Blaze (he/him)The Witcher III is currently on sale for 3€ until 25th May
jherazobFor those of us who have never played any of them, is it suggested you go through 1 and 2 first? Is there a recommended play order? Or just "Jump into 3 and forget about it"?
illiI’m a huge Witcher fan and couldn’t stomach the first game unfortunately. Luckily there is a neat recap video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=X52-ssOk2KM
I do recommend playing the second one before the third though, even though the stories are standalone.
I do recommend the books if you feel like it. Books -> Witcher 1 recap vid -> Witcher 2 -> Witcher 3 is my recommendation for best experience.
The Witcher 1 Story Summary in 5 Minutes (official cinematic)
Did the books come before the videogames? If so, are the games faithful to the books?
Yes, books came out some years before games. I think aroind late 80s/early 90s. My understanding is in Poland even people not usually into fantasy know of the books.
Games are fairly faithful to the books, at least in spirit. There are some problematic things lore wise that they did in games but I can understand why with most. No adaptation can be 1:1 and I understand it. Overall, I’m happy with how the games ended up.
First game, I didn’t like that much though. One thing is that the age is showing on the gameplay. I could get over that, but the story also recycled too many things from the books. The main story is its own thing, but there are many story beats that felt copied, with some things changed up to mask it. Pretty sure some sidequests were just stories from books, but with diferent characters. It was not bad, but it broke the immersion and I just couldn’t get over it. This in combination with the aged gameplay just made me look for a recap.
Stoked for the announced remake of the Witcher 1 though.
Thanks for the information! I may give the books a read.
First two are collections of short stories so there is no big time invesment with testing it out. You can try the waters and see how you like the style and if you don’t like it enough to continue, at least you have a book that works on its own.