When I started playing games, and for a long time after that, I wasn’t into RPGs. But then came ‘The Elder scrolls IV: Oblivion’, which changed my opinion about RPGs. It was the first RPG that gave me some of the best gaming moments I ever had. Unfortunately, there was no RPG after that gem which gave me such satisfaction.
Then came The Witcher, the RPG I didn’t play for a long while after playing its Prologue. But in the days when I didn’t have any other game to play, I returned to it, and it wasn’t long before I realized that I was missing one of the best games ever!
If Oblivion is the grand daddy of all RPGs, The Witcher certainly is another in its territory. I wanted to say ‘The Witcher’ the grandchild, but I just can’t because they are so different, in spite of both being RPGs. While the world in Oblivion was extremely vast, the world into The Witcher is not as big. While Oblivion used streaming as a solution to allow player wander into that world (and hence giving hiccups here and there, which I hated totally), Witcher prefers loading every area separately. While Oblivion refrained from all kind of adult material and/or nudity, Witcher contains both in plenty for a game. While in Oblivion you could go anywhere with a click (once you have discovered the place), in Witcher you can’t. While the combat system of Oblivion was kind a tried and tested in many games, Witcher invents a totally click-based combat (which BTW, works flawlessly), more on which later. There are many many more differences but let’s leave them at that.
There are similarities too, like both having top notch background score and voice acting, gorgeous graphics and some technical problems.
Now we will leave comparisons behind, and will focus on The Witcher.
It begins with an awesome CGI movie, in which Geralt of Rivia, the protagonist and our character, lifts curse from a princess who has become a striga. If anyone has doubts about the production values of The Witcher as it comes from a small studio (CD Projekt), which is making its first ever game, they should vanish after seeing this CGI. Then the story moves in mean times, when Witchers are all vanished and death roams the lands freely. You, who has lost his memory, are saved by a group of good folks who take you to a safe place where you are treated by the gorgeous Triss Marigold (and after a while you are going to have sex with her, giving an idea how The Witcher dosen’t refrain from it). After a little fight, which serves as tutorial, you are set free to find out who you truly are and to be drawn into the story.
I, when I was playing the first time, left playing it after that. When I returned, it just didn’t let me go. The places you will go after prologue, be it the Outskirts of Vizima, Vizima, Swamps, Village or fields, they are all living, breathing and gorgeous.
Graphics- The Witcher runs on highly modified Bioware Aurora Engine and looks absolutely incredible and next-gen. Yes, it has its fair share of technical problems, like frame rates dropping in some certain areas without any apparent reason, but it impresses in the end. Animations though, could use a little help. Not to say that they are absolutely worse, but they are blocky sometimes. The other common complain, probably mentioned by every reviewer, are that almost every second characters look same. All dwarves look same, every old woman is the same one and there aren’t many different looking males or females.
To sum up, it might not be no Crysis, but it looks better than most of the games- 8.5/10
Gameplay- Puts all the fun tricks of RPGs in perfect fashion, modeling the best RPG this year. First and foremost, the click-based combat system. The beauty of this system lies in its simplicity. It feels altogether new way of slashing sword, but how great it is. You just have to click on the right time, when the cursor turns in sword or flaming sword, and that would be it. There are three styles- fast, group and strong, which will be used according to the enemy, to be effective. Then there are signs which replace what are ‘spells’ in most of the RPGs. There are five signs, each having their own effect.
Then there are your decisions, which indeed model the game. There are many games which claim, but few succeed, and The Witcher surely is one of those few. You will encounter some critical decisions, which will decide your friends and foes.
The quests involve fighting and figuring out mostly, but thanks to the a well organized map, figuring out isn't a tedious task, as it might seem. Some quests will require you to use your conversational skills and/or pleasing someone by giving some gift. These too are fun and not hard to figure out.
Although the game uses a day-night cycle, you can move time ahead quickly by meditating near any fireplace. Meditation is also the time when you distribute your talents, which decide levels of your skills. The inventory and talents menu might be a bit nonplussing initially, but once you get used to them, they aren’t that hard to figure out.
Then there is sex, which although really isn’t something important to the progression of the game, is fun sometimes. Every sex unlocks a specific sex-card, depicting an erotic picture. BTW, you will have chance to have sex from prostitutes to princess to Goddess, so there are plenty of options.
Overall, it is the best RPGs have to offer- 10/10
Presentation- As I said already, even though CD Projekt is a small studio and this is their first game, the presentation is A-grade. The music, especially, is superb and suits the game perfectly. The voice acting is good too.
The story is quite good, but I don’t really know if it follows the book. Nonetheless, it is able to draw you in and as it progresses and you make friends and foes, you will get attached to the character, which many games don’t succeed in.
There are some technical issues with the game, especially with the loading times. In version 1.0 of the game, they are really long. The good news is this that patch 1.2 improves them a lot, so that is highly recommended.
9.5/10
A.I., Controls, Accessibility- A.I. is generally good; better than most of the games, even high profile ones (Assassin’s creed being one of them). At least I didn’t find a single when NPCs making fool out of him/her. When it rained, they took shelter and cursed the rain, thugs only came out in night and even animals and birds reacted realistically whenever approached to.
The controls, mainly revolving around the signs and click based system, might feel a bit odd initially, are appreciable once you get used to. The inventory might feel a bit cluttered and unorganized sometimes, but won’t make you frustrated.
9/10
Conclusion- A game this good doesn’t come along often, grab it. It makes it more special cause it’s a sleeper, a game which probably didn’t come on most of the people’s radar in the busy holiday season.
Overall- 9/10
CD Projekt RED confirms The Witcher 4, 5, and 6 will be released over a 6-year period, promising shorter development cycles ahead.
Unless these games are bite-sized, it's a disaster waiting to happen or a major over-promise. Based on the tech demo they showed off, to get anything near that fidelity, and assuming the world is larger, no way they're cranking out 3 games in 6 years, unless they have some super AI doing a ton of work.
This sounds like a good move to me; CD PROJEKT Red make the game engine once and craft the world and the full story, then for each of the next two chapters they spend two years on making the adventure. I wish Bethesda had done this with Skyrim so we had new adventures.
Remember, GTA III was released in 2001 with its sequel GTA: Vice City just one year later in 2002. And GTA: San Andreas in 2004. Same engine but tweaked for all the games and they are all time classics.
Venom, I get that, but the world of game development has changed dramatically since GTA3 and SA...these games will be extremely similar to each other, short, or downgraded quality.
But maybe CD PROJEKT Red has the secret sauce...we will see.
mods literally solve all of that, thats why skyrim sold so well for god knows how many years. You can choose to add content, change the combat up completely, get a bunch of new spells, visually change whatever parts of the world you like you name it. Especially some of the overhauls I really enjoyed
All this company does is lie.
I think their CEO might be a compulsive liar. The last interview I read of him he claimed they popularized/ created "Dark Fantasy" ignoring all super popular "Dark Fantasy" games already out.
Depends. Technically, they could spend many years on The Witcher 4, upgrading everything and polishing a new gameplay system with the story all planned out with the tools to create new content all set up.
Then release The Witcher 5 three years later. Then release Witcher 6 three years later. They would be iterative sequels.
It would be a 6 year release schedule from the perspective of a player but could be 11+ years of development. Unreal Engine 5 does also make games easier to make even if it has issues.
But even if 6 years is possible, they're probably just saying nice stuff for investors. The Witcher 3 sold for so long that sequels releasing close to each other might need even make them more money.
They could also finish The Witcher 4, and dedicate a polish/finalizing team for the last 12 months to it, while gaining an extra year towards the 5th game, and do the same for the 6th.
well they've probably set this up for a bunch of years. I would be surprised if by the time 4 releases they wouldn't already be mostly done with 5 and done a bunch of the legwork for 6 if they manage to pull this of. I'm extremely skeptical and also think they can't even be close to as large and content rich as w3.
They’re just yappin to appease investors when they will be delayed a minimum of a year and half easily or will be alot smaller and reusing assets.
There's only one studio that really gets away with this and that's RGG but it's because their stories are so good their fans don't mind exploring the Same places over and over
Can cdpr do that I doubt it
It’s easy to say that but something is going to give unless they build up their studio to several massive teams and even then delays are likely. Either that or quality/size will be lesser.
I assume this means they will build the world once and then just add story and minimal changes in the next two games.
They might have a tool to help shape landscapes and areas faster, or with AI help included.
Shorter development time doesn't always mean less changes.
Games during the 64 days were made in 2-3 years tops, and look at Mario Kart World.. that was made in 8 years and while it has a decent track selection the open mode is basically a giant desert lacking content..
Long development time doesn't always mean lots of content.
Will in be like a Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom? Not necessarily a bad thing if done right.
CD Projekt RED and the ESA got The Witcher into the stratosphere and into outer space thanks to some help from a Polish astronaut.
The value of the company has almost doubled in a year and 2027 could mark a record with the arrival of The Witcher 4.
Maybe we see what's up on release before we start saying "historic success." I love all of CDPRs games. But CP2077 was going to be a historic success as well. I loved the game on release but it was a disaster launch. I was one of the lucky ones who's pc experience was playable, but it was still a broken mess and CDPR needs to prove themselves again before we all circle perk them over a game that has not released.
i got it day 1 for PS4. The game was broken, but I still put serious hours in it. Then ´put even more on the PS5. It wasn't the broken part that got me, it was the lack of interactivity and the AI. Witcher 4 is going to go off. It's not a compact city.
