Below is
a review of The
Witcher by Al Giovetti, followed by a updated review of the newly
released enhanced edition of the game.

The Witcher
is bar none the best role playing game of this year (2008). The plot
is complex. The animation and graphics are high quality. The music,
sound effects and voice acting have that edge to them. And the quests
are plentiful and unique in their choices and twists.

The game is an action/adventure.
The game player can choose over the shoulder (OTS) or high or low
isometric perspective. I found over the shoulder perspective the easiest
to play. OTS enables the AWSD movement rather than point and click.
The type of adventure is a computer role playing adventure (CRPG).

Like most RPG games, as
the protagonist gains experience his skills become more proficient
and his “level” increases. The main character attributes
of strength, dexterity, stamina and intelligence increase as the experience
increases. Bronze, silver, and gold talents are added in several areas
such as proficiency with the steel sword, silver sword, and other
skill areas. Alchemical mutagens can also enhance talents permanently
or temporarily.

There
are thirteen context sensitive cursor modes. When you exit an area
the cursor will be replaced with an exit icon. If you hover over a
character you can speak with you will enter speaking mode.

There are ten game play
icons: trade, storage, pay, bribe, gift, signet, rest/meditation,
weapon enhancement, fistfight, dice/poker, or drink. Signet indicates
that you show your signet ring to gain admittance to an area or to
get more information from the conversation. Many of these icons are
similar to other game play modes used in other games.

There are places in The
Witcher where what you say affects the rest of the game.
The questions you ask and who you ask them of determine the flow of
the rest of the game. You have to save often, think ahead, and you
might want to go back and do a crucial quest differently the second
time to check out how the game progresses with your new choices.

Just to give you an idea
of the complexity in this game, the Prima electronic game guide by
Fletcher Black is 59 pages long and it is only one of the many paths
through the game. The Games Pressure guide is 290 pages and even that
is not complete.

The
game is based upon the fantasy short stories and five novels of Polish
fantasy novelist Andrezej Sapkowski. Witchers are monster-hunters
who receive special training and modify their bodies by eating mutagenic
food that gives them superhuman powers to battle the monsters. The
books have been adapted into a movie, television series, computer
game, graphic novel and other adaptations.

Geralt of Rivia is the
protagonist in the stories. Geralt is a young witcher with extraordinary
powers. The stories are executed with a wit and some references to
modern culture. Geralt is constantly placed in the world of moral
dilemma when he roots out all the facts; many times everyone is guilty
to some degree and sometimes he is forced to take sides.

Sapkowski does not use
the good and evil equation the way some fantasy novels do. All characters
in the Witcher world are composed of grey and there are no clear choices.
Often, the Witcher is forced to get involved to help one side or another
or everyone will die. Sometimes the person or monster who looks guilty
is merely a victim of the “good” people.

For example, in the computer
game, there is a witch who has provided poisons and spells for the
townspeople to kill, rape and otherwise take advantage of their fellow
townsfolk. The townspeople demand that the Witcher kill the witch
because she be-witched them. The truth is that the townspeople were
evil and used the witch as an accomplice. You have the choice whether
to kill the witch, kill the townspeople, or kill them all.

There
is also a sexual aspect to the game. In the European game, full frontal
nudity is the rule for the illustrations and animations. In the North
American release, these erotic drawings and animations are toned down
to the point where all the “naughty bits” are concealed.
The sound of “oohs” and “ahhs” still emanate from
the speakers but to my knowledge there is no “hot coffee mod”
for this version.

Geralt finds himself in
a dilemma when helping females. Many of the women he meets will grant
Geralt a liaison if he wants one. There is a sub game trying to figure
out how to bed all the available women in the game. Some might find
this quest unsavory and may want to skip it while others might find
this the high point of the game.

Most of the women want
to have children. Geralt cannot have children due to the process which
transformed his body into a Witcher. Many women will not accept him
as a life mate without the ability to have children. So Geralt finds
himself condemned to one night stands mostly with women of loose morals.

For every conquest that
Geralt makes he gets a trophy card of the woman in a provocative pose.
The European version of the game exposes various “naughty bits”
of the women. The USA release is more modest and has strategically
placed hair, cloth, curtains, etc. to conceal the “naughty bits.”
Fear not, the European cards are available on the internet if you
are so inclined.

The
game is divided into a prologue, five chapters and an epilogue. Geralt
has to protect the castle stronghold of a Witcher academy, rid the
town outside the capital city gates of a monster caused by the town’s
innate evil, solve the plague and other problems of the capital temple
district, go to the lakeside to help those there with a monster problem,
and finally return to the city to help the returning king restore
peace and his daughter who has reverted to a monster. The plot is
a typical save the universe from the evil whatever.

Interesting choices occur
from conversations. Depending upon what path the conversation leads
may determine what happens hours later in the game. Early on you become
acquainted with a dwarf whose bank is stolen from him by humans. If
you pledge to help the dwarf regain his bank and stay consistent with
that decision you find yourself embroiled in a war between humans
and non-human bigots.

If you align with the humans
you will find yourself in situations where you must kill non humans
and vice versa. If you align with no one you end up having to kill
both groups. The game basically forces you to choose the lesser of
two evils. Unfortunately, the decision to align with one group or
the other is made for you by choices you make early on in the game.
You cannot easily go back to a save point and change your decision
and continue with the game.

The dialogue in the US
and other non-Polish editions was noticeably shorter than in the Polish
edition. Designer Michal Madej and writer Sande Chen claim that the
shortness was not to tone down the language but to save money on the
voice acting in these editions. The game uses voice acting throughout,
and there is a tremendous amount of dialogue for all the versions
of the game released.

Along the way there are
interesting things to do. You can play poker and drink to develop
skill and pursue a quest line. You can accumulate books and scrolls
which expand your skills, spells and experience. You can dabble in
alchemy and make potions from the flowers and reagents you collect.
You can enchant and commission special armor and weapons to improve
your combat fighting skills.

The
view of the game is over the shoulder and at times the camera is controlled
by the game itself making navigation and combat somewhat awkward.
Special moves activate by double tapping the WASD keys to jump/roll,
leap/spin and quick turn with the F key. Sequence moves combine simpler
moves into combinations ending with a whirl, streak or slash.

I first saw this game at
E3, shortly before it was released. When I discussed possible problems
with their combat interface, they were so excited about it that they
really did not listen. I sincerely doubted that the interface would
be fun for someone who might have problems with clicking on small
characters in multiple ways for each of the complex hits. I am glad
to say I was wrong about the fun.

Combat requires you to
click continuously on your opponent to get Geralt to hit the other
guy. Initially the combat is one of the most confusing and challenging
things in the game. The learning curve on this may be too steep for
some. After struggling with the combat interface unsuccessfully for
a long time, I had to put the game down and not play for awhile. When
I came back later and played, I had an epiphany on how to play.

After the epiphany, I rather
enjoyed the constant clicking as a challenge to master the unusual
system. My carpel tunnel syndrome and arthritis were not sufficiently
inflamed to merit a law suit. I do believe the game designers need
to consider that 33% of people over the age 65 and some younger people
with hand pain want to play these games. Making interfaces that take
these problems into consideration may increase the potential audience
for the game.

There
are three stances you choose from when in combat: group, quick, and
heavy. The quick style is faster but hits with less force. The heavy
style hits slower but with more force. The group style allows you
to hit multiple opponents with one swing.

Geralt, and all witchers,
have two swords: a steel one and a silver one. The steel sword is
for normal human and animals. The silver sword is needed for supernatural
beasts including monsters like were wolves and vampires. There is
a large number of different beasts and natural opponents.

As you get older your eyes
get darker and darker. You cannot see dark things easily. Most of
these games are so dark that adjusting the gamma does nothing to help
those with vision issues see the game any better. This is another
area that game designers need to be considerate of the infirm who
want to play. Graphics in The Witcher are
very dark.

I found the artistic style
of the game to be unique. The combat animations were consistent with
the developer’s concept that most game animation fighting is boring.
The developers wanted a combat system that gave the game player the
richness of a multitude of fighting techniques that mirrored the richness
of fencing with a sword or fighting barehanded with a karate or judo
champion. When fighting, the characters use multiple strikes designed
to give richness to each and every combat.

Shadows
were made more realistic with the lightmaps in 3ds Max which was used
to develop the environments. Skybox and water effects made the sky
and the water behave more realistically. Water actually moves more
like the real thing. Direct X9 water effects, bump mapping, environment
mapping and other effects also enhanced the graphics developed for
the game.

Animations were made more
lifelike with motion capture, a new physics effects system, and new
mechanics. The cinematic introduction to the game is stunningly well
done and beautiful. In the introduction Geralt battles with and saves
Princes Adda from her transformation into a monster. Geralt and others
prescribe a treatment for Adda that will prevent the transformation
from occurring in the future. The princess figures prominently in
the game after chapter two.

I give the game an overall
grade of A-. As good as this game is, there is room
for improvement in several areas.

The
Witcher Enhanced Version/ Article Addendum
by Al Giovetti

Over 5,000 lines of English
dialogue were re-recorded and rewritten (and the German edition was
redone entirely) and 200 gesture animations were added which makes
the characters more believable. The inventory now has a separate sack
for alchemical ingredients which automatically sort and stack so you
spend more time playing the game and less time micro-managing your
inventory. All games should have this feature. The game as improved
by condensing code which reduced inventory and graphic location loading
times, reduced crashes (greater stability), and made the combat more
fluid and responsive.

The auto save can be set
to off or on. Although I am unsure what advantage turning off the
auto save would be. Monster encounters were given more variety. The
character graphics now randomizes dozens of colors on the in-game
monster models. A multi-lingual disk will allow you to experience
The Witcher in the original Polish language,
German, and English.

Premium packaging on the
enhanced edition would imply “collectors’ edition”
status, but this is the regular version of the game. Included are
music CDs of the original soundtrack featuring celtic, hard rock,
metal, vocal experiments, reggae/dub, and electronic music. The making-of
DVD has the remastered behind-the-scenes story of making The Witcher
and developer interviews. Also included is the official game guide
and a short story from The Witcher author,
Andrzej Sapkowski about Geralt.

With the enhancements,
bump up the Final Grade to an A.

Minimum System Requirements:

• Windows® XP SP2
  or Vista
• Intel Pentium 4 2.4GHz
  or AMD Athlon 64 2800+
• 1 GB RAM (XP) 1536 MB
  RAM (Vista)
• 128 MB VRAM with DX9
  shader/ Pixel shader 2.0 support (Nvidia GeForce 6600 or ATI 9800
  or better)
• 8.5 GB Hard Disk Space
• DirectX 9.0c compliant
  soundcard, plus speakers or headphones
• DVD-ROM
• Keyboard, Mouse

Recommended System Requirements:

• Windows® XP SP2
  or Vista
• Intel Core 2 Duo 2.13
  GHz or AMD X2 5600+
• 2GB RAM
• Nvidia GeForce 7900
  GTX or ATI Radion X1950 PRO
• 8.5 GB Hard Disk Space
• DirectX 9.0c compliant
  soundcard, plus speakers or headphones
• DVD-ROM
• Keyboard, Mouse