The Witcher: Enhanced Edition

On my first try of the game I felt a bit annoyed by the game mechanics and I abandoned it for several years. Watching the Withcer series (the Netflix show) sparked my interest as I'm one of those fantasy-loving RPG kind of gamers. On the second try I really enjoyed the story and the quests, but I ignored the tutorials entirely and played without understanding company, alchemy, etc. and found my self getting killed a lot on normal difficulty. The third time was the charm for me! I took a bit of time to get the know the game and found it actually easy to play, on hard difficulty. So my point is, if you like this type of RPGs, give this game a try, you won't regret it!

Thanks GOG for giving this away. It's great fun to be able to play the original. Plays well although a bit dated once you've played W3. Highly recommend to complete a set.

It is very hard to get into this game. If you can get used to the combat and get trough the first hour and a half ( tutorial and first part of act 1) you will probably find yourself pleasantly surprised. Most of the sidequests of this game end up contributing for the mais story, meaning they are not exatcly side quests, but if you can meet this game on its own terms, you will expirience one of the best storys I ever played in a video game. Great characters, an intriguing world and a game that made me completly rethink the entire game and how I played it after i completed. If you are even a bit interested, take a look. I think you will be surprised. . P.S.: If you have played or dont mind spoilers, take a look at the Joseph Anderson Critique of this game. Its 4 hours long, but definitly worth it!

A compelling, involving gaming experience. A long journey with a sexy, masculine hero that despite the length of the game still ends too soon. Complex personal relationships make every decision an important one. If you want to know what this game is about, watch the opening cinematic on YouTube. This is perhaps the greatest opening cinematic of any RPG ever. You learn everything you need to know about Geralt in four minutes, the sword, the chemistry, the ruthlessness, the knowledge, the magic, the success, the set up. If you are new to RPGs or have never finished one you have purchased in the past, I encourage you to try this one. The game set up allows you to choose the difficulty and the tutorial battles are tame enough to let you learn the basics of the combat system, which are easy to grasp and master with practice. There are enough side quests to keep you busy while you sort out the main quest, and you will find that you have finished the game before you really want to say goodbye to Geralt. Like every other RPG, the indispensable advice is, "Save Early! Save Often!"

The Verdict: A unique, excellent RPG with fun real-time combat, a great story and setting and wonderful music. Should be in any RPG and action gamers' collections. The Good: Unique, immersive storyline and setting with the ability to make choices. Fun combat, cool monsters, beautiful music and good voice acting. Alchemy is fun, and crucial on harder difficulty levels, adding a new level of strategy to combat. The Bad: Why even have knives and axes other than to look cool hanging on your character? Some glitchy combat. Too many drowners (but you can get a talisman to repel them if you are sick of fighting them). Possible to break some quests or do them out of order. The Long: The story and setting in the Witcher are so unique and good that they alone make it a great RPG. But the choices available to you and the huge number of side quests make it even better. The combat is fun, although I don't know why they even bothered putting weapons other than swords in the game. And some of the quests require some pointless backtracking. But those are minor annoyances in a great game. The setting, characters, music and storyline are so memorable that I found myself totally immersed in the world and felt like I was playing a really good book. And the freedom to make whatever choices you want, without being tied into a cliched "light or dark" choice path, really immersed me in the game. I made choices because I wanted to on a case-by-case situation, not because I wanted to get more dark side points or something. And the way they affect the game world was interesting to see. I bought the original edition on a whim, because it looked different. I loved it so much I bought the digital version here so I can have the fully-patched up director's cut in one easy to use file. Plus it's so good I wanted to support the developers one more time. For $5 or $10 you'd be hard pressed to find a better deal for one of the best RPGs ever made.