The Witcher PC
  • Publisher: Atari
  • Release Date: Oct 30, 2007
User Score
8.9 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 700 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 645 out of 700
  2. Mixed: 16 out of 700
  3. Negative: 39 out of 700

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  1. OmbarKryshnak
    Feb 8, 2008
    3
    Just don't waste your time. The Witcher has very little to offer aside from a Konami-style "click-the-enemy-at-the-right-time-to-get-your-combo" combat system and the possibility of having sex with just about any non-linear woman NPC you meet to get rewarded by her sex card, which is basically as sexy as a bra magazine. Graphics are ok but in the end it's just so disapointing...
  2. MarkW.
    Jan 29, 2008
    4
    90 sec. load times in and out of buildings....that's three minutes per. Nearly every simple task requires you to leave a building and come back to reset the quest cue. Be prepared to back and forth from the farthest reaches of the game over and over and over. Your choices really don't matter the game ends the same regardless. This is not a RPG !!! and there is nothing non-linear about it...in fact if you manage to do something out of order the characters will choke and reveal stupid things that don't make sense. The story can be riveting at times and the graphics are sweet when the game is not crashing, but the game play sucks. Have fun trying to find the right spot to stand in to open a container.… Expand
  3. EliasO.
    Jan 24, 2008
    3
    This game is a huge failure, I got bored after just a few hours into it, because I realised something, it's just a MMO but in offline mode! It's nothing when compared to the classic RPG's, Fallout, Arcanum, Planescape, & Icewind Dale.
  4. BobT
    Jul 7, 2009
    2
    Firstly I will say that the graphics in this game are good. Obviously the developers put a lot of time and passion into making this game. That being said, the graphics are the only good thing I saw in the short time I could stomach playing The Witcher Enhanced Edition for. The beginning story line was so dull that I had to force myself to continue on past the tutorial. The voice acting is completely unconvincing and the characters speak like robots (e.g. "I will find you later" as opposed to "Farewell"). The animations are horrid. The combat system is the worst implementation of a combat system I have ever seen. It's somewhere in between Oblivion and Fable/Jade Empire where you can freely move around in combat and you don't lock on a target until you click them and start doing some attack combo. You then can continue the combo by clicking at the right time. Exciting. Exciting just like the starting enemies: bandits and dogs. Dogs that are green and appear from nowhere.… Expand
  5. ManricoT.
    Nov 3, 2007
    0
    Boring. Long load times. Out of date graphics. Klutzy interface. The much maligned Two Worlds is much better.
  6. JoshuaM.
    Nov 17, 2007
    4
    I did not think much of the game at first because i did not really get the combat, but after a while i learned the basic princables and it just became plain boring, the abilities were also fairly boring and limited.
  7. AlexM.
    Feb 20, 2008
    0
    So buggy it is virtually unplayable and with one of the least inspiring storylines and gameplay ever seen.. games like this are wrecking RPGS.. as Elias O. said "It's nothing when compared to the classic RPG's, Fallout, Arcanum, Planescape, & Icewind Dale."
  8. AprilB
    Jul 3, 2008
    1
    This game has a lot of love put into it, but the fact remains that this game was basically released unfinished. The enhanced version will be out later and should offer what the original didn't.
  9. FBD123
    Aug 6, 2011
    3
    I was looking forward to this game's storyline, but found it unplayable. OK, that's an exaggeration, but it's not an enjoyable game to play. For frame of reference, I got huge enjoyment out of Dragon Age Origins, the storyline initially, but it's the gameplay that provides the lasting value. It's hard to pinpoint where the Witcher fails by comparison. I'll admit that, when I sit down to play, I have no tolerance for bugs and idiosyncrasies. This starts with the Load Game screen. The mouse cursor is missing and you have to search the net to find that holding the shift key brings it out of hiding. The screen designs that show your characters stats, selected weapon, maps, progress, inventory etc. are poor. Too colorful and too disorganised, with no sense of where the background graphics end and the useful information begins. The combat, as has been mentioned, is atrocious and simplistic compared to other RPGs. Other things seem, at times, needlessly complicated, taking too many mouse clicks or keystrokes to accomplish.

    This is a game with an adult storyline. If you are, like me, an adult who has a job and whose time is worth something, perhaps you'll feel the same way. There are better titles out there and you'll never play them all. Don't waste your time.    … Expand
  10. zeebo
    Sep 23, 2011
    3
    I really don't get the love for this game. I caught it on sale at GOG for cheap and finally jumped on it since I had heard great things about it, and even for what I paid, I regret purchasing it. The world and story are the only things that had me somewhat interested, the gameplay itself is incredibly boring and unsatisfying. For all the talk about the fun and innovative combat system, it simply boils down to: is there more than one enemy, than use the AoE style, if not, is the enemy fast or armored and slow, then use one of the remaining two combat styles. Once you pick a style, you click on an enemy to start an attack, and there are times during your animations that you have to click to extend the combo. If you fail, you have to wait a tiny bit before you can try and start a new chain. I was hoping maybe the magic skills would make combat interesting, so I held out until I got them all, but they didn't change much. While it gets points from me for having a unique setting, and a somewhat engaging story, the combat is mind numbingly boring and offers no challenge, for something I assumed would require a bit of strategy. I can only imagine how buggy and cumbersome everything was before they patched it up, as inventory management is still annoying, and I got outright crashes and glitches, losing progress and having to redo parts here and there. You can't really alter fights either, you either win, or you lose, potions aren't reactive, they're proactive. I love RPGs, but this one is a pass, there's just no depth to the actual gameplay and I don't hold much hope for 2, as it doesn't look like combat is substantially improved. I did put about 10 hours into it, trying to see if it would turn into anything interesting, but after getting all the spells and sampling more gameplay, I couldn't justify dumping anymore time into it and decided to cut my losses.… Expand
  11. DrBrogbo
    Oct 19, 2011
    4
    Truth be told, this wasn't a terrible game. Key word being "wasn't". I had a decently good time (I may have rated it 8/10) playing through it right up until the swamp level. The game was inherently easy up to that point, when it became literally impossible. There was this one vine enemy that was absolutely impossible to beat, and hordes of regular enemies that would not give me even a moment's reprieve. I would've had to fight a few of them, rest and recover, move 10 feet, fight more, rest and recover, etc etc. I can understand games getting difficult, but to get SO difficult SO suddenly is ludicrous. The game became so tedious that I quit, and after trying (and failing) a few more times at later dates, never ended up playing it again. When I looked up tips on how to beat the swamp level, they all said I had to be X level (I was higher), use X potions (I had been), and fire (also had been). Games should be fun, not tedious.… Expand
  12. Mykwon
    Dec 8, 2012
    1
    Ok, 20 minutes of cinematic and stupid dialogs before I could make a single move. And once it's up to you, character keeps jumping everywhere to the single key you press and you have no clue what you're doing. And then, it's back for 20 minutes of cinematic and stupid dialogs.
    Also, keeps lagging for no reason when there's nobody on the screen but runs smooth when there are 10 characters     battling. Not sure I'll have the courage to give it another chance. Too bad, you got your chance and wasted it.… Expand
  13. Alex
    Jan 13, 2008
    4
    Over-usage of vulgarities dramatically pars down much of the characterisation(people can be crude and direct via other means than just through speech), plus... it would've been better to be able to control the character development instead of playing some "cool-ass" character. One thing: if Geralt was so damn cool, lots of characters would've likely tried to kill him and he wouldn't even have survived in such a setting as it's damn likely many of his enemies would've formed a mob or even an army to take him down. This is yet another game where the producers made the main character more cool than the rest of the npcs, in order to justify the need for sex scenes and so that he can be called a "hero". Even if this game was a faithful adaption from the books, it didn't mean they'd to stick to everything. Some things are just better left alone.… Expand
  14. dryerlint
    May 22, 2011
    0
    This game is awful. Mostly because of the controls. Instead of a control scheme that makes sense the devs have something which is completely counter intuitive where something as simple as spacebar which is used as the jump key for every single game ever created is twisted into a pause game key. The game doesn't tell you anything about how to actually play. The game animations are some of the worst I've ever seen. I have played porn games with better animation than this. Go look up Bonecraft on youtube, those are terrible animations but they're a lot better than the animations in this game! Don't be fooled by all the fanboys of the Witcher fantasy series who give this game a 10 out of fanboy loyalty. This game is unplayably bad.… Expand
  15. MrTusks
    May 13, 2012
    3
    This must be one of those games that stereotypical PC gamers love because it's "pretty," as if graphics power can make up for clickfest gameplay, incomprehensible menus and terrible voice acting. I had heard a lot about this game on the Internet, but it isn't even worth the $10 I paid for it on Steam.
  16. Ashard
    Oct 29, 2012
    2
    the game has good voice acting and good music but that's it, the story is dull, the combat is boring, the quests are just uninteresting and the controls are very clunky. by far one of the worst RPG's i have ever played.

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
81 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 50 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 40 out of 50
  2. Mixed: 10 out of 50
  3. Negative: 0 out of 50
  1. Game Over Online
    78
    So if you’re looking for a dark and moody role-playing game that is different than everything else out there, and if you have a reasonably powerful computer that can handle the engine, and if you don’t mind adult themes that are more than a little male-centric, then the Witcher is certainly a game to consider.
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  2. Game Revolution
    75
    Trading more traditional, menu-drilling RPG “depth” for sheer style, action, mechanical elegance and what might be called a refreshingly grim mood, The Witcher is one of the most compelling - if not the cheeriest - fantasy excursions to come along in many a moon.
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  3. PTGamers
    90
    The Witcher is a fantastic RPG, a perfect recreation of the world imagined by Sapkowski. Being focused in a complex story as it is, the many hours of play will make us completely disregard the absence of multiplayer of any kind.
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