Wiedzmin

First, the good: Graphics are excellent, the game runs well even on a low-end computer, and the story is one of the best in gaming history.

EDIT: The 1.2 Patch has corrected long loading times.

There are a few low points, most notably long loading times, but these are easily forgotten as you get caught up in an incredible universe. Rather than some cliché Utopian Star Trek world like Oblivion had, The Witcher is about the worst of human nature. Racism against non-humans, prostitution, gambling, sex, and violence are rampant here. It's a terrific take on a Lovecrafitan kind of world, and I throughly enjoyed every aspect of it. Mythology and history from our world are combined flawlessly with creative new monsters and an expansive back story. (Be sure to check out the in-game journal for more insight on the world. It's the best I've ever seen).

The philosophical aspects of the story are all there, and I really enjoyed them. Free will vs fate, the meaning of life, what it means to be human, science vs religion, you name it, it's there. And the best part is, you are actively involved in creating these themes through your decisions. Fantastic.

Combat is good as well, the system is original, and while it took some learning to master, I never got sick of it even after around 200 hours of game play (I beat the game 3 times, once for each ending).

Now, the bad: (These are all really just nitpicking, except for the long load times)

-Loading, loading, loading. I swear, this game takes longer to load than any other game I've ever played. 2+ minutes just to load a house? You've got to be kidding me. EDIT: Ignore this, as of 1.2, loading times are now 5 seconds to load a house.

-Mob balance. This game starts off pretty well, but it becomes ridiculously easy in act 4. Act 3, (especially the swamp) was really, really hard, and then, all of a sudden, it's like someone turned down the difficulty. I've never faced such an easy final boss. I defeated him without losing more than 25% of my health (hard mode). Kind of anti-climactic, if you ask me. -Ingi sign is amazingly overpowered.

-Inventory and quest management system needs help. Badly. Icons are tiny and impossible to distinguish from one another.

-Act 3 performance issues. This game runs poorly on single core And processors in act 3 (outdoor areas only). Settings don't matter, the game gets a constant 5-10 FPS in this region while the rest of the game gets 25-60. I've tested on 3 computers, all had the same problem.

-Poor replay value. With most RPG's, you can play whatever class you want. Here, you can play a battlemage, an alchemist, or a swordsman, but that's it. No ranged offerings, no stealth.

-Without going into spoilers, I felt that the story (the game's strongest point), was kind-of a letdown on my second and third time through. The choices you made throughout the game didn't really impact the ending as much as I thought they did the first time I played the game.

-Redundant people. Everyone has clones of themselves running around everywhere. Yep, it's annoying, but it's hardly a make-or-break feature.

The bottom line: It may seem like I'm being hard on the game here, but I really, really loved it. The 1.2 patch should fix most of my grievances. If load times weren't so long, this would be a 10/10 game for sure.

EDIT: If you patch your game to 1.2, you will get much, much better load times. My final rating: 9.3/10; one of the best games ever.

This game is very, very similar to Vampire: the Masquerade - Bloodlines, however the story here is stronger and the replay value is a little weaker. If you like RPGs like Oblivion, Vampire Bloodlines, Gothic, or NWN, or dark fantasy in general (I especially recommend this game to Wheel of Time fans), this is a must play.

EDIT: The below tips are still useful, but are less so as of patch 1.2.

I feel compelled to point out that loading times can be improved upon, if you do the following: RAM upgrades: I upgraded from 1GB 166mhz ram to 2GB 200mhz ram, and loading times decreased 45% Defrag: Get a real defrag utility and defragment your hard drive. I recommend Perfect Disk (free demo available). This one helps in game performance, too. RAID: I can't personally afford it, but if you have the technically savvy and the cash to blow, a friend of mine RAIDed two 15,000 RPM SCSI drives and decreased loading times to around 5 seconds.

Game begins in 1270, when Geralt of Rivia is found unconscious and amnesiac by his friends. Over time, we slowly learn that there are friends and enemies everywhere. The player's actions in the game will allow you to redefine your relationships with people and choose your path in the political intrigue that surrounds you. Since the combat system is automated, you only need to click on the enemy once with the mouse for Geralt to attack, but you need to click continuously and at the right time for him to continue. So you can also do combos. Also the block system is automatic. There are three fighting styles in total: strong, fast and group attack. We use them by choosing the most appropriate one according to the type of enemy. And we have five Witcher signs that unlock as you progress, each with a different function. Weapons and armor can be bought from the environment or from merchants.

Our character has a skill tree. When we level up, we need to meditate. For this we need a campfire, or you can squeeze a few bucks from an innkeeper or talk to some hospitable hosts and sleep in their houses. So we can distribute points. I should mention that Geralt is a master alchemist as much as he is with the sword. You can create various potions by meditating. Potions have a lasting effect. You can get the ingredients from the environment or from an alchemist with money if you don't want to deal with it. There are many different types of creatures in the game and we need to prepare Geralt for this. Drinking potions before each fight helps us survive. Especially if we are playing on high difficulty.

The game has a day and night cycle. The weather is also very variable. Sometimes there's torrential rain and sometimes there's a scorching sun. But unfortunately there is no open world and freedom in the game. There are 7 chapters and although there is a huge map throughout these chapters, there is no need to use it and Geralt is confined only to the areas where the main missions determined by the producers take place. And frankly, these areas are quite narrow and lack freedom. On top of that, we encounter a lot of loading screens in the game and this becomes annoying over time. The number of characters in the game is quite high. We have interaction with them. While the dialogs with the main characters are varied, there are simple conversations with NPCs. Sometimes, depending on the choice we make in the dialogs, the mission and story changes instantly or with consequences that we'll see later on.

I can't say that the AI is very good. Even though there are simple things like NPCs talking to themselves, sweeping in front of their houses, escaping under the roofs from the rain, etc., these things can annoy the player when they repeat themselves over and over again and you see and hear it over and over again. And sometimes they can become indifferent to what is happening around them. For example, in Vizima it's only dangerous at night. That's when things like monsters and bandits appear. When someone is being killed and eaten somewhere, you can see NPCs who see this and act as if nothing is happening. We also have a diary where these and everything else is recorded. In it, there are tutorials, information about characters, creatures, potions, maps and buildings, and much more. The game has a wide variety of camera angles depending on what the player wants. The interface is very simple. There are three difficulty levels and over 100 quests to do. I think the length of gameplay is quite sufficient.

The fact that the follower system was added just for the sake of it, and that sometimes missions put you in a situation that you are not prepared for at all, makes it difficult for players. Also, some of the missions are located far away from each other and you have to constantly travel and run around. Missions are gradual. Doing a mission does not mean you have finished it. Sometimes when you finish a side mission, another sub-mission will follow or it will be a different mission. There is a series of missions that I personally feel uncomfortable with, which are the contracts we get from the boards. There is really a logic error in these missions because when we get the contract, for example, there is a hunter who wants us to bring 10 wolf furs. In any other RPG we would simply go and kill the wolves and get the furs, but in Witcher it's not like that.

First you have to find those wolves. Wherever there are rare creatures, those quests appear in the contracts. In fact, access to the places where some creatures are located is even closed at the time we get the contract, which is a completely different nonsense. This also applies to other side quests. In order to finish some of the side quests you get, you need to progress in the main quest and open new locations. Anyway, you barely find the wolves, you slaughter them, and what do you realize, there's no fur inside? But why? Don't start questioning because the mission description states that you must first read a book about wolves. Once you learn about that animal or creature, then the contract can be dropped. This is the thing I hate the most because these books are not readily available and they are very expensive. When the contract reward is 50 oren and the book costs 100 oren, you start to go crazy. I don't understand the logic of taking a loss to make money. As you progress in the game, this gap gets wider and wider. No matter how hard you try, you cannot put money aside for a certain period of time because of the expenses.

This seems like something that is done to extend the gameplay time, but it is a factor that reduces the fluency. When you repeat these things over and over again, you can get really overwhelmed. When the negativities such as the excessive loading screen and lack of freedom, which I have already mentioned before, are added on top of it, it may cause players with little patience to get bored. In Witcher 1. One of them is played with dice and the other is fist fights in taverns. The graphics are really nice for the year of production. Geralt and other character modeling, details, lighting are well designed.

However, other NPCs are not given the same attention as the main characters. The same NPCs are used in different areas with different clothes and hairstyles. You may feel a little uncomfortable when this starts to catch your eye. Sound effects are of good quality. The voices are great, especially for the main characters. In-game music and atmosphere sounds are also very good. I don't want to go on too long, the game is like an open book. It tells and teaches itself to you more than enough. In short, it should definitely be bought and played in original. Those who are not sure can try piracy for a while, but then if you have the situation, it will be worth every penny. The game offers an average of close to 50 hours of content.

The Witcher is one of those role playing games you wont forget for a long time. Once you get over the first "Tutorial" level, which is really just a hurdle you have to take to get to the main story, the story just takes off! I have played a lot of RPG's like Diablo, WoW, Neverwinter Nights and Elder Scrolls, but the Witcher is by FAR the best i have experienced.

The Story is about Geralt of Rivia, which under mysterious circumstances lost all his memories. He ends up with his friends in the abandoned Witcher's School, from where you start of your journey which takes you to an intriguing quest to find out who you are.

The game is very well developed with outstanding Characters and Storyline, and very minor bugs and features missing. Another notable thing is the adult content. Swearing, Blood, Gambling and the possibility to have a relation with other NPC's are just some other things that i particularly liked.

Overall i give it a 9 of 10 because it crashes a lot under vista (no problems in XP tho) and the missing coop and multiplayer modes. I for my part like this game very much and would love to see a sequel to it.

PROS:

• Geralt's character development (with quite original method of talents) - potion making (includes picking of herbs, harvesting jaws of vampires etc.) - moral choices reflecting in changing attitudes of other characters - multitude of quests - some parts are really intense - deep, immersive story - nice music, beautiful landscapes, amazing architecture - seducing women is kind of fun - becoming master of dice poker and fist fighting is also kind of fun - original monsters

MEH:

• somewhere midgame you get a lot of bothersome "run here, talk, run there, talk" quests - you need to adjust to game's combat system - first 30-90 minutes of the game are kind of boring

CONS:

• you don't get to use many weapons or armors, because other weapons than swords are not usable in witcher battle styles making them ineffective especially later in the game - after you start feeling which skills are important and focus on developing them, fighting becomes quite easy

Overall: you need to bite the bullet and endure the first hour of the game. After that you get a really good, immersive RPG with damn good story and lots of locations.

After reading the books, I started playing the Witcher 1 right away. I was told that it was directly after the books so why not give it a try. At first, I was hesitant because I'm not really into RPGs and PC games and thought that it will very difficult for me to navigate and control everything. I can say that The Witcher 1, is very newbie friendly. Maybe it will make you wonder what the hell you are doing at first, get lost, can't track of the quests you need to do but eventually as you play the game, it is actually very easy to understand. I played the game on normal so I could at least experience the wonders of alchemy. It was very tricky at first on how to mix potions and stuff. In the end, it was just about collecting the right ingredients needed and just click which potion you like and the potion will mix itself.

The game makes you decide on how you want your destiny to be fulfilled. And since you're choosing your own path, it made the game more interesting for me. It made you explore and play whatever you think fits best. I also like how they make cut scenes that looks like you are watching a movie. They even have a small recap of the path you've chosen after every major event. I think with those recaps, it will make you wonder if you've chosen the right one. Which is funny because the game doesn't really have a right or wrong answer.

What I don't like about the game is the fighting style. When you fight enemies, of course you wanted to do it quick fast and in a hurry. In the game you have to time it precisely with the icons that is shown in your screen. It frustrates me sometimes when they do that and I miss it or I'm too fast. I guess considering the time the game was made, should be pretty decent.

One of the funniest parts of the game is how Geralt ended up sleeping with a bunch of women even though it wasn't really what you want him to do. One minute you're offering bread and arguing about pity and the next thing you know, bang! They're sleeping together. Geralt clearly, doesn't just like sorceresses.

Background music is also amazing. You would know that CDPR has really given this a thought. I remember whenever monsters are close, the background sound will change and will give me panic attacks and I have to think fast and react fast. The music makes you aware of the surroundings you are in and I think that's great.

The ending though is not as great as I thought it would be. I think that's because the chapter before that is so interestingly good, that the last chapter loses to it. I definitely would want to play this again and would recommend it for people who wants to experience a good game be it a newbie like me or a veteran. 8/10.