The Witcher

Well, I've finished The Witcher's prologue and am just starting chapter one. I have to say, I am as impressed as I am pleasantly surprised.

First off, ignore the criticism directed at the game's engine. Yes, it's an iteration of Bioware's Aurora engine, but I can tell CDProjekt tweaked it because The Witcher looks hands down better than Netherwinter Nights 2. Along with some graphic upgrades, CDProjekt scrapped the D&D gameplay and created their own combat and leveling system. Even though NWN2 and The Witcher share a game engine, they play like entirely unrelated games.

Secondly, the game has an interesting and compelling story, even if it is set in a conventional fantasy world. The game's world is based on a best-selling book series in Poland, which gives the game its depth and feel. For the first time in a long time, I can honestly say I know what's going on with the game's story, I understand why I'm performing the quests I'm performing, and I am anxious to finish them to unravel more of the plot.

Thirdly, combat is cool. You have three styles of fighting, strong, fast, and group. You have to alternate between the three to effectively fight different opponents. For instance, I found myself pitted against a dexterous bandit. I had my style set to strong and discovered quickly that I wasn't landing blows. I switched to the fast style and cut him down in short order. In addition to styles, you have the opportunity to unlock second and finish moves depending on how quickly you can left click on your opponent. While fighting, your cursor flashes a flaming sword. If you click at that exact time, Geralt executes a second move, dealing extra damage. If you complete that maneuver, the cursor may flash again, allowing Geralt to perform a finishing move for even more damage. It's a fun system and adds a certain frantic element to the combat.

The game does suffer from a poor translation. Dialogue mostly sounds odd and stilted, and occasionally wanders into the realm of "wtf?????" But despite the mangling of the English language, the story shines through loud and clear. I think it helps that Geralt, your witcher avatar, is a pre-generated character. This allows the developers to write dialogue with just that character in mind which gives them the power to tell a more detailed and focused story. Self-generated characters are nice, but don't allow developers the same ability to include the character within the larger story, at least not in such an intimate and detailed way.

And the world has amazing depth. I stepped into the local inn, and amid the sparse patrons milling around, I could hear punches being traded. I followed the sound, turning a corner, and happened upon a ring of men surrounding two other men fist-fighting. They broke from each other and fell into the ring when I stepped forward and questioning one of the men allowed me the opportunity to fight for money. I set my wager and quickly trounced my opponent (it helped that his name was "weakling fist-fighter." Fighting for money has nothing to do with the main quest line, or even a meager side quest, but it was a cool detail that added some texture and realism to the game world. It was also comically disturbing having one of the fist-fighters comment to me that my mother performed fellatio on a dwarf.

I know the game has attracted some press regarding it mature content, but the game is an outstanding debut and I'm looking forward to seeing more games from CDProjekt in the future.