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The Witcher

Getting to know you, to know me

As with any RPG, progress through the game is determined by the completion of quests, and nearly all of the typical variety: get this for me; kill those for me; tell her this for me. Why is it, in fantasy RPGs, that the local residents seem utterly incapable of doing menial tasks by themselves? Actually, you can avoid doing the basic stuff if you wish and just work on the main storyline: figuring out why you've lost your memories and what the hell happened during the castle siege in the opening cutscene hell. And unlike Oblivion, the key plot is rich, lengthy, and rather convoluted - you'll be making various decisions along the way that will have you repeatedly questioning yourself about whether you did the right thing or not.

Morality choices are de rigeur in games today but they're never more than "pick option 1: holier-than-a-Saint or option 2: cow-molesting-dwarf-eating-evil", which actually removes any real choice from you. The writers behind The Witcher should be congratulated for making a serious effort at disguising this lack of freedom as much as possible; many of the choices you'll make fall into very grey areas and the consequences of your actions rarely make themselves immediately obvious. Such complexity does mean that, at times, it can be quite difficult to keep track of just what the heck is going on, but then again, this isn't a game for kiddies.

There are various factions within the game, all of which have their own agenda and objectives (which are often not quite as transparent as they first seem). You can dabble in the politics of it all but your actions don't always deliver an immediate reaction. For example, non-humans are typically persecuted and treated with contempt by the rest of the world - some are resigned to this fact but others have formed bandit groups, battling against human encampments. You can choose to side with them, help them slightly or dig the knife in; picking the latter doesn't instantly reject you from their thoughts, simply because they've already expected you to do so, thanks to the actions of humans in general. Not that you have an easy ride - as a Witcher, you're often treated with suspicion and derision on a frequent basis. Essentially humans that have been genetically altered (rendering them sterile in the process), they once held sway in wars and politics due to their powers. Those days are long gone now and albino blokes with cat's eyes aren't exactly at the top of everyone's Christmas card list.

Now then, just how good does that look?

The level designers have captured the atmosphere of each area almost perfectly, and without the use of cutting edge graphics.

CDProjekt have clearly had fun creating the various characters in the game, from the main heroes and villans, to the everyday NPCs. Personalities are pushed to the front and help shape their responses, often with comic effect. The devs have definitely watched too many episodes of BlackAdder and various Carry On films, and sacrificed many a doughnut to fantasy film giants such as Conan the Barbarian and Red Sonja. At times, the ranges of characterisation reminds one of Neverwinter Nights or Baldur's Gate but due to the complexity of the graphics, NPC models are heavily repeated a la Oblivion; CDProjekt must have recognised this as a weakness for the latter and masked the issue by using as many different voice-overs as possible, for each model.

Where it does fall down is the range of Garalt's responses in non-important scenarios; it would have been nice to have a bit more interactivity with the general NPCs but this is just nit-picking. Overall The Witcher is very much a role-playing game and you're thoroughly encouraged to explore that role as much as possible.

Page 1: Introduction & BackgroundPage 2: Characters and QuestsPage 3: Combat and SkillsPage 4: Getting Around & Mini-gamesPage 5: Graphics and Hardware RequirementsPage 6: Final Thoughts & Scores

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