The Witcher Review

The editors at 1Up have taken a closer look at The Witcher, giving the game a somewhat unenthusiastic 7.0/10.

But violence isn’t everything, and The Witcher has much to recommend it outside of the combat system. Stuff like the eerie, compelling story (based on a popular series of Polish novels), the mature setting, the blood-pumping original score, and the clever secondary game elements — especially the Ultima-inspired alchemy system.

What The Witcher doesn’t have to offer is anything new or interesting technologically. The aforementioned Aurora Engine, even with all of CD Projekt’s tweaks and mods, looks pretty Diet Pepsi compared to today’s heavyweights. It’s more than just an aesthetic issue: The lack of long-range view distance makes enemies appear and disappear unexpectedly, important items can be hard to spot, and spell effects seem to isolate one target but hit another.

Did this guy even play the same game as I did? I never suffered from a lack of long-range viewing distance, nor did enemies ever suddenly appear or disappear.

And by “today’s heavyweights,” what games would he be referring to? With higher end hardware, I’d put The Witcher up against virtually any recent game – regardless of genre.