The Witcher Review (PC)

Full title: The Witcher or Wiedźmin
Platform: PC
Release Date: October 26, 2007


Plot (will probably contain minor spoilers):

You, Geralt of Rivia a well re-known Witcher, or a professional mosnter hunter wakes up after a coma. You now have a amnesia and will have to try to figure out what happen prior to the coma you just woken up from. You are in the Witcher stronghold Kaen Morhen up in the mountains Temeria. Suddenly a band of bandits attack the stonghold and your first job is to fight them off, but will fail at the last point with the powerful sorcerer called Azar Jahved. He and a professor is after the famous Witcher mutagen that makes Witchers powerful and immune from most things.
After the attack you and your friends venture out to kill Azar Jahved and the other bandits called Salamandra. You, Geralt is sent to the capital of Temeria, Vizima. But its not an easy task to a convince that you should get in to the city. As you venture to the outskirts of Vizima and help the local population with their problems to gain their favor. But things are not as calm as they seem, as the village is cursed and you need to take a side on what you believe in.

After a while you will be able to continue your journey to dismantle Salamandra in Vizima. You however get captured by the entrance to the city and thrown in to the dungeons. There is one thing you can do to get out of their, and that is to help the local guards with a problem in the sewers. You now find a big role in the story, a knight from "The Order of the Flaming Rose" is helping you down in the sewers. However after you are done helping the guards, you are set free to roam the Temple District of town. You will meet people that know you from before and notice the ongoing plague and Scooiatel revolt (non-humans). This is where you come in by either helping either side of the Order or the Scooiatel you will inflict the story later.

Earlier in the story you run in to a child called Alvin, he is a very important person in the story, and most of your choices will depend on his future. Or the plot twist in the end.

(Added) Gameplay:
The game is like most other RPG's, you have your sword and your spells. But The Witcher is somewhat different. You have your normal Sword, mostly for killing humans and normal beings, then you have your Silver Sword or the Witcher Sword as some call it. The Silver sword is shorter and used for killing monsters and other things that are "evil". The fighting system is click fighting based on speed and control. You click once on the thing you attack, then wait for the next attack sequence by looking at the icon.
Swords can also be better by using special coats or runes to infuse them.

Magic is based around powers by signs, to learn them you need to find the source of the powers. Useful when attacking multiple enemies at the same time. The signs gets upgraded with from the tech tree once you discover them.

The Witcher gets most of his powers from mutagens, consumed by potions. Potions is the most important thing in your backpack, they are also quite hard to create. Alchemy is one of the key components in the game. Every flower and monster will drop a certain alchemy ingredient. Every ingredient has a special thing in them, and to create a potion you will need several special things.
The potions are vital to complete the game without to many reload of the last save. Some make you faster, the time move slower, more damage, immune from poison or any other kind you can think off.

Leveling is a bit different in this game. You have to sleep to get better, and depending on what you do you need at-least a certain time meditating by a fireplace, this goes to alchemy aswell, as all potions take time to create. Split by the mayor parts, you have your strength, dexterity and such stuff. Then you have the difference of weapons, signs and intelligence. The most important thing start with is intelligence as you need it to be able to use alchemy and pick flowers and that kind of stuff.

Length: 45-60 hours per play-through

Verdict:
I think that The Witcher is one of the better RPG's ever created, the story is beyond most games in the genre. The graphics are excellent for a game from 2007, but still its a PC game so they are always good. The game is quite hard to figure out the first time you try it, as the fighting system is click based and some things are learn from skills. The game is very long and has multiple outcomes which makes it a very good game to replay even if it's very long. I have currently got the Enhanced Edition on Steam pretty cheap, and its packed with stuff. For example a scenario creator, so you can't run out of quest.

I recommend this game with a PC capable of running it, and most modern computers will do that without any problem. This is and epic role playing game, you can even collect sex cards

A sequel is going to release during spring 2011.

Nice review. You should have talked a bit more about gameplay though But awesome, I wish I could play this game!!! :salivate: :

and I want sex cards!!!!!

It's this kinda game and The Witcher 2 that make me seriously getting a gaming PC. But they are few and far between. Good review anyway, Blixt.

Thanks Stoney.


Added more info about gameplay.