The Witcher - Reviews Galore

The Witcher’s traditional structure is a bit of a weak spot, but it falters more in its overwrought attempts to convince you that you’re in an unconventional fantasy world. You are supposed to feel that Geralt is burdened with decisions that are morally ambiguous, like whether to defend his employer’s medicine crates or let elves take them to treat their ill. It’s nice to get away from the standard good versus evil mechanic, but The Witcher’s method often forces you to select the lesser of two evils; it feels like nothing you choose matters since you can’t effect any kind of desirable outcome. Players should be rewarded in some way for their choices, not given a lesson on the inevitability of failure.

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This is a bit of a personal conflict, because I’m a massive RPG fan and The Witcher is exactly the type of game I love. There’s an adult theme, a complicated but scalable set of mechanics to master and an epic and inventively delivered narrative – just what gamers like I lust for. There are problems too though. Poor lip syncing, graphics which border on schizophrenic and frequent crashes and viewpoint problems – these are noticeable enough to dissuade the majority from playing the game.

The Witcher isn’t a bad game though, just an unpolished one which could have done with a little bit more thought and design work. The bugs and crashes will hopefully be eliminated in the future, but for the moment they are a semi-serious problem for the game.

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The Witcher is a fantastic example of what a creative team can do with a deep universe such as the world created by Andrzej Sapkowski. Give this team a powerful engine and a lot of freedom to interpret the source materials, and the result is a simply fabulous Next-Gen game that oozes style and ambiance. The beauty of it all is that it really doesn’t matter whether or not you have read the books.

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The story focuses on you, Witcher "White Wolf" Geralt, one of a roving band of mercenary monster hunters. The crumbling fortress of their once revered clan has been attacked and the secrets behind your mutation abilities are stolen. It's your job to find a way to recover the secrets before they are put to nefarious use, all while finding out about your past and that of your dwindling clan. It's perhaps not the most exciting premise, but the presentation and pacing of the story is excellent throughout, from the lengthy opening cinematic even to the hand-drawn screens that guard the transitions as new areas load into memory. Most noteworthy are the cutscenes, which have been storyboarded and edited with real cinematic flair and, together with the voiceovers and script, make The Witcher one of the best examples of interactive fiction we've enjoyed.

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Despite all the technical and the "omg, it's loading again" issues The Witcher is an awesome and in many aspects a fresh gaming experience. A thrilling story is complemented with a fascinating combat system that doesn't turn boring througout the game and remains challenging till the very end. Mature world background and the necessity to make real moral choices without all that candy-fantasy stuff is simply refreshing. We have great characters an extremely charismatic main hero and a captivating storyline here. What else can one desire? Nice graphics? Visuals defintely please one's eyes. Great soundtrack? Here you have it, Adam Skorupa and Pawej Blaszczak created a real masterpiece, the music is simply awesome. October 2007 is sure a blessed by the RPG "god" time. It's amusing how a regulary "buried" genre can revive within two projects in a month. First, the Mask of Betrayer, than the Witcher. We just hope that the positive trend continues.

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graphics which border on schizophrenic

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