One of the best RPGs of all time! I can't believe the many choices that completely alter the entire game! You have so much freedom and the game reacts to your difficult, grey choices. Almost no other game does what the Witcher does. It's soooo good!
I LOVE The Witcher 1....Just an Incredibly good Fantasy RPG. Easily a Top 10 of All-time. The voice acting and incredibly detailed scences and situations that are presented are just First Rate!
All-time Classic!
To stay on top of this great game or to enjoy it as intended, you need to pay attention and think before committing yourself. A far better game than the sum of its parts.
Its adult themes might raise eyebrows amongst some players, but after the world of Temeria draws them in to its clutches they’ll find a riveting storyline in an immersive world that creates one of the most memorable RPG experiences of recent years.
with solid marks in terms of combat, characterisation and plot, coupled with a first rate graphics engine (a version of Bioware's Aurora engine that's completely unrecognisable from its original incarnation in Neverwinter Nights), a fine orchestral score, high production values and a willingness to tackle adult themes, The Witcher's strengths outweigh its few flaws (long loading times and the aforementioned translation issues) by a considerable margin.
The one aspect that does feel out of place though is the game’s approach to sex. Geralt can basically one-night-stand his way through many of the world’s female NPCs, with the game issuing incredibly tacky “sex cards” of the women in each encounter.
Worth playing for its story and writing, but the gameplay is painfully boring.
Positives:
- Interesting story and good writing. Even minor characters are often written with attention and detail. For example, I loved Vincent and Carmen and loved even more how their storylines unexpectedly intertwined later. Or the swamp hermit and his little secret. That's attention to detail you rarely get in video games.
The story also has plenty of turns and twists and there's always some mystery. Unlike most games, it never becomes predictable.
- The game attempts to provide player with some meaningful choices to make. Those choices do have consequences. It can sometimes feel silly how the game tries to frame a choice, but I still appreciate what they're trying to do. (Silly as in "would you like to kill this cute kitten or this cute puppy?" How about we don't kill any of them and instead eat something else?)
- Great graphics and voice acting.
- Hmm... how should I put it... Possibility to "bed" any female in sight is a nice original touch. This is the first game I see where a reward for completing a quest or selecting a right dialogue choice is sex. I mean second, there's still Leisure Suit Larry.
Negatives:
- The game is super easy on the top difficulty. The early game is a breeze with the knock-out spell, the late game is dominated by the fire spell (igni). 1 on 1, just about any monster can be slain by selecting the right sword, the right attack type and stacking on combos: they won't be able to hit you even once. Potions, greases and bombs are mostly unnecessary. The only places where you're at least slightly challenged are the chapter-ending bosses.
- Bugs. This gotta be the buggiest game I played. (Aside from that time I used a Nintendo simulator to play Conker) It crashes and freezes all the time. I routinely get 'not enough disk space' message when trying to save (despite having 60Gb+).
- I suspect inventory size was selected to make sure the game is not too easy. When the most challenging part of your game is inventory management, you know things are not going well.
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.
SummaryThe Witcher combines spectacular and visually stunning action with deep and intriguing storyline. The game is set in a world created by best-selling Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. The world shares many common features with other fantasy lands, but there are also some distinguishing elements setting it apart from others. The game featur...