The Witcher: Enhanced Edition

I don't play too many games, so take this with a pinch of salt. Battle system quirky and hard at first, but quite easy and enjoyable once you figure it out. Leveling system interesting and not too specialising. Weapon customisation a bit eccentric, but I likable enough, makes you appreciate each item you choose to use. Items: there is a large variety of these, each with many sub groups. Story: Still in act 5 (farming a bit more gold), anyway the story is prety good if not excellent. World: this is much larger than I expected it. Graphics: obviously quite dated by modern game standard, but I was actually quite impressed with these having not played many RPGs recently and not at all with this view point. Inventory and Stash: Inventory big enough for small items, so great, but you can't ever carry too many weapons you might want to sell for money. The Stash inventory at the Inns is great in that it doesn't run out of room. The biggest problem is that you're unable to sort and filter the items in the stash inventory once you clog it up with lots of items. This is quite irritating at the end of the game when you're trying to prep for the last segment of the game. (SPOILER: Consolidate it ahead of time in mid act 4, you can only access items during the first scene of act 5 and there are no shops.) Reason why I'm writing the review: The game crashed again after farming for a while without saves. It does this at least once a day, usually after an hour or two. This is a bit frustrating. Please do something about this GOG. (Stable Win10Homex64, i7-7700HQ, 8GBram, IntelHdGraphics630/NvidiaGeForceGtx1060)

Whenever i want a play a serie i always want to play from the begining, some series i didn't finish because the first game was too old or too meh so i was pretty afraid when i start playing this one because the 2 game seems to push all my buttons right, but this one not so much, i started it and 20 hours in i can say for sure this game stand tall between his siblings, and the reasons are simple. It's somehow addictive, it is so enveloping that i forgot to keep track of the missions and just collect herbs, talk with a lot of characters and do the secondary just to stretch the duration of the game (if you think i am exaggerating i got 20 hours and i'm still at the chapter 2). His combat system is a little weird but is pretty fun and simple, the adventure factor is good too, going aroud the place and trying every way to see if it got treasure or just more ways or an enemy, the skill tree is good too and believe, this come from a guy with awful abilities to play, when i put points on geralt it didn't feel like they were doing nothing but didn't feel like it was to overpowered too, just the exact amount of power, i can't say too much about the magic system because i'm more of a weapons guy but they seem useful (at least the signal of the shield is). And the ambientation is, oh god, just too damn perfect, from the rats that appear in the surroundings of the shaggy bear to the silence of the cemetary until now there is no part that didn't make me feel what the ambientation wanted me to feel, security, danger, skeptical or defensless. On the bad side i say is the fight animations, they're too stiff and unnatural and everytime an attack is interrupted or i make a change of plane the animation makes a cut, making the transition from an action to another feel like there where missing movements and models, the lack of filter for the missions is pretty annoying too, maybe if they were ordered by the importance it would be less annoying, but they don't. Well, that's all.

You are Geralt of Rivia, but you start unconcious and with no memory of anything. Early on you will learn that you are one of a small number of witchers, a not entirely human kind of monsterslayer, immune to most diseases and exceptional in combat. You also notice that even though you don’t remember other people they will still remember you, and many are surprised that you are alive contrary to several eyewitnesses of your demise. However, bandits attack the home base of the witchers and leaves with important alchemical equipment. The remaining witchers split up in search of the bandits, and the trail you follow leads to the city of Vizima where you meet a magically gifted boy. From this point you gradually uncover a large and relatively complex plot ultimately involving the future of all mankind, and you also rediscover yourself of course. The Witcher is a game with some very good aspects: The game world is immersive, the story is surprisingly deep both in that it is not immediately obvious what impacts will follow from the choices the player makes and that nothing is straightforward, and most of the environments are nice visually making the game very atmospheric. Bad sides of the game are the rather clumsy fighting dynamics, a somewhat uneven tempo in the storyline progression, and that some of the romantic parts feel rather lecherous. But yes, clearly there is stronger good than bad sides in my feelings for the game. I particularly enjoyed the way the story in The Witcher is laid out. It’s very open in a way that would not be possible in a game with a more generous character creator. In this game you are Geralt, but what that actually means is determined by the choices you make within the story and not by any initial choices before playing. That is really refreshing compared to other games in the role-playing genre.

The combat is simple rythm based and rock paper scissors styles stances. It's simple and satisfying. I love studying my enemy, making preperations and finally engaging in combat with the advantage. It captures the idea of being a Witcher. The story, writing and atmosphere are the real reasons to play though. Every character you can talk to is interesting in some way. From powerful mages to peasants. The world of The Witcher 3 is here albeit not as pretty. You can really see their vision here it's kind of incredible. I love CDPR. Hope they never change.

I played The Witcher for the first time a couple of years ago and I found it to be highly engaging and enjoyable. Its gritty, low-fantasy setting is a refreshing break from the usual fantasy cliches. The game is really a masterpiece of writing and character development, which where its true strength is. The plot is very well-written and I don't think I have played another RPG that has so many interesting, distinct and memorable characters. As well as the major ones - Geralt, Triss, King Foltest, Azar Javed - which are all amazingly well done, many of the minor characters are also very memorable, such as Jethro, Coleman, Abigail. I see a lot of people ripping on the graphics and combat mechanics. To me, the graphics hold up very well and didn't impair my enjoyment of the game at all. I have thoroughly enjoyed older games that have far worse graphics. Unless you are someone who absolutely has to have cutting-edge graphics to enjoy a game, you will be fine. The combat I also found to be totally fine. It is a bit simple and can get a bit repetitive, but it flows very well and is perfectly adequate to make the game enjoyable. A couple of minor gripes I had were that they re-used some of the character models a bit too much (although all of the major ones are unique). Also, the game is a little long and drags a bit in places. I remember one chapter where there seemed to be a lot of trekking to and fro between the town and the swamp. Also, I found the epilogue to be a bit of an anticlimax. After you beat the real final bosses, you have to go through a fairly long, boring and sloggy level, at the end of which you face a couple of trivial enemies. I guess it represents taking care of 'unfinished business', but it seemed like a bit of a pointless way to drag the game out. However, those are minor points. Overall, the game fully deserves 5 stars. It is an absolute classic that any fan of story-driven action RPGs must play.