The Witcher Reviews

Another pair of Witcher reviews have surfaced, one of which offers some arguably confused opinions. GameDaily reviews the Witcher for a meager 6/10.

Gameplay only marginally surpasses that of a hack’n-slash role-playing game. Players must click on hostile enemies to draw their swords and then continuously hold the cursor over the target throughout the fight, clicking at certain intervals. When done correctly, each click starts a new link in the combo chain. With an easy or medium difficulty setting, the cursor turns into a flaming sword whenever it comes time to click.

The more stages the player unlocks, the more impressive Geralt’s moves become, ultimately leading up to a finishing maneuver. Unfortunately, all this clicking quickly becomes tiresome, especially when confronted with multiple enemies or ones that move out of sword range before the lumbering Geralt can swing at them.

Atari broke down the sword fighting styles into three categories: Strong attacks for heavily armored enemies, fast attacks for more agile foes and a group attack that does light to moderate damage to multiple targets. Players switch between the three modes throughout a fight, and unless they read through the monster encyclopedia, they’ll have to guess which style fits what foe. Drinking potions, using items and casting spells help to further enhance combat. Dodging and parrying happen automatically, determined by the character’s skills, but double-clicking around will activate Geralt’s acrobatic side as he jump flips over enemies. However, we couldn’t help feeling that a plain old jump button would have sufficed.

Though Jolt Online Gaming is more impressed with an 8.2/10.

[A]fter all is said and done, The Witcher is actually one of the best RPGs we’ve come across in a long time. It may not quite be Oblivion in scope and all-round greatness, but it earns the right to call itself a must try RPG that will immerse you in its dark and mysterious world. For depth of gameplay and the sheer amount of things to see and do, this is potentially one of the sleeper hits of 2007 and easily recommendable to anyone with an interest in the genre.