The Witcher Review

Review written by Ryan Lord.

CD Projekt has created a PC game based on Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski's popular epic fantasy novels. And the result is one of the best RPGs in recent memory.

http://www.tomsgames.com/us/2008/0 [...] er_review/

I'm glad to see such a positive review of The Witcher here on Tom's Games as I really enjoyed this game myself and feel like it deserves such credit and exposure.

I think the review stressed the good points of The Witcher correctly, that is, in my opinion :
- A very immersive environment (sound, graphics, but also what I can only describe as mood).
- The ability to actually make choices that affect the story and thus give you a strong feeling of implication.
- Sevral different methods to solve an inquiry or a situation that allow you to have your own style as a character.
- A fantastic story that keeps you waiting for more, and that actually makes you want to know more.
- Lots of side quest that make the world come alive insted of merely being an intensive for some xp and power items.
- An adult world with adult considerations that doesn't occult parts of the world just to get the rating and touch a larger public. It doesn't throw them at you like they are the core of the game either, they just are, as it would be in any realistic world.

On the other hand, The Witcher might no appeal to every computer RPG fan out there as it doesn't follow some trends that have been growing in the industry (which in my opinion is a good thing), namely :
- No free roaming 'Oblivion Style', the action is story driven, and you can only move so far from it. Some might see it as a lack of liberty, but I actually think this is much closer to real life situation and to a paper rpg adventure as well.
- No Power Playing and ultimate character tweaking. This is no Hack and Slash and you don't find magical gear in every barrel. In The Witcher, changing your main weapon or your armor is an event, which is as it should be imo.

All in all, The Witcher might not be a game for everyone, but for me, it certainly was the best RPG I played for a long long time and it reminded me of some of my favourit RPG titles, namely Ultima (7 mostly) and Planescape Torment.

On a side note, as far as proeminent fantasy novels are concerned, I think the top english speaking Fantasy author at the moment would definitely be GRR Martin with a Song of Ice and Fire. It pains me to see Harry Poter cited along the Lord of the Ring as emblematic fantasy novels ^^.

great review of a great game. even if it doesnt quite reach the status of planescape and kotor, it still comes quite close imo. if they're able to squash the crashes and reduce the loading/saving times while maintaining the quality of the storytelling and graphical immersiveness, their next offering will be the shiznit

Yep, purely single player. It's worth it though!

I think it is the best RPG in this decade.

Have you played it? If so , what did you compare it to?

Yes, i don't think it's fair to compare mmorpgs to the witcher...it's like comparing newspapers to novels, they are just two different things with two different purposes.

If the game is as good as everyone says it is (and i would like to believe) there will be at least a sequel if not an expansion pack beforehand. I mean, there's more than one book right? If i have to be exposed to at least one bad game for every other book/movie title, then i want to have a good sequal to a good game based on a series of books damn it! haha. :-p anyway, the review was exceptional, Not really any spoilers, which seems to be common, just enough to make me want to play it and that was it. gg.

I, as many here are, am glad to see the good review of The Witcher. It is well deserved. I enjoyed every aspect of this game and in way I guess it is a little under the radar I hope that fact does not prevent a sequel from being made. The Witcher II would be a definite number one on my purchasing list in the years ahead.

For any one with crashed dowload the 1.1a or 1.2 patch.
Mine hasn't crashed since.
Also the load/save time have decreased significantly.
Agreed that this is a great game..combat is miles better than Oblivion which I wasn't too impressed with.
Overall it's a great RPG game and hopefully more games will be like it.

it's a great game..i got sucked in it and even if u don't have allot of free roaming, it's still one of the best RPG's i have played the last 3 years.

buy it!

fallout1, fallout2? :|

great review, only problem i had was that he said "RPG game". RPG stands for Role Playing Game, so he basically said "role playing game game". But, that's nitpicking.