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Title:
Witcher: Enhanced Edition, The
Series:
Witcher
Rating:
M
Genre:
Role Playing Game
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IGN Score:
8.1
Release Date:
2008-09-16
Date Added:
2018-07-03 13:33:00
Game Summary:
The Witcher (from Polish: ’’Wiedźmin’’) is a computer role-playing game for the PC developed by CD Projekt RED STUDIO and published by CD Projekt in Poland and Atari for the rest of the world. The game is based on the book series of the same name by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. The game utilizes BioWare’s proprietary Aurora Engine. It was released in Europe and North America in October 2007. A console version using an entirely new engine and combat system, titled The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf, was to be released in Fall 2009 but was suspended due to payment problems with the console developers, Widescreen Games. On September 18, 2009, CD Projekt RED officially confirmed that they began working on a sequel The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings which was released on May 17, 2011 for the PC.
The Witcher takes place in a medieval fantasy world and follows the story of Geralt, one of a few remaining ”witchers” — traveling monster hunters for hire, gifted with unnatural powers. The game’s system of ”moral choices” as part of the storyline was noted for its time-delayed consequences and lack of black-and-white morality.
Gameplay
A screenshot of an outdoor scene in The Witcher displaying additional lighting effects
There are three camera styles available in The Witcher: two top-down perspectives, where the mouse is used to control everything, and an over-the-shoulder view, which brings the player closer to the in-game combat, but limits visibility. In all three views the controls can be changed to be primarily mouse focused or a combined keyboard and mouse approach.
The combat system in The Witcher represents a different gaming experience from most RPGs. Players can choose one of three fighting styles to use in different situations and against different foes. The quick style allows for faster, less-damaging attacks with a greater chance of hitting faster enemies; the heavy style deals more damage in exchange for a slow attack speed, and a lower chance to hit faster enemies; and the group style features sweeping attacks best used if Geralt is surrounded. The player can switch between the styles at any point. Both of Geralt’s main swords also have distinctively different combat styles from other weaponry, and serve very distinct purposes. The steel blade is used to fight humans and other flesh-and-blood beings, while the silver sword is more effective against supernatural monsters and beasts (against some of which steel may have no effect whatsoever). The player can, with precise timing, link Geralt’s attacks into combos to more effectively damage enemies.
Alchemy is a major part of gameplay. The player can create potions that increase health or endurance regeneration, allow Geralt to see in the dark, or provide other beneficial effects. The recipes for these potions can be learned through scrolls, or by experimentation. Once the player creates an unknown potion he can choose to drink it, but if the potion is a failure it will poison or have other harmful effects on Geralt. Each time Geralt drinks potions they increase the toxicity level of his body. This can be reduced by drinking a special potion or by meditating at an inn or fireplace. In addition to potions, the player can also create oils used to augment the damage done by weapons, or bombs as weapons in combat. Neither can be created until talent points have been allocated into the corresponding skills.
A time delayed decision-consequence system means that the repercussions of players’ decisions will make themselves apparent in plot devices in later acts of the game. This prompts the players to put more critical thinking into making each decision, and circumvents a save-reload approach to decision making. It also allows the game to have a unique approach to replay value, as the consequences resulting from the player’s decisions can lead to great difference in the events that take place later, and ultimately a very different gameplay experience than in prior play-throughs.
The nature of the options faced when playing the game rarely falls into the typical black-and-white morality present in most computer RPGs, and the players often find themselves choosing from the lesser of two evils rather than making a clear choice between good and evil, a situation more reflective of real life morality.
Reception
The game received mostly positive reviews. As of January 8, 2010, the original game’s cumulative score stands at 81.04% on Game Rankings and 81 out of 100 on Metacritic. Alec Meer from PC Gamer UK gave The Witcher a 67%, describing the plot as generic, the combat engine as poor, and the main character as lifeless. Michael Lafferty from Gamezone gave the game 8.8 out of 10 describing it as deep, immersive game that will ’ask you to think and make choices, not just hack ‘n slash your way to glory’. The Witcher’s cinematic intro was nominated for the 2007 VES Awards in the category of Outstanding Pre-Rendered Visuals in a Video Game and the game’s soundtrack was voted ”Best Fantasy Game Soundtrack” in the 2007 Radio Rivendell Fantasy Awards.
Versions
Enhanced Edition
At GDC 2008, CDProjekt announced an enhanced version of the game which was released on September 16, 2008. The significant changes featured in the enhanced version are over 200 new animations, additional NPC models and recoloring of generic NPC models as well as monsters, vastly expanded and corrected dialogues in translated versions, improved stability, redesigned inventory system and load times reduced by roughly 80%. In addition all bugs are said to be fixed and the game manual completely overhauled. There are also two new adventures available to play through: Side Effects and The Price of Neutrality. A new option is to mix and match ten different languages of voice and subtitles. For instance, players can now choose to play the game with Polish voices and English subtitles. Other featured languages are Russian, Italian, French, Spanish, German, Czech, Hungarian and Chinese.
The Witcher Enhanced Edition also introduced some problems, most notably the ”Cutscenes causing blurred graphics” bug which was not present in earlier versions of the game. The bug manifests in a way that all textures become blurred immediately after the player exits any cutscene or dialog, and remain blurred until the game is reloaded. On December 23, 2008 CDProjekt released a hotfix that addresses the issue, as well as fixing problems with EAX technology.
Aside from the game enhancements, The Witcher Enhanced Edition includes a ”making of” DVD, a CD with 29 in-game soundtracks, another CD with ”Inspired by” music, the short story The Witcher from the book The Last Wish, a map of Temeria printed on high quality paper, and the official strategy guide. In addition, a new and enhanced version of the D’jinni Adventure Editor is on the DVD with the two new Adventures. The game updates, as well as the box’s extras, are available as a free download for owners of the original version who registered their game on the official forum. Furthermore, old savegames are compatible with the Enhanced Edition.
According to CD Project co-founder Michal Kicinski, the Enhanced Edition required a $1 million investment, and the company has shipped 300,000 copies of the retail version worldwide as of December 2008.
As of August 1, 2009, the cumulative Metacritic score of The Witcher: Enhanced Edition was 86% based on 29 reviews.
The Witcher takes place in a medieval fantasy world and follows the story of Geralt, one of a few remaining ”witchers” — traveling monster hunters for hire, gifted with unnatural powers. The game’s system of ”moral choices” as part of the storyline was noted for its time-delayed consequences and lack of black-and-white morality.
Gameplay
A screenshot of an outdoor scene in The Witcher displaying additional lighting effects
There are three camera styles available in The Witcher: two top-down perspectives, where the mouse is used to control everything, and an over-the-shoulder view, which brings the player closer to the in-game combat, but limits visibility. In all three views the controls can be changed to be primarily mouse focused or a combined keyboard and mouse approach.
The combat system in The Witcher represents a different gaming experience from most RPGs. Players can choose one of three fighting styles to use in different situations and against different foes. The quick style allows for faster, less-damaging attacks with a greater chance of hitting faster enemies; the heavy style deals more damage in exchange for a slow attack speed, and a lower chance to hit faster enemies; and the group style features sweeping attacks best used if Geralt is surrounded. The player can switch between the styles at any point. Both of Geralt’s main swords also have distinctively different combat styles from other weaponry, and serve very distinct purposes. The steel blade is used to fight humans and other flesh-and-blood beings, while the silver sword is more effective against supernatural monsters and beasts (against some of which steel may have no effect whatsoever). The player can, with precise timing, link Geralt’s attacks into combos to more effectively damage enemies.
Alchemy is a major part of gameplay. The player can create potions that increase health or endurance regeneration, allow Geralt to see in the dark, or provide other beneficial effects. The recipes for these potions can be learned through scrolls, or by experimentation. Once the player creates an unknown potion he can choose to drink it, but if the potion is a failure it will poison or have other harmful effects on Geralt. Each time Geralt drinks potions they increase the toxicity level of his body. This can be reduced by drinking a special potion or by meditating at an inn or fireplace. In addition to potions, the player can also create oils used to augment the damage done by weapons, or bombs as weapons in combat. Neither can be created until talent points have been allocated into the corresponding skills.
A time delayed decision-consequence system means that the repercussions of players’ decisions will make themselves apparent in plot devices in later acts of the game. This prompts the players to put more critical thinking into making each decision, and circumvents a save-reload approach to decision making. It also allows the game to have a unique approach to replay value, as the consequences resulting from the player’s decisions can lead to great difference in the events that take place later, and ultimately a very different gameplay experience than in prior play-throughs.
The nature of the options faced when playing the game rarely falls into the typical black-and-white morality present in most computer RPGs, and the players often find themselves choosing from the lesser of two evils rather than making a clear choice between good and evil, a situation more reflective of real life morality.
Reception
The game received mostly positive reviews. As of January 8, 2010, the original game’s cumulative score stands at 81.04% on Game Rankings and 81 out of 100 on Metacritic. Alec Meer from PC Gamer UK gave The Witcher a 67%, describing the plot as generic, the combat engine as poor, and the main character as lifeless. Michael Lafferty from Gamezone gave the game 8.8 out of 10 describing it as deep, immersive game that will ’ask you to think and make choices, not just hack ‘n slash your way to glory’. The Witcher’s cinematic intro was nominated for the 2007 VES Awards in the category of Outstanding Pre-Rendered Visuals in a Video Game and the game’s soundtrack was voted ”Best Fantasy Game Soundtrack” in the 2007 Radio Rivendell Fantasy Awards.
Versions
Enhanced Edition
At GDC 2008, CDProjekt announced an enhanced version of the game which was released on September 16, 2008. The significant changes featured in the enhanced version are over 200 new animations, additional NPC models and recoloring of generic NPC models as well as monsters, vastly expanded and corrected dialogues in translated versions, improved stability, redesigned inventory system and load times reduced by roughly 80%. In addition all bugs are said to be fixed and the game manual completely overhauled. There are also two new adventures available to play through: Side Effects and The Price of Neutrality. A new option is to mix and match ten different languages of voice and subtitles. For instance, players can now choose to play the game with Polish voices and English subtitles. Other featured languages are Russian, Italian, French, Spanish, German, Czech, Hungarian and Chinese.
The Witcher Enhanced Edition also introduced some problems, most notably the ”Cutscenes causing blurred graphics” bug which was not present in earlier versions of the game. The bug manifests in a way that all textures become blurred immediately after the player exits any cutscene or dialog, and remain blurred until the game is reloaded. On December 23, 2008 CDProjekt released a hotfix that addresses the issue, as well as fixing problems with EAX technology.
Aside from the game enhancements, The Witcher Enhanced Edition includes a ”making of” DVD, a CD with 29 in-game soundtracks, another CD with ”Inspired by” music, the short story The Witcher from the book The Last Wish, a map of Temeria printed on high quality paper, and the official strategy guide. In addition, a new and enhanced version of the D’jinni Adventure Editor is on the DVD with the two new Adventures. The game updates, as well as the box’s extras, are available as a free download for owners of the original version who registered their game on the official forum. Furthermore, old savegames are compatible with the Enhanced Edition.
According to CD Project co-founder Michal Kicinski, the Enhanced Edition required a $1 million investment, and the company has shipped 300,000 copies of the retail version worldwide as of December 2008.
As of August 1, 2009, the cumulative Metacritic score of The Witcher: Enhanced Edition was 86% based on 29 reviews.
Platform:
PC
Publisher:
Atari
Barcode:
742725276550
Developers:
CD Projekt RED
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Players:
1
Country of Purchase:
United States
Graphics:
256-bit
Input Devices:
Mouse/Keyboard
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Media Type:
DVD
Game Modes:
Single Player
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Special Edition:
Yes
Discs:
1
Packaging:
Snap Case
Automatic Estimated Value:
~$10.74
Automatic Estimated Date:
2025-08-27
Date Added:
2018-07-03 13:33:00
