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It’s not like The Witcher came out of nowhere.  It has a great showing at the last E3 and Atari hasn’t been shy about exposing the virtues of their darling hardcore RPG.  It’s just that… Poland?  Really?  It’s a Polish-developed game based on a series of novels by a Polish author.  That’s not exactly something to generate buzz among the gaming masses weaned on D&D and Tolkien.  But then The Witcher does something unexpected.  It’s actually a good game.

Which Witcher is Which?

As RPGs go, the number of truly ambitious ones are becoming very hard to find.  Either you’re stuck with a Diablo-esque hack and slash or a mind-numbingly derivative JRPG.  So when the The Witcher has the gall to come along and offer not only a robust character / skill system but an engaging and fleshed-out world to play in, one very quickly sits up and takes notice.

No doubt much of the praise here must go to the source material.  Those unfamiliar with Andrzej Sapkowski’s work will very quickly become engrossed in this tale of Geralt, a Witcher (AKA monster hunter), and the quasi-medieval world he inhabits.  Taking place after the events in The Witcher novels, the game developers lovingly crafted an original story based on the characters and lore found in the books.

Once Upon a Time

The game story and world earn very high marks for not treating the player like an idiot. Very little back story is given as you begin playing, but the pieces of the story slowly come together as you explore the world and talk to the characters. 

Going into too much detail would spoil the excellent narrative, but suffice it to say that The Witcher pulls the player along from chapter to chapter almost effortlessly.  Larger-scale goals are often intertwined with smaller side quests. In a welcomed twist, players actually have to makes some tough choices that are not clearly black and white. The character of Geralt is most certainly a badass, but even seemingly simple choices can possibly leave a mound of innocent corpses in your wake and a twinge of guilt to boot. 

Wicked Witcher

The game is also unapologetically mature, and I don’t just mean the sex.  Yeah, if you buy the import version there’s some nudity and yeah, it’s pretty goofy.  The overall tone of the game is dreary… murky.  You’ll be wallowing in the dark, less than noble side of mankind and it’s not always a nice place to be.  Thankfully, the narrative is handled in an appropriately sober manner. The only misstep is the English translation which is often too stilted and nonsensical. This occasionally leads to a fair bit of confusion during key point in the game’s story.

Oh, and there’s gameplay, too.

Speaking of “game,” there’s an honest to goodness game here.   You might have heard that The Witcher was developed using Bioware’s Aurora Engine, the same engine used to create the original Neverwinter Nights.  Don’t let that scare you away.  The engine has been so severely tweaked and modified that it’s unrecognizable.

The D20 system has been gutted in favor of a completely unique role-playing system.  Combat is handled in real-time with a minor twitch element that’s useful for chaining attacks.  That in conjunction with different combat stances and magic spells actually gives the combat system a lot of variety should you seek it.   In keeping with The Witcher lore, this isn’t a game about massive loot.  Weapon types are few and far between.  Instead players are encouraged to mix up potions and the like to augment their already impressive list of skills.

It’s the skill system that’s the most fun.  Spread across a variety of different categories, as players accumulate points, they are free to spend them anyway they see fit.  You can boost Geralt’s magical ability or perhaps concentrate on his swordplay.  Points not only increase raw stats, but give Geralt special moves and abilities which become invaluable as you start facing bigger and badder foes.

Hexed

As great as the game is, sometimes it seems like the developers bit off a little more than then could chew.  All of these beautiful graphics come at a steep price.  The game is a system hog that bogs down in more heavily populated or complicated areas.  It also tends to stutter somewhat during combat which makes some of the encounters more difficult than they should be.

You’ll also have to contend with extremely long load times.  The worst loads occur any time you’re moving into one of the larger “hub” areas.  You’ll be doing this frequently as even the act of entering a small hut triggers a load.  These loads can be as long as 45 seconds. When you ’ve become so engrossed in the story, the constant starting and stopping can be agonizing. It’s also not totally bug free.  We managed to “kill” an important character only to have her magically reappear later on.  It also consistently crashed as we were quitting out of the game.

Bewitched

But even these problems are no reason to pass up on The Witcher.  It hits the right notes in so many ways that it would be a shame for the game to go unnoticed.  So go bulk up you PC, install this game, and get ready for a dark, gritty, and very engrossing ride.

Review by: Don Boucher
Video Produced by: Joel Rubin