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I want to buy a new RPG and I'm stuck between The Witcher and Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion. What are thoughts on the two games? Should they even be compared? Which do you prefer and why? Thanks.
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Haven't played The Witcher but I like Oblivion - it's really open-ended. One of my favorite things about it is that if you can't afford to buy something in a store, you can steal it when the store-owner is asleep
The best thing to do is take his keys while he's asleep, then just use that key to sneak in at night whenever you need stuff. -
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Wow....now this is a topic that can really get me going!
I should probably start by saying that my opinion is not entirely objective (although I AM doing my best. I'm of Polish origin and I speak the language, so I actually went through the trouble of getting a Polish Special Edition of the game. It's excellent (loaded with extra features) and for a Polish speaker adds even more depth and quality to the game. There's some things you just won't be able to translate well enough!
Both games are excellent though, with a few noticable differences. Let me highlight some of those for you.
The Characters, the Story, the Climate, the Uniqueness ->
Witcher all the way. The game is based on a 7-book saga by an acclaimed Polish fantasy author Andrzej (Andrew) Sapkowski. I've read it so many times I practically know it by heart, it is really excellent and the game follows the books, which means the Witcher blows everything (including Oblivion) out of the water in that department. The game is very mature, there's no good or evil everything is grey, quite often you just get to choose between the greater and the lesser evil, it's the best I've seen in a game so far. The first village you arrive at seems pretty unremarkable at first, but then it turns out to be tainted with hatred, cunning, murder, kidnapping,deceipt and hipocrysy actually powerful enough to summon and outworldly Beast (that you will have to defeat). Depending on your choices, you may even have to kill all the villagers in the end, when they turn against you and a witch you've decided to help (that accidently has been supplying poisons and love potions to the villagers themselves...)
Graphics, Sound ->
Again, I have to say The Witcher. The game looks beautiful even on low/medium settings. The sound/music is excellent as well, very climactic.
Gameplay ->
The Wicher! Hehe I AM trying to be objective here. I've played many RPGs in the last 12 or so years and Oblivion basically follows the same mechanics of combat and storytelling the previous games did, which is OK but quite boring and not at all spectacular.
The Witcher introduces an entirely new approach to combat. Geralt is an excellent swordsman (since he's not even human) and the fights are based on sets of combos that get more advanced (read:more powerful, longer and more awesome-looking) continuously as you progress through the game. There's also cool finishing moves for each fighting style (and there are three fighting styles, times 2 swords silver for monsters and steel for people, times 5 combo levels each, you do the math). You can also finish off stunned/unconscious opponents with some interesting moves.
Gameplay Length ->
Have to say Oblivion, it's a very long game, can last you a few hundred hours even! Witcher is very intense but short, easily finished in around 50 hours of gameplay, although there's a catch. With so many choices, the game can be replayed many times for a different experience. It won't do to just load a save and see what happens, since the outcomes of your decisions are not revealed until quite a bit later in the game.
Freedom ->
Oblivion again, much bigger world and much more freedom to travel, which isn't to say the Witcher is small, it's just not near as big as Oblivion.
Stability ->
Never had any issues with Oblivion, the Witcher tends to crash under Vista, much better in XP especially when you take the Depth of Field off and install the latest patch. Only crashed on me once but I'm using higly O/C'd drivers so that could well be the reason.
Closing Comments->
I played Oblivion for a good bit before I even heard of the Witcher and I enjoyed it, but the fact that enemies scale to your level automatically all the time put me off the game. If there was a way to cap your XP you could easily finish Oblivion being lvl 1 all the time, I like the idea of progress but the fact in Oblivion it's practically meaningless put me off the game.
If you like a lot of freedom, decent story, a well-polished game in a good-old RPG style with craploads of equipment and weapons, Oblivion is for you. The Witcher on the other hand has an _excellent_ story, a very cool protagonist, an innovative combat system that is awesome-looking, easy to learn and moderately difficult to master, very good graphics, effective inventory management system and not too much junk in the form of armor and weapons (Oblivion has LOADS of that junk) plus a very cool alchemy system (that is even necessary to finish the game at the highest difficulty setting.)
Phew, hopefully that helps you make the right choice
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1) I've played D2 and D2:LOD but that was ages ago and not with an assasin. From what I remember it was pretty much point-and-click though, and the Witcher does give you the strong, the quick and the group combat styles, plus if you only played the demo you'd progress to lvl2 combos max, they do get much more interesting once you acquire lvl3-5 combo talents
Throw various potions and Signs in the mix (witchers can only use basic forms of magic as opposed to wizards/sorcerors) and you get yourself a varied and interesting combat experience.
2) There's a risk that if you choose/lvl up the wrong skills your character will become weaker and weaker as you go along, just didn't like the idea of having to catch up to my enemies all the time rather than gaining an advantage
The Witcher or Oblivion
Discussion in 'Gaming (Software and Graphics Cards)' started by Dogigi, Jan 5, 2008.
