The Witcher: Enhanced Edition

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.

I've played this game in the past on a fast pace, to simply see the "story", recently, I againt started witcher 1, but played it on a slow pace, reading the books I found, the lore, exploring every part of the game, simply admiring everything this game has to offer, looting every barrel, every chest, doing every side mission, and why not some gambling, and fighting to earn some gold. I can tell you that this game is a masterpiece in my opinion, the experience this game offers, from simple things like the music that makes you go deeper into the game, from the graphics that although they are from 07, they still have something to offer from the little drunk chats that the npcs have. Everything is alive in this game. I'm in my first 12 hours in the game, and I assume i'm about 5% into the game. Play this game, it's a masterpiece.

Just played for the first time, as I played witcher 2 and 3 and couldn't just leave 1 behind. Actually very good story, it has more in common with the masterpiece of witcher 3 than witcher 2 and it feels much better game overal than witcher 2 in my opinion. Lots of interesting sidequests, fun story, well designed characters. The dialogues feel a bit stiff. The controls are very wonky, strange idea to implement a fusion of TPP and isometrical view, not gonna lie, I raged a lot during the combat. But nonethless I had a lot of fun playing this game. Definitely must play for witcher fans and worth trying for any RPG maniac.

This game is an amazing achievement. Not the least considering how old it is and the fact it was made by a then unknow studio on a small budget. To this day it is still worth playing or replaying. The world was unlike anything i've experienced before when i first played. Raw, brutal and uncensored as it should be. The story is great and there is so much to gain from exploring and talking with every character you meet. It is filled with content and fun minigames such as dice playing, fist fighting, drinking contests. And again you never know what the outcome of some of these is untill you try. Admittedly the controls can sometimes feel a little clunky, but once you get used to them it's not really that big of a problem.

This was my first foray into "The Witcher" series. Though common medieval tropes abound, the game is compelling and your choices do have some weight on the outcome of your quest. The game is full of interesting quests and characters, and your loyalty or neutrality to certain factions matters. The graphics are perfectly serviceable. Geralt himself has a bland presentation and personality, which is odd considering the sheer volume of women who throw themselves at him at a moment's notice. Yes, bare-bosomed friends await you at every turn. The elephant in the room is surely the combat. There is a specific rhythm to the combat which means you have to press attack at certain times or your combo ends. It is satisfying to land a powerful combo and pulverize your enemies, but the system takes getting used to at best and may put off players at worst. Overall, the combat did not lessen the experience for me. Additionally, there is a complex skills system, as well as alchemy to give you a specific edge in combat. It takes some cautious planning to invest in the right skills at the right time, as Witchers also carry two blades: silver for monsters, and steel for everything else. Sometimes it feels a little redundant to invest in the same skills for a different material of sword. You can find weapons in shops and as loot from enemies, but most weapons you find are completely useless. You never need to use anything other than your Witcher swords. There are also bombs and traps to experiment with, but they are never required. Aside from armaments, you will also collect alchemical ingredients to concoct potions with. Rummaging through people's houses will net plenty of food, which is mostly useful for bartering or gifts to NPCs. You will also find copious amounts of alcohol, which may be given to certain NPCs or consumed in drinking contests. It's mildly interesting, but it takes too long to sober up. All in all, an above-average experience if you can stomach the combat.