Akratus
Bleep bloop.
The Witcher Enhanced Edition
Released in the year 2008
Developed by CDProjektRed.
Released on PC and Mac.
Purchasable at retail stores, steam and http://www.gog.com
Rise of the white wolf.
The Witcher is based off the writings of famous polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski. His stories took the famous fantasy tropes, as well as polish folklore in a new direction. He wished for an adult and complex story. Rather than the perfect few struggling against the great menace, it is a more personal and intricate story. That is the world of the witcher books. CDProjektRed wished to continue these stories after it's original ending. And as they have a knack for employing existing fiction settings, thus emerged The Witcher role playing game.
In this world of racism, magic and monsters galore we are introduced to Geralt. A white haired witcher, a professional monster slayer. His previous endeavors have left him wounded and without memory. By a stroke of luck, or perhaps fate, he is found and saved by his witcher compatriots. Returned to the wolf school's fortress he is safe once again.
Untill a group of mercenaries, mages and a monstrous insect break down the gates and make off with precious witcher secrets. The mutagens stolen are used to create the witchers, enhancing their physique, vision and magical prowess. As tradition ordains, the remaining witchers set off to the four corners of the world. Geralt eventually encounters the mages and pursues them and their hired thugs. But not only does Geralt try to stop a conspiracy against him and his kin, he encounters many friends, foes, and strangers along the way. He dabbles in politics, must choose his allegiance, and can shape the future of the land Temeria.
"There is no time for idle chat, we must fan the flames of this whore house!"
The Witcher came out at a time when fantasy role playing games with heavy dialogue and combat where less prevalent. However, the Witcher did not simply bring back some nostalgic elements, it combined the best of old school RPG's, newer ones and completely new ideas. And a rich background story that treats it's player as an adult. A dream come true for many an rpg fanatic.
The ways The Witcher pulled you into it's world were intriguing. One can make short personal statements about current events or a single situation, argue on larger scale issues, deal with quests in different ways, argue politics and slight philosophy and even make your opinion known on, for example, your relationships with main characters.
Besides that the Witcher offers a new combat system, hated and begrudgingly accepted by many, loved by few. This is supplanted by alchemy and magic systems as well as a fairly substantial skill system. Every situation can be approached with multiple tools, using the alchemy, magic or swordplay. But quests are not that varied in their service of radically different builds or skill use. The focus in this game lies entirely on combat enhanced by skills, rather than the use of different skills separately.
Highlights of the game are its award winning opening cinematic, 2d animated cinematics narrated by Geralt, and the choices between a neutral and two faction variants of the main storyline.
Faults
I'm struggling to come up with faults for a game this long, well written and even polished and rereleased. However, the game is quite long, and slow to start in the first chapter.
The combat is also quite different from any other game that employs swordfighting, the cursor occupies the center of the screen, and must be placed over an enemy, clicking the mouse button at the right time to perform combos, as indicated by a change in mouse pointers with the opportunity to improve the combo if the player is fast enough. This is hard to get used to for many, and is one of the main points of annoyance for players.
But with the combat, skills, choices, triple possible storylines for many quests, multiple endings, expansive dialogue, mods and in-game lore, I can not find a single reason for an RPG fan not to at least try this game. I just hope they don't get bored in the first chapter.
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