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Excellent Story, Excellent Visuals, Excellent Dialogue

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 65 / 85
Date: November 07, 2007
Author: Amazon User

As a fan of some European games such as the Gothic series, I got my hopes up pretty high when I heard this one was making it into the States. I was a bit disheartened to learn that the U.S. version is somewhat censored (self-censored by the publisher, not the government or ESRB), and owning the uncensored version I can tell you that the differences are mostly minor and do not detract overall from the story.

Being built on the NWN engine, you wouldn't know it. The entire rendering engine has been replaced, the control scheme is very different, and virtually the only thing I can say I recognized were some of the item highlights and inventory selection. Instead of tilesets, the developer designed each area in 3DSMax, and imported them into the engine.

The results are very fresh and unique areas, and each area has the 'look' that the developer envisioned.

I have not read the books by the Polish author who came up with the idea, and I do not believe they are yet available here in the U.S., but I do have to say that the story is very engaging, the characters are believable, the interaction and choices are real, and this is a very 'deep' RPG which forces you to make real choices that have no apparent right or wrong answer.

The world isn't black and white, and most RPGs are. Not this one - every choice is shades of gray, and you will find it difficult to make decisions, sometimes which bear down to the lesser of two evils.

If I had to compare it to other games, I'd say you had the story telling ability of Gothic, the feel of Knights of the Old Republic, and a bit of unique feel to the game.

I believe this is worth the purchase, and even though I think the title of the game might put some people off, you won't be disappointed.

There are no bugs to speak of, though a patch is available for download which fixes some minor annoyances.

In all, I think this is a gem that may be overlooked by some at first glance, but for those who pick it up it will be one of those games you fondly remember as among your favorites.

Without a doubt, the best RPG ever

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 12 / 19
Date: October 31, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I'm a long-time RPG player.
Gothic 1 & 2 were my favorite games until now.
The Witcher is the most open RPG I've ever played.
Every choice, every decision you make affects the game.

I never thought there would be a game this fantastic, this all-consuming.

Everything about this game was well done by ther developers.
The people that did Gothic 3 should have done this well, for that game (Gothic 3) was a total waste of money.

I didn't like Oblivion at all. It's way too repetitive. Seems like you're doing the same tired old crap over & over.

The Witcher is different, very different.
The story, the battles, this game sucks you into a wonderful fantastic world and keeps you there.

I've already finished this game and am currently playing it a 2nd time.
This game will remain at the top of my favorites list until they come out with "The Witcher II".

Yes, this is truly the best RPG ever.

Ridonkidonk

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 10
Date: November 07, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I had never heard of the Witcher when my roomate brought home a copy of this game. Never read a book, etc etc.

I'm freaking hooked. This game is a great blend of "role playing" and real time action. A lot of games are getting closer to melding the strategic/action element, and this is probably the best one I've played so far.

I'm going to play this for at least a month. I was bummed about Hellgates online hiccups, but now I don't care. I can wait until they iron out their problems. Shoot, I can probably wait longer. This is an awesome, awesome game.

PS (I am interested in what the euro differences are. If anyone knows if they are significant, let me know. I'd go so far as to buy another version of the game - or even pay for a "de-censored" patch.)

Best RPG in YEARS!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 10
Date: January 14, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This is by far the best RPG I have played in years. I consider as one of my all times favorites along with Fallout, & Baldurs Gate. The story line is very rich & complex. The choices you make really DO AFFECT you & others. Realy, it is just a FUN overall experience.

I love this game.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 12
Date: November 01, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I purchased this game just yesterday, and I can't put the ruddy thing down. The graphics are beautiful, the story is gripping, and the game play is irresistible. I've rather taken up a fondness for poker dice.

My only gripe is that I've heard that it is censored in some ways within the US version, which I don't appreciate. However, it doesn't really hinder the game play, and it's a smashing adventure nevertheless. Highly Recommended!

Classic of the Genre

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: November 12, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The Witcher will punish you. And you will like it. It will annoy, perplex and frustrate you. You will curse the 90's era inventory system. Get dizzy with the wonky camera. Marvel at how poorly the UI supports the crafting of potiions. Wonder at a character advancement system that forces everyone to be a generalist. You'll squint at the almost useless minimap and be thankful because it is the only thing that shows the many invisible terrain boundaries. You'll laugh, then cry, at quicksaves taking up to a minute to finish. And you'll curse when you crash and the games random autosave last backed you up two hours ago. Most of all, you will feel you're life slipping away as you stare at the loading screen for minutes at a time. During the load times you will catalog the games many faults in your head and wonder why you play it.

The Witcher sucks you in like few other games. If you ever enjoyed an RPG, get The Witcher and give it three hours. The next 50 will be pure bliss. Top five all time RPGs, easily, and in terms of immersiveness it's at number one. It is hard to describe how it all comes together to pull of this amazing illusion of a real world populated with real people that you are really affecting. You need to see for yourself.

Update: Load and save times are vastly improved as is stability with the latest patches. These are by far the most serious problems so now the game is that much better.

Completely engrossing game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 10
Date: January 14, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This review is for the 1.2 patched game- ignore reviews complaining about load times- the latest patch provided relief. (Would still like it a bit faster, but it was a vast improvement.)

It took me a while - restarting the prologue - to get into this game. But once I grasped the mechanics of the combat system and moved the story along, I have to say this is flat out one of the most engrossing rpg-type games I have ever played. You get dealt a character, rather than making your own, which I initially thought would be off-putting. Instead, because the game world is so diverse and Geralt's development is "flexible", I ended up with a protagonist that I became quite attached too. You quickly realize you have to make decisions - for the most part, no wimping out - pick a choice and live with it. And the game rewards you for smart gameplay - don't want to spend money on books, to learn about plants and animals? Start asking around... some useful info can be found in the unlikeliest places. You need to strategize in some of your battles as well - you can't just jump in swinging and chug a potion to stay alive. The alchemy system is wonderful - and they found a smart way to prevent the player from simply chugging potions and creating a boringly uber character. If you don't manage your potion imbibing, your toxicity increases and Geralt's effectiveness is reduced.

They gave the game world itself a lot of atmosphere. Each location has it's unique qualities, but the NPCs do go about and the place has the feel of being a dive section of a city, or a shoddy outskirts, or a seemingly bucolic island. The swamps are brutal (and a major complaint in the Cemetary Swamp - they overdid it on the drowners, to the point of ridiculousness.) The background language can be crude, but it suits the world that was created and does not feel particularly gratuitous.

Geralt was fun to develop... play him as a hound dog, bedding many a pretty wench (tastefully done, although the US version was afraid to show a nipple or two for fear of upsetting... the mature people who would play this game, I guess.) Make him a true cold-hearted witcher, or develop him to have a bit of a conscience and make decisions that will affect the story going forward. Or create him with some sort of middle ground - neither truly cold, but also still quite self-interested. Some of the decisions suck - there is no clear right or wrong, and it may be quite a bit further on in the story where you will see a result from one of your earlier choices.

For such a linear story, the game has replay-ability, because of the flexibility in developing Geralt and the changes you can make in the story will cause some events to change as well. After completing the game, I found myself actually sorry that it was over. (The ending narration is rather sad). As a result, I started a new game fairly quickly, wanting to see if I could keep Geralt more neutral this time around. The second go-round is as engrossing as the first (if a little easier, since you can play a bit smarter.) The opening and closing cinema cut-scenes are stunning and you'll end up watching them several times.

The game is tough on the default setting, but beatable. Geralt will die a few times, so save. There was some unstability in my game in the later chapters IV and V, with several crashes to desktop, which was frustrating. (and again, save frequently.)

I truly appreciate a game that makes me think, makes me like my heror in spite of his definite flaws, makes me work a bit and doesn't even attempt to handhold me through decisions. It even gave me a few laugh out loud moments - the voice acting is excellent and some of the dialog was great. It was one of my favorite gaming experiences to date.

specs

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 13
Date: November 04, 2007
Author: Amazon User

the game recommends an athlon 64 3000 or better 2gb of ram and a geforce 7800gtx or better im running it with an athlon 64x2 5600 2gb of ram and a 7950gt with 512 video memory and it runs flawless and looks great. after playing the game for a few hours i exited to check temperatures and cpu was in low 30s and the gpu was low 50s so it didnt push the hardware to hard and the graphics are all set to high i only disabled anti aliasing. the load times i read were long but ive not seen very long load times at all. pick this game up its worth it

Phenomenal

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 8
Date: November 05, 2007
Author: Amazon User

An amazing an engrossing game. Easily the best RPG I've played in years no question. If you are an RPG fan, you owe it to yourself to pick up this masterpiece. Spread the word!

The Witcher hasn't ceased to amaze me....

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 8
Date: November 14, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Love this game! The Witcher is not only one of my favorite games of '07, but it ranks up there with my all time favorites. After being extremely disappointed by the poor quality of Two Worlds earlier this year, I was a bit wary of purchasing another RPG. But rather than disappoint, The Witcher hasn't ceased amazing me. The developers of this game obviously took an enormous amount of care and effort to ensure that its story, characters, environments, quests, etc. were rich and immersive. Everything feels so authentic. Maybe that's because the creators of this game grew up in Eastern Europe surrounded by all that old world beauty. I also find the adult nature of the story refreshing. So many games claim to contain adult content, but the only adult content they seem to really have is violence. While The Witcher certainly is violent at times, it truly does offer other forms of adult content. I greatly enjoyed Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, but quite often with Oblivion, the NPCs in the game come off as too tame. There are so many games out right now that promise the world, but often only end up disappointing. The Witcher on the other hand is sure to delight any RPG fan (or really anyone who appreciates stunning visuals and a rich story). Oh yea, and a fun combat system too!

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