One of our many scheduled appointments for today, included a visit to Atari's booth, where we were able to witness a demo of the role-playing game, The Witcher. Poland-based development team CD Projekt has been working on this game for quite some time and we were very pleased with what they were able to show us.

Lead Designer, Michal Madej, began the presentation with the game's introduction movie, which was directed by Polish BAFTA Award-winning artist and animator Tomasz Baginski. He is largely recognized for his Oscar-nominated short movie, The Cathedral. The animation seen in the game's intro looks very impressive indeed. However, more than just showing off a cinematic trailer, this introduction presented an excellent way of showing what kind of character players will be taking control of.

The first thing you need to know about the Witcher is that he's a professional monster slayer and he's not your average goody-goody character, going around rescuing poor damsels in distress. The intro movie showed a very cruel side to this character. For instance, he used a human to lure a very serious-looking monster out into the open. After that, he jumped out to face the monster himself. As the movie went on, the Witcher used a variety of skills and his super-human abilities to keep to monster at bay. He also effectively utilized a few spells. In the end, the monster realized it was no match for such an opponent and it hoped across rooftops, until it disappeared from sight.

Before actual gameplay started, we were reminded about the story and world that awaits gamers. The character of the Witcher was created by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. The world seems to be quite different from typical fantasy settings seen in many RPGs nowadays. It's a world where elves and dwarves live under suppression of humans and are forced to live in camps. Also, in such a harsh world, the choices that you make will never simply be good r bad. It always boils down to choosing the lesser of two evils.

The first in-game action took place inside and inn, where you are able to interact with numerous NPC, in order to get information, or other useful things. NPCs are, obviously, there to give you quests and to provide you with useful tips on how to reach a certain destination. More than that, they often trigger a few mini-games, which, if completed successfully, can bring you rewards such as items, money and so on. We've seen an example of how the Witcher reacts to alcohol. He entered and won a drinking contest in order to claim his reward. Unfortunately, although alcohol has less effect on him than it does on humans, his vision became blurred and after the next drink he was hardly able to walk. The final drink made him pass out. After that he woke up in a completely different location, without most of his money and equipment. So, it's alright to get pissed every now and then, just as long as you know the risks that are involved.

After this, we went out into the open to encounter a few enemies. The land we were going through was something between a forest and a swamp. At this point, I began to notice just how meticulously the developers have worked on the character model as well as the surrounding area. Also, the whole game ran very smoothly, even with numerous foes on screen at once.

As soon as the combat began, the Witcher started to use a diverse set of combos and abilities against oncoming creatures. One of the cool things about this game is that it really gives you a lot of choices on how you want to fight your enemies. When fighting multiple opponents you need to activate a specific fighting style in order to cause simultaneous damage to each foe. Spells are also available at any time. We've seen the Witcher cast a powerful spell in order to knock down a monster and then perform an awesome finishing move.

The combat system was described as anti-Diablo, which means there's a lot less clicking involved. Instead of clicking mindlessly numerous times, players are required to concentrate on each move, otherwise they will never hit their opponents. For example, if you double-click the Witcher will start to swing his sword, but he'll stop right away. That means you've clicked too fast. It's important to follow the rhythm of combat.

During the presentation, I was pleased to see that the game has its own style and unique overall design, as well as a unique interface. Spells, skills and the inventory are all easy to access and yet the whole interface doesn't borrow from other classics, which seems to be a tendency with many dev. studios these days.

Another crucial element in the game is creating potions. You can buy potions or create them on your own. Each potion formula is based on alcohol. In other words, there are certain side-effects involved. Drinking a potion that gives you night-vision, also acts as a poison. So, basically, you have to pay a price for improving some of your abilities.

At this stage, CD Projekt seems very pleased that they were able to come up with a new and unique world, though they didn't hesitate to mention where the inspiration came from. The Witcher has its similarities with other RPG classics. As a reference, Michal mentioned games like Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights. He also said that the popular developer Bioware has inspired them in many ways.

The Witcher is PC-only and is coming out during the end of October 2007 and all I can say is we're looking forward to it.

-- Ure 'Vader' Paul

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	Vodoo	[mail] Sep 03 2009, 12:00 am EDT
	Reply well obviously it has as reference NWN since it uses the damn engine and the controls are pretty much the same. though im all for click to kill type movement i hope it will be fluid and not as laggy as that of NWN. as far as the general concept of the game it sounds pretty good but i hope we will be able to learn and discover new things in the game instead of having them served to us on a platter.(new fighting skills, new spells etc)

	lethial	[mail] Sep 03 2009, 12:00 am EDT
	Reply I can't wait for this one.