Ведьмак

Well, its not as good as The Wild Hunt or Assassins of Kings but I liked the game a lot

The game has it's strengthes. - The overall story is well made - The power progression system is good. - The alchemy system, finding recipes, learning about herbs and how to gather them is appealing. - Some tactical chocies made in the game can be interesting and have consequences. However, the game has weaknesses as well. - Moral choices were not well made since everyone is evil. In order for moral choices to exist there needs to be good and evil not just evil and very evil. - I personally disliked the main character Geralt. He looked to me like a h*rny and greedy individual. - The combat system is boring. Very dungeon crawler like with point and click combat. - Quests were a mess and lacked direction through text not just quest tracking. I played the game for 6 hours then stopped. I would continue playing if the combat system was more entertaining and engaging. So if you like ARPG with point and click combat and everyone in the story being evil this maybe a 5 star game for you but if you like a more engaging combat system and a flavor of good and evil this game may feel underwhelming for you.

Completed on normal difficulty. Attractive graphic, immersive storyline, lots of gameplay, and a very interesting character. Things that were not so great: * The quest structure can be confusing. Example (minor spoiler): even if you know that the private investigator is an impostor, you still need to agree to kill the gangster boss for him, or the quest cannot be resolved (you do not actually have to kill the gangster). I was stuck on this a really long time since I thought commiting to the kill would limit my options later. * The episode where you fight Dagon is completely unrelated to the rest of the game and makes no sense at all. The fight is also surprisingly easy given that your "monster knowledge" about Dagon tells you that he is an invincible demigod. * The battles in the final quest are too easy. After fighting the giant Zeugl in the sewers, which is just a "filler monster" with no relation to the story, I found none of the encounters challenging. Be warned that the sequel to this game uses a totally different engine and whether you like Witcher II or not seems to be completely unrelated to whether you like Witcher I. Personally, I gave up on Witcher II because of the extremely clunky controls.

This game is far from being perfect, but the story is so addictive and challenging that I give 5 stars. The game itself is quite old and should run on most computer systems available today. One little thing I haven't appreciate is the final chapter, mainly focused on combat, combat and more combat. But I can't wait to play the next chapter (hoping my computer can run it the same way...)

I am pleasantly surprised. I thought this first game would be one I just play to understand the Witcher storyline, and expected it to be not that fun in terms of gameplay. I was wrong. Let's get the bad things out of the way first. I don't like this engine. I believe it is the Neverwinter Nights engine, because of (probably) its ease of use to program in, but your movement feels lightweight and floaty like an mmo. Third person games should have some weight and physicality behind the movement imo. The combat is weird and clunky too, timing your clicks correctly to preform the next combat sequence. But this actually wasn't as annoying as it first looked. The combat is very much varied enough even if the actual 'striking' part is simplistic and a bit awkward. The depth comes from the character skill upgrades, your different fighting stances, your magic use and then the potions you consume to buff yourself depending on the enemies you're fighting. It kept me entertained and focused enough, but didn't suck me into the action. The best parts about this game are its setting and story. And quest design too. This is a game that gets better the further you get into the story. The first chapter is the worst part of the game, but it gets progressively better with a very good 3rd, 4rth chapter. The story and world just has a certain believability that gets brought in a good way. The customs of the worlds denizens, the social & ethnic dynamics and conflicts, the way the magical fantasy elements are integrated in the world and a pretty believable medieval political landscape. This excelent world is then further enhanced by the player interaction. The dialogue is generally good, often even clever and funny. The personality of Geralt translates itself in a good way to player choice and interacting with the world. He's a stoic, badass, alpha male womanizer but is also deeply moral, refective, sometimes doubtful and highly critical to what the people of this world signal to him.