Well Poohunter, my reason is probably crazy. I replay all my games because I like to see what the devs did in a flow-chart kind of way. Even today, after 15 runs, I find new things in TWee and I already know i will play TW2ee that many times before it is four years old. My thinking is : they are artists, this is their work which i paid to see, and I enjoy each nuance. I agree there are games where once through is plenty. It just doesn't stop me from seeing what else is in there, and I want to see it all because i am greedy that way. Then there is my old habit of re reading books i enjoyed. While games are not books, I still love spending my time with characters I relate to and have emotional attachments with, but some folks would call that strange too. So yes, the first play is the one with all the "Wonder" in it, but the second play onwards has all of the "Appreciation For What They Did" in them. Gosh i hope that made some kind of sense.
You free to savor the Witcher experience however you please - as long as you endorse the game to your friends just as heartily as you would with 10 playthroughs. It's all about bringing in more people and getting them to appreciate the depth and breadth of choice this game offers - whether you want to see every ending, or settle on a sole personal canon as you did.
Everyone can play games as they like. By playing this game just once, you would miss so much fun discovering the complexity and beauty of the Witcher world, its people and politics. I admire the work CDPR have done. For me, there are no other games "like" The Witcher. The world, characters, quests, performance and gameplay are amazing. And it's not only because of the game itself, but also because of the level of sevice CDPR provide to their fans.
Apart of The Witcher, when the game is good and I like it, I usually play it more than once.
Apart of The Witcher, when the game is good and I like it, I usually play it more than once.
That's not true, you got many different decisions both on act II and act III. I would say a single playthrough you only see 2/5 of the contentbcheero said:
Wall of Text but worth reading in my opinion. I'd like to know if there are other people out there which do the same thing as I do.
I totally understand the OPs issue. I too like to play my RPGs with well more roleplay value. I do roleplay my character in-game. I usually begin any RPG {not action RPGs which have no real story and no real RP values} by deciding what character type I'm going to play. Even before the game begins! For example when I started playing the Witcher 1 I've already decided that he will be a totally professional monster-slayer who doesn't like to interfere. He only want to get in, do his job, get out. I played the entire game with that philosophy in mind. I continued playing Geralt that way in TW2.
I did that for Dragon Age 1 {never played Dragon Age 2 after seeing what a piece of crap it was}. My mage there was a misanthropic power-hungry mage which happened to be in a situation where everyone counted on him to save the world when all he did was trying to get the world to serve and revere him. And it worked! I had a blast.
My commander Shepard in Mass Effect was a bad-ass soldier which was totally pro-human and tried his best to undermine all alien efforts while pushing humanity at the top tiers of galactic power.
These are the things that I enjoy when playing my RPGs. I do not like power-leveling, I do not like min-maxing stats, I do not care about tons of loot and I absolutely despise playing and choosing the best option in any dialog which may be helpful to my character in terms of XP points, loot or money at that time but completely out-of-character for the personality that I've chosen for him at the beginning of the game.
To put it in a few words if a dialog choice will obviously give me more items, levels, experience points or any other practical and GAMEY advantages in general BUT it is a choice that the personality of my character that I'm roleplaying would NEVER EVER say then I will choose the other option without hesitating even if that means that I will gain less or even lose some stats/info/levels/items/whatever.
This is what roleplaying is all about. Any game that lets me do that is worth playing and worth calling itself an RPG. Every other game that just has leveling, item equiping and generally RPG elements without actual roleplaying is NOT an RPG even if the industry like to call them that {or action-RPG as they are now more usually called}. These are NOT RPGs.
To get back on the OP's issue my first playthrough where I'm probably playing on the Normal level of difficulty and I'm encountering situations for the first time is what I call my 'official' playthrough.
This is the story that my Geralt lived, those are the facts that in my gameworld are written in stone and won't change. This is the savegame that I'm going to keep for the next game since this mechanic of save transferring will be the new standard for RPGs from now on.
BUT after I've seen the 'true' story of Geralt I do have a hell of a lot of game content to see yet. I cannot let that content underutilized. So I restart the game and play again in order to live new 'what if' situations of the same story. This is not MY story, not my Geralt's story. This is another story. Just like a parallel universe!
I do not care about what happens to that Geralt, I do not roleplay that Geralt, I do not care if he does out of character actions anymore. This playthrough is something that never officially happened. It's just a part of gameplay that allows me to see some things that CDPR put into their game for players that will make different choices than me and I want to see those things.
I totally understand the OPs issue. I too like to play my RPGs with well more roleplay value. I do roleplay my character in-game. I usually begin any RPG {not action RPGs which have no real story and no real RP values} by deciding what character type I'm going to play. Even before the game begins! For example when I started playing the Witcher 1 I've already decided that he will be a totally professional monster-slayer who doesn't like to interfere. He only want to get in, do his job, get out. I played the entire game with that philosophy in mind. I continued playing Geralt that way in TW2.
I did that for Dragon Age 1 {never played Dragon Age 2 after seeing what a piece of crap it was}. My mage there was a misanthropic power-hungry mage which happened to be in a situation where everyone counted on him to save the world when all he did was trying to get the world to serve and revere him. And it worked! I had a blast.
My commander Shepard in Mass Effect was a bad-ass soldier which was totally pro-human and tried his best to undermine all alien efforts while pushing humanity at the top tiers of galactic power.
These are the things that I enjoy when playing my RPGs. I do not like power-leveling, I do not like min-maxing stats, I do not care about tons of loot and I absolutely despise playing and choosing the best option in any dialog which may be helpful to my character in terms of XP points, loot or money at that time but completely out-of-character for the personality that I've chosen for him at the beginning of the game.
To put it in a few words if a dialog choice will obviously give me more items, levels, experience points or any other practical and GAMEY advantages in general BUT it is a choice that the personality of my character that I'm roleplaying would NEVER EVER say then I will choose the other option without hesitating even if that means that I will gain less or even lose some stats/info/levels/items/whatever.
This is what roleplaying is all about. Any game that lets me do that is worth playing and worth calling itself an RPG. Every other game that just has leveling, item equiping and generally RPG elements without actual roleplaying is NOT an RPG even if the industry like to call them that {or action-RPG as they are now more usually called}. These are NOT RPGs.
To get back on the OP's issue my first playthrough where I'm probably playing on the Normal level of difficulty and I'm encountering situations for the first time is what I call my 'official' playthrough.
This is the story that my Geralt lived, those are the facts that in my gameworld are written in stone and won't change. This is the savegame that I'm going to keep for the next game since this mechanic of save transferring will be the new standard for RPGs from now on.
BUT after I've seen the 'true' story of Geralt I do have a hell of a lot of game content to see yet. I cannot let that content underutilized. So I restart the game and play again in order to live new 'what if' situations of the same story. This is not MY story, not my Geralt's story. This is another story. Just like a parallel universe!
I do not care about what happens to that Geralt, I do not roleplay that Geralt, I do not care if he does out of character actions anymore. This playthrough is something that never officially happened. It's just a part of gameplay that allows me to see some things that CDPR put into their game for players that will make different choices than me and I want to see those things.
Why do people reread books and rewatch movies? Even with linear games a good one is worth replaying for the storyline.
A well crafted RPG is even better - because the story changes each time. Just think of each playthrough as an alternate reality.
A well crafted RPG is even better - because the story changes each time. Just think of each playthrough as an alternate reality.
The game should be played at least twice considering that acts 2 and 3 are different depending on who you join at the end of act 1.
You also may have missed some side quests on your first play through that you may want to try out.
I personally have beaten the game seven times and there are still a few things here and there that I've been finding that I didn't see before.
If you like the story, then why not play it over and over? As was said above, it's like a book or a movie. If you really like it, you'll read/watch it over and over.
I like to play the game through multiple times to beat it on the hardest difficulties or play quests that I may have missed, find items that I may have missed, try beating the game while dying as seldom as possible, improve my combat, get through the game without using (or reducing the use) certain items/signs, make different choices, etc. Basically playing the game in a different style. Just like with a game like Deus Ex: Human Revolution, I wanted to play again to try an all stealth play through or Mass Effect playing as a renegade.
Although at this point, I probably won't touch the game for a while unless some new content is released or maybe 6+ months down the road if I get the itch to play TW2 again. Although I may take TW1 for a spin at some point since I've only beaten that twice.
You also may have missed some side quests on your first play through that you may want to try out.
I personally have beaten the game seven times and there are still a few things here and there that I've been finding that I didn't see before.
If you like the story, then why not play it over and over? As was said above, it's like a book or a movie. If you really like it, you'll read/watch it over and over.
I like to play the game through multiple times to beat it on the hardest difficulties or play quests that I may have missed, find items that I may have missed, try beating the game while dying as seldom as possible, improve my combat, get through the game without using (or reducing the use) certain items/signs, make different choices, etc. Basically playing the game in a different style. Just like with a game like Deus Ex: Human Revolution, I wanted to play again to try an all stealth play through or Mass Effect playing as a renegade.
Although at this point, I probably won't touch the game for a while unless some new content is released or maybe 6+ months down the road if I get the itch to play TW2 again. Although I may take TW1 for a spin at some point since I've only beaten that twice.
Interesting topic... does that mean you also watch movies 1x?
I mean after you watched it you know what happened, it's the same as with games but in Witcher there are many decisions you make that'll lead you to different paths.
It's like re-watching a movie which suddenly changes and gives you kinda a different movie.
And with only 1x play through you only have played/completed the game 50 % due to Act 2.
Keep in mind that there are also characters, locations and plot quest you won't get to see unless you replay it and choose different decisions.
I mean after you watched it you know what happened, it's the same as with games but in Witcher there are many decisions you make that'll lead you to different paths.
It's like re-watching a movie which suddenly changes and gives you kinda a different movie.
And with only 1x play through you only have played/completed the game 50 % due to Act 2.
Keep in mind that there are also characters, locations and plot quest you won't get to see unless you replay it and choose different decisions.
I'm a big fan of the movie "Just go with it", and I've watched it at least six or seven times. It's a comedy, and it's still hilarious each time through -- but to the point, I notice new things about the movie the more I watch it, things I've previously missed. Kind of relevant here too.
it's a game, why take it so seriously? playing it through multiple times and choosing different options doesn't destroy your initial experience, if anything it enhance your understanding on the implications of your original choices.
Poohunter said:
What you say makes a lot of sense but another way of looking at it is to compare it to a movie. If a movie is a really good one, I always enjoy the second viewing of it even more.
The better the movie, the more is revealed by each subsequent watching, and the more I get to know and love that story and characters.
I see Witcher 2 as an interactive movie that is always an exciting story that you would be crazy not to take more part in - I would!
Of course how you play is right for you, but you said you are curious.
For me it's as old Nan said to Bran in A Game of Thrones, -paraphrasing here - A good story is like a good friend; you have to visit them from time to time.
TW2 is the best kind of story and is definitely worth visiting from time to time. I've played through 3 times so far, all on the same path. I'm taking a break now and playing some other games that aren't nearly as good so it'll seem more fresh when I try the other side of the story.
You are right about the 1st play-through being my "cannon" though. That's almost always the one I like best.
For me it's as old Nan said to Bran in A Game of Thrones, -paraphrasing here
- A good story is like a good friend; you have to visit them from time to time.TW2 is the best kind of story and is definitely worth visiting from time to time. I've played through 3 times so far, all on the same path. I'm taking a break now and playing some other games that aren't nearly as good so it'll seem more fresh when I try the other side of the story.
You are right about the 1st play-through being my "cannon" though. That's almost always the one I like best.
Replaying TW2 is like re-reading a good book, and finding an alternative ending. Totally worth it.
I tend to cheat a bit second time around so I don't have to obsess over small stuff like maxing EXP gain and such. Then again, EXP gain is often tied to juicy story bits.
I tend to cheat a bit second time around so I don't have to obsess over small stuff like maxing EXP gain and such. Then again, EXP gain is often tied to juicy story bits.