The Witcher: Enhanced Edition

The Witcher is clearly a game made with a heap of care to ever asset. It's clear that the team at CD Project poured their hearts and souls into it, unsure whether it would be their last game. These are the sorts of games that used to be made, and why they deserve the connection to the classics we love. Set in a familiar but completely new world onto itself, The Witcher takes what you may first see as "generic fantasy" and turns it on its head with a real weight to everything. Never in any game, old or new, have I ever felt like my choices hang so heavily on my shoulders. You may not see the death of planets due to them, but you do see people you may have cared for go due to a simple missed step. Speaking of the people, everything in the game feels fully fleshed out even from the tiny stints of unimportant NPC dialogue. I think a comparison to NWN is apt, since it's both built on the engine and shows exactly how the old style of play can morph into the new. The game's mechanics are definitely an acquired taste, what with fast 3D movement and a rhythm based system, but I for one loved it due to the fact that it was so strategic. Everything about the workings fits so well into the narrative, creating something very cohesive to both people who indulge in fantasy and only sample it. The worlds itself is a real draw, with that absolutely mind-blowing soundtrack completely taking you into its world despite the borders which must exist. The areas are always wide open with many interesting things to try, and a plethora of sidequests that you can outright fail if you don't devote yourself to them, and you can miss even more if you're not exploring. While one would be remiss to call it a gorgeous game, it definitely excels in its purpose more than most games do with high textures. I could go on about this game, but it's simply impossible to over recommend it if you love fantasy of any sort. It's straight forward, but complex. It's foreign, but nostalgic. It's deep and charming. There was a sense of euphoria when I really got into this game, one that I could not break even if it has a few issues in definition. In no other game have I felt so free, so at peace, and smack dab in a situation.

If you see reviews saying that this game is made great by the subsequent ones, just ignore them. You can't really expect children to review games. As flashy as W3 is, it strugles to capture the dark atmosphere of the W1. This is the only game where you can choose to go your own way and not get involved in events for one side or the other. Chosing the lesser evil is really really hard when your choice is between the the xenophobic genocidal regime vs. the terrorist supremacist group. It was really refreshing playing a game where the story is not some good vs evil, survival vs extinvtion boring thrope. W1 has nothing on W2 and W3 when it comes to graphics or mechanics. But the world is colorful, beautiful and full of lore. It feels more faithful the the central-eastern european heritage it comes from.

I'm about 20-25 hours into The Witcher. It was definitely fun at first because the atmosphere and the music really grip you. But the tedious combat (consisting only of clicking with no actual tactics beyond not using the "group" style if friendlies are around) along with every quest requiring you to run back and forth along the same paths for hours makes for a very boring and disappointing game. So much potential was wasted here. The alchemy system, gathering ingredients, the character interaction, the music, sound effects, all of that is very good, and the reason it gets two stars. The linear walking around and the combat destroy the game.

This game is sublime, let me explain: PRO: 1) Its plot is very solid with multiple choises that changes the future events and the developement of the protagonist and other secondary characters, furthermore not all of the events and plotwists are openly explained and this makes you think and theory about it. The end of the game isn't obvious and has a very cool plotwist 2) For a game of 2007 the so criticated mechanichs of fighting are pretty good, alternating weapons and spells for each enemy. The alchemy system, wich was described by some useless and overcomlicated, is fantastic and essential in more difficult modes. 3) The athmosphere is very cool with the locations, the music and the "potraied scenes" when you make important choises. 4) For all the fans of fantasy the bestiary is breathtaking, you can know description, popular beliefs, strong and weak points and all the story behind every single monster. CON: 1) As a pretty old game the graphic isn't his strong point. 2) It has some crush problem ( I resolved those by just deleting some old game saves directly by the game, it basically took me 5 mins). 3) The dialogues in my language ( Italian ) sometimes are very bad, with lack of empathy from some characters and overemphasis from others. 4) The repetitions of character designs can make you break the immersion in the game.

Gameplay: 9/10 Graphics: 9/10 Sound: 9/10 Voice:9/10 Art Direction: 10/10 Story: 10/10 Replay: 8/10 Simply you NEED to play this game if you love RPG's. It is flawless, or nearly so in every way. My one gripe is that while I loved the Aurora engine in 2002 (NWN), by 2008 it was seriously out of date. To Witcher's credit, they modified the hell out of the engine to suit the game. But it does feel clunky by today's standards. On to the goodness. The story is as rich and complex as any I've seen in a game. Better than Bioshock, better than Dragon Age. Yes, that good. The art direction is among the best I've ever seen. As good, at least, as Bioshock or Morrowind. Sound and voice are first-rate. No audio problems, no lo-rez sound. Voice acting is phenomenal, considering it's a localization of a Polish game (of course, they also knew the US would be their biggest market). Story-wise, I don't want to say anything except this a dark, gritty, ancient punk-rock, and ambiguous saga, and it's only the beginning. Game-play is keyboard/mouse Aurora engine. It's real-time with auto-pause. Character development can seem ornate and over-done, but you get used to it. It's the same combo of attributes, skills, and spells we're mainly used to. Combat and spell mechanics don't suck, but they could be better. The thing that really hooked me? You might not know the consequences of your actions for a couple of chapters. This is not a save/reload/repeat kind of game (unless you really screw up in combat). This is simply a phenomenal game that you deserve to play. Despite a few minor things, this is one of the best RPG's out there. If anyone buys it on my say-so, and doesn't like it after 10 hours, I'll personally refund your $1.50 :)