I have a weakness for polls and lists, and thought this might be an interesting one--what is it about The Witcher that you feel is it's biggest strength as a cRPG? What makes the game work for you?

I think all the elements I've listed have their merits, but for me The Witcher's greatest strength is Geralt himself. He is the factor that propels the game and through the player's identification with his character, keeps you wanting to know what happens next.

Bear in mind I haven't finished the game yet, so feel free to add comments on anything that I may not have picked up on, or that I neglected to put in the options. It's also an invitation to discuss weaknesses if so desired as well, of course.

I voted "synthesis."

The reason is that there is a game I liked a lot where the greatest strength *is* "Geralt himself" -- namely, The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. Remove Riddick, and it becomes just another compentently done corridor shooter.

My experience of The Witcher is rather different. Yes, Geralt r00lz, but there's way more to the game than that. Even if Geralt was your completely customizable NWN2 style character, the game would have more depth and be more enjoyable than most things out there.

IOW, I don't think any individual area in the game legitimately scores more than four out of five, but the sum total is way better than the average of all of its component parts.

For me the biggest strength is the unique vivid setting, but all other points make it a complete good game.

I marked synthesis. I couldn't decide between settings and Geralt . And quests, interactions, music…ehh.."synthesis" is most suitable here. Witcher as a whole is better than his separete parts.

I chose the "character interaction & NPC's" (but from a pure dialogue led storyline perspective)

Synthesis. I really have difficulty picking out any one of those options over another. This is definintely a "sum of the parts" game imho.

I find it interesting that no one has chosen Graphics yet - to me that indicates the degree of maturity of the players on this site. I mean, sure we all like pretty graphics, but we wouldn't be playing this game if it was lame in other aspects.

The synthesis of all points, which are in and of themselves, not a total 10. But put the above average qualities of each together and you have a pretty good game that keeps you playing.

I freely admit that I wouldn't enjoy it as much with ASCII graphics.

You graphics whore! Why, back in my day ASCII was pure luxury. We did shadow puppets by candlelight, and we liked it! And we flipped a penny 20 times to simulate a 20-sided die, even though we knew it wasn't statistically proper. Pampered kids these days… Where's my world fair spoon?

To topic, y'all are gushing so much that I might just have to give this game a look.

Can't vote yet, just picked up my LE copy for $110!! Yep, that's what we pay for games down here.

Is that $110 USD??

@dte: You haven't got this one yet?! You are truly missing out my friend.

Not too bad, Corwin..only $30. more than here.
It probably costs that much just to pack it in barrels and load it on the clipper ships for the three month voyage down there.

Jabberwocky, Australian dollars.

magerette

It probably costs that much just to pack it in barrels and load it on the clipper ships for the three month voyage down there

Great idea for a poll and I would agree with, synthesis.
It's a great game over all and I hope Cd Projekt is successful, so they can improve some of the weak area's.

Strongest? I would have to go with Setting and Story, I want to be in this world, exploring and interacting, more than is possible with the current design, so it can't be all bad.
Cd Projekt knows how to tell a very engaging story, the world is full of ironic twists, opposing elements of Humanity (compassion and intolerance) and self deprecating humor.
Iirc, Tolkien always mentioned his races were not intended to represent the struggles of war and politics at the time, it seems clear Sapkowski wants the horrors of politics and war to be in your face and that's a good thing.

I hope Cd Projekt can afford to switch to a better engine at some point, so their obvious talents will be less limited.
Some could be easily fixed with a patch, like allowing the continuation of dialog after a Story related *Event* like, Bribing someone, delivering a message or buying a Rod, then being unable to initiate dialog and instead, forcing you to Zone out, before dialog can continue.
Especially since the biggest weakness is the constant loading, that alone could cut up to 15% of the loading.

I want more control over the camera and keyboard/mouse settings, damn you!
If, I want to zoom out to moon, tilt the camera down to ground level and get take in beautifully sweeping vistas or set my mouse keys, then let me.

Originally Posted by Acleacius
I hope Cd Projekt can afford to switch to a better engine at some point, so their obvious talents will be less limited.

I'm pretty sure it's not a question of money. Thing is, while the Aurora engine is very limited in some ways, it has some enormous advantages -- namely, it's very easy and robust to build content into it.

In other words, I'm pretty sure that one reason The Witcher has such a lot of detail, depth, and content in it is that the engine made it comparatively easy to put in all that content. Compare with Gothic 3, which is built on top of a newer and a great deal more sophisticated -- but harder to learn and harder to develop on -- engine.

The good news is that engines are developing like mad, and if (I hopes I hopes I hopes) there is a sequel to The Witcher, it will run on a better engine.

Originally Posted by Prime Junta
The good news is that engines are developing like mad, and if (I hopes I hopes I hopes) there is a sequel to The Witcher, it will run on a better engine.

Maybe "Electron" .

a better engine?
What are you talking about this thing looks like a moving painting across my screen.
Any better and they will have to make a model of you and put you in the game as well, that's how close you are to the game

I agree with you as far as the sheer 'looks' of the game go, Shrapnel, but the loading times are engine specific and they suck. Also the fact that you can't overcome tiny obstacles in the game world but always have to travel around them. - I think those two items are what people are referring to about needing fixed. I don't think anyone would argue about the pretty graphics.

I agree about the loading times being too long… but beside that, I think the engine is doing an amazing job.

Giving more freedom about how to walk, jump, fly, etc… it's running after trouble and totally unecessary, in my opinion.

Agreed to a point - I would much rather have the game running sleek and beautifully as it is, rather than have the ability to jump over a fence or swim at the cost of a performance hogging, crash happy engine.

The Witcher is a great game (haven't yet finished it) but I disagree the engine is good. At max settings Gothic 3 and Oblivion fly on my system when in The Witcher some area are very slow.