Blog of Nuke

Almost a year after its release, I’ve decided to give The Witcher a try. wTwNjzVFVU

The game is a third person, action RPG based on a series of fantasy novels by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski and tells the story of Geralt of Rivia, a member of a secretive organization of monster hunters known as witchers.

Witchers have their bodies modified and undergo special training from a very young age in order to hunt down and destroy monsters and magical beings who threaten humankind.

Anyone who has watched the anime TV series Claymore will be familiar with the set-up.

While I’m only in the early stages of the game, I’ve played enough of it to say that in its current state, The Witcher is B-grade gaming.  But all hope is not lost!

The game has suffered terribly under bad localization.  The script and some of the voice acting in some places is absolutely attrocious.

Character animation is mechanical, almost lifeless and glitchy, especially during the dialogue scenes.

The way the game flow is rough and stuttered.  For example, you’re tossed to and fro between storytelling and third person play perspective.  This is especially evident in the game’s starting point at Kaer Morhen castle.

But The Witcher has a lot going for it, including a developer who is dedicated to seeing the game properly presented even after a year after its initial release.

CD Projekt is releasing a massive update to the game in the form of The Witcher: Enhanced Edition.  This version not only addresses annoying bugs, but incorporates improved localization (including script re-writes and re-recorded dialogue), 50 new character models and as many as 100 new animated gestures for dialogue scenes.

The Witcher also has game mod capability and the D’jinni Adventure Editor, so it’s possible for players to add their own content and write up their own adventures.

So despite being a year out of the starting gates, The Witcher is still rough around the edges, but the developer’s commitment as demonstrated by the Enhanced Edition release as well as the modification possibilites for the game shows that there is a lot of great potential for it.

Tags: Andrzej Sapkowski, cd projekt, enhanced edition, fantasy, Geralt, RPG, the witcher

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 13th, 2008 at 11:31 am and is filed under gaming. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.