This game bounced between 2 and 4 stars for me while I was playing it. It isn't very long, I think it only took me about 2-3 hours to finish it, but the quality of the game felt all over the place. I think this is mainly due to the fact that there are really only two mechanics, jumping and grappling. They give them to you pretty much immediately and the game wears out its welcome after that. As a result, the early chapters were my favorite, but that might just be because that was when the mechanics were fresh, and they just got boring after a while. They do give you rocket boots randomly towards the end (and then inexplicably take them away at the end for no reason), but those don't really feel like a new mechanic as they just make you jump farther. Around the second to last level the difficulty spikes, and the last two levels or so were a bit too full of moments that were unnecessarily frustrating in a game that had been pretty easygoing up until then. I also do just think that the physics/movement itself was just not well thought out and is very clunky, but it has its moments. I was definitely feeling pretty frustrated and disappointed at that point, but the games ending and epilogue were honestly touching and well-acted. I wasn't super impressed or interested with most of the story, but it stuck the landing as well as it could. The relationships between some of the characters did make me feel connected to the world, and that's never a minus. However, this game's story definitely doesn't elevate it above its below average gameplay, and I don't want to imply otherwise. I would pick this up on a sale, at the very least it won't live long in your memory, and at the most you enjoy some of the puzzles and feel a little charmed by the world and characters this game shows you.
The combat is the first thing people point to in this game, whether they love or hate it. I personally didn't mind it that much, but I can see how other people would. It feels really boring, more like a chore than anything else. It's also difficult to tell what's going on in terms of dodging, parrying, or other moves because the animations just look odd. My personal least favorite part of this game has got to be the voice acting and dialogue. It is terrible. Nothing took me out of the game faster than the cheesy, lame dialogue that is consistent throughout the entire game. Even Geralt, especially Geralt sometimes, just says some really stupid stuff. Though cheesy dialogue is something you can work past, the other problem I encountered was that it made things really hard to understand as a native english speaker. I would make choices and choose dialogue options that ended up being the exact opposite of what I thought they were because of awkward tones during conversations and because of bad writing for the dialogue choices. In an RPG I think it's important to make it clear what the context of the choice and what I'm choosing to say. The last gripe I have is that there are 3 armor sets in the game, two of which look the same, and a few swords, some of which also look the same. That's pretty boring for an RPG that can last 40-50 hours if you go slowly, which I did. The one thing that I did like about the game is the preparation. It felt awesome to get a monster contract, study that monster, meditate and make all the proper potions, oils, and bombs, and then choose my combat style when fighting it. Something about that felt really satisfying and drew me into the world of being a witcher. In summary, I think the first game just suffers from a lack of polish. If they ever remake this game and give it the star treatment, i think it could be a phenomenal game, but as it stands, the execution is just too poor for me, so I won't be playing it again.
This is a great horror game, not really survival horror because it's mainly exploration, but you'll still get your pants scared off. I really like the perspective of a child as well, made this a unique experience. Only reason it doesn't get 5 stars is because it took me 2 hours to finish. There should be a bit more stuff especially considering that it isn't really something worth going back to. In summary, I'd get it, but don't expect too much.
