I like RPG games that are fast and rewarding. For example, I tried to play Oblivion, but it was like: "you are here, the guy you need to talk is on the other city--insert 20 minutes of walk here--get there, grab side quests, then go back to main quest, but you dont have the gear for it and they kill you too easily, you dont have money, go back to side quest, you have to go to this other city for this particular side-quest--ten minute walk here..." A couple of hours of which you spent half an hour walking.
Ok enough Oblivion bashing, it would have been a good mmorpg...

The Witcher is sort of the opposite to my Oblivion experience. The game can stick to a main story line and sidequests dont get too much in the way. Im all for sidequests, but I dont like to be much distracted from the main goal.

For those who dont know anything about The Witcher, it is an RPG for the PC. You are a Witcher and is known that you made great things in the past and gained fame (a nice rendered video at the begining explain it to you). Somehow you have lost your memory, fellow Witchers find you and so it begins. You need to relearn a lot of stuff...
The Witcher world is based on some polish books, is a medieval world, but a very dark one. Anyway you will find the usual races like elves, dwarfs and humans. You are a mutated human, you chose to mutate yourself to become a Witcher (a process with a very high death toll).
One thing I like about The Witcher story is that every character has some little dirty secret. Is a mature RPG in every way, there are no sex scenes, but sex is a topic. Yes, you can have sex with ladies. But thats it, for me every serious RPG should integrate sex. It doesnt feel lame in my opinion, and the game lets you screw a mage in the begining of the game so is great... after that you wont be playing the game to just screw things.



This world is very well brought to life thanks for the graphics engine, it looks good, it seems to be a living world. Not a nice one, but a raged by war and disease one. You are what you are, it is not apologetic about it.



Voice acting isnt great. I wont lie, combat mechanics try to do something different and refreshing in the sense that it is not going to be your typical point-and-click combat, but it does sort of fail to be actually refreshing from the usual RPG formula. Some other things dont "fell" quite right. Sometimes I think that with some more polish it could have been a lot better. I get that feeling from the dialogs. Also the loading times every time I get inside a hut, an inn or a house are too much. My PC is up to the test in every aspect, so I dont get those long loading times that cut the game experience. They should have worked a little bit more in this aspect. On the other side is weird... the game can handle a gigantic map without any loading times between one zone and the other. Yet every time I get into a frecking house... anyway, weird.

Dont get me wrong, you should definitely try this game, even if you are not a big fan of RPG. Not just because is fast paced and not the typical slow-paced-torture that RPG usually are, but also because of the character you play with. He is a clever guy, knows how to talk with the ladies and is not the typical good guy, very intriguing. It manages to do a lot of things right, while some minor glitches get in the way the experience is very enjoyable.
The Witcher gives you a lot of freedoms without the issue that I hate about RPG´s of not knowing what to do. It is not perfect, but not so far from that.

Velt.