thinking how it compared to my all time favorites which is something that Mass Effect just didn't do for me. I may have been predisposed against Mass Effect from the biginning since I hate shooters with a passions and it was a Bioware game and as a result I was constantly comparing it to Baldur's Gate or even Knights of the Old Republic. That may not be fair since even Bioware has gone on record as stating that Mass Effect was not a true old style RPG and was much more of a cinematic concept. (They point to Dragon Age as a return to that style as the "spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate", which has me very much excited to play it when it's released.)In the end, I figure that if Witcher can hook me, and old school RPG gamer, with a game like this then that really says something. It is without a doubt the best thing to come out with the term RPG applied to it in several years IMO. I anticipate replaying this game several times, especially with the new EE. That in itself says more than anything I ever could by analysing pros and cons of gameplay. Put it like this, I've been waiting for Dragon Age for, well, ages but this is the first game of this generation of games that I can look at at say Dragon Age will have to work to be able to compare favorably with.

 

[serdinq]

The last two posts are long but quite interesting. I'm not sure if I'm out of topic or not but I'd like put a focus on a point. Two players with a deep look on CRPG, certainly with CRPG gaming experience to allow give them some comparison points. And none ever mention the puzzling. I don't mean puzzles but problems to solve.Game designs, features promoted to do the marketing, players comments, for all the puzzling is vanishing. In fact there's still some in most CRPG, and few not too old CRPG put some focus on it but this global vanishing is weird. Probably a sign of time, but sign of what, no idea.

 

[phell]

The Witcher has a richer story and more textured setting. From a gameplay /mechanics standpoint though, the game is average at best, mediocre at worst, and Mass Effect crushes it from a "game" standpoint. For me, I definitely want to have a good story, but even the best story in any computer game, even something like Planescape, is not on par with what I'd get from reading even an average novel, which is where I go for that sort of thing. A good story and a collection of minigames does not make up for poor gameplay for me, and the Witcher is consistently poor or unsatisfying in these regards, in many areas (odd/confusing combat, awkward camera, limited character customization, shallow and unsatisfying loot aspect, etc). I left out the nonsensical dialogue too, as it seems they've made attempts to correct that.And if nothing else, I always prefer to play a character I create, not one that is written by someone else and forced on me, like the Witcher does.But I like the fact that CD Projeckt is making games of this nature, like the follow up and support theyve given to their game, and look forward to future projects from them, hoping their games will show more polish in these areas.