After spending several hours reviewing (code word for playing!), The Enhanced version of the Witcher PC game (Windows XP and Vista), I can safely say that this is one role playing game (RPG), that has lived up to its intended purpose and reputation in providing a truly wonderful and totally immersive game playing experience of epic proportions! There were times, when I had to literally put the game on pause to control my amped up adrenalin and to marvel at the almost flawless cinematic journey.
The Enhanced version of The Witcher (2008) is a marked improvement over its first release in 2007. In addition to the game disc, the loading times in between cut- scenes and frame rates were improved, two additional stories were added, a game guide, a map of the Witcher environment, and an audio disc of the actual music that is in the game is included. Over 250 patches were added as well as a hard copy of Andrrzej Sapkowki’s, “The Last Wish”. The Last Wish inspired The Witcher and the book has been translated from Polish to English. Additionally, this is the first RPG that has been painstakingly translated into several languages and is available on the American version game disc. Kudos goes to CDPROJEKT for accomplishing such an amazing feat.
It is important to note, that if you’re going to play this game, that you will need a PC with a bit of hard ware muscle. The hardware requirements to play The Witcher on Windows XP and Vista is that it has to have at least 2 GIGS of RAM (1 GB on XP and 2 GB on Vista), 18 GIGS of free hard drive real estate and a display card that supports the 256 RAM architecture (ATI or NVIDIA cards are the video display hard ware of choice). And the PC has to be at least a Pentium 4 with at 2 GHz. The Witcher is truly a gamer’s game and it incorporates the BIOWARE engine technology that drives the action by giving credence to the scenic, dark and medieval like environment that permeates throughout the game. My Dell XPS gaming Windows Vista PC handled the Witcher with superb aplomb.
On the surface, the premise of The Witcher is simple and elemental at best but be forewarned that the story delves much deeper by examining the dark and grimy underworld of the events and seemingly twisting subplots with imperfect characters (the word seedy comes to mind). This is indeed quite a change in an RPG. Suffice it to say, this explains why the game is given a mature 17+ rating. In addition to being a character that does not have any problems letting his sword and fist do the talking, one can also surmise that Geralt of Rivia is quite the lady’s man too. Yes, the Wither has its share of naughty adult trysts and some conversations are laced with profanity.
We find the resident and legendary monster-slayer (Witcher), Geralt of Rivia on a dark, and in some respects a rightful passage in his adventures in choosing between what is right and wrong. Hence, the choices that Geralt are presented can ultimately change the outcome of events in the game. As with life, this is an interesting perspective with a multitude of scenarios and outcomes. Characters like elves, dwarfs and an assortment of fellow advisories and enemies add flavor to the game play. The Witcher takes a departure from the traditional RPG of this modern day era, by serving up three possible endings. These endings are based on the choices that Geralt makes.
After skimming through the game manual a bit, I decided to dive right into the action (I passed on the tutorial because of my familiarity with the game). The game has three levels of play: Easy allows Geralt to rapidly gain abilities and strengths (such as the ability to cast spells and having strength to sustain prolonged attacks) and the characters provide assistance. Difficult painfully prolongs the abilities and strengths that Geralt gets and the characters offer little assistance. The hard setting essentially leaves one to their own earned skills, where one has to actually know the ingredients to cast a spell (you get no love at this level). I chose Easy because I wanted to progress through the game at an accelerated rate due to the review of this game.
Game play is controlled via a combo of using the mice and keyboard in tandem or by using the mouse by itself. Throughout the game I switched in between the two and discovered that using the mouse and keyboard together proved advantageous in fight scenes because it enabled me to be right in the action with the over the shoulder view which is standard in RPG play. Using only the mouse gave me a wider view of my environment and I found it much easier to control movements in the game by dragging my mouse (I didn’t have to concern myself with remembering a bunch of keyboard commands). However, using the mouse to fight with at times was a tad unresponsive and sluggish. However, the good thing about using the mouse and keyboard combo is that one can configure the command keys on the keyboard. Thus, over writing the defaults!
Getting around in the game revolves around the menus. The menu is operations central. There you can take a look and access the different things that you acquire during game play. It is here where you can invoke the drop and drag feature to use items (such as using food and drinking potions to gain strength as well as to cast spells). Also, using the keyboard and mouse function is where one can actually create macros without using the ESC key to pause the game for some of the aforementioned functions. Communication with other characters in the game is achieved by clicking directly on them to start a dialogue. It is from this feature that you learn a great deal about what is going on in the world of The Witcher. Plus, you also gain an insight into each character.
The Witcher essentially has five chapters and each chapter has several subplots. The game environment is breathtakingly gorgeous and very surreal in its tone. There was less than a 2 second pause in between the cut-scenes, and the voice acting was much improved over the first release of this game.
After several days of intense game play, I finally made it to the end of my outcome. However, I’m not telling (I’m not a spoiler!) My over-all impression of The Witcher is this is one RPG that is rich in game play and solid in character and plot development. At times it felt as if I was actually in the game and then there were times when I thought I was watching a big budget cinematic experience. The game is very deserving of all of the accolades and awards that it has garnered!
The Witcher conjured up fond memories of having a bit of old school play (remember, Diablo anyone?) mixed with just the right amount of new school. Above all else, The Witcher is one of those games that can be played again and again without losing its luster. And with several different outcomes to the ending of the game, it beckons ones curiosity to discover them all! Just make sure you get some sleep and drink plenty of fluids because you’ll need them for this white knuckle adventure!!
Conclusion:
The Good:
Very affordable game, superb game play, excellent and breath taking cinematography, intuitive game controls, a generous amount of included media (audio soundtrack, hard copy of game guide as well as an electronic one, the making of The Witcher DVD, and a hard copy map of the fictitious world of Witcher). Easy to play at the easy setting although, I would suggest going over the game guide.
The Bad:
Spotty voice acting (although this has been dramatically improved from the original release).
