The Witcher - Review @ Gamers with Jobs

magerette

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Gamers with Jobs has posted their review of CDProjekt's new cRPG, The Witcher, listing a few faults such as long load times but positively oriented overall:
The Witcher brings a lot to the table that we've seen before, but the end result is something unique. It's good, real good.
Based on a series of popular Polish fantasy novels, The Witcher follows Geralt, a sardonic wanderer whose past is long and bloody. You don’t customize anything about him before you start the game, the scars on his face and his penchant for swords and magic are all set in stone. The man has walked many paths, but conveniently for those of us who haven’t kept up with popular Polish literature, he can’t remember any of it. Rescued at the brink of death by his fellow Witchers, Geralt remembers the basics of sword fighting and sarcasm but little else....
...After all this there’s still a lot to say about the game. The story is well realized for the most part. Some warts will pop up here and there with a poor turn of phrase or a small plot point that could have been more clear, but not often enough to detract. The promised “lesser of two evils” decisions are in full force throughout the game, I’ve already been surprised many times by twists and turns in the story based on my past actions. No matter what happens, Geralt always has something to say about it and he’s rarely apologetic about the decisions he makes. I’ve regretted a few, but even looking back I’m not always sure I would have handled some things differently.
The Witcher is a good game. It's not always perfect, but it positively oozes with interesting moments and details well worth exploring. It's not likely to change any minds uninterested in story-laden RPG's, but for the rest of us it's a godsend in the current PC landscape. On any platform, the amount of control the player has over the shaping of the story is unprecedented in modern times. It's not an "Action RPG!" nor is it a "Which of my 200 spells do I want RPG." It's The Witcher, and it's about damn time PC roleplayers had something to crow about.
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I agree with the comment that Witcher is not an «Action RPG» as some people call it. Sure, the combat system requires some reflexes. But the story, the dialogue are too important to be classified in the same category as games such as Diablo, Dungeon Siege and the like.

It's simply the best rpg I have played since a long long time.
 
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The developers chose to label their project an action RPG. Possibly this was for marking reasons, or perhaps earlier in development it really was more 'aRPGish', or it's even possible that The Witcher fits their individual definition of aRPG.

I'd love to know the origins of the term "action RPG" as the games media seem to believe Blizzard's simplified Rogue clone Diablo is the granddaddy of the 'genre' despite the fact it's not the first realtime RPG by a long shot nor do Blizzard label it so. There's not one mention of the terms "roleplaying" or "RPG" in the Diablo manual.

It obviously not a very helpful categorisation as The Witcher has little in common with Diablo, Rogue, Titan Quest, Nethack, et al. A turn-based board game like Hero Quest has more in common with Diablo.
 
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While we're at it, maybe we could get some agreement on where the term RPG originated. I've always felt it started with Gary Gygax and D&D, but all the facts surrounding it seem to be in dispute.

Some guy on the Bethesda forums once claimed he played his first RPG as a child, and it was a game about teddy bears, playing house. Not much action there, I imagine. And that was sort of his point, that it was a "true RPG" because it wasn't an "aRPG".

Sometimes I think there are just too many letters.
 
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I'm not sure when the term "roleplaying" was first used to label the category of gaming we know and love. I know first edition D&D was published in 1974 and dubbed a "Fantasy Medieval Wargame" rather than a "Roleplaying" game, but the term was in universal use by the ‘80s.

Some guy on the Bethesda forums once claimed he played his first RPG as a child, and it was a game about teddy bears, playing house. Not much action there, I imagine.
That’s roleplaying perhaps, but it’s neither action nor game. Many TES forumites simply reject the reality that RPGs are structured games because it doesn’t fit their “RPGs = arbitrary make-believe” conceit. Oh well, if it makes them happy…
 
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