kyogen: I lhink it's brilliant! I laughed so hard when I saw Geralt go down--not because I think getting Geralt killed is funny, but rather because I thought the devs were really smart about communicating to the player that Geralt is not invincible in his own world. It's a dangerous place, his choices have consequences, and he has to think through his options carefully. He can't survive very long by acting like a petulant child. He may be stuck with Roche for a bit, but he can get intel from him while they're working together and get away from him fairly soon.
Yup. In a pnp RPG I'd make it very clear to the player what situation he's in and that danger is emminent, and the choice is between life and death. Then applaud rping the character if he still chooses to disobey.
But in a computer game where you can load - that's a very handy trick to show that sometimes you have no good choices.
But don't worry - you'll be able to turn your back on Roche soon enough if you wish to do so. There really isn't much railroading for a cRPG here, but this situation is somewhat special.