The Witcher is clearly a passion project by Polish developer CD Projekt Red. Based on the novels by Andrzej Sapkowski, which tell the stories of Geralt of Rivia, the titular Witcher, this game takes place in the same universe, inserting itself after the stories written by the author. Geralt is a grumpy but experienced fighter, and Witchers – alchemically mutated humans immune to sickness and diseases, but also sterile – are known in the world as monster hunters and alchemists. Believed dead, Geralt is brought back to Kaer Morhen wounded and amnesiac; not even fully healed he already has to face his next adventure. A sorcerer named Azar Javed steals the secrets of alchemy from the Witchers of Kaer Morhen and it is Geralt’s job to retrieve them. On this journey he meets some old friends (like the sorceress Triss Marigold or the bard Dandelion) and new faces (like a young boy named Alvin and a rival Witcher named Berengar). Hints lead Geralt to the city of Vizima, where a group named Salamandra are making life difficult for humans and non-humans alike; this will suck Geralt into a story of political and social intrigue not unlike others he had faced before. The story is filled with deep topics and themes of dark fantasy, which give it a unique twist. But while the plot is great, the pacing is unfortunately terrible, and after a good start in Chapter I it completely plummets in Chapter II and III. Chapter IV and V recover the pacing somehow, even if the endgame is more luring by then than the game itself. The gameplay is okay; exploration is satisfying, but fights require a deep understanding of the combat system which is based on magic, alchemy and different styles of swordplay. It is, unfortunately, rather cumbersome. While the rest of the levelling systems are good, the game takes a long time to actually feel the part of a proper RPG. Choices exist and consequences come in due time, but characters and setting have a hard time to engage, well designed monsters aside. The visuals, while dated, successfully depict the grim fantasy setting home to Geralt of Rivia and the soundtrack is quite amazing; also, all character dialogues are dubbed! The Witcher – Enhanced Edition is an overall good game with some obvious flaws; still, it tells a nice story of glory and infamy of humans and non-humans alike and presents a likable grumpy protagonist that is rather unique in the genre.

Finally i finished this cancer game. Hard mode ? Are you kidding me ? I retied spam like 30 times every part of the game in normal . Play easy if u wanna finish this game even faster than i did.

reall a bad game

I would recommend for those who are really interested in going deep into The Witcher lore, otherwise, depending on your adaptability and patience, might discover this story through videos.

Conversations are pure gold, sadly i din't listen to them at the first walkthrough... Still i'm slightly disappointed there are no achievements in this game yet.

Dated gameplay as one would expect, but great story, missions and atmosphere

Able to interact with NPCs unlike avowed

the story takes after the books of the original series . you dont really require to read the book and then play no need you can play directly also, the graphics when the game arrived was top notch :3

This is radically different from the other Witcher games, but the gameplay is still quite good. I highly recommend it. The story, while it does drag on, is quite engaging. I recommend taking it chapter by chapter.

You will appreciate this more if you've read the books ahead of time.

Ancient game has ancient controls. The combat will be quite a shock if you are playing this game after playing The Witcher 3. From the time of writing this review, 17 years, 4 months, and 13 days have passed since the release of this game. It even has an option to play Runescape style without a keyboard.

The game itself is fun. The main criteria are that the enemies and their difficulty at the medium setting are scaled awkwardly. The barghests you fight in the first chapter are ridiculously easy to kill, and the ghouls take a little more effort, but the boss fight takes an hour.

I am just starting the next chapter and am loving the game thus far. The best advice would be to pay attention to alchemy and brew those potions when you can because, unlike the latest predecessor of this game, your potions do not restock when you meditate. It's a great game and an even better price.