Man it seems like we get a lot of new games and then everything just goes quite, thankfully this gives me more opportunities to brush up on my reviewing skills, hopefully i never fall pray to sites like Kotaku and IGN and have shift my perspective off video games and start writing articles about rubbish or gossip and rumors.
So iv'e decided, instead of going looking for what's making news today i'm going to focus solely on reviewing every game i can to get my writing and review skills to their best, which includes reviewing games that are officially done and dusted and i thought why not review some of the best RPG's that have ever hit the market, this week i'm going to be focusing on The Witcher.
The amazing series written in the 90's and produced for the gaming world since the late 2000's, in these reviews we're going to look at the legacy of The Witcher series and dive deep into not only the story line, but the lore and game play that makes this series a true standout.
So lets dive straight into it.
Story line and Introduction.
Our story begins in a misty forest, as a white haired man tries frantically to escape from an unseen enemy, tripping on a tree branch and finally passing out, he is then approached by 3 men with cat eyes and wolf shaped medallions, they pick him up and take him back to their fortress known as Kaer Morhan, it's there that we learn who the man is and what has happened.
The white haired man is Geralt Of Rivia, the legendary "White Wolf" Witcher who has been dead for a few years after a massacre in his hometown of Rivia, completely devoid of memory for the past decade he only knows who the men are that are tending to his wound, his brother witchers, Lambert, Eskel and Vessemir, and that he too is a witcher, apparently the best there ever was.
Witchers are genetically mutated humans who undergo intense training and alchemical mutations to increase their strength, speed and make them immune to most illness, it also allows them to brew and use potions that would kill ordinary humans to further increase their abilities, they are bred for one thing, hunting and killing monsters.
The world of The Witcher is fraught with evils both human and not, The Witchers are the last line of defense against the monsters that roam the world from the smallest gnat to monstrous evils of immense power, they also possess extremely deep lore and beastiaries about the world they live in and are usually hired to kill monsters that regular armies and men can't deal with.
The story of the witcher begins in Kaer Morhan, with Geralt who has lost his memory after apparently being dead for some time, before they can react to the fact that he is alive, they are set upon by an army headed by an extremely powerful sorcerer, after a battle that results in The Witchers own Sorceress and advisor to the king, Triss Merigold, being badly injured, they cannot stop the invading army from stealing the long guarded secrets of Witcher mutations and a recruit is killed in the process.
After some time recovering Geralt is tasked to head to Vizima, the Capital of the Northern Realms under King Foltest to discover where the man known as the Professor has taken their secrets and what they plan to do with them, arriving on the outskirts of Vizima, a small village is under attack by large group of Spectral hounds known as Baghersts, which are essentially undead hounds, Geralt is contracted by the village to find the source of the corruption which leads to a greater understanding about the townspeople and a certain village herbalist.
Geralt is eventually admitted to the City of Vizima that is currently going through a massive plague outbreak that the order of the flaming rose is attempting to keep in check, however it keeps spreading and more drastic measures are taken, it's not long before Geralt finds a private detective that is currently investigating the Professor as well, they join forces and Geralt begins to search Vizima for any trace of the Professor after he was released from jail and has since disappeared.
There is also increasing tension between the Order of the Flaming Rose and the Scoia'tael, the non human supremacist movement who has been fighting to have their kind recognized as full citizens of their respective countries, however humans in the Witcher are extremely superstitious and untrusting of nonhumans and eventually tensions boil over as a full fledged civil war begins brewing.
Geralt must navigate all of these obstacles while trying to remain neutral and find the professor and the sorcerer before their mutations can be used to cause a great deal of harm, typically witcher mutations when introduced to a non prepared human are fatal, and even to most train witcher recruits the success rate is 3/10 with the other 7 dying an extremely painful and horrible death, however with the professor, a master in biology, at the helm it's possible they can create truly terrifying monsters.
I'm going to leave the story introduction here as The Witcher is an incredibly long game filled with side stories, deep lore and an amazing unfolding story line that leads into the next two games, it's also important to note that actually reviewing every part of the story line would take a lot of time to set up.
So lets jump into the actual game play.
Game play.
The witcher is a third person action RPG, you take control of Geralt a master witcher who is tasked with cleaning up the Northern Realms and retrieving your stolen witcher mutations, you do this in a variety of different ways, but your first and best weapon is always your silver sword, the majority of monsters in the witcher are extremely susceptible to silver and and it does increased damage, but this isn't the only thing in the witchers repitoire.
Witchers have the ability to brew incredibly strong potions that are deadly to non witchers they can increase your health, help you see the dark, increase your damage or increase your resistances to environmental affects, you also have special oils that increase damage to specific monsters and bombs that can force enemies out of hiding or even blind them in the middle of a fight, a Witcher has numerous tools with which to ply his trade.
The game was released back in 2007 and instead of using different melee skills in a hotbar you'll be given a choice of 3 fighting styles, strong style used to deal damage to slow opponents or armored, fast style used to attack quick enemies or monsters and griphon style an AoE style attack that can cause damage on multiple foes at once, these rely heavily on your choice of weapon though as a normal steel sword used on monsters will deal significantly less damage than a silver sword.
You also have Witcher signs, basic magic that can be used for a variety of different uses, Igni can set enemies on fire and make the susceptible to the environment, while Aard can knock enemies down and cause them to free if you spec into it, Axii is used as a subtle form of mind control and can coerce townsfolk into giving up information they want to hide or can be used to stun monsters, Quen is used to form a shield around the Witcher and keep him safe from attacks that eventually can be leveled up to cause attackers who hit Quen to be electrified and finally Yrden, a magical trap that can stop some enemies from moving or casting special moves.
All of these tie in very heavily with the leveling system, The Witcher has an incredibly deep leveling system that allows you to spec deeply into the way you like to play, it also can increase your health, alchemy, signs, weapon damage, fighting style and other numerous things that pop up as you progress in the game.
The Witcher is a fairly long game, on the hardest difficulty and 100% completion i racked up around 55 hours and has numerous side quests and missions to do, it also has different mini games and specialty mechanics(like trying to sleep with every woman in town) all though unlike the following Witcher games armor and weapon upgrades are relatively light, instead focusing on your skill using Geralt rather than just racking up gear.
While it's impossible to fully explain how much goes into the witcher and it's various quests let me just say that this is a hard game to complete on the highest difficulty, as a witcher you need to prepare for certain fights, learn the layout of where you'll be fighting it, know which potions and blade oils to brew and what signs to use during the fight, preparation is key in the witcher and coming into a fight with just a sword is an easy way to die.
But what makes The Witcher an awesome game is it's story line and how you affect it with your choices as someone who want's to get everything they can out of a game i did every quest and piece of dialogue there was and even the smallest choices can end up having huge consequences either later or in the next game, your choices also affect the main story in a big way that is felt in the next game, and seemingly no brainer questions can have serious ramifications later on(just a hint, explore the Princess Ada story line extremely well).
Even for a 2007 title, The Witcher feels incredibly vibrant and alive, the world you're in is affected by what is happening in it and some places may be worse off by your interference and some may be better, the Witcher is a story for adults first and fore most, it deals in some pretty dark themes but ties it together very well with the fantasy of the series as it aims to be as realistic as our world just with added monsters and non humans, you can expect things like Racism and Supremacy to be rife in some towns.
The start to an amazing story.
The Witcher begins in humble origins, it focuses on Geralt and those immediately close to him and doesn't move on, the interconnected world of Geralt's past and present make for a seriously great storytelling as you're really playing around 4 games at once, you deal with the past, the present the future and the "what if" once you get to the final stages, it also sets up relationships and grudges that are carried on through to the next games and like i said above can heavily affect your game play based on what you do.
I have a lot of friends who are fans of the Witcher 2 and Witcher 3 who never played number 1 fearing it was too outdated compared to today but surprisingly, Witcher 1 is actually the 2nd best offering in the story, i'm not saying Number 2 was bad by any stretch however it didn't capture the awesome immersion that number one offers you and keeps offering you right up until the end.
It also deals with the themes of Geralts life and answers questions about his past that he maybe didn't want to remember.
But on a purely game play level it's strangely addictive to play, while the combat system may be a tad out of date it becomes more and more fun the longer you play the game to the point where when i went to Witcher 2 i immediately thought "this feels like a downgrade" even though it really wasn't.
It's also important to note the company responsible for creating the Witcher 1 is a studio deserving of recognition and your valuable money, a very small polish indie company, CDProjeckt Red, released the Witcher 1 at cost to themselves and their love of this game really shows, now they're currently a huge developer and well respected in the gaming world as they understand their fans and have always delivered on the promises they keep.
Even though the graphics are outdated by today's standards it's still an amazing game worth your time that you can get dirt cheap on many websites , i fear that this, or any review could ever do it justice, but if you have a spare days and want to experience one of the best story driven games this century you would do well to pick up The Witcher.