Mini Review: The Witcher
The Witcher has plenty of flaws but it still manages to set the foundations for a interesting series overall. The strongest part of this game is the story which tells a tale of how Geralt must forge a new identity while making his way through the land around Vizima. Over time the narrative just keeps getting better with the realization that everything just isn't going to go the right way no matter what he tries to do. The gameplay part of this equation is certainly unique with the combat requiring timing based clicks on the mouse to keep the combo going. Since that alone would make it a beat em up you also have to deal with different stances which would be more effective on certain opponents. Like the fast style would be great against a rogue and the strong style would be effective on a large opponent. Adding even more onto that Geralt has two different swords at all times that need to be switched around when either fighting monsters or humans. So even though it is rather simple at first they add in plenty of variation that you have to keep track of if you want to be successful during combat.
On the other side this game still has a assortment of things that make it less than perfect. Headlining this was the fact that the game crashed at least 5 times before I finished it. Every time I wasn't expecting it so I usually lost some progress which was lessened by the fact that it auto saves every now and then. I know it's hard to create a unique character model for each new person Geralt meets but I noticed a lot of reused models for different characters he meets along the way. The game itself also goes at a really slow pace so if it doesn't grab your interest in a few hours in I could see most new players getting bored fairly quickly. In the end if your thinking about going back to this first game it is worth your time if you have enough patience to play through it.