*ahem*
Screw the negativity, The Witcher was brilliant!
But why you ask! No doubt shocked by my sudden enthusiasm towards a game when 'everyone' knows the popular thing to do on forums, especially these ones thanks to the ever-cynical Yahtzee's influence, is to bitterly bash games without remorse while pointing out otherwise minor flaws as though they were the devils own arse! How could I possible defend a game wholeheartedly? Why?
Because I thought The Witcher was a fantastic experience, and before people inevitably reply with the classic 'then you don't know any good rpg' response, I'll have you know I've played so many classic pc rpg your head would spin trying to count em all from the ol' Gold Box series to Ultima, Wizardry, Gothic, Elder Scrolls, Baldur's Gate and beyond! It's easily my favorite genre next to strategy.
As for The Witcher, here's why I defend it: This is an actual Role Playing Game! Sure you're stuck playing as Geralt, but simply being able to make a character means nothing when you're relegated to bland empty choiceless worlds in which you're never given a chance to 'expand' and truly breath life into this husk of a character. No amout of visual tweaking or fancy graphical mods will ever make Oblivion or Fallout 3 very interesting to me for that simple reason. But The Witcher, for all its flaws (And by no means am I saying the game is perfect!) provides that! Playing through the game it at first seems fairly typical, with choices that don't seem to have any immediate impact. But that's the key word there; immediate. Seemingly unimportant choices you make in the first Chapter will have an effect later on, just as what at first seems like a typical predictable fantasy plot unravels into a grand fantasy opera the likes of which very, very few other games can even hope to match.
Bluntly put, this is the sort of game world Dragon Age wanted but failed to create. A bitter, savage setting full of bigotry, violence, sex and racism. At no point are you faced with a simple linear line of Good/Evil decisions. No. Every choice has multiple angles to it, with characters doing things for genuinely realistic reasons beyond simply 'I r evil' and the like.
The result is that, without even realizing it, you're creating *your* version of Geralt. You're giving him motivations, reasoning, and a life beyond simply another useless protagonist in another silly rpg. Is he a just and fair person, trying to alleviate the pain of others when he sees it, or a truthful and honest character who does his duty for the greater good? The two can be a vast difference when faced with options such as helping out the scoia'tael, a group of downtrodden rebels fighting for freedom, or the Knights who serve to protect the townspeople at any cost! The issue isn't nearly as simple as it seems, with the rebels attacking and killing innocents to try and drive home their goals while the knights then use those attacks as an excuse to further hunt and destroy any who would oppose them. And that's only one of many issues, all of which can have multiple resolutions as well.
Game itself, most issues I had with the translation or dialogue were alleviated with the Enhanced Edition, available for free to anyone who bought the original game like I did. Not only were hundreds of lines of dialogue re-written after complaints from the community, but new voice-actors were hired and, if that still wasn't enough, options to play the game with subtitles in other languages such as its native Polish were allowed as well.
Very nice.
And as for the gameplay I enjoyed it! The clicking combat was much more entertaining than simply mashing keys like other games generally have you do, and on the harder difficulties not only does timing become imperative but a well used potion or spell can mean the difference between victory or defeat. True, it does get repetitive after awhile, The Witcher being a very long game especially with the short ten-hour story we've gotten used to most products offering these days, but I'd hardly count that against the game as more than a minor annoyance. Visually the environments I still find highly detailed and interesting, while the music is often breathtaking. Character models tend to be stiff and silly looking, but that's more an issue with the engine the game was built upon more than anything else. Hard to believe this is the Aurora Engine, yes THAT Aurora engine, the one from the first Neverwinter Nights game.
So obviously I loved The Witcher and can't wait to see what the developers end up doing with the sequel. If THIS was their first game, I'm pumped to see what time and experience could bring from such an already talented studio.
But then naturally this is all my opinion, and alas one game can't please everyone, funny that, so I'm sure there are plenty who'll disagree. But I felt in such an otherwise disheartening 'meh' topic this game could use a solid defense, and so here I am.
Damned good game. I say try it and judge for yourself! Can't be very expensive now anyway.
