The Witcher Preview

CVG brings us the latest preview of CD Projekt’s The Witcher, based on what they saw during a recent demonstration of the Aurora-powered RPG.

In the quest demonstrated to me, Geralt was asked to clean out the nasties near a lake. There were monsters preventing a vaguely dodgy merchant from retrieving his goods – easily dispatched. But then we’re approached by elves. They’ve been waiting for days to pick up a couple of crates of weapons.

It becomes clear that the merchant didn’t care about the zombies: he wanted these pointy eared freedom fighters dead. You’re left with a choice: murder them in cold blood, or let them leave with the weapons cache. At first, your choice appears to make no real difference: the rewards, and the immediate impact, are the same. How queer – aren’t RPGs meant to clearly show the effects of your actions?