The Witcher - a review a long time in the making.

This game's review was a long time in the making. I first started playing The Witcher in April of 2011 and subsequently made a brief post about it's upcoming successor The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to finish The Witcher in time for its second instalment, but I have made time to come back to it now....

I have to say, as far as games go this is a pretty damn good RPG regardless of some of its flaws. I was suprised at how much The Witcher grew on me as I continued to play through it. I found the story line exceptionally well done even though some of the other aspects could have been made better. I found the controls hard to handle at first and the tutorial was not as acturate as it could have been to aid the player on how to do things. It took an hour or two just to get used to the camera being attached to the mouse and not being stationary like in most other RPG's I've played. I also found the quests very confusing, especially when you have a quest list a mile long and only four active quests that you can locate on your map. I think it would have been better if they had made quest trees so you could figure out which quest is connected to another quest. The potion making was an interesting twist, but also kind of confusing if you didn't know what you were doing. It took quite a bit of figuring out and it worked out well in the end, but it just wasn't as user friendly as I wanted it to be. Even so, I found I actually liked the combat style (when I wasn't having to constantly switch from my silver sword to my steel one), with its sequential clicks of the mouse instead of the button mashing that I am used to. However, it was sometimes slow to act and I would get caught with three montsters beating me to a pulp with no way of escaping...which proved to be very frustrating.
I loved the art style that they used and the cut scenes were really great to watch as the story developed(which is unusual for me because most of the time I try to skip past all the talking so I can get my fight on...) just like the progression in an awesome adventure book. I was also very happy to see a change of scenery throughout the game....none of this stuck in a city with no new scenery  bullcrap that Dragon Age 2 seemed to pull. I also thought it quite interesting to note that the gaming engine for The Witcher was actually made by Bioware in 2007(back when EA wasn't shoving its egotistical phallus down Bioware's throat). This is probably why I liked the game so much, because it reminded me a little of Dragon Age: Origins.
 I found all the characters wonderfully diverse with their own personalities which is what I like to see in an adventure RPG. As for the romance options, I found it to be pretty awesome (I chose Shani rather than Triss), and those sexy trading cards were an epic suprise. In my opinion, those cards put The Witcher in a league of it's own. I think if anything, The Witcher will be known for those sexy trading cards....and I hope that with TW2: The Assassins of Kings they will keep that aspect alive. I am also thrilled about the replay value of the Witcher. I actually WANT to replay it to see what other consequences happen if I had chosen a different path....especially with the hint at the end with Alvin's dissapearence linked to the Grand Master and I hope that The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings will be just as, if not more fun to play as its predecessor.


I give The Witcher  - 8.5/10