The Witcher: Enhanced Edition

Completed on normal difficulty. Attractive graphic, immersive storyline, lots of gameplay, and a very interesting character. Things that were not so great: * The quest structure can be confusing. Example (minor spoiler): even if you know that the private investigator is an impostor, you still need to agree to kill the gangster boss for him, or the quest cannot be resolved (you do not actually have to kill the gangster). I was stuck on this a really long time since I thought commiting to the kill would limit my options later. * The episode where you fight Dagon is completely unrelated to the rest of the game and makes no sense at all. The fight is also surprisingly easy given that your "monster knowledge" about Dagon tells you that he is an invincible demigod. * The battles in the final quest are too easy. After fighting the giant Zeugl in the sewers, which is just a "filler monster" with no relation to the story, I found none of the encounters challenging. Be warned that the sequel to this game uses a totally different engine and whether you like Witcher II or not seems to be completely unrelated to whether you like Witcher I. Personally, I gave up on Witcher II because of the extremely clunky controls.

This game is far from being perfect, but the story is so addictive and challenging that I give 5 stars. The game itself is quite old and should run on most computer systems available today. One little thing I haven't appreciate is the final chapter, mainly focused on combat, combat and more combat. But I can't wait to play the next chapter (hoping my computer can run it the same way...)

I am pleasantly surprised. I thought this first game would be one I just play to understand the Witcher storyline, and expected it to be not that fun in terms of gameplay. I was wrong. Let's get the bad things out of the way first. I don't like this engine. I believe it is the Neverwinter Nights engine, because of (probably) its ease of use to program in, but your movement feels lightweight and floaty like an mmo. Third person games should have some weight and physicality behind the movement imo. The combat is weird and clunky too, timing your clicks correctly to preform the next combat sequence. But this actually wasn't as annoying as it first looked. The combat is very much varied enough even if the actual 'striking' part is simplistic and a bit awkward. The depth comes from the character skill upgrades, your different fighting stances, your magic use and then the potions you consume to buff yourself depending on the enemies you're fighting. It kept me entertained and focused enough, but didn't suck me into the action. The best parts about this game are its setting and story. And quest design too. This is a game that gets better the further you get into the story. The first chapter is the worst part of the game, but it gets progressively better with a very good 3rd, 4rth chapter. The story and world just has a certain believability that gets brought in a good way. The customs of the worlds denizens, the social & ethnic dynamics and conflicts, the way the magical fantasy elements are integrated in the world and a pretty believable medieval political landscape. This excelent world is then further enhanced by the player interaction. The dialogue is generally good, often even clever and funny. The personality of Geralt translates itself in a good way to player choice and interacting with the world. He's a stoic, badass, alpha male womanizer but is also deeply moral, refective, sometimes doubtful and highly critical to what the people of this world signal to him.

One of the best games of history ;)

Nice art style, enjoyable fighting combos (if unrealistic and rather repetitive in the long run) - I don't really think the fighting system is bad (even though it's not great either, but it's ok), good options for customizing your skills as you level up. Really nice music and sound design (adding a lot to the overal mood). Then again, the main storyline isn't too engaging and it's a pity your decisions don't matter that much either - you can affect an outcome of certain events but it doesn't really change your experience too much. Also, the development of Geralt's romantic relationship with one of the two major NPCs feels rather flat. There are many occasions where you would expect a dialogue option with them about recent events yet they don't seem to care. Similarly, there is a moment when one of them gets hostile towards Geralt for the rest of the game - yet it only projects into some of the dialogue and is completely omitted in the rest. Not to mention the fact that the game basically motivates you to have sex with as many NPCs as possible (rewarding you with "love cards" for each of them) - so you can (and you'll probably want to) f**k quite a lot of NPCs, all while Geralt makes notes in his journal about his growing feelings towards one of the two major NPCs - felt rather weird if you ask me (being a fan of the books this game is based upon, I know Geralt isn't a saint in the novel but he definitely isn't a shameless promiscuous bastard either). And last but not least, the INVISIBLE WALLS. This made some locations really frustrating to navigate since Geralt cannot even jump(!) and it felt really stupid to get blocked countless times by a waist high obstacle (or little gap), so that the game keeps you within the boundaries of the levels (which, due to this nasty trick, often look much larger at first than they really are). Yet I'd still recommend this to any RPG fan. The lore and the overal atmosphere is really good, staying quite faithful to Sapkowski's books.