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 :D 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 :D. 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.

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Upgrade in progress…

All of combat is based on fighting stances and your timing in completing a combo combined with some special abilities. We have three fighting stances and 4 types of weapons. The steel sword, silver sword, one slot for small weapons (a dagger or a torch) and a slot for bigger ones like axes or maces. Plus, each weapon can be upgraded to give more damage or be more effective against specific monsters.

The special abilities are called “Signs” and there’s 5 of them:

- Aard that causes knockdown or stun

- Igni shots fire bolts, waves of fire and can incinerate targets

- Quen will give damage absorption and different resistances

- Axii causes hex and strike fear into opponents

- Yrden causes pain and blinds enemies.

As you kill monsters and complete quests, your experience will increase and Geralt will gain a level. Then you must meditate in front of a fire  (in a house, on the field, it really doesn’t matter where you are as long as you have matches or the Igni Sign spell to start the fire).

Talking about skills, let me introduce you to the character development and available skills in the game. You can upgrade your combat skills only and end up as a powerful warrior; go for a great mage using spells or you can mix them in a manner that will suit your gaming style.

When you gain a new level, you will receive bronze, silver or gold points to spend in one of most complex skill trees seen in a game. When Geralt is low level, he will gain only bronze skill points to spend but the further you go into the game the more skills are unlocked with silver points and gold for special skills.

I need alcohool

Another major part of the game is Alchemy. The player can mix different plants or oils to create bombs, special oils applied on the sword for increased damage against monsters, rejuvenation potions, health or endurance potions and more. All potions require use of alcohol to create: wine, beer, liquor… pick one. In the end, the same mutagens that give him special abilities like “cat reflexes ” are the ones who deny him a normal life as he will be forever a witcher, a person who people will fear and dislike. Geralt will learn a lot about monsters, plants, potions, women… everything around him. All these are key factors in the game: knowing the surroundings, the enemies and their weaknesses.

Beside the usual rewards for completing quests, money, items or fame… most of women will offer.. herselves. Yes, you heard right. Our boy Geralt, being a witcher and having that animal instinct within, is the ladies man when it comes to physical attraction and as a bonus we get "sexy" cards with the lovely ladies in distress. Check out some of them but … shhh don’t tell anyone ;)

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Gameplay: 82

The Witcher benefits from an innovative gameplay system: depending on what decision you make, you will see the consequences of your actions later in the game. This should give the player a more varied story if the game is replayed. But, having over 80 hours of gameplay, only hardcore gamers will try to create another personality for Geralt, plus our staff tested the game using different paths and in the end it all comes down to rather the same story. Despite this, the story of the game are solid, with ups and downs that will drag you more and more into Geralt’s world. A good way to make money is to play dice poker, same rules as the original poker but a lot easier. I find it very easy to make money in the game but maybe that's the developers idea, to buy booze or give it on women (yeah baby!) There is a lot of cool stuff they implemented: alchemy and everything you have to do for potions, identify and collect plants, try mixing new stuff to discover new potion formulas; drink contest to help you get more information about quests or characters, fist fights and women. No wonder this is a game rated mature. What made me angry was that the combat engine wasn’t acting like properly. If I wanted to attack a target, I had to click 3-4 times for him to start swinging the sword (not always but most of the times). Plus depending what camera I was using... he seemed to get stuck every once in a while.

Graphics: 83

Beautiful intro that gives the player a good view of the game’s action, but the cinematics are rather pixilated on different resolutions. Lots of details and the textures are made for each item, specially created in 3D Studio Max and Lightmap. The world is exactly how it’s supposed to be, with forts, villages, dungeons, lots of ugly monsters, great rendered characters and everything you might expect in a RPG with fantasy elements.

Sounds: 84

The sound is also good. If you happen to have a surround sound you will be very pleased with the game FX and music. It isn’t annoying and it plays quietly until combat when it gets a faster pace. The voice acting is also good and Geralt’s voice is hard, typical for a rough man that people and not only them, should fear. “We’ll see…”

Multiplayer: N/A

Hardware: 70

The Witcher demands lots of “horse-power” if you want to see the true graphic quality of the game. If you have under 2 GB of RAM, a powerful video card and a 2 Ghz PC you will experience gaming issues even on medium details. Besides the fact you get stuck sometimes and may encounter combat problems, the game is ok. Do not forget to install the latest patch for it fixes some bugs and essential quests.