If you're buying this game based on the numerous positive reviews on this site, keep in mind that the vast majority of people who love this game are looking at it with rose colored glasses. They tend to over exaggerate what's good and completely ignore what isn't. This game does have some strengths. For a nine year old game, The Witcher still looks pretty good. Characters and monsters are very well designed, and the setting is interesting. The combat and alchemy mechanics are easy to understand and yet also offer a lot of depth. However, there's also a lot of bad. The story, while good, is poorly told. It's a disjointed and jumbled mess that jumps around all over the place. It's difficult to keep track of what's going on, and when you can keep track of it it's not very engaging. The voice acting of all the characters, especially Geralt, is abysmal. It got to the point where I was just clicking through dialogue because I could not stand to listen to these characters drone and on and on in dull, emotionless voices. Most of the quests have you playing deliveryman, running from point A to point B to bring someone one thing or another. You will spend a lot of time pressing W in this game. Finally, for a game that is so lauded for being mature and serious, it's depiction of sex is one of the most juvenile and immature things I have ever seen. One particularly memorable example is when you convince a dryad to sleep with you, because by doing so she will keep her mind sharp and that will benefit her people in their struggle to survive against the onslaught of humans. Your reward for sitting through this sophomoric dialogue is a card with an illustration that comes straight out of the fantasies of a middle school D&D player. Bear in mind that most of the people who champion this game do so because it represents a "true" RPG to them. They're more interested in maintaining an arbitrary standard of purity than actually giving an honest assessment of the game.
