The Witcher: Enhanced Edition

The game delivers an engaging RPG adventure with its captivating story and intricate world. I was fortunate to have already obtained it for FREE on GOG, was a fantastic opportunity. I'm glad I managed to snag the game before the free offer ended. Thank you GOG! Highly recommend trying this one first before the other two series.

One of the best games of all time!

Superb game that lets you slip into the skin of a world-weary, near-immortal monster hunter. The world is dark, you are hated by the very people you help. Religious fanaticism, racism, violence and bigotry abound, and there are no easy choices. As a tough-as-nails and good-looking adventurer who on top of everything is immune to disease and sterile, you obviously get incredible amounts of sex. I like the beautifully illustrated cards that represent Geralt's fleeting memories of his intimate encounters (sadly missing from the sequels). Some of those however go beyond mere sex. Geralt has authentic (if conflicted) romances. He also has great and loyal friends, and you'll care for a lot of the characters and even quest NPCs you encounter. The combat system felt strange at first but it grew on me, and I appreciated the fact that I had to prepare for combat ("meditation") by picking my potions in advance instead of chugging a million of them on the go like in most RPGs. The only negatives that come to mind are some extremely hard bosses in high difficulties, and of course the fact that the graphics and UX conventions have aged quite a bit by now. Overall this is an amazing world mixing authentic medieval elements with fantasy, that you won't want to quit. Special mention to the interesting and sometimes nightmarish monsters you face, inspired by Polish folklore.

Als Gothic Fan und langjähriger Rollenspieler (seit Ultima 2) musst natürlich auch endlich mal der Witcher dran glauben und Teil 1 wurde auf meinen Rechner gezehrt. Nach etlichen Stunden grossartiger Unterhaltung lässt sich für mich folgendes Fazit ziehen: Schon der 1. Teil der reihe lässt ganz klar das talent und bisweilen genie des Studios erkennen und auch die Liebe zum Detail. Natürlich ist das Spiel technisch hoffnungslos veraltet und kämpft ständig mit der begrenzten Technik und dem begrenzten Budget. Nur ändert das nicht daran, daß das Spiel schlichtweg grossartig ist. Als wäre es der zweieigige Zwilling von Gothic ähnelt es diesem mit seiner Bodenständigkeit (wer im Dutzend Drachen töten möchte und 3 -4 Welten auf einmal zu retten gedenkt ist hier fehl am Platz) und ist dank der polnischen Fantasy Mittelalter Welt und den Hexern als Mischung aus Magier und Kämpfer doch wieder ganz anders. Dazu kommt die wunderbar erwachsene Geschichte ohne den üblichen Bombast, dafür aber mit cleveren Verwicklungen. Ich würde den Witcher Teil 1 jederzeit wieder kaufen. Er ist es wert !

It's 2019, and in many respects, The Witcher has not aged well. The face models and 3D renders have aged woefully, yet the art direction and texture work remains surprisingly strong. The controls are unresponsive at times and moving Geralt around Vizima and its surrounding environs can be a frustrating chore. The voice acting is poor and at times unintentionally funny. And the combat, the primary means of interacting with this world, is dated. Players make Geralt fight by participating in a ryhthm game of timing swings of swords, lest no attack happen at all. The game struggles to run on modern systems at time, often crashing when there are too many models on screen or while loading new areas. Save often. And yet despite all this I enjoyed the game immensely, save for Act V and the Epilogue. The Witcher was the freshman game from CD Projekt Red, and it's clear that they both weren't sure how to develop a video game but tried desperately hard. The game is dripping with a delightful yet bleak Slavic atmosphere. The game has taken on a quaint charm due to how poorly some of it has aged. The story is one of the weaker elements on display here. It's essentially a revenge plot that drags on too long. Yet there are fun and engaging side stories to discover and good characters to form relationships with. I appreciated how small the story begins, how it grows in scope dramatically and finishes in a quiet courtyard, with a solid prerendered cinematic at the very end to set up the sequel. The ending isn't a boss rush exactly, but the game does through an obscene number of enemies at you for the last hour or so, and it became tiring quickly. If you haven't played any of the Witcher games before, I wouldn't start here unless you crave the full context of the story, but I think it's more enjoyable to go back later to learn where Wild Hunt came from.