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Published by: Atari
Developed by: CDProjekt
Genre: RPG
Players: 1
Rated: M (Mature)
Release Date: October 30, 2007
Screenshots: Link
Amazon: Buy Now!
Written By: Christian H.

Published by Atari and developed by Polish development studio CD Projekt, The Witcher follows in the trail left by S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Shadow of Chernobyl. No, it�s not an FPS; no, it isn�t a sandbox; and no, it it has nothing to do with the Chernobyl Zone of Exclusion. What it is, though, is another European-developed game that suffered a long development cycle, but managed to come out on top with a product that stands out from the complacency and conventions of the typical North American and Japanese-developed games of today.

The Witcher is based on the works of Polish author Anderzej Sapkowski. In this world, a Witcher is a professional monster hunter; taken at an early age, trained, and mutated, to be the perfect monster-killing machine. The story itself centers around one specific Witcher -- Geralt of Rivia, otherwise known as the �White Wolf.� It all sounds cheesier than it is. Assuming the game is an accurate representation of Sapkowski�s world, Sapkowski has excelled in creating a modern fantasy world of equal parts grit and political turmoil, as well as elves and sorcery; seamlessly blending traditional con-cepts of �low fantasy� and �high fantasy,� respectively. Without spoiling too much about the books, Geralt�s fate was left ambiguous in the conclusion of the Witcher Saga. The game picks up after the Saga�s conclusion, when a wounded Geralt is recovered by his fellow Witchers, only to discover that he has lost his memory. When bandits break into the Witchers� stronghold, stealing their alchemical secrets, Geralt and his fellow Witchers split up to track down the perpetrators. Geralt ultimately finds himself as a major player in a bitter conflict over power, racial equality, and religious dogma.

The amnesiac hero in games has been done many times in the past, but in The Witcher it is a necessary entry for the player. Without Geralt�s re-education of the world around him, the barrier to entry (in terms of story, lore, and the world in general) would be a chasm. Sapkowski�s world--even the small piece of it that you explore in the game--is immense in scope and filled with complicated political struggles and enough lore to fill an encyclopedia. Thanks to the admittedly deus-ex-machina amnesia twist, the player is able to absorb the vast amount of information at the same pace as the pro-tagonist, in easily-digestible bits and pieces.

Arguably, the narrative of The Witcher, and how it is affected by the gameplay, is where the game is strongest. Up to the game�s release, one of the most-hyped features was the lack of the typical good/evil, light side/dark side, mechanic that most RPGs have relied on in the past decade or so. In the the world of The Witcher, there are only shades of grey, and every decision you make affects the narrative in often profound ways. Unlike most RPGs, the consequences of your actions are rarely, if ever, seen immediately. Make an important decision, and it will be hours of gameplay before the consequences of that decision become apparent. It�s difficult to explain the mechanic without and example, so I�l� give one. Early on in the game, a certain shady character tasks you with protecting his illicit goods from troublesome monsters. After slaying the beasts, an elf approaches and offers to buy the goods from you, claiming that they are intended for him anyway. Sell the goods or don�t, the repercussions of what you decide to do here won�t be felt until hours later, well into the next chapter of the game. Without spoiling too much, there is no right or wrong decision; sell them or don�t, you will gain something and lose something in the end. The moments when the repercussions are realized are explained via a flashback--presented in the form of a painting--that explains what you did, and precisely how it led to whatever situation in which you�ve found yourself. It�s all very believable and really drives up the replay value of the game.

There are times, however, where this system just seems to present situations where you�re damned if you do, damned if you don�t. A major plot point of the game is a conflict between two opposing factions and the side that Geralt takes. Unfortunately, this decision is like choosing between charcoal and charcoal; regardless of whomever�s ideology you may agree with, both factions are reprehensible in their actions. You�re essentially forced to choose whether you want to side with religious fundamentalist fascists, or borderline-genocidal terrorists. Ultimately, you can choose neutrality, but at times you�re put in-between a real rock and a hard place. Then again, maybe that�s the point.

The combat is another area where The Witcher stands out from the rest. The action-RPG genre is tricky territory and many attempts often boil down to mindless but-ton-mashing. I can confidently say that The Witcher�s combat system is something that I have never seen in a real-time action RPG: both fun and tactical. The key to the system is stringing together successful combos. Attack an enemy by clicking the left mouse button, then when the mouse pointer turns to a flaming sword, click it again. Click it too soon or too late and you leave yourself open to a counter-attack. The sys-tem is simple to use, but just complicated enough that you need to pay attention to what you�re doing. You also need to pay attention to who--or what--you�re fighting. Thrown into the mix are two different swords (as well as axes, daggers, maces, and flails, but those are mostly just for show). An iron sword is used for human opponents and the silver sword is used for monsters and spirits. There are also three different combat styles: Wolf for large or heavily-armored enemies; Cat for smaller, more agile foes; and Griffon, for those times when your opponents feel that killing people is more fun in groups. Throw in potions, blade coatings/poisons, bombs, and magic, and the combat sounds a lot more complex than it actually is.

What makes combat so much more simple than it sounds is the very clean and intuitive UI. Everything you need in combat is aligned on the left side of the screen, and therefore, just a mouse-click away.

The one place where the UI falls short is in the inventory screen. Though it is very simple and clear--it�s all on one screen, divided into four boxes--organizing it ma-nually can be a pain. As you start picking up many different kinds of items it becomes very messy. I frequently found myself going into my inventory just to organize every-thing. It�s little more than a small nuisance, but some kind of auto-sort feature would have been very helpful.

Outside of combat is where the game can be a bit troublesome. Geralt�s path-finding abilities are fine, but could be better. Click a far-off point on the screen and Ge-ralt can easily get there without your micromanagement... just don�t always expect him to take the shortest route. The camera is also bothersome--in and out of combat--as it frequently collides with trees or walls, causing it to sporadically zoom in and out and rotate. This would be easily fixed if the player could control the camera and set it to a fixed point when an area (such as a small room) will present obvious problems, but unfortunately, there are no camera controls whatsoever. If only that were all for The Witcher�s technical issues.

While The Witcher is very pretty in its aesthetic, it is by no means a graphical power-house. For whatever reason, the game suffers from major framerate issues dur-ing cutscenes and, occasionally, during dialogue. Fortunately, I experienced very few framerate issues during actual gameplay, so this problem is by no means a game-breaker. Still, it would have been nice to be able to watch the game�s cutscenes at more than 10 frames-per-second; something I was able to do far too rarely.

Aside from framerate issues, there are small bugs typical of most PC games, surely to be fixed in upcoming patches. One nagging problem that stood out to me, however--and I don�t know whether it is a bug or just an oversight on the part of the de-velopers--is the ways in which quest chains are connected, and how those chains can be broken. It�s hard to explain, but to give an example, there were a few times where I managed to completely accidentally--just through my regular exploration--skip entire portions of quests. I had one quest to retrieve a boy from a hospital. On the way there I decided to stop into an interesting looking house and see what I found. To my surprise, I found the boy being held by kidnappers who were �expecting� me. After slaying the kidnappers, I was greeted by a friend who offered to take the boy to safety in accordance with our �plan.� What happened to finding the boy in the hospital? When did I make this plan to rescue him from kidnappers? I have no idea where that plot went. It�s an awfully specific issue, and easily avoidable--just don�t explore randomly during a quest--but still one that I think is worth mentioning. If it is just an oversight on the developers� part, then it�s a big one.

The biggest technical issues, however, are the load times and the save system. Load times are ridiculously long--typically long enough that I can get up to get a snack, come back, and it still isn�t over. Saving the game is also an issue. Instead of creating one or two quicksave slots that are overwritten every time you quicksave, the game creates new saves each time. Combined with the frequent autosaves, this creates a mess of saved games and deleting them is a chore.

The best thing that The Witcher has going for it is that, despite the many technical issues, I can�t stay away from it. The intriguing narrative, interesting characters, extremely well-executed decisions/consequences system, and the fun action combat keep calling me. The world is unique and fascinating, and exploring it is a pleasure. Technical issues aside, The Witcher is a stand-out in the genre. If it and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. are any indication of what we can expect from European game design, the future is indeed bright.

8/10

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