Well, the other night I got "The Witcher" in preparation for when I eventually got the second, it has the option to transfer save files so I obviously had no choice but to purchase and complete the first game beforehand.

I'm about to lay out my first impressions, and there will likely be a lot more from me on this subject as I progress through the game, but i'll try and keep the spoilers to a minimum. Anyway, here we go!

The Witcher is a game based on a series of fantasy books of Polish origin (I believe) and as so theres a lot of lore in the world that doesn't seem to be very well explained. This, isn't a criticism though, I personally enjoy this aspect of the game. It encourages you to explore, and try and search out what knowledge you can. And while it may seem kinda cheap, I like the idea that i'd encourage people to buy the books, i'm always a fan of getting people to read, and I'll likely be getting myself the books some time soon.

As far as the plot is concerned the intro movie does a good job of laying out who your character is. You're Geralt of Rivia, a Witcher (Read as:Human mutated through choice to become fighting machine and monster hunter) and quite a famous one at that. You're faster, stronger and generally more awesome than any normal man, and sterile (Quite important for reasons i'll discuss soon). But immediately at the outset of the game I was left disorientated, and have only become more so. You start off with amnesia running through a forest, and find out fairly quickly that you've been dead for 5 years. But...no one really seems to care. What's more, for a character with amnesia, you at first find a few options to go "Um, who are you?" when characters talk to you as an old friend, but this soon fades out and you greet them like anyone else.

Anyway, plot wise your home is attacked and wrecked and a good friend dies, and you and your pals split up to find out who's repsonsible, and of course, being the protagonist, you're on the right path. I haven't unravelled too much of what's going on yet but it seems to be setting out for something big.

Gameplay wise, there are some issues I have. Overall it's a fairly nice streamlined RPG experience, you have a range of skills at your disposal, though the emphasis lies heavily on swordplay. However I find the method of combat grates on me, you click on an enemy and hold the click and cursos over them to attack, and can chain attacks with timing. However it takes an annoyingly long time to actually attack, where the enemy is liable to have moved or something else stepped in to block the way. On top of this blocking and parrying have absolutely no impact from the player, so when you get hurt you're left feeling very helpless.

On top of this, some fights require you to take potions, not in fight specific questy ways, but just for general survival against tougher enemies, and without having pre-prepped and drank these potions it can be quite annoying to have to go back and reload, especially since some of these encounters are preceded by lengthy cutscenes.

Still, I enjoy the way the game has played out, the combat is fun to watch, as each new rank of your varying swordsmanship makes your character look genuinely more skilled when they fight. And it's always fun to watch yourself twirling through a cluster of men with a silver longsword while they collapse in small bits and pieces.

This is aided by the beautiful graphics, especially for an old game. While the character models look a bit...cartoony, a lot of the world is wonderfully detailed, from the stray dogs sleeping in doorways to the flocks of pidgeons you disturb as you pass.

Finally, it's not a game for the younger ones. There are censored versions for the more conservative areas of Europe, however in the one I have there is a lot of emphasis on the more mature content. I've already defended about 5 women from large gangs of men with quite evident desires, been in a conversation where I counted 8-9 expletives in a single sentence, and had sex with several characters, sterility seems to have been added just to compensate for this, and been granted a trophy card that leaves very very little to the imagination.

While it may be a bit over the top with the trophy cards and the swearing occasionally, I find that this level of realism is fairly nice. It gives the world a nice and gritty feel to it, makes me feel more of a part of it, and I don't find it really subtracts from the experience of playing.

So far it's a good game, not the best, but far from the worst, and I would suggest that if you have the spare time and money, and an interest, you give it a shot. Then again, i'm only in Chapter 2, all opinions are liable to change.

Sounds like a pretty good game, but the clunky combat sounds like a turn off for me.

I know this was written like a year and a half ago, but I'm glad I read this, because I've been curious about Witcher. Who knows if I'll ever get time to try this game, though.

If the first is anything like the second, it is very dark and very adult. If you're easily offended by explicit nudity, frequent swearing, or taboo topics then this is not the game for you.

Thanks. I will take that into consideration. I've heard mixed things about this game.

I enjoy it and know plenty of others who do too but I'm sure that there are plenty of people on the other side of the fence on this game as well.

What about rape? I can deal with swearing and nudity but not rape.

Not sure about the first game but in the second game, yes and no. A secondary character's rape is implied but not shown and is not glorified. I personally feel that they did this in order to make you hate a certain character...which I found to be pretty effective.

The devs did not set out to show people that rape is okay. As I said though, I have no idea about the previous game.

Is this game worth trying out? It sounds interesting but I'm not too sure.....

Is it only on PC, or us it in Xbox too?

The Witcher 2 is on the both PC and Xbox360 but the first one is PC only as far as I know, which is why I haven't played the first game.

Maybe rent if first? It isn't for everyone.

I'm thinking I should have gone with this game over Dark Souls. DS is such a grind fest.

I have heard Dark Souls is a really tough game. Like, playing DiD while surviving and making it through the bulk of the game is just not even worth considering!

That's what I've heard, anyways.

I would not even consider it. Many of your characters won't get out of the tutorial. There are many many many things that will surprise you and kill you instantly in Dark Souls.

yea screw that. That sounds worse than Tomb Raider

Well that sounds depressingly challenging. The more I look around the more convinced I am that Dark Souls is a game for masochists.

I like to have to think but I don't like constant challenge that never ceases.

Exactly! This is why I like Elder Scrolls....there's plenty of time to breathe and not worry about possibly dying. A couple months ago some kid was complaining over at Bethsoft that Skyrim doesn't have a fight every other second. He (or she, but probably he) watched Oblivion's opening movie (where Patrick Stewart speaks) and seemed to be expecting Oblivion would be this constant grind-fest of enemies and fighting.

We all had a good laugh, then tried to explain how it's not like this, but the kid never came back to read the thread he/she started.

I liked the original sooo much... it was a pure PC title with 3 different sword styles (kinda like bioshock 1) and all that a PC gamer could need... but now they kinda rebooted it, took away the ending, dumbed it down and now its a console game



RIP good old times :*(