After testing yesterday the beta version at CD Projekt  exhibition booth I took a trip to Atari to take part at the official presentation of the game.

The game is the result of over 4 years of development and can stand with no problem as the virtual universe for the Andrzej Sapkowski books. Andrzej Sapkowski is a very known fantasy writer in Poland, Spain, Czech Republic,  Slowakia and other countries in East Europe. The story of the game is an original one but has all the elements and characters present also in Sapkowski books. The main character Geralt is like a hitman of the fantasy world. He is the result of years of experimentations on his body made by people in order to protect them from monsters. Gerald is one of the few that survived this poisoned treatment and as a result he turned himself into a monster. At least his mind is human so he can carry on his mission of defending the humanity. Nothing can stay in his path. He is a very calculated guy who can kill hordes of monsters without losing his calm. He is actually a killer machine.  Although he was trained to be non-emotional, sometimes he is carried out by difficult situations, so his actual battle is to try to remain neutral.

Like in real life the gameplay was ment to be like a destiny. Your actions will influence the course of the gameplay and there are a lot of moments in which you have to choose which way to go further. When you come to such a turning point and you make your decision, you cannot come back and change it because in general you will not realize when it appeared. And after nine or ten hours of play after that event you cannot change its repercussions. This is definitely a good way to increase the playability of the game.

The combat mode is influenced by the silver and steel blades that Geralt always carries at him. If you meet human enemies you have to use the steel blade otherwise the silver one. The combat mode was from the beginning developed to be fun instead of being extremely complex.  Being a point'n'click mode, the developers decided to exploit new possibilities of interaction. The new gig here is that you have to coordinate every hitting action. You cannot click your mouse like a machine gun like you do in all the other rpg games. Guide by different forms and colors of the cursor you have to push the action button in a determined sequence.  If you fail at a point to follow the sequence Geralt  will miss hitting the opponent.  Depending on how you have evolved your character, and on how much can control the sequence of actions, Geralt can perform more and more combo moves with an increased damage power. The combos are really spectacular to see and are based on almost 300 fighting movements.

Besides killing enemies and speaking with different NPC's, Geralt can do also extra-curriculum activities such as drinking.  Depending on how much you drink, your perspective and behavior will change.  Geralt will begin to be unsecure on his legs and his view will become blurry. If he continues drinking he will pass-out and you will wake-up in a different location without knowing what had happened to you.

Alcohol is the main chemical substance in the game. It can heal you, but also damage your body. You mix lots of herbals with alcohol and the result is random. The only way to find out what you have obtained is to use the liquor on yourself. If you have increased you powers means you got a good receipt, otherwise you will be poisoned.  

The game really impressed me, so every rpg fan should look forward for this game. Others should play Mario!