The Witcher: Enhanced Edition

At first I was going to give it a 4 stars rating, but I changed my mind after finishing the game. I really don't know what to say about the game. Well, I'll try. I'm not a big fan os RPGs, but The Witcher is not like traditional RPGs where you are a powerfull hero trying to save the world from the Big Bad Ancient Creature. You are just a monster slayer hunting down the people who invaded your home, stole your secrets and killed your friends. But what put The Witcher above any other RPG is it's story. It's a really mature story, and not because of sex, but because your choices actually have consequences, and you have real options. It's not like others games where you must choose between the Good side and the Bad side, you usually must choose between the evil and the lesser evil, no one is telling you that what you did was right or wrong, and no one is telling you the consequences of your acts. It's up to you to choose the option you think is better. And this is why I think The Witcher is one of the best -if not the best- RPG of modern times.

This game was a first confusing with the combat system, that after the first chapter was not that difficult to use and understand. The worlds is greatly rendered, the characters are all different, the graphics are not bad for 2013. The best thing about this game is that it has a great plot. After more than 20 hours to finish the game, any price is worth it. This game makes me want to read the books and know more about the Witcher universe.

Just love it.

The game opens with a cinematic that is voiced over by Vesemir. Geralt's elderly who tends to narrate all the Witcher games; the cinematic is giving a recap of one of one of the stories from the first book in The Witcher book series: The Last Wish. It does not make much sense as to why it is here and being told, the editing is awkward, the animation is stiff and uneven and the cinematic goes on for far too long. After waiting for 10 minutes to get to the main menu I have to then sit though another overly long cut scene with stiff hollow performances from all involved and clumsy writing that is hell bent on telling rather than showing which leads to characters telling me what is happening with dialogue that flowed as well as the performers ability to act. When the cut scene finally ended I was able to start combat. That was when the brink wall hit me. The ability to deal damage seems wholly bent on some invisible random number generator, sometimes I fling my sword and it hits them but sometimes it does not even though I see the strike land. The same goes goes for my opponent, sometimes I see the hammer land but nothing happens, I did nothing and somehow did not get hit. It does not help with the fact that the animation for the sword attack is so crap that it seems that I was just hitting him with the butt of my sword, not the blade. I tried to make it work, I wanted to be wrong and the game to be right. No. It was the game, after much reading repeating the first level I still could not get the sword to strike consistently, nothing I could do would fix it. I looked for a solution and I could not find any. "Get used to it" was the response the forums posts said. I did try to get used to it. But how can I get used to a combat system that does not register attacks half the time? Even if I did get used to it and it magically started working consistently, the story was not promising with the way it was being told and the voice acting was poor. I am sad about this...

There can be no doubt that the Witcher is a legendary game series. However, any game studio, just like any story, should have it's own beginning. As the 1st part, this game is quite good. Yes, this one falls behind it's peers (based on the release year), but when you consider low budged and other significant factors - you can't expect a masterpiece. Even though CDPR somehow managed to make this game in a decent fashion: atmosphere, interesting quests and an overall introduction to the Witcher series are all there! That's why I'm able to close my eyes on some drawback and say without any hesitation that I love this game - it's a classic, which is a must for any RPG fan.