The Witcher: Enhanced Edition

Never before have the moral dilemmas in a computer game been so difficult and so deep. And so meaningful. This was actually the first video game where the player had a real impact on the world. A very realistic world, as far as fantasy worlds go. I mean: This is not high fantasy. Compared to many other RPGs, this one is quite dirty and has got a lot of grey shades. This is just an ideal adaptation of Andrzej Sapkowski's novels, whose style is very cynical. The combat system has also been well thought out as well. The statistics of the character rather than the skills of the player are what counts on the battlefield. In this system, you just click at the right time - like in a rhythm game - and Geralt does the rest spectacularly. It is a controversial opinion, but the first Wither and the Thronebreaker are my favourites of the whole franchise.

I'm glad I only paid a couple bucks for this highly praised game. Is it just nostalgia that has people raving about this? After a mind-numbingly long introduction, I finally was allowed to do something, and boy, the mechanics are awkward. Combat is the worst. The combat mechanics manage to be both incredibly simple and incredibly awkward. Just click on the opponent at the right time and then swap out fighting styles for different opponents. It's just really boring. I can't even make it through the first scenario. It's just one gratingly dull fight after another occasionally interrupted by a boring cutscene.

Just finished my second playthrough and this is a mediocre game at best. The atmosphere is great, just like the music and the story plot twists. But everything else is just so annoying. The combat is the worst, point and click and it depends on correctly timing your attacks and luck more than strategy. Some RNG combat effects, like "pain", take all strategy out of the game. It has some bad level designs, like the swamp or sewers area where enemies constantly respawn after a few minutes. The fights often feel unfair or have extreme difficulty spikes. The animations and characters are repetitive, the controls are often unresponsive which makes the combat unnecessary difficult. There are only a few gear upgrades, which aren't available until you've completed at least 90% of the game. The story is decent but lacks in several areas. For example, in the beginning of the story some key characters are introduced which are never seen nor heard from again. The minigames are 90% luck based, don't expect something like Gwent. It has some good plot twists and just like the second and third game some decisions will impact the story much later in unexpected ways. But there is no reason to play this game, just play the second and preferable the third game which are both much better.

What I love of this game is its history, it's an excellent one with very good characters, situacions and choices. What I also love about this game it's how it talks about morality, showing that not always there's the good choice and the bad choice. Buy it now 10/10

If you're considering playing this game, you probably already know all the pros and cons. There are die-hard fans like myself who will tell you that the game is absolutely worth playing. Even though the controls and graphics are a bit outdated, the game offers an unique atmosphere and experience, that not even the following titles can reproduce. The game is based on The Witcher book series by Andrzej Sapkowski and although it continues the story of geralt after the books took place and it is not the official story by Sapkowski you can see that the developers did everyting to honor the books from the most obvious references to the most subtle ones. And more importantly they managed to give you the taste of the slavic lore and culture that goes hand to hand with the witcher. The atmosphere is very dark and suspensful and you can feel it! There is always some mystery, something wrong hanging in the air and the game does an excelent job expressing it. It's not just the monsters, dead bodies, laments of the ill, howling of the dogs and the music that makes the atmosphere come together. Even a "weakness" like not having an open world or a quest design that (in some cases) doesn't tell you exactly what to do, contributes to making the game more immersive. (tl;dr) This game is a great entry point into the witcher universe whether you read the books or not. Forget what fan boys like me say about it in the reviews and play it if you think YOU will like it, play it without high hopes and expectations as long as you enjoy it. I stand by my praise, but I myself took a blind leap of faith, without knowing what to expect whatsoever and it became my favorite story of all time.