The Witcher is a story-driven action RPG. I'll admit that it took me a few tries to get into this game; this was part due to its different combat system. The Witcher’s combat isn't about blindly clicking the mouse, but instead requires timing to effectively chain a number of progressively stronger attacks together (sort of a really cut down fighter’s style of combos) as well as picking the right fighting style for the situation.
The equippable item system in Witcher is rather basic. If you’re looking for a Diabloesce game with an exorbitant amount of different weapons and armour, you won’t find it here. Fundamentally, you’ll use 2 unique swords and a set of armour. These items have a couple of upgrades as the game progresses, but for the most part, that’s all you’ll use.
The real item aspect of the Witcher is with its “power ups”. You’ll spend most of your time looting corpses and objects in search of crafting components to create potions, bombs and weapon boosts.
I thought the levelling system in the game could have been a little more interesting. Every time you level up, you get certain kinds of skill points to allocate to a skill tree. These points mostly just influence your character’s numbers (extra damage, extra resistances, extra chances to dodge) and don’t necessarily feel noticeable. You do get to chain more attacks as you level those skills, but perhaps some completely new abilities as you level to show your advancement may help?
The visuals were quite good, especially given the game came out in 2008. I especially liked the look of the combat as well as the visual effect on the weapons when “power up” items were applied to them. My biggest con for this game however was the repetitive character models. You will run into the same NPCs and enemies models a LOT.
Lastly, the story. The Witcher story was quite enjoyable with a rather hefty length to it. The game offers you a lot of opportunities to make decisions, but ultimately the game’s outcome will be the same. We’re offer 3 endings, based on a few key decisions, with different set dressings along the way based on other decisions. In saying that though, I did get invested in the story and had wished some of my decisions had had different outcomes in the story.
Overall, a very enjoyable game and I’m looking forward to playing the sequel, Witcher 2. Should you so choose, your save file from Witcher 1 can be imported into Witcher 2, so that your decisions and equipment following you, allowing it to really feel like it’s a continuation of your character.
It you enjoy your stored driven RPG and have the time and patients to invest into a long story, I’d recommend giving The Witcher a try.