The Witcher - Reviews @ GPM, HardOCP, F13.net

A trio of Witcher article can be found around the 'net.  Here we go, starting with a review at GamePlay Monthly, who gave it a B+ and are now disappointed in North American RPG developers:

The overall story of The Witcher isn't phenomenal. However, it is, on the other hand, quite unique in its own respect, and I'm not even sure if or when another RPG will come close to The Witcher's decision system. Let me explain. You see, games like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic feature all sorts of decisions throughout the game that are quite blatantly “good” and “evil.” Unfortunately, once you get to the end of that sort of game, there will be ONE big decision that determines if you get the good ending or the evil ending. This means that you can be the biggest jackass in the galaxy, murdering every single kind-hearted person you find, then at the last second, choose the good guy option and be celebrated as a hero and looked at like you're a great guy. This is simply absurd. I love KotOR, but that aspect of the game is a bit ridiculous.

...F13.net has a really short overview:

The Good: the combat and controls were reasonably well explained and easy to pickup. The game is beautiful, and has the details I expect in modern RPGs, like full voice over on all the NPCs and a very detailed journal system. While it's classified an Action RPG, it still has elements like a detailed inventory and character progression to make it feel like an RPG. I can tell early on that if I want to make a gimpy mage out of my Witcher, the game will let me. The real winning point for me though was talking to a Blacksmith and asking him if he had been helping out the local terrorists. He promptly told me to piss off and wouldn't deal with me anymore. It's nice to see a game where I have to think about the conversation, as opposed to it just being a "click to learn more" thing.

Thanks to Melvil for that one.  Finally, HardOCP has a performance article that tests The Witcher on four different video cards.