Yakoob on 29/5/2011 at 11:28

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Na, I'm reading the originals in Polish. I visited Poland (first time in 8 years) this past Easter and picked up the first 3 books. Hoping to swing by again soon and pick up the remaining 4 since I grew to like it.

And yea, I do agree that you will like it even if you are not into Fantasy since, as I said, it thankfully spares you the pages upon pages of axes and swords. However, it does include a lot of other fantasy tropes (magic, old runes, spirits of the woods, nature-bound elves, hardy axe wielding dwarves etc) and does suffer a bit from the "every chapter he almost dies!" type cliches but still, there's enough fresh ideas, good writing and good plot twists to keep me wanting to read more.

I recon some of the mythos stuff maybe lost for those not familiar with Polish folklore but there's still tons of more universal stuff (aforementioned beauty and the beast, ginnie in a bottle, etc.) you will likely enjoy.

Cant comment how the English versions tackle this tho (but I'd be curious to read them for comparison).

Avalon on 29/5/2011 at 17:34

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I imagine reading the books would make The Witcher 2 a lot more interesting. Otherwise I'd just have to chalk the whole game up to mediocre design.

Finally finished it this morning (after lots of frustrated profanity and smashing things against walls due to the not so awesome combat system), and the story is "meh." I think they expected the whole conspiracy plot reveal to feel really super important and exciting, but given that the majority of the conspiracy revolves around characters and places and events you have never met or visited and only vaguely heard about, you feel about as involved as you do when you're reading stories about the middle east on CNN.

Rather than personally involving and weaving you into this storyline, they chose to plunk you down in front of a guy who tells you everything in lots of long-winded conversation. Again, about as involving as reading the news on CNN.

Fun game, but I wouldn't put it in my top 10, and it's definitely nowhere close to the original.

Yakoob on 29/5/2011 at 19:08

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lol I love how everyone shits on Poland's gift ignoring the pointed out fact you are talking about a guy who gave an 80 year old monarchy an ipod :rolleyes:

van HellSing on 30/5/2011 at 09:03

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He means the Witcher books, not the Hussite trilogy, duh...

van HellSing on 30/5/2011 at 09:18

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The publishing dates are like that because The Last Wish is actually an expanded version of an earlier short-lived version of the first short story collection, which was titled simply The Witcher.