It's 2020, whoop whoop! I have a clear vision for the year, my eyesight is now 2020! Well, now that is out of my system let's get on with it. Since the popularity of Netflix's The Witcher, I have been pumped to play the games again. I realized I had never played the first one and I like to play the whole series of a game franchise. When Uncharted 4 came out I went back to the beginning and played them all. Apart from getting to see the whole story, it helps give me a greater appreciation for how far a game has come. The first time I felt this way was with Half-Life 2, and relatively speaking it still holds up well.
I am a sucker when it comes to cakes, biscuits or chocolates with coconut in them. There is a chance if I see one of those things with coconut in it I have already tried it or I'm going to try it. A recent enough purchase was McVities Digestives Twists Chocolate Chip and Coconut biscuits. I was excited to try them. Unfortunately, the experience was a bad one, they were super dry, tasted like a combination of low-grade chocolate, carob, and dark chocolate. On top of that, there was barely a hint of coconut. I learned my lesson though, just because I like coconuts snacks doesn't mean they are going to be good. Playing The Witcher I found myself asking was this a great coconut treat or one I would end up regretting?
Story
The game has you take on the role of Geralt of Riva, a Witcher, experimented on a child and made into a monster killing machine just like all Witchers before him. The opening scene sees you unconscious on the ground, found by your fellow Witchers and brought back to your home Kaer Morhen. Shortly after waking up your secluded and secret home is invaded and after a skirmish, some powerful Witcher making materials are stolen. Geralt, along with the remaining Witchers go in search of those who attacked and robbed Kaer Morhen.
This is the basic outline of the story, along the way you will have to deal with a deadly group known only as Salamander. The Scoia'tael, non-humans that are being pushed to the brink of extinction and are willing to do whatever it takes to get what they want. Outside of that, you will have to deal with Royalty and navigate the twists and turn of politics.
While all of what I said sounds good the pacing can be extremely slow and sometimes drawn out. Friends of Geralt tell him they saw him die. This is never really explained that well and there are only some small breadcrumbs handed out near the final scenes of the game. The side missions help fill out the world and are often more exciting than the main narrative.
Overall the story was okay, but I don't feel the experience enriched the world of The Witcher for me.
Visuals
Originally The Witcher was originally released in 2007 and was released as an enhanced edition in 2008. Considering the age of the game the visuals look surprisingly good. There are little frogs you see jumping around the place, a monkey/squirrel/pokemon creature that runs after you sometimes. The background is pretty lush and can be quite varied. The finishing moves are purposefully in slow motion and look pretty cool.
Frame rates can be poor and sometimes take a bit for slightly more distant objects to load, but in fairness considering the age of the game, it is to be expected. The 'romantic' cut sequences (one eyebrow raised) are fairly tasteful and don't really show anything, especially by comparison of the second and third games. The voice acting is a little overacted and is not always synced correctly with the character's facial movements.
Overall considering the age of the game it holds pretty well but would benefit massively from a full remaster, although that is easier said than done.
Music
The music definitely has an old school sound, and reminded me very much of Diablo and Warcraft 3 which is kind of cool. The composers are Polish composer Pawel Blaszczak and Adam Skorupa, who between them have worked on Dying Light, Call Of Juarez, Witcher 3 Wild Hunt, and Witcher 2.
The soundtrack is over an hour long and features some standout tracks including; 'Dead City',
'Last Battle', 'To Arms (Rebellion)', 'Do You Remember', and 'Tavern At The End Of The World'.
Overall the soundtrack was good, but due to the long, long, hours of playing, I found I had to mute it due to some track repeating over and over (not a fault of the composers, but added a niggle to an already frustrating game).
Gameplay
Many moons ago I used to play quite a few PC games but nowadays I enjoy the comfort and ease of console games. Going back to a full-on keyboard and mouse game was a little daunting, but I needn't have worried. Almost the whole game can be played with the mouse which was great. However, sword attacks can miss their mark even when targeted correctly, this got much worse during the epilogue. Additionally, in the epilogue magic spells (activate by pressing the right mouse button) would not always work. This was incredibly frustrating especially at such a critical time in the game.
There is quite a cool leveling system in the game which rather than just focusing on level 1-20, for example, they use titles like 'Novice Witcher' and 'Skilled Witcher'. Instead of the normal leveling points, you gain bronze, silver and gold talents each time you go up a rank. I really liked this as I really had to think about what I was leveling up and wanted I needed.
There is a lot traveling to be done in The Witcher and all of it is on foot. In place of a horse or a proper run, Geralt does what appears to be a type of prance. This is a pretty inefficient way of travelling and the game could have been completed much quicker with a proper run or some transport.
The missions can be a lot of fun, while there were main quests that I liked my favorites were the drinking ones. Drinking with Dandelion and Zoltan was always fun, especially when it ends up turning into a party. It reminded me of the mission Red Dead Redemption 2 where you get drunk and ends up with everyone looking like the same character. Another shoutout is to an old lady in the house that keeps kicking you out for no good reason over and over again. This got old quick until one point where you can select the answer 'Die you hag!' and she drops dead. There was the occasional issue where if I had multiple missions to be handed into an NPC none of them were recognized, or better yet one gets accepted and the other fails.
There are other activities for Geralt to complete when he isn't slaying monsters including; fist fighting, dice, drinking and 'romancing' humans and non-humans alike. So there are many characters Geralt can romance, and when I say romance I mean have a one night stand which often doesn't last that long. I guess Geralt just isn't into pillow talk.
Up until the epilogue, my frustration with the game was relatively low but playing the epilogue became so brutal I almost had to throw in the towel. And when I say throw in the towel I mean break something. It felt like the game just wasn't completed correctly, everything from sword fighting, casting spells and even not having a merchant in the epilogue was crazy when it was so long.
Overall the gameplay left me feeling frustrated and confused as to how things could take such a downward turn?
Final Thoughts
So, after nearly fifty hours how did I feel? Frustrated and let down. The story wasn't bad and certainly had highlights. The visuals were pretty good especially for an older game, the music was good. The gameplay turned from okay into a total car wreck, I am shocked to see that it got such high ratings when it was released. This one gets a disappointing 2 out of 5.
