I’ve now played through the game twice and it’s not the gameplay that brought me back, and it sure isn’t the voice acting or terrifyingly awful character models either. The Witcher game series is a continuation on the books written by Andrzej Sapkowski, and a pretty damn good one at that. Where this game lacks polish, high fidelity visuals, good gameplay, and character models that actually look like human beings, it makes up for it by telling a great story, and marking the first entry in the trilogy brought to us by CD Projekt Red. Graphically, it looks the way you might expect a game from 2007 would, but the problem with The Witcher lies in the cold dead eyes of every character in the game. Every NPC has a blank expression with their eyes wide open, and the same quality of animation to go with it. As far as the world design goes, I found it pretty consistent overall, but I’ll talk more about it later. I’m not even sure where to begin talking about the gameplay. Let’s start with the sword-play. It might sound odd, but it almost feels rhythm based. Fighting with your swords requires you to nail the timing with every swing for maximum damage. There are 3 different attack stances, and different enemies are immune or weak to one of these 3. That might sound fine and dandy if it were implemented correctly, but it just feels clumsy and combat can get very frustrating. As far as the Witcher abilities go, I’ve never had a problem with them. They work the way I expected and each is useful depending on the situation. The Witcher is a game where you may find yourself needing to prep for fights. Combat overall is tiresome but I did have a good time with Geralt’s Witcher powers and potions. To be blunt: I don’t think this is a good game, but hear me out - typically, developers prioritize gameplay over anything else, and try to go right for the fun factor. But with The Witcher, they seem to have put most of their focus into the narrative - and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing - but story focused games usually strike a good balance of the two. Admittedly, the game does have more going for it than just the story. The developers have done a great job taking the grim world of The Witcher from paper and crafted environments oozing with atmosphere. While the world is sometimes tedious to navigate, it’s rather charming at the same time. To go along with the atmosphere, this game features some beautiful music, a fine mix of mystery, wonder, and grit. To explain the story as brief and spoiler-free as possible: You play as Geralt of Rivia, a Witcher who’s just lost his memory due to events that occurred in the final book, but I’ll spare you the detail. You’re found by your fellow Witchers and brought to Kaer Morhen, a Witcher castle with more empty space than a Kardashian’s skull. Shortly after, you and your buds get bamboozled by a bandit gang called Salamandra, lead by Harry Potter and some wannabe WWE wrestler who decided magic is better than a mace. 30 hours of Botox-injected-Playdoh-people and cumbersome gameplay later, the king of the Wild Hunt stops by to say hello, makes some cryptic threats, and says "see you in two games". The way I explained the story is loose and doesn’t represent how it’s told, as it’s actually quite good by video game standards. However, when I think about the story, nothing major really stood out until the ending. But what really helps this game is the plethora of deep and complex characters that help carry the story along. But the story’s biggest problem is the way it’s told. The voice acting is so hit or miss. Often you’ll find yourself wondering why a character’s tone doesn’t match they things they are saying, and this wouldn’t be as big of a problem if it were just a few side characters, but it seems to be an issue with every single character with a voice, including Geralt. VERDICT If you want to start your dive into The Witcher’s deep story and can look past the problems this game has, it’s worth a buy. But if good gameplay is important to you, buyer beware.
