Review: The Witcher
Publisher: CD Projekt Developer: Atari Platforms: PCPosted on March 10th, 2008 at 10:21pm by Glamdring
Geralt wields a mighty sword - steel and, later, magical silver, an axe and a dagger but the computer movements are more or less limited to pressing the mouse button a lot whilst aiming in the vague direction of the enemy, so it won’t tax the player’s brain. If he’s adventurous he can do a roll or twist with a key press or two. It may become a tad more complicated later but nothing to bother a young teen and some of the moves happen automatically. There is blood, or the pretence of it. No gore at all, just a little squirt you could miss if you weren’t paying attention. Just enough for him to tell his friends in the playground: ‘Yeah, there’s blood an ‘all.’ A handy initial skill is the magical ‘repel’ that Geralt can use on the enemy or even blockage in a tunnel, or the ‘fire’ skill. There are more to be found as the game progresses. These skills are obtained in circles of standing stones scattered about the map.
The Map is necessary, activated with, well, the M key. This is not Oblivion though, nor GTA:SA, or Far Cry or Crysis. Geralt can’t stray far from the path or take shortcuts over fields. In fact he can’t even jump up, over, on or off things. Not even little things.
The path he takes is rigidly guided by the computer and it can become tedious trudging from one hamlet to the other side of the map just to get to the character you need to see. No running allowed. Just like in school. Still, it’ll teach that grandson patience.
Patience. It’s necessary for playing this game. Geralt is not often killed but when it happens getting back to the same point is arduous, particularly if it happens just after a cut-scene, which are not-optional. The conversation can be flicked through quickly with the mouse button but the cut scenes can’t. On the tester’s machine they could stutter, frame rates in single figures though in actual play this did not happen.
Reading the box it says ’80 hours of non-linear’ game playing. Non-linear meaning you don’t always have to do the smaller quests in the ‘right’ order, but otherwise the computer always makes it clear what you ought to do next. You can’t rampage through the populace with that sword as you might in GTA:VC or SA. No, you’re the good guy. Murder is possible though, in the darker moments… and there are consequences.
The game begins with a well-animated opening scene and ends in a castle. Geralt has lost his memory after his last major adventure. Now he finds himself in this castle with people who were his friends – if he could remember them – and is charged with helping the few remaining good-guys to fight the invading enemy: human, fiend and sorcerer. That done he sets out put the world to rights and hunt the evil Salamander and his gang. The scene shifts to the walled town of Vizima but wait: he can’t get in. There’s a plague and the gates are shut. Geralt needs entry and this task forms the next section of the game. It comprises a number of smaller quests involving combat and character interaction and much trudging between locations. These quests complete and Geralt is ready face the final monster, the Beast, creation of Man’s badness.
There are clever little traps laid for Geralt. Occasionally he’s given choices such as: to trust this character or not, to kill this person or not. Depending on the choice made the story progresses. Some paths lead inevitably to death so it has to be done again, lesson learned. Granny approves.
Granny does not approve of the way the game treats women; the game is essentially misogynistic. However, there are a couple of strong female characters that pop up now and again so perhaps all is not lost on this front.
Graphically the game is quite good. Backgrounds look good but old school. As was noted earlier this game is not anywhere close to being Crysis or STALKER or any top-notch game in terms of appearance. The soundtrack is repetitive and sometimes tedious. Sound effects are quite good. Dialogue is stilted and immature; the story they relate is basic faux Tolkien.
So, what conclusion does Granny come to regarding Atari’s latest RPG, The Witcher? It has all the elements that will appeal to the coming-thirteen-year-old. It is clever enough to keep the boy out of his mother’s hair for an hour but not involving enough so he complains when she has a job for him to do. Neither will the boy’s father be bothered to steal the game for his own entertainment – not at all grown up enough.
It does have playground boast factor. The boy will be able to tell his friends it has:
Fighting, magic, quests, elves and dwarves.
It has blood, sex, swearing, killing and questionable morality.
Granny’s quite pleased with her choice of birthday present for her young grandson. He can boast to his mates and gain kudos – and, she thinks gleefully, won’t they be disappointed when they get hold of a copy?!
7/10
