Annoying bugs, broken dialogue and faulty combat ruined what had the potential to be an unbelievably good game.

User Rating: 5.5 | The Witcher PC
I first picked up The Witcher a few years ago, back when i had a rubbish PC that could barely play it. After struggling through the first 2 chapters, i could take no more, and vowed to come back when i had a better PC.

After a few years at University, in which i was the unfortunate owner of a string of laptops (never again) unable to play the game, i finally bought a new computer and installed The Witcher which had been sitting vigil in my room for all these years. I knew the game would show its age, but after reading so many rave reviews and with the sequel coming out, i knew I had to play it... so here we go, i installed it and started playing, I was excited!

The first two acts went along beautifully, and soon i found myself in the trade quarter, back where i was all those years ago. If i'd stopped playing at that point, i think i would be giving this game 8 or 9 out of 10, everything was perfect so far. But then things began to decline, and decline in a big way.

Firstly, i noticed that during the first 2 chapters i was experiencing the odd game crash when i went into a new area. I could live with this, it wasn't a particually big deal. I also noticed that the occasional fight would be extremely hard and seemingly impossible (the beast) and it would take many tries and an element of luck to complete it. As i started doing more missions in Vizima, i noticed that the crashes had become more and more apparent, i saved often but occasionally lost 20-30 minutes of work when the game crashed for no reason. I had to start saving before i left any building on the game in case these crashes happened. Perhaps this is a problem with Windows 7 and compatablity issues? I did lots of research but no-ones advice helped, and I tried a lot of things. I also noted that nearly all the encounters were either ridiculously easy, with me killing monsters and humans in a few strokes, or near impossible, with me taking 6-7 tries to win a fight and not using any different tactics just 'lucking out' like i had done earlier against the beast. But these weren't boss fights, just regular people who would jump me and wreak devastation on my life. As i approached act 4 i didn't feel any sense of happiness playing the game, battles were a chore whereby Geralt would sometimes forget how to swing a sword despite me pressing the correct buttons, where monsters would kill me over and over again and i would have to go back and try again with no new ideas of how to win, and a game in which i did not feel as though i wanted to complete for any reason other than to play the sequel.

The game tried its hardest to be epic, but when there are no real facial expressions on any of the characters, and you find it hard to really like anyone (with the exception of Zoltan) the game becomes difficult to get in to. Merchants in the street look the same, annoying characters like Shani and Triss force you to choose one or the other, and as much as I (like any male) likes the idea of 'sex' in a game, the ability to sleep with a lot of women for no reason seemed a bit pointless, it would have been better if you really had to work to get laid... and the whole concept of the censored 'sex' card was absolutely ludicrous and a pointless addition to the game. The inability to aquire decent weapons and armor is also a problem with the game, and there is virtually no character customization - you cannot go either mage or warrior, merely a hybrid of the two and most skills are poorly explained and pointless, making you feel that Geralt isn't you're character at all, and you have to pick the best skills, rather than the ones that suit you.

So now i'm at act V and i'm Witchered out. Recently, the game crashed while saving and deleted that save, forcing me to go back nearly 2 hours to my last one. I just don't know if i have the heart or desire to keep playing when so many things are broken. Even the voice acting in parts doesn't fit the scene, with confusing and seemingly random sentences being added. Some of the voice acting is truly terrible as well, take for example the salamandra warrior who sounded so dull and flat with his tones that I couldn't wait to cut him in half - although the glitchy battle mechanics made even that hard, and i was quickly killed in less than 10 seconds by his friends.


Furthermore, the inventory system is a joke. Alchemy is to hard to get in to, merchants are pointless (offering you about 10 copper for items when you need about 1000) and having to rest in select (and rare) fires is a joke. You can't even sleep in beds, you have to talk to select characters and rest or find a fire. Stupid addition to the game. (Rant over)

My advice is don't play this game. It has disappointed me so much, i urge you not to make the same mistake. On the surface, the game is brilliant, when the game was running well i was engrossed. But now, the very thought of playing the game any more makes me angry, sad and confused all at once. If you are still going to play it after reading this, good luck to you. I hope you have a batter experience than I did.