The Witcher

The Witcher is one of my favourite RPGs of this generation. I've played it on both PC and streaming via Onlive. It's definitely more playable on the PC! The combat is pretty simplistic - you choose the right kind of weapon, and then the right "style" (e.g. fast/slow/group) for the enemy you're attacking. There's also an alchemy system that gives you buffs to help make certain tasks easier - so you get healing, the ability to see in the dark, etc. It's not the combat that makes this fun, though, it's the story. I've read most of the books that have been translated into English, and I think they did a good job tying the game into the world of the books. The story is quite long, and you really get to know the characters and immerse yourself into the universe. I prefer The Witcher 1 to The Witcher 2 (the graphics might be better in 2 but the story went in the wrong direction IMO and there wasn't enough of the monster hunting side of being a Witcher for my tastes). I'm looking forw... Read more

Time for an actual review of an actual product. I love this game. It does a very good job of immersing you in its fantasy world. If you like RPGs, this is a really good one to get. It is very dark and definitely not for children as the protagonist, Geralt of Rivia, cuts his way through the enemy (often decapitating them) to recover stolen Witcher secrets and for vengeance. It really feels like you're playing a dark fairy tale. The world is very well fleshed out and feels very alive. The characters have really great depth to them. The settings and music are phenomenal. I'm about 1/3 of the way through the sequel and can't recommend this one enough.

I picked up The Witcher when it first came out and was a little bummed that I was not able to start playing immediately. I found out that the game does not run very well on a Pentium 4 system and so I set out to actually build a cheap gaming system just to play the game. Well, the extra money spent was well worth it. I have not played a real time game with that much depth in quite some time. I am a big Diablo fan and really like that sort of game, particularly the treasure hunting and custom item creation part. The witcher is different in that it has more character interaction and dialogue. They really did a pretty good job of creating characters that I felt were real which is what made the game special. You know what I am talking about. You have seen movies that had great action and special effects but in the end you were not quite as satisfied as you would have liked to have been and it usually boils down to whether or not you cared about the characters in the movie. The mov... Read more