The Witcher: Enhanced Edition

I enjoyed this game very much. But I would only recommend it to players who mostly enjoy quests, atmosphere and dialog, not interesting combat or up-to-date visuals. Some tolerance for backtracking is needed. The BAD * visuals. The game is from 2007. Even though it aged more gracefully than it's direct competition (KotOR2, Oblivion, Jade Empire), it is fifteen y/o. Take it or leave it. * backtracking. The game doesn't have fast travel, and some quests require back and forth. UNDECIDED * the combat is RPG combat, not ARPG. It offers choices: apply oil/potion, choose steel or silver sword, choose strong or fast style. If you choose well, you win, that easy. It doesn't require reflexes or much player input like W2 or W3. Tolerable. * intimacy cards. (you can say no to the women tho) GOOD * Vizima and surroundings is a nice city. Probably top 3 still. Packed with content, lively, cool NPC schedules, atmospheric filters/color palettes. Still holds up today, and compared to the direct competions (ie. New Vegas or Denerim from 2010) it is on a different level. * the plot is very good, and well paced. I especially liked that the big reveal is not spelled out by an NPC, and that it is not save the world. * quest design is brilliant. This is true in general, but I would like to highlight that the Vizima confidential quest is probably the biggest quest in the trilogy, and is truly masterful. * I really liked the shades of grey NPCs in the game. I consider them even better than Witcher 3! Foltest, Jacques, Sigfried or Abigail are interesting and not cartoon villains. * the game rewards talking with NPCs. Old women add bestiary entries (so you can extract body parts from monsters), herb lore (so you can harvest). Bringing presents to NPCs or having a drink with them gets you other rewards. * the alchemy system used is my personal favorite from the trilogy. Potions last long, but your available inventory slots act as a nice cap for most of the game.

If You enjoyed very popular 3rd part of the game you should play it. Characters and fight system is different than in 3rd part (just old) bus story, landscapes, music and climat is awesome! Imo better.

The Witcher series is still one of the best game trilogies out there. Choices at least have some carry through throughout the series allowing the story to flow better with your choices. Have replayed more than once and looking to do it again. Graphics may be a bit dated but do not let that fool you.

So, in this review I would like to address people like myself who may be wondering whether they should bother with the old Witcher games or just jump straight to the 3rd instalment of the series. I'm not too keen on fantasy, I haven't read the Witcher books, and I didn't find the Netflix show appealing. However, The Witcher 3 is meant to be a masterpiece by CDPR. Whilst I was told there's no need to play the first games to enjoy the 3rd, I thought I'd be best to learn some lore. The story starts where the books end. A criminal organisation raids the Witchers' base and steal their secrets. Your mission: chase them and recover the secrets. The plot thickens as you go along and it's really good. I wasn't too fond of the gameplay at first, but as you learn all the features you start to realise the depth of it. You can customise combat style, weapons, craft items; very complete and fun to experiment with. Moreover, you get to make your choices during the game and they come with consequences. There are a number of optional side quests that will give you extra hours of gameplay too. I've already finished the game and this is a solid 9/10. Now, while it does show its age, it was never a deterrent for me. The reason why I'm not giving it full marks is because of a few things I found annoying. Firstly, there were moments in the game where you wanted to make a choice, but it wasn't obvious. I had made up my mind about who was guilty in a certain case, but couldn't find the way to exonerate a suspect. Turns out I had to go to a party first, and the connection between the 2 just wasn't obvious. Secondly, there were a few crashes here and there, especially on chapters 4 & 5, so make sure you save regularly. Lastly, some dialogs are a bit clumsy and having to access your big inventory via character dialog is something I hope will be parted with in the second game, which I intend to play soon. All in all, a brilliant game with a few flaws.

The one flaw I can see about Witcher is that it was a bit hard to get into. In retrospect that is mostly because games nowadays are too stupid, and has made me too stupid. It took me 3 tries to get started for real, but when the ball started rolling there was no going back. The story is very good, and made perfect by the decisions and consequences you face afterwards. This is probably the main pull of the game. Other than that it has got a decent fighting system, a good crafting system for alchemy, the best mini-collectible game since the dawn of time (lady-conquest-cards I'm looking at you :D ) and just...too much to list. Do yourself a favor and buy this game. I will, for the second time in my life, on GoG. Thanks for a great game CD Project. You even made me preorder the sequel. I cant wait! :D