The Witcher is an Action Role Playing Game developed by CD Projekt RED and is based on the book series of the same name by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. An Enhanced Edition was released in September, 2008.
Overview
The Witcher is an action role playing game, developed by CD Project Red Studio and published by CD Projekt RED STUDIO in Poland and by Atari for rest of the world. The game is based on the book written by Andrzej Sapkowski and goes by the same name. The game was released world wide on October 30, 2007. CD Projekt has released an Enhanced Edition of The Witcher in September 2008, which improves optimization and stability, decreases loading times by as much as 80%, contains re-worked English voice acting, provides support for any combination of game language and subtitles, and showcases new NPC models as well as more character animations for conversations. The Enhanced Edition was released in retail stores with extras such as the aforementioned improvements as well as additional in-game content, a making-of DVD, two music CDs, a short story by Andrzej Sapkowski, a game guide and a map of the game world. The Enhanced Edition has also been released as a downloadable patch for anyone who already has The Witcher, and includes all the in-game extras. The game makes use of Bioware's Aurora Engine.
Story
In the game the player takes the role of Geralt, commonly known as Geralt of Rivia, who is one of the very few remaining "witchers." The game uses a commonly used formula, one in which the main character suffers from amnesia and it is up to the player to trace and discover his past. In the opening scene we see Geralt lying unconscious. He is later discovered by other witchers and is brought to Kaer Morhen, the witcher's fortress. The only thing that Geralt remembers at this point in time is that he was brutally injured few years back trying to defend non-humans. As the story unfolds, Geralt gradually learns about his unmatched witcher skills and also his identity. The story is divided into 5 chapters, and each chapter represents a different area.
Gameplay
The Witcher is appreciated most of all for its innovative gameplay. The player has three unique combat styles at his disposal: The quick style, the heavy style, and the group style. The quick style enables the player to perform some fast attacks with high chance of hitting the enemy at the cost of a low rate of damage. The heavy style lets the player inflict heavy damage on the enemies at the cost of speed. This combat style is helpful against larger and/or stronger foes. Lastly, the group style is best when the player is being attacked by enemies in groups. Another important aspect of The Witcher's gameplay is Alchemy. The player can create potions with the various ingredients at his disposal. Alchemy ingredients can be obtained from herbs or purchased from merchants. Some potions will increase health or provide faster regeneration of health, while some potions will slow down the enemies. Others still will enable Geralt to see in the dark and many more. Along with traditional story elements, the Witcher features nonlinear dialogue in which you may choose certain parts of your character's words which may or may not have consequences later on.
Enhanced Edition
The Enhanced Edition was released in September 2008, featuring additional content, bug fixes and both sound and graphical improvements. Most prominently featuring a complete rewrite and rerecording of the entire dialogue which comprises of more then 5000 lines. This is likely due to the criticism of the Polish to English translation of the first, specifically of those who are fans of the novels the game is based off. It contains two official mods titled "The Price of Neutrality" and "Side Effects" adding approximately 5 hours of additional gameplay time and 2 new erotic cards. On top of these additions, a mod editor was packed in as well, which allows users to create their own custom content. Load times have also been reduced by 80%, cutting back on the lenghty load times in the original. A complete document on the edition changes and additions can be found on a factsheet released by CD-Projeckt here. The Enhanced Edition is available at retail, and as a patch for owners of the original game.
The Price of Neutrality
Geralty comes back to Kaer Morhen for winter. He finds a small camp near the stronghold where he meets a nobleman and a sorceress Sabrina Glevissig. They came here to find Deidre, a young woman, who is staying in the witchers' stronghold. She is Eskel's suprise child, born on the Black Sun (ancient prophecy says that such children would ruin the World). It turns out that the nobleman is her brother, who wants to make sure she will not have the crown. Sorceress Sabrina wants to kill Deidre and examine her body to find out the truth about the Black Sun curse. Geralt has to decide whether to defend the girl or stay neutral.
Side Effects
Dandelion gets into trouble in Vyzim. Geralt has to collect a certain amount of money to buy him out and pay for his excesses. He collects the money by completing various tasks. The player can join effects of one task with another. For example: in a fistfight competition he can win cash or a bottle of alcohol. If he chooses to take the booze, he can use it to get one bandit drunk. Then he will give Geralt a key to a chest with loot. The mood of the story is similar to Dandelion's incidents with Vespula and Bibervelt's economics.
| Game Name | The Witcher |
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| Original US Release |
Oct. 30, 2007
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| Original US Release |
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| Aliases |
- The White Wolf
- The White Raven
- The White Warrior
- The White Ghost
- The White Witcher
| Platform | User Reviews | Avg. Score |
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| All Reviews | 4 reviews |
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| PC | 4 reviews |
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Foxdemon2k
813 points -
RobbieH
150 points -
Baljot187
135 points -
snydertiger2003
120 points -
k_ozz
101 points -
Jimbo_N
68 points -
Martyr
41 points -
Xelloss
29 points -
killerjt
18 points -
Dj
16 points
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MattBodega
Is the Game Industry Spending Itself to Death? -
snide
The Witcher - Game of the weekend -
sloppyjoe
I Love Good DLC (or DLG?) -
Jimbo_N
Enjoying The Witcher !
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Linkyshinks
8 posts -
BiggerBomb
5 posts -
Big_Fact_Hunt
3 posts -
Gunner
3 posts -
Claude
3 posts -
robcat09
2 posts -
pause422
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Kush
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Black_Raven
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Lunarbunny
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