The Witcher

[Gryph]

I just beat The Witcher. Wow, I absolutely loved this game. It's definitely the best RPG I've played in a damn long time and I retroactively add it to my top 5 games of 2007.

 

Sure, the game does have its faults such as some poor voice acting (but on a whole I was impressed especially with Geralt), lack of variety in townsfolk modeling, and stability (it still crashed during loading more frequently than i would normally put up with). I started playing the game after the load-time fix patch so I didn't experience the horrible load times that I kept reading about.

 

But it does so many other things right. The plot and dialog were very engaging throughout the whole game. Geralt is a totally badass character. In how many games can you play a drinking game to get information and then have to walk around drunk for a while because of it? It was also great to try to sweet talk ladies to get laid.

 

I really enjoyed the combat system because the timing of the clicks made sure I was alert the whole time and not just clicking wildly. Also, watching Geralt spin around and slice crap never got old since they really nailed down his combat animations and the sounds. However, even though I became the best fist fighter in the world I never completely figured out hand to hand combat. :/ I saw that some people didn't like it and found it boring but it's the best real time RPG combat I've played. The skill tree was also really well done and many times it took me quite a long time to figure out how to distribute my points.

 

The themes in the game such as racism, environmentalism, extremism and terrorism and choices that went along with them and their long term effects are what really set this game apart.

 

This game is definitely up there in my top RPG list now. It's great that smaller European devs like CDProjekt (and GSC with STALKER) are making more "out there" games with surprisingly good production value that would probably never be made here and which are actually successful commercially and critically (for the most part at least).

 

TL;DR - The Witcher is a great game so if you like RPGs you have to play it. If you're on the fence then try out the demo: http://fileshack.com/file.x/11543/The+Witcher+Demo (about 2 gbs and is the prologue and Act 1 I think).

 

So for those that played it, what did you think of the game?

[Wizard]

It's random crashing could be the engine's fault (Aurora = crap) but alas, The Witcher is very good game, but I feel some of NWN1/NWN2's user mods are some what better.

 

IMO Fallout 3 should be like this, very good use of cause and effect, although somewhat limited.