One of most awaited RPG broke through ice in this age of saturated clones and removed the dust where something innovative was much needed. The game was developed by CD Projekt Red Studio and published by CD Projekt in Poland and Atari for the rest of the world.

I’m a witcher and I kick ass!

The story puts you in the skin of Geralt, one of the few remaining witchers, a monster hunter for hire, a mercenary born with special abilities but with one defect: can’t have children… he’s from an extinct specie. Witchers are very effective hunters against almost everything breathing, like one said; they are natural born killers especially during the night when the damage is heavily increased. No wonder that in the intro movie he fights a beast and then goes to sleep in a crypt.

So, our boy Geralt lost his memory. He is taken to an old fortress by other witchers where you are “reminded” the combat system but we’ll talk about this later. He is taken into the fortress where his 5 companions await him: Triss, a beautiful witch who is in love with Geralt; Vesemir, the teacher of them all; Lambert and Eskel.. and Leo, a young witcher apprentice. You don’t even have time to catch up with your memories because the fort is attacked by bandits led by a great assassin: “the Professor” and a powerful mage: Azar Javed. This mage summons a big bad monster to keep you busy while he and the Professor steal "witchers secrets" from their laboratory. Leo, the young apprentice is killed in the process but you can’t avenge him because the mage and the Professor escape thru a portal. You and your team mates fight back the attack and then split to search for the stolen secrets and the ones who did this; your only clue is that the attackers wore the sign of a salamandra. You end up in a village terrified by an evil hound so your quest is to get rid of this thing, gain the villagers trust, and continue with your main quest. In his journey, Geralt meets new-new character and new-old characters (old friends he can’t remember) that will help or betray him.

The devs said that the primary quests alone will count for 80 hours of gameplay and now I know why. The story is so deep and with many turn-points just like in a soap-opera . The secondary quests are twice the number of the main ones. You do the math. I don’t want to rip your fun or be a spoiler. It’s up to you to see what happens to Geralt.

I said we’d talk about the combat system. Indeed, The Witcher has a unique combat system with combos and special abilities that will bring the chances of winning to your side. Geralt can fight with his bare hands, make use of a steel sword against humans, dwarves, elves, and a silver sword against monsters. With each sword you get three combat styles: the quick style which is effective against quick, agile opponents but ineffective against strong ones; the heavy style, which is very slow but good against tougher opponents and finally the group style, a style effective when fighting large groups of enemies.