magerette
Hedgewitch
- Joined
- October 18, 2006
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ComputerGames.ro posts their detailed review of CDProjekt's recently released cRPG, The Witcher, giving it a score of 86/100:
More information.True, The Witcher isn’t the first RPG to offer choices and consequences that influence the storyline, but in this case they are faithful to one of the distinctive features of Andrzej Sapkowski’s fantasy universe...: there are no “good” and “bad” characters; you will always have to choose the lesser of two evils. Moreover, the consequences of your choices won’t become apparent right away, but after a few more hours of playtime, sometimes even stretching between acts. I have to admit that I was skeptical when I first heard about this choices & consequences deal, thinking it was just a PR gimmick (and I’m sure that I wasn’t the only one).
Fortunately, I was wrong and CD Projeckt stayed true to their word. I think I clocked at least 80 hours of playtime with The Witcher, mostly because I replayed large segments of it in order to see what other paths the story could have taken. By their very nature, some choices will probably allow you to see, at least generally speaking, what the consequences will be, but others will have surprising results.
This is one of the main novelties in The Witcher: unlike other RPGs, you can’t choose between A and B knowing for certain that you will end up at C or D. You will do so either because you will try to relate to what the developers wanted you to experience and say that “well, the other option wasn’t important, and even if it was, I can replay the game” or depending on how you want Geralt to evolve during the story. For instance, in Gothic 3 things were simple: the orcs were “bad”, so if you wanted to be an "evil" character, you sided with the orcs. If you wanted a “good” character, you sided with the human population. In The Witcher there are far more nuances: are the elves freedom fighters or can they be considered terrorists, in the modern sense of the word? Will I stay neutral or side with the humans, among which I have so many friends? This gives the game an extremely high replay value, even for an RPG.
...Thus, in many ways, The Witcher is the game which probably a lot [of] RPG fans hoped for. The story, atmosphere, the relationship between choices and consequences, the graphics, musical score and the non-linear nature of some quests clearly define it as a reference RPG for years to come. And there are also some interesting innovations, like the character development tree and the combat system. But what prevents The Witcher from entering the gallery of truly great titles is what pretty much plagues other diamonds in the rough: lots of crashes, long and frequent loading times as well as an artificially limited freedom of movement.
- Joined
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