"CAUTION! SPOILER ALERT BELOW"
My experience with The Witcher was a guilty pleasure. Despite of its technical problems and below average cinematic presentation, I really loved the premise, the protagonist, the story, and the role-playing quality. The game is really buggy and it crashed every time I ran it, transitions between conversations and cut-scenes are awkward, a lot of voice acting isn’t really good, and the combat was mediocre at best. Regardless of these flaws, twists and turns and writings of the story are really fascinating and you will never guess which choices affected what until you see their outcomes, and the outcomes occur at unexpected moments. I think the character interactions and mystery solving are the biggest highlight of the game.The concept of witchers alone was enough to draw me into the game because of their training methods and fighting styles. Not many heroes consume drugs to enhance their physical abilities don't you think? The game explains in great detail about their training methods and side effects. Everyone have to go through the Trial of the Grasses in order to become as a witcher. This trial requires a person to consume various alchemical ingredients and survive through the transformation process. There is even detailed explanation about where the witcher’s fighting styles derive from and how they are performed. These details prove how rich and interesting the witcher universe is, and the game even manages to implement tons of dialog choices and branching story line. The moral choices aren't all about killing or helping someone, instead its about building the identity of Gerald (the protagonist) and finding the meaning of his life. The story is more about how to maneuver through the society with various factions and conspiracies surrounding them, and less about sword and sorcery. 2 party sections and one detective part are excellent examples. All these realism and fantasy elements are mixed so well with the gameplay that I cannot imagine an adult player who can tolerate all the flaws I mentioned not enjoying the role-playing and the story of the game.
I wish there were more interesting characters though. Probably I will be able to reveal some details about rest of the characters, but considering I made love with Triss and not finding much about her, I doubt I will be able to find more about the others. But, characters like Gerald, Alvin, Kalkstein, Dandelion, and Azar Javed are enough to entertain me. Gerald is interesting because he is calm and wise yet troubled man who has to choose whether he should live as a witcher or not (his personality varies depending on your dialog choices). Alvin is innocent yet mysterious at the same time and he is deeply involved into the main plot. Kalkstein is kind of like a comic relief but his knowledge about arcane and alchemy really helped Gerald achieving his goals. Dandelion is one of few people who know about Gerald's past and Dandelion supports him as his best friend. Azar Javed is menacing and intelligent yet he is so passionate about helping the humans no matter how cruel it's method can be. The Grand Master could have been an interesting one for the same reason as Azar Javed's but he appears only at the very last moment and gets killed in the end so he doesn't get enough screen time.
I saw some comments mentioning how the characters and the story are boring and bland, but I completely disagree for the reasons I stated above. And chapter 2 isn't bad either, since you are always thinking who the real criminal is, and you'll be surprised by whats coming up at the end of the chapter. After all, the game is based on the well written fantasy novel, so you can't go wrong with the story. I can't tell if this is the best fantasy story ever, since my first language is Japanese and I am not really experienced with literature, but I can say that this is the best story telling I've ever seen. Mind you that I've played other story based games like Planescape Torment, Baldur's Gate 2, and Dragon Age Origins, so I think I know what I am talking about. What do you guys think? Do you agree with me or not? Either way, let me know why.
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