The universe of The Witcher originates from the mind of Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. This particular entry takes place some time after the final book in the series, The Lady of the Lake.Fortunately, you won't need to have prior knowledge of these books to enjoy the story CD PROJEKT RED has presented. The story is centered around Geralt of Rivia -- a witcher -- also known as "The White Wolf", who is suffering from amnesia when we first encounter him. This sets Geralt up as a blank slate in which it is up to the player to build up his identity from there. Our tale begins in a keep known as Kaer Morhen where witchers -- mutant monster slayers for hire -- were once trained. Geralt, still slowly recovering from recent injuries, finds himself and his companions under attack by a strange organization known as Salamandra. This criminal group slashes their way through the old keep and steals vital secrets of the witchers. And thus, the amnesiac Geralt and his band of witchers set out across the lands in search of the abducted witcher's mysteries.
Your quest has the semblance of simplicity, but as your journey progresses you will come to realize that there is more to your mission than what meets the eye. With what started as a recovery mission soon evolves into fight for what's "right," thrusting Geralt in the middle of politics, a war on equality, and even love affairs. Your decisions matter in The Witcher, with consequences resulting from each choice. While you may not see the result of your actions immediately, each choice you make will come back to haunt you later on. The game offers many paths providing players with a huge amount of replay-ability to discover what would happen if you chose one person over the other, the elves or the Order, or just staying neutral as all hell. The characters you encounter throughout your journey are each exceptionally written with real depth and their own, realistic motivations. While the voice acting for the characters is far from superb, they get the job done and convey their ideals effectively.
The aesthetic of The Witcher is beautiful and fully realized. The soundtrack is epic and fits each situation perfectly. Whether you are engaging in a battle to the death, wandering the city streets, plundering a cave, or drunkenly meandering throughout the halls of an inn, the soundtrack compliments each situation. Speaking of which, the environments are all immersive, incredibly entertaining and quite detailed. You will lose yourself in this world for hours. Entire days will disappear playing dice poker with local gamblers, reading books, slaying monsters, or just wandering the town.
While the story and the world jam-packed with lore are all extremely captivating, the combat is something to be desired. There are three different fighting styles which players must choose depending on the types of enemies one is facing at that time. The strong style deals heavy damage in exchange for slow speed; the quick style allows for fast hits with less-damaging attacks; and the group style which is useful when Geralt is surrounded by enemies. The player can switch between these styles on the fly with the various hotkeys or by taking time to press the combat pause button (the space bar by default) and assessing the battle you are faced with before heading face first into the fray.
Witchers are equipped with two main swords -- a steel and silver -- and both have very different styles of combat compared to the rest of his weapons. Both blades serve a distinct purpose: where the steel blade is used to dispatch human enemies and the silver is more effective when battling monsters and beasts.
Throughout your journey, you will encounter "Signs", which are essentially spells which can be cast upon your foes, or a shield to cast upon yourself. Each provide new, interesting ways to dispatch of your foes, however, there are a few Signs which are obviously superior over others, sort of dissuading the use of the weaker spells.
The problem with the combat stems from it feeling clunky and dated. Controlling Geralt while in combat mode becomes finicky, making certain movements while attempting to maneuver around the enemies just plain awkward. The combat itself is rather dull and repetitive, which is an understandable turn off to those not wanting to invest 40-50 hours of their life slogging through odd, clunky controls. It essentially boils down to clicking the mouse button at the correct moment (when the sword icon lights up) to apply damage to the foe. But I'll be damned if I did not mention how sweet those combat animations look like. Granted, most enemies are fairly easy to dispatch with a few combos. The movement issues typically rears its ugly head when fighting tougher, bigger monsters and bosses.
With that said, another essential part of the gameplay involves alchemy. Creating potions is fundamental to your journey, whether you create health regeneration, endurance, or combat potions, each will provide Geralt with assistance. However, using too many potions at one time will build up your toxicity meter. Once this meter completely fills up, Geralt will die. To reduce toxicity, one must craft a special potion or rest at an inn or fireplace. Geralt can gather alchemical ingredients from plants you find in the fields, purchasing from merchants, and harvesting items from monsters.
However, you must have knowledge of these monsters and plants before given the ability to harvest said ingredients. One can obtain this knowledge from various books or stories told by random NPCs. While I understand the conceit of Geralt researching the intricacies and ins and outs (literally) of the creatures, it is very irksome when a quest wishes for specific ingredients and you have to scour your current area for a merchant who sells the bestiary entry for your target monster. I do not exactly count this as a knock against the game, because I personally loved researching about the monster's lore, but I must say, it just feels like busy work after awhile.
Along with the creation of alchemical potions, you can unlock a tier when leveling which allows for the creation of bombs and oils. The oils augment the damage done by your weapons and bombs can be thrown on the ground during combat, both providing you with an advantage over your foes. Those playing on higher difficulty levels will definitely want to invest in these perks.
During my playthrough, a few technical issues arose. There were a few, inconsistent and unexpected crashes throughout the game: some during combat, and others while moseying through the city streets. Near the end of the game, I experienced a fairly serious crash which completely locked up my computer; I could not even access the Task Manager. Unfortunately, I ended up having to completely restart my computer. Luckily, these issues are few and far between. Be sure to save often just in case.
To wrap it all up, The Witcher is a fantastic RPG plagued with minor technical issues and a odd, finicky combat system, but once you get over those humps, underneath is a rich, lively world with an experience one certainly will not forget for quite some time. Honestly, if you're one of those people who are willing to push through bad/mediocre combat in a game just to experience the interesting story within it, then you should have no problem with this game.