Hello!

So, I restarted The Witcher 1 multiple times and quit for so long that I lost touch with it. And that happened - again. Usually I like to finish one game of a series before I dive into the second or even third part but I wonder if I could make an exception in this case because I'd like to check out The Witcher 2 and I also got free code for Witcher 3 together with my new GPU. So, what do you guys think - should I try to finish the first one, again or does the second part stand so much on its own storywise, that I don't have to?

I think it is better to finish the first one if you can. The story of the second does follow from it. How far did you get in the first game? The first game is longer but I think it's worth it, I liked the ending a lot.

Having said that, you shouldn't force yourself to finish it if you're not having fun with it. You can always watch videos / read summaries about what happened if you prefer. There are also some savegame repositories around if you want to skip ahead a bit to see the ending or something.

Its a great game once you get used to the combat, skill tree and quests. Try to stick with it once you get dumped near the village tavern.

Do you have to play 1 before 2? Not necessarily. The stories are pretty much stand alone. But it would enhance the witcher experience overall if you play the first one. It might also affect the choices you make in the witcher 2 and 3 as you figure out which kind of witcher you want to be.

You don't need to read the books either. In the games Geralt lost his memory so everything gets explained to you as if you're brand new. I think I only skimmed through the first one.

Yeah, I'm at the tradequarter atm and I at least crossed all the parts which I already experienced in the story multiple times so that's good. I was told that this would be about half way through the game - that about right? I think I can do that. It's just that I usually kinda binge play games, meaning I usually have multiple games going which I play in small chunks and that's especially difficult with The Witcher because the Story is so indept that it's harder to follow when you're taking longer breaks in between sessions. Also I have that new shiny PC right next to me which desperately wants to play new and shiny games ;-) . Oh, well, I'll give it another go - at least now the framerate ONLY dips down to 45 instead of the sub 30s I was getting before - so at least it plays better than before (seriously what kind of monster machine does this game take to run at 60 all the time).

The Trade Quarter is Chapter 3, I think, is that right? Then you might actually be past halfway, depending on how far you've gotten in the third Chapter. There are five chapters in the game. Chapter 4 is actually my favorite. Chapter 5 is shorter and basically acts as the climax to the story. This is true, but I actually went back and read all the books recently and they're really good. So I recommend them if you are interested in further reading. Only some of them are officially translated into English right now but the others are available as fan translations; there are plenty of threads on these forums with details on where to find them (and what order to read them in).

If you play Witcher 2, whatever else you do, install the FCR mod. The combat and equipment miasma is atrocious without it.

I actually disagree with this. But I know many people like the FCR mod. To the OP, read up on the mod before deciding.

Basically you can play TW2 without playing TW1 and understand the story. But playing the first one is a real advantage to understand many things from the universe of The Witcher (such as geographics or politics issues) so I would strongly recommend you to finish it first. Have a good game !

I tried to play the 1st one with the excitement of playing the 2nd and it just didn't work. I got about 10 hours in and due to a pc misshap I lost the save, no way was I playing the start again even when I tried.

It hasn't aged well for me. 2 has some great videos explaining what is a Witcher and there's even a long official video explaining the story of the 1st game. My view is that if it's going to feel like a chore just skip it and watch a few videos to get some understanding of the world/geography. The stories are pretty self contained.

Wticher 2 has little to do with Witcher 1, other than indroducing characters and the world of Tameria.

IMO you should definaltly play Witcher 1 before Witcher 2 though. It's a great game and in many ways better than Witcher 2. However, YMMV, as a lot of people find Witcher 1 to be tedious, and there is TONS of running back and forth in Witcher 1.

If you decide to play Witcher 1 first I highly recommend you get the 'Stuff that makes Geralt's Life Easier' mod. It makes the game 100% better. It will allow meditating whenever and wherever you want along with allowing you to manage your storage box from anywhere in the world, as well as use 'Cat' whenever you want without a potion. Without this mod TW1 can very tedious.

Here's a link to a thread with the best Witcher 1 mods complete with working links.

http://www.gog.com/forum/the_witcher/recommended_mods_and_adventures/page1

Edit: Also, IMO, don't go into the Witcher 1 with the mindset of 'I need to get to the end to play Witcher 2'. That way of thinking will defeat you and make Witcher 1 seem more tedious and even boring. It's the jounrey, not the destinaiton that is important.

My opinion on FCR is that it ruins the game. Not to mention there is no official "Yes it will work" with W3 (the save with the FCR mod) so you will want to have a non FCR save ready as well due to this. Sorry!

lol

I am very surprised. My opinion of the vanilla combat is that it was god-awful, to the point I didn't even like the Witcher 2 very much before the fix. But to each his own. FCR does remove some items. Can't say as I suspect I will miss them in the Witcher 3, though, as that looks to have a massive amount of items/armors/weapons and any other decisions will undoubtedly be saved.

Well it's a matter of opinion quite honestly. I feel FCR makes the game too CoD for me. I enjoy the unique style mixed with the designers original game which is 100% completable without any mods needed. As for it's compatibility with W3? We will find out in a few days. I am not here to argue about it working or not though as I, like everyone else has their own way of playing their own games. Back to a replay of W2. Cheers.