The Witcher Review

In many ways, The Witcher is nominally a fantasy game, which actually dabbles in political issues as much as any contemporary political thriller would.

That means "take me" in Dryad.

Trees and breasts; what more can a Witcher ask for?

While, on one hand, this is a great thing for the game, it also exposes what I believe to be the game's biggest drawback. Even though the storytellers do a brilliant job of weaving an intricate plot, there is simply not enough fantasy in this fantasy RPG. The monsters lack more flamboyance, more creativity, and so do some of the bad guys. Partly, this has to do with the art design, but it's not only that. In pushing a certain agenda with the plot, the designers have somewhat omitted that inspirational thread of imagination that makes certain, say, Japanese RPGs so tantalizing to others - a standard which authors like Tolkien have set on the Western side of the world.

Another issue, which stems from this rather unusual approach to game world building, is the absence of more spectacular and diverse loot in the game. A lot of the emphasis is put on Alchemy (potion-making) for some reason, while through Chapters 1 and 2 and well into Chapter 3, The Witcher has found one really good sword and is still wearing the Studded Leather Armor from the first chapter.

Still, one can simply argue that this is due to the game's design philosophy, and this would be in part true. The same can be said about the amount of dialogue in the game. Often times, The Witcher will seem much more like an adventure game than an action game. In fact, this is NOT an action RPG by definition. This is a true and true RPG where dialogue and conversations take center stage over dungeon crawls.

The good news is that even though the game is made by Eastern European developers, Atari has obviously gone out of their way to ensure that the voice acting is professional and done mostly by American and English actors. Closely tied to this is the superb soundtrack, a beautiful mixture of classic RPG tunes and more elaborate orchestral pieces.

In the end, I should say that The Witcher has an extremely lengthy campaign, especially given today's standards. The only reason why I haven't written this review sooner is because I was completely overwhelmed by the amount of exploration on offer. While the main campaign does an excellent job of keeping the player on the main storyline, the expansive locales and the multitude of characters simply beg for some additional exploring. As I write this I am still not finished with The Witcher and I am mighty glad for it.

Though not quite perfect, The Witcher is a diamond in the rough. It pains me to see that this one isn't getting even more attention from the press or even better scores. The only reason I can see is that the reviewers themselves are going with the flow so to speak. In this day and age of shallow and heavily compromised games that are after cheap thrills backed up by ridiculous sums of money spent on pretentious marketing campaigns, The Witcher truly stands out. This was a labor of love, one that PC gamers have to acknowledge and reward. We want more games like this.

Hell, don't know about you, but I certainly do (I second that - Vader).