The Witcher, a review - EverCrest Message Forums

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Mortious

Gluttonous Overlard

posted 10-27-2007 09:15:48 PM

I'll copy paste an existing customer review that pretty much matches my own thoughts first.

quote:
This game is great. It's a worthy successor to BG, the Fallouts and Planescape Torment.
First off, the engine is rocksolid. And GORGEOUS. I seriously think this is one of the better looking games out there. That and the artdirection make for one gaphical sweet piece of software. The character models....mmmmmm! And the animation is just topnotch. Insanely well done, really...Tekken good, if you know what I mean (which you might if you've played the game).
Then there's the voice acting: it's not just decent, it's good! It actually helps immerse you in the game
As for the combat...I'm really digiing it. The timing needed bring a little immersion in there, and there is actually a need to move tactically, helped by the dodging moves. Coupled with the magic, it kinda feels like being a combat jedi...especially with the different gorgeous animations and the different styles. Combat feels varied and FUN.
Now, theoretically, it is a clickfest...in the exact same way HL2 is a repetition of clicking on the LMB.
But what really sets this game appart is the story, and the way it's all presented. Some great action seequences, which really put you in the world. And it's actually a ROLE playing game, with actual choices to be made. Choices which aren't black/white, with repercutions. Plus, totally unlike Oblivion, there's actual memorable characters here. Fleshed out ones
Two minor niggles: loadtimes when entering single room houses suck (even though it's just 5 secs) and yeah, lining up to climb stairs could be a bit more lenient. But that's IT.
Oh, and two realy nice things are that the three different camera modes are mapped to F1/2/3. I use F3 and sometimes F2, but it's nice that there's no menus involved. And the UI looks great. It's a bit different, but it fits the game well.
But the total package; an interesting story, cool characters, action, sweet combat, great graphics and artdirection, actual choices in an interesting world. It's nice to finally play a real RPG again after so long.
All in all, this game ROXORZ MY RPG SOXORZ. It's a real rpg, halleluyah!

Ok now for my additions. The game is gorgeously presented and seems to be flawlessly coded (as long as you download and install the pre-release patch too, which is the only major whoops on the developers part) and I've suffered no crashes or glitches at all yet.

The story is mature and intelligent. Yes, there is sex later on, a hell of a lot of it if you want to fuck everything in sight, you can even go hump the vampires you hunt. Haha. The main character seems to be a Conan-like individual, only with more intelligence and uses magic. There are no real black-and-white evil or good choices, only choices which each lead to different consequences in the story. So you have massive replayability value right there.

The voice acting.. this is the biggie since it's an Eastern European game and we all know what the voice acting on those are like. Well I have to say I was pleasantly suprised to find the voice acting to be pretty good. You can still tell that the script had to be translated into English for the English voice actors, but the story is solid and so far I have met no one who has a stupid accent. The main character seems to be a man of little words.. he just kicks ass, takes his payment, and moves on.

If you love RPG's I would heartily recommend this game. If you can overlook its (incredibly minor) flaws then you'll have lots of fun. It's a TRUE RPG game, something that has been lacking for a good long time. It's also open-ended.

In a pinch I'd have to say it's a cross between Oblivion and Diablo. Combat is click-based and looks simple at first but is incredibly hard to fully master.