The Witcher (PC)

A foul-mouthed, morally ambiguous role-playing treat.
1/31/2008 12:00 AM | 0 Comments | Page 2 of 3

It's also in the first act that players get to dip their toes in the game's depth: Geralt's three combat styles (strong, fast and group) become more useful; the game's spare but useful magical signs come into play; and alchemy begins bearing fruit. It's not until later that Geralt's two swords (silver for monsters, steel for humans) add another layer of complexity.

Still, at an early hour The Witcher is sufficiently meaty. Tomes and scrolls, many scattered throughout the world (most for sale from various vendors), become vital. Reading the right books will grant Geralt insight into a monster's strengths and weaknesses or give him enough understanding to harvest potion ingredients from corpses and wild plants. This is when the game starts giving players the chance to make interesting choices. Do you save up for a monster tome before plunging into a crypt or cave, or just dive headlong into the fight and return later to farm for reagents?

Then, of course, there are larger moral quandaries that come into play. At many junctures Geralt can choose sides, opting to help a character or throw them to the wolves. Unlike a morality-based game like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, the rewards for doing good and doing evil aren't so cut and dry. Frequently Geralt will be rewarded for being ruthless or be punished for doing the 'right' thing. The Witcher's complex morality makes it hard to second-guess and is all the more refreshing for it.

Technically, The Witcher comes with a few hitches. A patch has shortened nearly interminable load times. It's also highly recommended that you try installing and running the game's demo before playing, since some have had trouble with glitch crashes and other compatibility problems. These fairly typical PC gaming hiccups aside, The Witcher is a remarkably beautiful game. The environments teem with life. Little touches like the fluttering bats that swoop along dungeon ceilings or the skittering rats that infest Vizima make the world feel alive. It's this well-realized medieval vision that overcomes the game's localization woes.

But woes they are. The voice acting in the game is incredibly uneven. Some characters are great, performed with an &eacure;lan that really brings out their unique personality. Others are downright terrible, spoken in dead voices that don't match from one line to the next. Don't be led astray by the BioWare logo on the box cover: The Witcher uses BioWare's dialog engine, but doesn't come close to meeting the dynamite conversations seen in Mass Effect. Players who take story seriously could very well find this weakness a deal-breaker. The game's censorship is an additional bummer, considering how bawdy the game is already. Characters spew all kinds of profanity and Geralt frequently seduces and beds the women he befriends, but while gouts of blood and moral ambiguity are fine for an M-rated game, apparently a handful of nipples are too much for game-playing adults to handle. Hot mead anyone?

When The Witcher fails it fails mightily, and when it succeeds it kicks every loving ass up and down the muddy city streets of Vizima. Make no mistake, The Witcher is a difficult game that caters the more hardcore among us. It is exceedingly long and in some parts quite hard, but The Witcher is never unfair or cheap. A long hard think (and the judicious use of potions) is all it really takes to down even the toughest beasties. Those equipped with an up-to-date gaming PC and a spare forty or so hours are in for a flawed but engrossing treat.