EDGE New Batch of Reviews (inFAMOUS 2, LA Noire, Witcher 2, Brink, Dirt 3)

[JEMC]

haxxiy said:

JEMC said:

haxxiy said:

JEMC said:
After reading their review for The Witcher 2, I get the idea that:
1-They don't like the fact that you can't create your character or choose your class. Anyone who buys this game already knows that.

And that's still not a reason we shouldn't complain about it. Nowadays the ability to choose your character on a (W)RPG is just as important as choosing your armor or weapon. I bet they lost some sales due to this.

No it's not. The person who buys this game knows that he/she will play as Geralt and how he is and that's why they shouldn't penalize for that. Yes, other WRPG let you create your character but that's not that important (not even close to choosig your weapons or armor) because The Witcher 2 is not like them.

Most WRPG are based on taking the role of a random guy that gets caught in the middle of something bigger and takes part in those events, usually as the hero. But in The Witcher you follow the story of Geralt who doesn't get caught in the middle of something, He  is that something.

Having said that, why do they criticize the game for that but don't praise it for letting you choose your actions and come with true consequences?

Err... because the consequences are hardly relevant? I'm playing the game, I know how the damn thing works. It barely keeps up with the illusion of a choice like Bioware usually does.

Consequences are irrelevant? Bioware doing choices better? Look, I love Mass Effect, but if your idea of consequences and choices are those you get from them then we have 2 different visions of what those things mean. In Mass Effect you can either be good or bad. That's all. Are you happy with it? I'm not. I'm neither good or bad, just like everybody, yet with Bioware games you only get new things if you are either good or bad. What if I want to be both? You get nothing, you get stuck in a territory where you can't do/get anything the others can. If your happy with this simplicity then good for you, but sometimes I need another kind of experience. Like the one you can get with the Whitcher were your choices doesn't make you good or bad, where the consequences of your actions are not inmediate nor obvious.

Look at it from this perspective, WRPG are like movies while The witcher is a 1 story per episode TV series, something reinforced by the fact that it's based on a series of books.

In a movie/WRPG there is a story where the main character, you, is faced with a threat/disaster and has to stop it. Who are you and how you do it are ot important, the threat is.

In an self-conclusive TV series (like CSI, NCIS, Castle, etc) there are a lot of things happening but only 1 thing connects them, your character. That's the only thing that goes along all episodes turning the show/game less about what happens and more about the character and how it faces this threats.

PD: Seriously my English is quite bad, if we could talk in Spanish (my language, I'm sorry but I don't speak Brazilian) then I could give you a better idea of what I mean, but that's all I can do in English.