Witcher tells the tale of Geralt of Rivia after his book series comes to an end. Geralt awakens in his home surrounded by his mentor and friends but seemingly has no clue who anyone is; or who he is. Or what a Witcher is. Thankfully for Geralt he’s a fast learner and old instincts come quickly as almost immediately he’s plunged into a fight for his order’s very existence. Witchers, for you uninitiated, are professional monster hunters. They are humans trained from almost birth and then given potions and mutagens to make them stronger, faster, and more than human. Geralt’s adventure takes him to Vizima, a nearby city that was the site of some of his former adventures. There he encounters faces that recognize him and help him begin to piece together his past, his personality, and prepare for a confrontation with multiple layers of horror from beasts and monsters to men who are monsters. The path of the story is very decision based and allows for differing results similarly to BioWare’s Mass Effect games. Unlike Mass Effect in Witcher, you’re almost never sure that you’ve made the right choice and people who you initially trusted and even liked turn out to be as bad as anything else you might fight in the swamps and gothic farmlands. Witcher readily depicts heroics and heroic people but admirably does not shy from the ugliness of people. It very starkly addresses racism, crime, and poverty. Most computer RPGs are happy to address the latter two but the former is often a taboo subject and best left out of the narrative. Witcher doesn’t have a squeamishness and holy hell does it deliver. The graphics behind Witcher have aged but they’ve aged well. The animated cinematics are well done as is the gameplay. I was a little disappointed in the motion comic cut scenes for what is supposed to be (and is) a ground breaking series. The scenery is pretty if not a little repetitive and speaking of repetitive prepare to meet the same peasants and townsfolk over and over again. The sounds of the game were well done and immersive; the music especially. They were able to create an atmosphere that was enthralling. The voices were not so much. Geralt’s voice actor is superb in capturing the, “Is this guy still human?” tone. A few of the other voice actors nailed their parts and were very good additions to the game. Others and indeed MOST of the voice actors sounded like game staffers handed a script and told to read it out load. They were flat, boring, or overacted. The controls to the game itself were clumsy. I’d blame it on being a console to PC port but that’s simply not the case as this was a PC only game. Nothing made sense from the combat mechanics which were simplified to the point of being complicated. It felt like someone tried to take a first person shooter engine and tack on a skill system (which was well done), an alchemy system (cumbersome), and an inventory system (cumbersome AND clumsy). While it didn’t ruin the game for me, the control mechanics did make the game annoying difficult in many situations. The inventory system (yeah, this is the worst part) was so limiting I wanted to scream in frustration. It was far too easy for a pinkie stroke on the keyboard to cause a fatal weapon switch or stance change.
