Developer: CDProjekt RED
Publisher: Atari
ESRB Rating: M (Mature)
Players: 1
Genre: 3rd-person real-time RPG
Hours played: A Ton
The original Witcher game received many awards including RPG of the Year from IGN, PC Gamer, GameSpy, and GameSpot. CDProjekt, hoping to further this great success, recently released an entirely updated version of the game with improvements covering essentially every aspect of the game. 80% faster load times, vastly improved graphics, new quests, and all-new dubbing in 8 different languages are just a few of the improvements that were put in to enhance the original award-winning game. This is all quite impressive, but does the game fare well under the Usagi’s metaphorical gaming microscope?
Packaging
The most impressive aspect of this game is actually not related to gameplay at all. The packaging and extras that the game comes with are truly impressive. In addition to the expected disc that contains the game, you receive a bonus disc containing two sizable side-quests, a behind-the-scenes DVD, a soundtrack CD (29 tracks), another CD with music “inspired by” the game (15 tracks), a 112-page game guide, a fancy map of the game world, and a very nice booklet with an excerpt from the book The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski that serves as a prequel to the action in the game, and the subject of the game’s impressive opening cinematic. The cover-art is evocative and simple, featuring the Witcher’s emblem. The sheer volume of extras that come in this regularly-priced PC game make it worth looking in to if you’re interested in the game.
Graphics
I wouldn’t want to play the original version of this game if these are the improved graphics. I understand that the sheer scope of the game sort-of calls for simplified graphics, but even on 16x anisotropic filtering, the textures are pretty muddy. My computer can play Crysis on Max with all kinds of AA and AF at 60 fps, but even with everything maxed-out, I was still have aliasing troubles with The Witcher Enhanced. All this is not to say that the game looks horrid, but it’s certainly not up to snuff compared to most of the other major games came out in the last 6 months or so. Lip-syncing is also understandably bad considering the number of languages that have been packed into this game. Some effects and the like are occasionally pretty, but for the most part, this game ends up looking more like Elder Scrolls III than Fallout 3.
Sound
Sound is pretty much what you’d expect. A fairly epic soundtrack with your standard armour/weapon clanks and swishes. The voice acting is good, and the characters are all given more personality by their constant communications. The variety of quite well-designed creatures that you have to fight all make appropriate noises that suit their oddness. Nothing much to complain about here.
Story
The game’s story is quite good. I think this is unfortunately probably due only to the superb quality of the material in The Last Wish. This game mostly served to very much pique my interest in The Last Wish, which I plan to purchase in short order. The game progresses across a good variety of imaginative areas and takes you on a sweeping journey through the fairly open world. You’ll certainly end up caring a good deal about Geralt and his awesomeness.
Gameplay
This is where the game did itself in for me. I am a ridiculous fan of real-time RPGs. I played Oblivion for more than 70 hours and am well on my way to doing that in Fallout 3. Those games’ longevity can be attributed to many things, but one of them is certainly a clever and customizable control interface. The Witcher Enhanced does indeed offer some customization options for the controls, but I just couldn’t get them to work as well or as quickly as I wanted them to. The attacking system can best be described by comparing it to World of Warcraft, as opposed to faster 1:1 click-to-attack ratio games like Oblivion. This aspect alone really took from my experience of the games, as I often found myself standing there taking attacks dumbly, clicking madly, trying to convince Geralt that he needs to attack more quickly. This system is essentially “emulated real-time” in my opinion, as each click gets transferred into an attack turn of sorts to be executed in the rythym of the battle as opposed to when you want it to. There are also several different stances that you can take with your weapons, very similar to the system in Heavenly Sword (which also annoyed me) that essentially increases the damage and frequency of your attacks when used against the appropriate enemy types. Switching between these modes was slow and clumsy to the point of inhibiting gameplay a decent amount for me. With this said, I also have to say that the fact that I generally stay away from World of Warcraft-style games probably only deepened my distaste for the control schemes available.
Pros
+ Tons of extras
+ Solid storyline
+ Good voice acting
Cons
– Still dated graphics
– Bad lip sync
– Clumsy controls
– A bit too slow for an action RPG
If you don’t have the internet and are aching to get a taste of the World of Warcraft experience, then this game is for you. If you’re wondering what RPG to get for Christmas, there are games that certainly rank higher than The Witcher Enhanced on this Winter’s “must buy” list. Either way, you should still check out The Last Wish book. Overall:
6.0
Special Thanks to RocketXL for the review copy of this game