Sapowski’s Last Wish Comes True
A dark and atmospheric world. Every choice has repercussions… face yours!
From Polish developers CD Projekt comes a unique tale spun in a very unique way. Wrapped in a superbly immersive atmosphere that’s both gloomy and foreboding, the Witcher comes alive with both danger and opportunity. Add memorable and believable characters, and stir well. Sound tasty? The Witcher adds radically different and superbly crafted gameplay mechanics to the bundle as well as a superb ly atmospheric and scary soundtrack and eye-popping graphics (an Oblivion killer is born!).
You’re Geralt of Rivia, the protagonist of this little tale—a monster hunting Witcher who’s recovering from a nasty case of amnesia (how original!). You’re sent to hunt down some mysterious cult members who raided the witcher fortress where you were resting up. You’ll end up choosing sides between a priest and a witch. Not difficult, eh? The priest actually turns out to be a misogynistic idiot and one of his good friends is a rapist. The witch isn’t Snow White either, having helped a local kill his brother with some hocus-pocus. One of the merchants you’ll come across who’ll help you a lot with powerful items is actually in cahoots with the cult you’re hunting. Nobody’s innocent, you’ll discover. However you can’t just kill everyone, but choose the lesser of two evils—or choose the more profitable path—not that these are always mutually exclusive, mind you…
This is what makes the storyline (and the game) so compelling for me—every action has some sort of repercussion, however mild or serious and you’ll find everything you do, every decision you take—however mundane it may seem—coming back and biting you in the hindquarters somewhere down the line.
We mentioned a different combat system right? No more rhythmic clickety-clack sword swinging thank you…Attack by left clicking on an enemy and watch for the exact moment the attack cursor starts to glow before attacking again—this’ll bring up a combo move—and you can chain combos together—to produce a more powerful, and gorier, combo.
Rating : 9/10
Developer : CD Projekt Red
Publisher : Atari
Distributor : Milestone Interactive
Contact : sales@milestoneinteractive.com
The Witcher tells a memorable and engrossing story, set in a gritty and highly-believable world with very believable characters. It also does away with the concept of pure good and evil, introducing instead elements of grey. It’s one of those mature RPGs that raise the bar for what I’ve come to expect of the genre. If you’re any sort of RPG fan—indulgence is the best form of worship!