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The Witcher

User Rating:

ESRB: Blood and Gore,Partial Nudity,Strong Language,Strong Sexual Content,Violence
Publisher: CD Projekt
Genre(s): Role Playing Game
Home Page: http://www.thewitcher.com/

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By: Nick Evanson Oct 26, 2007

Bawdy and brash - thespians need not apply?

Time for a quick pose. Ooh, hello - who's that slinking off in the distance?

So, what to make of The Witcher? On face value, it's just another action fantasy RPG, albeit with lots of nice touches. There are plenty of annoying aspects (the endless cutscenes, dodgy dialogue and simplistic combat) and it's not completely free-roaming. The sex mini-game could be seen as crass, the language unnecessary and the setting confusing (talk of genetics and mutants in a medieval land?).

However, try to think of The Witcher as being like Winona Ryder: oh-so pretty, very talented but somewhat of a shop-lifting, flawed gem. This is what makes it so good: the pros completely outweigh the cons, even after the teeth-grindingly awful start. It has plenty of length to it, perhaps not to Oblivion or Baldur's Gate levels, but certainly enough; it questions morality by forcing you to make decisions that often have no "right" answer. The levels of difficulty change the gameplay enough to warrant multiple replays too. Underneath its gutter-level exterior, there lies a remarkably thoughtful game.

Atari and CDProjekt have every right to feel pleased with The Witcher. The former has got another feather in its RPG cap (to go alongside Neverwinter Nights) and the latter's reputation will undoubtedly step up a level because of it. The devs are clearly committed to making this a great experience because there's already a v1.1 patch out that fixes numerous little bugs, so just do yourself a favour and play this game now. Adults only, of course.

Summary of YouGamers Hardware Testing

The publisher of this game state the following specifications for their minimum and recommended requirements:

Component	Publisher's Minimum	Publisher's Recommended
Processor	Intel Pentium 4 2.4GHz / AMD Athlon 64 2800+	Intel Core 2 Duo (Dual core) or AMD X2 or better
Memory	1024 MB	2048MB
Graphics Card	128 MB Video RAM or greater with DirectX9 Vertex Shader/ Pixel Shader 2.0 support	256MB Video RAM or greater with DirectX9 Vertex Shader/Pixel Shader 2.0 support
Graphics Card Example	NVIDIA GeForce 6600 or ATI Radeon 9800 or better	NVIDIA 7900 or faster with 512MB of memory
Free Disk Space	8.5 GB	8.5 GB
Net Link	not specified	not specified

To learn more about how YouGamers performs its hardware testing, click here. Through our extensive gameplay and hardware testing across the full spectrum of PC configurations, YouGamers suggests that one should use the following guidelines for an appropriate minimum and recommended setup:

Component	YouGamers Minimum	YouGamers Recommended
Processor	AMD Athlon 64 2800+ / Intel Pentium 4 520	AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ / Intel Core 2 Duo E6300
Memory	1024 MB	2048 MB
Graphics Card	ATI Radeon X700 256MB / NVIDIA GeForce 6600 256MB	ATI Radeon X1900 512MB / NVIDIA GeForce 7900 512MB
Free Disk Space	8.5 GB	8.5 GB
Net Link	Not specified	Not specified

Scores

To learn more about our scoring methodology, please click here.

Gameplay	82	The camera views and combat system take some getting used to, but the wealth of quests and ballsy mini-games will keep you busy for a long time. The main story can get a bit confusing at times and the loading and cutscenes grate pretty quickly.
Graphics	89	Not cutting edge but they don't need to be - art direction is superb and the small touches make this a visual delight. Character models are well realised, and effects such as depth of field and "drunk as a skunk" actually work.
Audio	70	Great background sounds and ambient effects are spoilt somewhat by the awkward dialogue and glitchy script. Both need much firmer direction and editing, but it's too late for that now.
Technology	82	Needs a pretty decent machine if you want to enjoy the best possible experience but the developers make no bones about this. Scales back down quite nicely, although it's no great looker at the lowest levels. Not too many bugs either, for a small developer.

OVERALL

Thoroughly deserving of its 18 rating and not just because of the sex, violence and language. To stay on top of this great game or to enjoy it as intended, you need to pay attention and think before committing yourself. A far better game than the sum of its parts.

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