In The Witcher you play as Geralt, a human mutant who slays monsters,
set out to recover the secrets of the Witchers. The Witcher is a great
Role playing game and it doesn't have hundreds of weapons and armor, it
doesn't have a insane amounts of random loot to collect. What it does
do is let you play a role, that role is to choose a path that the story
should follow. Choose who to kill, who to accuse and who to trust.
These aspects are carefully played out through a series of quests and
at various points you are called to decide on two or three mini
branches of the story. These branches may result in a battle further in
consists of different enemies, or characters changing their opinions of
you. The resulting flashback images at key story moments will be
presented in a very rich and detailed way of the events you previously
completed.
The Witcher does contain a lot of action, there are two main ways of
fighting, one with axes or clubs and other weapons, the other with
Witcher fighting styles that use swords. These styles can be improved
in the character screen, they give you access to extra hits, more
damage when you get the correct timing for your attacks and other
critical effects like bleeding, stun that can provide you with better
attacks. There are three main stances: strong, fast and group. Strong
is for larger creatures / armoured units, Fast for quick nimble guys
and group for those who like to attack 10 monsters at once, in fact
group stance is sometimes overpowered should you get enough enemies
around you. You also have two sword types, silver and steel, silver is
more useful against monsters. These swords can be forged using
meteorites or runes or upgraded using polishing items. The combat can
be a bit clumsy at time, but there is some great fighting animation.
Unfortunately some combat occurs directly after a long cutscene giving
you little time to really prepare. Along with your melee skills are a
range of signs, these are basically magic type skills and there are
five: fire, air (knock/stun), trap, shield and hex (turn monsters),
they are simple yet they are all quite varied and perform different
roles. Although I didn't use shield and hex that much, it does depend
on how many tokens you place into the various sign skill trees as to
how potent they can be, I found great use for the other three.
Aside from these basic combat and magic styles, you have a broad range
of alchemy formulas. These formulas create 3 main groups, potions,
bombs and oils. Potions range from giving you health, slowing time to
increase your reflexes or increasing damage. Bombs are area effect type
devices you throw on the ground, that can scare enemies, although I
didn't use these much and there aren't many of them. Oils are bonuses
that you can apply to your weapons, they provide damage boosts to
certain creatures and last for a day in game These are incredibly
useful when you go on a side quest to deal with a specific type of
enemy. All formulas are made using a range of ingredients with base
materials and an alcohol base. Some with unique ingredients from boss
monsters. To learn potions you can read books or scrolls most of them
can be bought from traders, or you can make up your own and hope that
you don't poison yourself. You gather most ingredients from either dead
monsters or plants. To gather these items you must have the monster or
plant recorded in your detailed journal, letting you extract the
required items from plant or creature, again this information is mostly
gained from books.
The game world continues to live around you, there is a day night
cycle, in general nighttime is unsafe when you are outside and monsters
can popup out of nowhere, although some roam, many you face will spawn
from the ground or area around you. You can run away from many of them,
at which point they give up the chase. Some creatures come out at
night, like vampires, so if you require something from them you have to
pick the right time of day. NPCs in the game world will go about their
tasks, take shelter when it rains and make somewhat rude comments about
Witchers. Some characters will have a daily job cycle and you need to
be aware of it to find where they are at that time. Alternatively you
can find any fireplace and meditate to a set time of day, meditation is
used to distribute tokens and also to make potions, and you gain health
during this time. It's similar to sleeping in Oblivion where you can
skip hours in a few seconds.
Quests range from collecting items from creatures including taking the
heads off the more unique ones. Collecting plant materials, saving
sisters by releasing their souls, fighting an uprising, interrupting a
bank robbery. There is a great range of quests and aside from side
quests they don't often feel tiring apart from some treks later in the
game. It's worth mentioning how solid and consistent the art style is,
it can be a very good looking game in places, character and monster
design is very good. Sound wise its relatively good. There are some
issues with the sound levels from during dialogue sequences and some
translation mistakes but overall its solid. More impressive is the
wonderfully orchestral music score that will journey into your ears
while playing.
The game draws similarities from a few games, Deus Ex, Vampire:
Bloodlines and Diablo. The game presents a similar setting to Diablo,
crypts and dungeons along with some good monster design and weapon/art.
Geralt like JC Denton is a badass character that can choose rewards
from quests and engage in conversation in a few different ways as you
progress through a story. Also like Bloodlines where you have main hubs
and different factions to ally yourself with during the game. The
Witcher story is a linear progression but with a series of choices that
alter situations, characters and flashback storyboards, each chapter
usually means a new main area is unlocked and possibly more combat
areas. Chapters 2, 3 and 4 are the longest and the best in terms of
content and quest range. Characters will often continue through the
story just as you do, or reappear further down the track, and most are
fairly well developed and memorable. The game doesn't fizzle away
thankfully; it maintains the high quality of story telling, and even
increases your decisions during the later chapters. It ends quite
concisely, but with many good mysteries remaining, finally giving you
another epic cutscene just like the intro to finish with a bang.
