The Witcher

This is the game they always wanted to create, inside a genre they loved and into a universe which inspired them.

The year 2007 was a pretty disappointing year for the RPG (Role Playing Game) fans. Many of the titles which were promising to continue the epic line of the genre have managed only to discourage the gamers through system requirements which were huge. So let’s think of Neverwinter Nights 2: while the Dungeons and Dragons system was in power through the new set of rules 3.5 and through a fresh story line, the game was having performance problems even on dual core computers with SLI or Crossfire rendering possibilities.

Even now, the increasing number of patches has failed to completely solve the problems from Neverwinter Nights 2. The truth is that Bioware has shocked the entire public opinion from the moment they chose to drop the Aurora graphic engine (on which the first Neverwinter Nights game is based on) to the ones from Obsidian, so washing their hands from the future of one of the most beloved games of all times.

The Witcher is a RPG based on the writings of the Polish novelist Andrzej Sapkowski. And in order to understand the importance of the game, we have to mention that the official website is opening with the following words: This is the game they always wanted to create, inside a genre they loved and into a universe which inspired them. The player has the role of Geralt from Rivia, a well known witch hunter, who suddenly realizes after a five year of absence that he survived the Great Wars.

Although not everyone will accept that fact that the character is not customizable, Geralt has a secular air that most of the players will find a great pleasure in discovering the whole past and especially the way the character interacts with other. The intro movie has a very important role in giving the character a contour and in the same time it gives some important data about witch hunters (who will be named witches from now on): they are some sort of renegades, mercenaries who depend on potions to improve on the magical way the skills which allow them to survive.

Geralt, like one of the best witches, will be almost inhuman as appearance (looking more like a ghost). Fighting werewolves is Childs play for him and like the creatures he kills; this dark hero will rather rest in coffins as he waits for the morning. The story is a cliché. I could not escape from the feeling of “been there done that” when I found out that the precious hero is suffering from amnesia. The game starts with a sequence in which the hero is running but it seems that he can’t hide, sequence which ends with the main character fainting. He will be saved by other witches who will bring him to Kaer Morhen, the last fortress in which they can still take refuge.

The fortress is soon attacked by dark wizards and of course this will prove the right moment in which Geralt tries to remember fragments from his past as he is fighting against the forces of evil.