The Witcher Review

By Dan Whitehead Published 26 October, 2007

None more black.

Version tested: PC

Let's talk about the term "role-playing game", shall we? It's one of those phrases that has slipped into the gaming vernacular so easily that we tend to forget what it actually means, and end up using it all wrong. Common wisdom has it that any game in which your character earns experience and levels up accordingly can be tucked away under the RPG blanket. For me, that's only half right. The clue's in the name - role-playing. Games in which you create a role and then act out that character in the gameworld. Without the freedom to come up with your own virtual identity, what you're really talking about are adventure games with a few RPG trimmings.

So, by my reckoning, The Witcher is only half an RPG. The role you play is non-negotiable - you're Geralt, a white-haired growly-voiced amnesiac anti-hero. Nor can you choose his profession. It is, after all, rather set in stone by the verb-slaughtering title of the game. He's a witcher, a professional slayer of the supernatural, wandering from town to town ridding the countryside of foul beasts using swords, magic and a little bit of alchemy. You'll be using the same swords for pretty much the whole game (though you can augment them), your armour options are limited and you've got a fairly rigid vengeance-fuelled goal in mind. If you're looking for one of those games where you can craft your own jewel-encrusted golden armour, and spend months tinkering with optional side-quests, then move along. This one isn't for you.

'The Witcher' Screenshot 1

Geralt has three fighting styles - fast, strong and group - and all can be upgraded at your own pace.

If, however, you're a fan of compellingly realised environments, commendably realistic social interactions and full-blooded fantasy storytelling then pull up a pew, since The Witcher has a lot to offer.

That the game world is deep and convincingly fleshed-out shouldn't really come as a surprise. Polish developer CD Projekt not only had Andrzej Sapkowski's series of fantasy novels to provide the finer details, but they had experience translating such classic role-players as Baldur's Gate and Planescape: Torment for Eastern Europe. With Bioware's Aurora engine to provide the graphical muscle, the pieces are all in place for an above-average RPG-style experience.

The game can be viewed top-down, as in Baldur's Gate, in which case control is entirely mouse driven, or you can opt for a more action-packed over-the-shoulder viewpoint, which uses the expected WASD control-map for movement with mouse-clicks for interaction and hotkeys for magic and weapons. This close-up option is undeniably the more cinematic, offering a good view of the detailed environments, but it can be cumbersome in combat. The camera has an annoying habit of resetting in front of Geralt, all the better to admire his craggy features, but it does mean that fighting involves a lot of frantic spinning around as you try to keep your pointer hovering over an enemy.

'The Witcher' Screenshot 2

This is Triss, the first in-game shag you'll get to enjoy. But she's your ex, so it's not as sexy as it sounds.

The combat tries to find the middle ground between the turn-based approach of, say, Knights of the Old Republic and the mouse-mashing of Diablo II. Clicking on an enemy initiates a swing of your sword, but as the attack comes to an end your cursor lights up. Click again at this point and you'll follow up with another attack move, and so on. Chain your attacks successfully and your opponent will struggle to respond. Get the timing wrong, and you'll break the combo and leave yourself open to reprisals. The right button is your magic attacks and, like weaponry, these can be honed and improved by spending the bronze, silver or gold "talents" you gain from victorious quests and skirmishes.

It's not a bad system but, while it does a decent job of simulating a sword fighting mindset using very simple means, it can also leave you unsure of what's happening or why. There's often a pause before Geralt begins his attacks, and it's just long enough for it to be easily mistaken for a parried assault. So you click again, and break the combo before it starts. All defensive moves are handled automatically as part of the successful mouse-click sequence, so when you do find yourself taking a pasting, it can feel frustratingly out of your control. This is especially true in the fist-fights that you can tackle as a way of raising extra cash, where suddenly you can block with the right button, but are left even less sure of how or when Geralt will respond to your commands.

The system can be tamed with practice, and it's certainly preferable to yet another "point at the monster and hammer the mouse" game, but it's not an entirely successful experiment and you may find yourself thinking it's a lot of arsing around for not much benefit.

Thankfully, the game compensates with solid - if hardly new - RPG features elsewhere. Alchemical formulae and ingredients can be horded, goods can be traded or given as bribes, while a dice-based version of poker scratches the need for in-game gambling. Geralt can even get drunk and pissed up on booze, a state which can be made strangely beneficial if you choose the right levelling-up options. Non-player characters abound, all inhabiting a world that feels lived-in and rich in detail, while there's no shortage of quests to be found in the shape of witcher missions, culling the local monster population in return for money or information to advance the main storyline. There are moments of obvious padding, where vital quest characters won't speak to you until you perform another quest for them, but it's never a chore and when you stumble across conversations that lead to new quests, it rarely feels like you've been led to that moment - more like you happened to stumble on it yourself. An illusion, more often than not, but a fairly convincing one.

It is a shame the NPC dialogue is so rigid, however, since you can question them over and over until you find the right answers to yield your desired results. The game sometimes trips over its own narrative, with Geralt talking about characters he just met as if he doesn't know them, or asking questions to which you've already found the answer. These mood-breaking hiccups are all the more noticeable since the game does such a good job of creating an immersive milieu of windswept countryside, poverty-stricken towns and hedonistic cities. This is most noticeable in the seduction quests, where you try to talk comely maidens into bed. Shades of Groundhog Day soon emerge, as you outrage them with wrong answers only to ask again a few minutes later with no lasting reputation loss. Trial-and-error can earn you most notches on the bedpost, along with the already infamous "I shagged her!" soft porn collectors cards. They're unspeakably naff, of course, but as with the topless slave girls in Conan it's in-keeping with the bawdy tone of the game.

'The Witcher' Screenshot 3

Non-vital NPCs will just utter generic phrases. Those with something of value to say will open up dialogue trees.

Your decisions do have subtle impacts though, often not becoming evident until much later in the game. For all the PR talk of grey moral areas, there's still some obvious "good choice, bad choice" stuff going on, but the elongated timeframe means you won't be able to cheat your way around them with quick-saves. Even the broad sweep of upgrade options is designed for the long haul, with far too many combinations to max out in one game. It's not a game you'll rush back to for another run through, but there's definitely replayability here for those who value such things.

Graphically, the emphasis is on consistency and tone rather than showboating. It looks nice - sometimes really, really nice - but if you're worried you'll be missing some state of the art visual trickery if you shunt a few sliders down to "medium" then, rest assured, it's all about effective mood rather than swanky lighting. You'll still need a fairly robust rig to cope with the strain of rendering the larger NPC crowds, but it's not the system hog many feared it would be. While we're on the presentation tip, the music is worthy of special note, with some haunting Celtic instrumentals, while the voice acting ranges from the effective to the, ahem, enthusiastic. Geralt himself talks in a rather off-putting Americanised snarl, a bit like Dirty Harry, while the villagers range from dim Mancunian to Dick Van Dyke cockerney sparras. Dwarves, somewhat inevitably, are Scottish.

'The Witcher' Screenshot 4

Meditating allows you to mix potions and apply whatever talent upgrades you've earned.

Well-intentioned clickety combat aside, The Witcher doesn't offer much the dedicated role-player won't have already seen elsewhere, but that's not such a bad thing. CD Projekt has taken time-tested elements from across the fantasy-RPG spectrum and tied them to a solidly crafted story that includes elements of racial discord, religious fanaticism and sexual promiscuity in its adults-only mix. Admittedly, these elements are rather crudely introduced and are handled with a rather endearing "Look! Adult themes!" excitability, but there's certainly more to savour here than in most dungeon-crawlers. One for those who value story and character over technical innovation then, but definitely a game worth trying if the concept has tickled your fancy.

7 / 10

Read the Eurogamer.net scoring policy
Picture of Dan.

About Dan Whitehead

Dan has been writing for Eurogamer since 2006 and specialises in RPGs, shooters and games for children. His bestest game ever is Julian Gollop's Chaos.

Read more articles from Dan by visiting the Dan Whitehead archive page.

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Comments (118) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Aretak #1 4 years ago

    Two pages for this and only one for Pro Evo?

    Etc.

  • syphaa #2 4 years ago

    Yeah, I think everyone is a bit hung up on the Pro Evo review...
    It didnt clarify/answer enough of the community questions/expectations I feel.

    Hey Ho. Am still going to purchase it at Lunch time...

    On topic...this game looks a little...samey
    Edited by 1 at 26/10/07 @ 11:41

  • UncleLou #3 4 years ago

    Good review, pretty much nails it, although I like the combat a lot. I'd (so far at least) give it a higher score though - I find the game a lot more engrossing than the similar games in recent years, be it Gothic 3, or Two Worlds, or even Oblivion.

    It does in fact remind me a lot of Gothic 1 and 2, albeit with higher production values.

  • Therapist #4 4 years ago

    Why did you feel the need to have a spoiler tagline for the photo of the girl? Couldn't you come up with something else for people who might be interested in finding out the story for themselves?

    I realise that information might not be crucial in the storyline but still...
    Edited by 1 at 26/10/07 @ 11:43

  • mkreku #5 4 years ago

    How weird that I just read a two page review and I still don't have the slightest feel for this game.. Is there any exploration? Are the loading screens as frequent as in Neverwinter Nights? Is it linear or free-form? Can you swim? Climb? Jump? Are the backgrounds extremely static or does the game have some sort of realistic physics? Is it difficult or easy? Well-balanced or munchkin-y?

    I need more reviews of this.

  • PearOfAnguish #6 4 years ago

    Bit of a mean score, this is a great game.

    "Two pages for this and only one for Pro Evo?"

    Just read last year's Pro Evo review immediately after this year's article.

  • Triggerhappytel #7 4 years ago

    I've been loosely following this game for a couple of years (despite lacking a good PC), and I'm glad it seems reasonable.

  • BremXJones #8 4 years ago

    So Planescape Torment isn't an RPG, Dan?

    KG

  • PearOfAnguish #9 4 years ago

    "So Planescape Torment isn't an RPG, Dan? "

    I'm willing to accept his definition of an RPG because it means that Final Fantasy and the rest can no longer be called RPGs.

  • Orange #10 4 years ago

    Creating your own character is not mandatory for a game to be a fully fledged rpg. The fact that you have a character who develops as you play is all that matters.

  • DanWhitehead #11 4 years ago

    Planescape Torment is the exception that proves the rule, I think. You don't create The Nameless One, but they start as a blank slate and you get to define them as you go along by the way you play the role. I just think there needs to be distinction between games in which you play a character and level them up in an RPG style, and games in which creating your own identity within the game is a core component of the gameplay (ie roleplaying).

  • UncleLou #12 4 years ago

    Planescape Torment gives you more choice in the dialogues though, and possibly in the character development. While the skill tree in The Witcher is pretty massive, the characters of most players will be nearly identical in the end (I assume)
    Edited by 1 at 26/10/07 @ 12:03

  • BremXJones #13 4 years ago

    "Role playing games" just implies you play a role, though. Otherwise they'll be called "Role-creating games" or something.

    KG

  • UncleLou #14 4 years ago

    At which point we arrive at the old discussion whether every game is a role-playing game, including Mario platformers.

  • mkreku #15 4 years ago

    The Gothic games also have a pre-created character, but it doesn't bother me one bit. They are definitely RPG's though as it's the choices/consequences in the game that makes up my role-playing as opposed to choosing which beard to put on my cliche dwarf.

  • Genji #16 4 years ago

    '"Role playing games" just implies you play a role, though. Otherwise they'll be called "Role-creating games" or something.'

    Yes, but there's more to it than that. You play the role of Gordon Freeman in Half Life, for example.

  • BremXJones #17 4 years ago

    It's dans argument that "As the name suggests" I'm picking up on - the name does no such thing :)

    KG

  • PearOfAnguish #18 4 years ago

    It doesn't matter anyway, that was only the least wrong part of his review, the real problem is the score at the end.

  • UncleLou #19 4 years ago

    Before I forget it: one thing I love in The Witcher (and which I love in the Gothic games as well) are that they are so very European. It's pretty obvious that the developers live here, and the art and world design is all the more credible for it. Many US RPGs often suffer a bit from looking more like a Disney interpretation of medieval Europe, and The Witcher hence seems a lot more "authentic" to me - it helps that the world isn't quite as anabiotic as in other recent RPGs, too.

  • SilasMalkav #20 4 years ago

    I like the idea of a Role-Creating Game. We need more RCGs like Oblivion and Fallout :D

  • crazyhorse174 #21 4 years ago

    Its like, how much more black could this be?

    And the answer is "none more black!"

    Think I'll go watch Spinal Tap now!

  • domoslaf #22 4 years ago

    About the clicky combat system - that's already been done, years ago and in pretty much the same form. Summoner was the game, pretty good actually.

  • Orange #23 4 years ago

    Choices and character development make a roleplay game. Both of those are present in the Witcher, but not in Half Life or Mario platformers.

  • TONYgr #24 4 years ago

    i would like to say that pro evo 2008 is out in greece almost aweek now!

  • UncleLou #25 4 years ago

    12:28:44 So is this a take on the one button combat system that Mr Peter Molyneux was going to do for the Fable hype-nonsense?

    Sigh.

    No - more a succesful take on making the heavily stat-based melee combat of D&D CRPG games and the like more involving and prettier to watch.

  • UncleLou #26 4 years ago

    It looks unnecessarily ugly though.

    o_O

  • Gene #27 4 years ago

    hahaha you must be fucking jocking! this is a 9/10 game for sure. you suck donkey dicks

  • kangarootoo #28 4 years ago

    "But she's your ex, so it's not as sexy as it sounds."

    Lets not generalise now ;)

  • kangarootoo #29 4 years ago

    @Gene

    http://ww w.bbc.co.uk/parenting/images/30...

  • Christian_Otte #30 4 years ago

    You had me at "If, however, you're a fan of compellingly realised environments, commendably realistic social interactions and full-blooded fantasy storytelling then pull up a pew, since The Witcher has a lot to offer."

  • zoidberg #31 4 years ago

    Are you kidding me?!?!?! This game is worth a NINE... not a 7!

    And yes, review scores be damned debate aside, this is a remarcably polished effort, that is well above the recent Two Worlds, Hellgate London and others...

  • IAmBatman #32 4 years ago

    That has some of the most generic fantasy art in ages.

  • Daxxy #33 4 years ago

    Ye, feels like the reviewer just played the preview code.

  • UncleLou #34 4 years ago

    That has some of the most generic fantasy art in ages.

    Couldn't disagree more, really. Like I said above, to me it looks a lot more authentic, and the palettes often have a painting-like quality to them. Far better artstyle than, say, Oblivion (at least without Shivering Isles) or the usual D&D fare.

  • Darkedge #35 4 years ago

    "Two pages for this and only one for Pro Evo?"

    Yes - this is an indepth huge storyline long RPG. The other is a Football game. You kick a ball, it's the same as last year and every year. One page is fine. Actually 3 lines would probably do it.

    Great football game
    Prettier graphics
    More of the same as last year. See? 12 words did it

  • speedofthepuma #36 4 years ago

    Is it possible to end the game having developed differently skilled characters?

    /knows what an RPG really is.

  • zoidberg #37 4 years ago

    One of the worst reviews ever churned out by EG.

  • kangarootoo #38 4 years ago

    Christ, what a wingey thread.

    Lets all just pretend it got a 9 and then we can all relax.

  • kangarootoo #39 4 years ago

    And as for the definition of an RPG. As Kieron said, it originally meant a game in which you play a role. That is all, nothing else.

    Of course we can adjust the original definition if we want, but as soon as we change the original definition we must surely accept that there is in fact no correct answer to the question. Hence, arguments over whether a game is an RPG or not are unresolvable.

    How about we just stop giving a crap over what defines an RPG. That plan guarantees results.

  • JetSetWilly #40 4 years ago

    Hey! Tom already used that tagline last year on the Black review. EG reviewers plagiarising one-another shock!

  • crozon #41 4 years ago

    no the worst review this site gave was a 4 to mafia............thou shall never be forgiven.....

    is there a demo for this game. sounds good. but am not an rpg fan so wanna try it out first

  • Remy #42 4 years ago

    Great review - totally agree with the RPG call - although no-one seems to agree on that definition...
    Also, yet more great Day Today stuff... "drunk and pissed up on booze" :D

  • ASHBERY76 #43 4 years ago

    This game is better than a 7/10.This score says a meh,and it is much better than that.

  • AlpTighen #44 4 years ago

    The clue's in the name - role-playing. Games in which you create a role and then act out that character in the gameworld.

    Ehhhm... no. But that's a common misconception. A role-playing game is one in which characters have disparate abilities, and players must use cleverness to accentuate their positives and eliminate their negatives.

    "Roles" in this case being things like "tank" or "healer" or whatever.

  • haowan #45 4 years ago

    ""Roles" in this case being things like "tank" or "healer" or whatever."

    AHUAHUAHUAHUAHUA

  • Azazel #46 4 years ago

    /plays Zangband

  • Nallen #47 4 years ago

    Where do I find the soft porn in the Internet?

  • BremXJones #48 4 years ago

    That's an interesting postion AlpTighen, Care to elaborate on it and where you got it from?

    KG

  • haowan #49 4 years ago

    I said "wow"

    DYSWIDT?

  • Dynamize #50 4 years ago

    Geralt can even get drunk and pissed up on booze.
    Drunk AND pissed up? Holy cow! :)

    One for those who value story and character over technical innovation then

    Sounds a bit like "It really isn't for anyone other than the devoted western-RPG head."
    Which I think is a bit of a naff thing to spend words on in a review, especially in summary. Is this a "add a point if you like RPGs"-type situation? :)

  • Emortal #51 4 years ago

    I'm about 10 hours into the game, and I'm enjoying this a lot more than Neverwinter Nights 2 and its expansion :)

    The things that does it for me:
    -Great storytelling, it throws a lot of unexpected situations at you and constantly surprises you. Also liking the adult stuff ;)
    - Great combat, just watching Geralt swing around his sword and jumping around his enemies is amazing.
    - Awesome design, not technically but aesthetically this game feels a lot more "alive" thanks to its authentic style.

    Music is a bit naff though?
    Edited by 1 at 26/10/07 @ 16:45

  • Orange #52 4 years ago

    7/10 is not an accurate reflection of the game. From playing it is a solid 8/10 even for people who are only casual rpg fans and a 9/10 for western rpg fans.

    The scoring on EG has become a little poor, would be nice to see a change in system to something a bit less token and which feels slapped on the end and often at odds with the content of the review. Invariably it is the score of the review and not the tone which gets circulated and used on sites like Metacritic and Gamerankings which influence people on which game to buy. Would be a shame to see people pass this over when it has a great deal of quality gaming to offer and a more European take on the genre and the fantasy setting.

  • UncleLou #53 4 years ago

    That's indeed a bit of a problem. People will see the score and think it's the next Two Worlds, when nothing could be further from the truth.

  • JayG #54 4 years ago

    Hmm, was tempted to get 2 worlds. It really that bad? Went to get this today, couldn't find the collector's edition, so gonna try amazon.de. Tabala Thingy was out, and Legend seemed to be everywhere.

  • FortysixterUK #55 4 years ago

    " Aretak
    26-Oct-07 11:33:24

    Two pages for this and only one for Pro Evo?

    Etc. "

    Well. that's simply because any football game is really only worth one line, and that's usually something along the theme of...

    ....." Football is crap as are most ( but not all ) sports".

    In fact I may submit a retrospective review of all the sports games ever released, as that quick one line review says it all and covers so much.....

    **sigh**

    ( I'm soooo clever ).

  • YourMessageHere #56 4 years ago

    Surely a game in which you MUST play a particular role is more worthy of being called a role-playing game than one in which you create a character? I really like messing with character creation systems, but having played with the options I usually end up creating pretty similar characters at the end. If I'm squeezed into a role I'd not necessarily have tried, I 'play the role' to a much more conscious degree.

    + you mean "hoarded", not "horded". Sack your scrutineer/editor, they make you look thick.

    + obligatory "Witcher ad is using 99% of my CPU cycles AGAIN, shoot the ad creators plox" comment.
    Edited by 1 at 26/10/07 @ 19:06

  • immateriaux #57 4 years ago

    Going back to PES again, if that got an 8 for being last year's game with a few new brush strokes added, it feels very wrong that this is just a 7 for being a very competent RPG game with a few new brush strokes added?

    Can't help feeling Witcher is "small" so can be marked "small-ly" whereas PES is big so must be "big-ly" marked ...?

  • Scimarad #58 4 years ago

    I was somewhat looking forward to this but the review makes it all sound rather childish...

  • chischis #59 4 years ago

    And of course, they copped out with the "visuals" when you're taking time out with one of the girls...

    Anyway, this looks nice. More interesting to a non-hardcore RPG player such as myself (I LIKED Sudeki, okay? But only a little), as it seems more accessible than, say, Gothic 3.

  • zoidberg #60 4 years ago

    This game will go unnoticed, partly thanks to EG and its score... :(

    Shame since this is a GREAT game.

  • Mr Diskos #61 4 years ago

    Really seems like a strange score for a game this enjoyable.

  • UncleLou #62 4 years ago

    I was somewhat looking forward to this but the review makes it all sound rather childish...

    /looks at sciamarad's game collection

    Buffy? Final Fantasy? Metal Gear Solid?

    Believe me, you need not worry about childishness in The Witcher. ;-p

  • bart5k #63 4 years ago

    I can't agree with character being pre determined as something bad. In case of witcher is like complaing that in KOTOR you have to be jedi ;) In most cases you have freedom of sahaping your own character, because people writing the story, can't create saomething interesting - which is good, I prefer to make my own story rather than go trough some boring stuff, however The Witcher character is so cool and fascinaiting, that I want to play as one!

  • Wendelius #64 4 years ago

    Role-playing. Playing a role is not simply acting.

    For me, the simplest definition of a role-playing game is one where the character influences the world and grows (at least partially) independantly of your own physical skills.

    Whether on the computer or in pen and paper, If you roleplay a scrawny wizard with a strength of 5 (let's assume it means: not a lot), you'd better not charge into a group of baddies with a 2 handed sword you can barely carry, or try to hold up the falling spiked iron gate until your party can get out. No matter how quick and strong you think you are, your character isn't. And you must play within those contraints.

    Similarly, yet in a different setting, shooting / hacking baddies is not about *your* twitch and leet aiming skills, Halo 3 style, but the game will resolve those things based on your character's abilities behind the scenes.

    Or think of Fallout. No matter how clever *you* are, a char with a low intelligence would miss out on the smart dialogue options.

    Then there are the usual: We expect to have control on the character's growth, ...

    It's a roleplaying game. The character is the entity, not you.

    Of course, you can mitigate that and have roleplaying games which also require some ability on your side. But the distinction should be whether it's the character or you that matters first.

    That's my "simple" definition of a roleplaying game. I agree it doesn't absolutely require you to have full control over the char creation and backstory.

    Wendelius
    Edited by 2 at 26/10/07 @ 23:17

  • Orange #65 4 years ago

    The issue with people "not remembering" dialogue has been fixed in patch 1.1 which was the release day patch.

  • Reality_bites #66 4 years ago

    Several reviews on German based websites give this game 7/10 on average. It has nothing to do with the following I reckon .....

    Gameplay - 9/10
    Graphics - 9/10
    Sound - 9/10
    Made in Poland - 1/10


  • Mr Diskos #67 4 years ago

    "Gameplay - 9/10
    Graphics - 9/10
    Sound - 9/10
    Made in Poland - 1/10"

    Hahaha. Love it.

  • zendragon #68 4 years ago

    The game is clearly a nine, and I believe the fan reviews will reflect that.
    Eurogamer's reviews lately are 5/10 sometimes 6/10.

    In fact there is no need for the game to release for half the score, the reviewer is a fanboy/hater of certain genres/platforms/etc and the score is such half predestined...

  • UncleLou #69 4 years ago

    Several reviews on German based websites give this game 7/10 on average. It has nothing to do with the following I reckon .....

    Gameplay - 9/10
    Graphics - 9/10
    Sound - 9/10
    Made in Poland - 1/10

    Nice presentation, crappy joke.

    As far as I am aware, only mercurial Gamestar gave it 73 or something - that's the reviewer's atonement for his enthusiastic Gothic 3 review where he ignored much worse bugs, only to get torn apart by the readers. Now he tried it the other way round, and there's bloodshed again on the site because everybody loves the game. Shit job. :)

    Saw an 8.5 on onlinewelten.de, 89% on gameswelt.de (they added 5% after the patch and for the better voiced English version), so I am not sure where that "average of 7 on German sites" comes from.
    Edited by 1 at 27/10/07 @ 03:58

  • Mr Diskos #70 4 years ago

    I think it was a joke post all the way through?

  • Mr Diskos #71 4 years ago

    Twitching auto-aim.

  • Reality_bites #72 4 years ago

    lol ... pure satire without a shred of factual based truth

  • PartOfAnything #73 4 years ago

    Hi there,
    Some might like the review, and some not, but let me just point out few relevant mistakes that you Dan did.
    1. Triss isn't your ex. I failed to find dialogues suggesting it. She loved Geralt, but he didn't love Triss (that's in books). "I feel a bond when we speak"? "You were someone important"? Sure - she's his friend.
    2. Side quests. From what I've seen until now (I'm in a 3rd act of the game), around two-thirds of all quests you find in the game are side quests, so "this one IS for you".
    3. And again, later on you write "there's no shortage of quests (...) of witcher missions".
    4. "Top-down view (...) is entirely mouse-driven". Wrong again, Dan. Just give your fingers a try upon WASD while using that camera. How was it? ;)
    5. About combat system: "lot of arsing around for no benefit". It becomes clear to me that you failed and thus saw no benefit. It works like a charm if you time your clicks right. You get a true boost in your attacks. No, really...
    6. "Shades of Groundhog Day" thingy. It must have been a whore you tried to seduct, because women I talk to refuse to have sex if I choose wrong dialogue option. Ever. :(
    7. "Topless slave girls in Conan" - I haven't found any Conan-style sex card in this game. Maybe you've seen further on in the storyline.
    8. You say there's still some "good choice, bad choice" stuff. You're right of course. Especially when you take a side quest and wonder "should I kill 9 drowners or not?"
    Now summing up - I truly believe you should consider rewriting this one.
    Edited by 4 at 28/10/07 @ 00:14

  • Wendelius #74 4 years ago

    "Wendelius - Halo 3 and aiming skills, I rofled ;]"

    Fine. Maybe Halo 3 is you roleplaying a 360 auto-aim system. :)

    If you can think of an auto-aim-less game on the 360 (or take your pick of older PC shooters), substitute that name instead of Halo 3 then. There. Fixed. :p

    Wendelius

  • AhrimaaN #75 4 years ago

    This looks sounds and appears a whole let better than any recent rpg such as nwn2 or oblivion, I'm a little cofounded by the score being given out here. Looks like an 8 to me at least from watcing videos etc.

    Strange review, a lot of fluff and not much substance about the actual game.

  • UncleLou #76 4 years ago

    The more I play, the better it gets. Really haven't been captivated that much by an RPG in years.

  • petunia #77 4 years ago

    hmmm I'm a little bit surprised by some of the negative reviews here. For me , the game is a 9+ maybe even a 10.

  • R-Alex #78 4 years ago

    After 6 hours of playing the game I can say that it's definetly a great piece of work and a must buy for every RPG fan. It's surprising that in a country like Poland can make such a great game...
    The system of combat is a bit tricky at first but overall it's interesting and fun.
    7/10 is a misunderstanding for me, I would give "The Witcher" a 9/10

  • Volt #79 4 years ago

    I'm about 7 hours into the game and it has really exceeded my expectations. The graphic is amazing with a lot of attention to detail, the plot is really cool and I love the fact that there aren't any good or bad characters - they're all somewhere in between. The only bad thing about the Witcher is that my wife says I'm not spending enough time with her since I bought the game :)

  • Orange #80 4 years ago

    I get the feeling Dan played about an hour of the game and then phoned in the review. 7/10 is a bigger load of bollocks the more you play it.

  • Stonker #81 4 years ago

    The more i play this game the more i like it. In no way is this a 7/10 game. I was a little worried about the combat system but it works well in my opinion. Plenty of room for strategy. One thing i noticed early on that made me smile was when it started raining and the children that were playing outside ran for shelter as did the rest of the towns folk. Nice touch. It's a 9/10 for me unless something goes horribly wrong later on in the game.

  • a.d.venturer #82 4 years ago

    I've argued on my blog I don't believe it is possible to role-play in a single player game, and that you are instead making a story up in your head. I don't disagree that this is still valid, but to me role-playing is about taking on a role and playing it. Its a performance art, and without an audience, you aren't actually role-playing. And a computer is not an audience. Sure, you can tell people the story later, but that's the point you start role-playing.

    Having said that, this argument is more about the genre conventions, and with that in mind, genre theory basically says that you're staying in genre if you don't break too many conventions. Breaking a couple, such as not allowing customisation of the character before starting the game is fine, as long as you have other elements in there, such as customisation of the character during the game.

  • sheduur #83 4 years ago

    This game is 9/10 for sure. It is not innovative, but roleplaying games dont have to be innovative. They have to work, have a great atmosphere and attention to detail, so the world actually feels alive. The Witcher does have all these things.

    If you think it is a 7/10 so be it, most people that rated seem to think different though :D

  • Snidesworth #84 4 years ago

    Spent pretty much all day playing this. The jump from the prologue to chapter 1 seems a little disjointed (though my "who the hell are you?" question got answered quickly enough), and the game hasn't disappointed me since then. There's the occasional odd touch of dialogue (Geralt says something as if he hasn't met someone he already had, the character profile of someone I encountered didn't match what the character had come across like), but it's vastly outweighed by the awesome present.

    Though the boss fight of chapter 1 had me in rage for the best part of an hour. Hopefully it actually was hard rather than me being crap.

    Hesitant to give this a 9/10 after only a day's play, but it's definitely deserves an 8 at the very least.

  • Lech #85 4 years ago

    Man, I've got to get some sleep. I've been playing this game all night and it's AWSOME!!

  • Mr Diskos #86 4 years ago

    Same here.. same. here. What a game.

  • chicknstu #87 4 years ago

    The clue's in the name - role-playing. Games in which you create a role and then act out that character in the gameworld. Without the freedom to come up with your own virtual identity, what you're really talking about are adventure games with a few RPG trimmings.

    THANK YOU for saying this, I've been sayng this for bloody ages!

    The new Final Fantasies aren't role-playign games. They're good (I'm not saying they're bad games) but they aren't role-playing games.

  • TedMoseby #88 4 years ago

    So far, I'm far more intrigued/interested in this than NWN2 or Mask of the Betrayer. For all of the story and dialogue presented in those games, as well as Oblivion, the tone/feel of The Witcher just seems more grounded, and dare I say it for a fantasy game, "realistic".

    The opening movie really set the mood, and I'll definitely look forward to playing it if/when I sort out a machine capable of playing it properly. It makes my old laptop whimper in the corner, and the UI really needs to be seen at a better resolution than its minimum setting of 800x600.

    The biggest worry I think is the amount of patching that's gone on - the release day patch 1.1 was 113MB, and they've since updated that to 1.1a to fix something else. It's not minor stuff in the patch notes either, there's enough there to make me worry about what else is lurking broken in the game.

    As it stands however, assuming the worst of the problems are patched, I think it's more an 8 out of 10 for me; I've barely scratched the surface of the game, and I'm really looking forward to finding out where the story takes me.

    Recommended, but make sure you have a beefy machine to play it on!
    Edited by 1 at 28/10/07 @ 14:15

  • climbatize #89 4 years ago

    The Witcher is the new, fresh look at fantasy RPG.
    In my opinion, the main advantage of that game is the unparalleled atmosphere.
    Graphic system is based on upgraded Bioware aurora graphic engine (the same as in NVN 2). It's worth noticing, that minimal requrements are low.

  • Dynamize #90 4 years ago

    Finally got a chance to sit down with this and have a proper play last night. Ended up playing until 6am.

    Awesome, this game is awesome. It's all so greatly realised. Small brush strokes in the grandeur of the game, but I love that when it starts to rain, all the peasantfolk run for shelter. The little kids playing their little kid games made me smile, and remember playing when I was that age.

    I agree with the jarring beginning of Chapter 1, as Snidesworth says. The voice acting's a little patchy as well. A few "Bloody hell, I can act better than that!" moments, which go a little way to undermining immersion here and there. Fair number of CTDs as well, which is annoying.

    It's an easy 8 for me, bordering on a 9. Fie to this 7 I say! Feel the burning stare of my Reader rating, and change your ways!

  • Mr Diskos #91 4 years ago

    "and the UI really needs to be seen at a better resolution than its minimum setting of 800x600."

    Yeah, the standard resolution for non-crunched graphics is 1280x1024 it seems like.


    "The biggest worry I think is the amount of patching that's gone on"

    I don't think you should be worried about a game getting support after launch, just be thankful. :)

  • TedMoseby #92 4 years ago

    Don't get me wrong, I'm very glad they're patching the game - I'm just disappointed at the extent to which they have to do it - the patch notes for 1.1 read like a who's who of errors that could have or should have been picked up on prior to release.

    I appreciate the complexity of the game, particularly one with the sort of Aurora Engine conversation trees and scripting variables etc., but there's an awful lot of stuff that was shipped in a bugged state.

    That being said, I've just been playing it for a couple of hours without a hitch (my whimpering laptop has stepped up to the plate with some new ATI drivers, and things are a fair bit better).

  • UncleLou #93 4 years ago

    the patch notes for 1.1 read like a who's who of errors that could have or should have been picked up on prior to release.

    Well, they certainly have been picked up on prior to the release, or it wouldn't have been a release day patch. Sorry to be pedant, but while this is admittedly far from ideal, there's a huge difference between a release day patch (when they obviously were testing and coding up to the last minute, but didn't delay the release), and a patch several weeks or months afterwards after the public has been used as testers.

    For what it's worth, I haven't noticed a single bug after the patch, apart from one crash when I was exiting the game anyway, though.

  • Crea #94 4 years ago

    Having just sunk the best part of Sunday into this, I feel obliged to throw my tuppence in and say, yes, I too think this is much better than a seven...graphically it's ace, incredibly atmospheric, and although it never reaches Bioware's dialogue heights, it's no Two Worlds either.

    Combat is really compelling, I like the different fight styles, and the awesome soft-porn collector cards you get for sexual conquests are hilarious.

    A real gem, methinks, can't wait to get back to it.

  • Dukkha #95 4 years ago

    Hadn't my friends come by to play some skate. saturday evening and dragged me with them out to the pub I would had played this game non-stop from friday to the kickoff of the Liverpool - Arsenal match. So far it's the best singleplayer game I played in ages.

    Good story and subplots, characters that feel more real than usual videogame characters (they don't feel like their only purpose is giving quests/information to the player and they so far have realistic drives for their acton - not just simply evil for the sake of being evil).


  • Saintaw #96 4 years ago

    Excellent game so far, I picked it up randomly... ended up spending the entire week end on it.
    Edited by 1 at 29/10/07 @ 12:23

  • lutstoomas #97 4 years ago

    Really good game. I just love it. Like mixing NWN and Fable.

  • darc #98 4 years ago

    Funny, the review had me thinking I'd skip this, but the reader comments put it back to the very top of my list. My only concerns are a) it will play out more like an action adventure than an RPG, as the review seems to imply, and b) bugs. (Nice to see titles coming from Eastern Europe, but I'm a little gunshy after the promising but nearly unplayable S.T.A.L.K.E.R.)

    So in terms of inventory and character customization, how does Witcher compare with say, Gothic 3? (A personal fave.) I don't need it to be D&D 3.5 deep; NWN2 was a fiddly bore IMO. (Granted, my experience w/ NWN2 was limited to the 1st couple of hours, until I finally just gave up on the camera and UI altogether.)
    Edited by 1 at 29/10/07 @ 13:12

  • UncleLou #99 4 years ago

    Hm, weird. I found Stalker pretty much bug-free (and it is my game of 2007 so far), at least after the first patch, while Gothic 3 is still quite a mess. Hohum. :)

    Anyway, it does feel a bit more like an action-adventure sometimes. It doesn't have Gothic's non-linearity, and while the skill tree is quite huge, you don't need to specialise (at least so far). There are enough skill points to distribute that you can raise almost everything. On the other hand, it doesn't quite force you along the main story as rigidly as NWN2 did, nor is it nearly as fiddly to use, and it does have the "big" decisions which definitely feels very RPG-ish. The alchemy system is also fairly complex.

    Not really noticed bugs yet after the first patch.

    Personally, I am having the most fun with the game I had in this genre pretty much since Gothic 2. While it's not exactly the same kind of game, I am very often reminded of the Gothic series.

    Edited by 2 at 29/10/07 @ 13:25

  • Crea #100 4 years ago

    @darc

    It's far more RPG than I was expecting to be honest. There are skill trees like Diablo 2 etc, and the combat is not quite as deep as something like KOTOR, but then again isn't Diablo. It's very fun, IMO.

    Bugs - I've only played the patched version (113Mb release-day patch), and in about 10 hours of play I've seen 2 bugs - one animation glitch that worked itself out, and one hang. I've played a lot, lot worse, in terms of stability.

    I rarely give much of a s**t about the review scores, and 99% of the time I think EG are right on the money, but this one I think is a little unfair and felt the need to say so purely because if you like western RPGs you'd be nuts to miss this. I'll be very interested to see how the game scores elsewhere.

  • darc #101 4 years ago

    Cool, thanks for the responses, UncleLou and Crea. I'll definitely check this one out.

    Re: Gothic 3, it really is very strange. I know G3 gave a lot of people fits, but I played it nearly to completion, and for me the experience was downright polished. Problems must have been configuration-specific in the extreme. I believe my system handled it well on account of a very fast disk subsystem (RAID 0 Raptors.)

    (Also, we may not have played quite the same code, as I purchased here in the US. Wasn't there a European-specific patch at one point?)

    As for STALKER, I often rant about its being unplayable, but it's not quite accurate to call it "buggy", I guess. It's mainly that the UI design is (IMO) non-intuitive, and the translation efforts were just terrible, resulting in a cool game that too frequently made no sense whatsoever. I loved everything *about* STALKER, but everytime I got invested in it, it would punish me randomly and send me "stalking" away from my PC. (I also hated the load breaks at random points in the map, which completely fouled my sense of spaciality within the game.) I finally just abandoned it. And talk of a sequel just leaves me feeling torn - might be the best game ever, might be a second serving of frustration. I definitely don't feel like I should have to pay for it again. ;)
    Edited by 4 at 29/10/07 @ 18:47

  • UncleLou #102 4 years ago

    (I also hated the load breaks at random points in the map, which completely fouled my sense of spaciality within the game.)

    I realise this might have game-specific for you, but be warned anyhow that The Witcher has loading breaks very, very often - everytime you leave or enter a building. This can be a bit annoying, esepcially as you're often required to walk to and for quite a lot.

    Nonetheless, anyone with a love for RPGs should try The Witcher. :)

    As for Stalker, I can kind of see where you're coming from. I found the game so incredibly engrossing though that it never really bothered me. It sucked me into is world like hardly a game has in the last 7 or 8 years.

  • darc #103 4 years ago

    "I realise this might have game-specific for you, but be warned anyhow that The Witcher has loading breaks very, very often - everytime you leave or enter a building."

    Probably not a deal breaker. Obviously a continuous world a la Gothic 3 is preferable, but it was only glaring in STALKER because it would occur in wide open places without warning, and in a few instances load you back up in a slightly different position than you were previously in, such that you didn't feel any continuity. I can remember once or twice walking toward a clear horizon, and then having the game load me directly into a fire fight, then jockeying for position, only to be reloaded back out. Between that and the forced indirect routes via contamination... too much weirdness for me.

    But you know, I'm just rambling. I don't begrudge anyone for enjoying STALKER, there was a great deal to like about it.

    Loading when I enter and exit a building or other clearly delineated spaces (as in Oblivion) isn't a problem. So long as those spaces aren't as small as in, say, Deus Ex: Invisible War. (That game was *all* loading.)

    Either way, I've still got that RAID array to minimize the problem. :)
    Edited by 1 at 30/10/07 @ 16:47

  • JG #104 4 years ago

    In regards to what constitutes a role playing game, I'd like to put forward this definition:

    A Role Playing game is a game where you play a role. Hence, most games are *technically* role playing games. However, since that definition is far too broad we have to paint an arbitrary line somewhere and say "You need to be able to play a role, and you must have 'X' amount of freedom in acting out that role". Therefore, the greater your ability to play a role, the better the role playing elements in a game are. As such, choices, consequences, dialog, and believability (read: not necessarily realism, but the ability sympathize with the avatar) are the most important properties of an RPG. Character creation and character advancement (some form of 'leveling up') aren't important (to the definition at least) unless they impact the former factors.

  • anonim1979 #105 4 years ago

    " but they had experience translating such classic role-players as Baldur's Gate and Planescape: Torment for Eastern Europe."

    That would be Central Europe:
    [link url=http://en .wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Europe
    ]http://en .wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Eur...[/link]

    Cold War ended some time ago....

  • roronoa #106 4 years ago

    In my opinion, this game do not deserve a 7 what so ever.

  • darc #107 4 years ago

    "In my opinion, this game do not deserve a 7 what so ever."

    ??? In your opinion, higher or lower?

  • UncleLou #108 4 years ago

    It's in his games collection, he gave it a 10.

    On an unrelated note, how many typos did I make in that post above? I wasn't drunk, just tired, honestly! ;)

  • darc #109 4 years ago

    Bought it tonight, have played for about 4 hours now. Please tell me it gets better than this? The game is a serious looker, I'll give it that, but I can't remember the last time I was this bored. Will post again with more specific observations later, in case anyone is still reading this thread.

  • Clive_Dunn #110 4 years ago

    I thoroughly recommend you don't play this game if you want to think of anything else. It's the most horribly addictive game I've played this year, it's flawed in many ways but is a work of genius.

    I prefer this over Stalker, and traditionally I prefer FPS over sort of RPG.

  • WINNOWING #111 4 years ago

    An really amazing game, deserves 9/10. I can see that the reviewer lacks attention to details and knowledge about the witcher. But whatever hyped games like Bioshock, Halo 3 and Oblivion get better score because of hype.

  • darc #112 4 years ago

    Don't know what I'm missing, I just can't get into this game. Maybe it just gets off to a slow start? And by "start", I mean the first 6 or 8 hours? I'm seriously bored out of my mind, and at this point in my life, I'm not willing to invest this sort of time waiting for a game to "spin up". If it ever does, that is.

    Looks beautiful though.

  • Barkotron #113 4 years ago

    Depends where you've got to. I enjoyed the first bit okay, but it only really picks up once you get to Vizima proper. I'm now in the third act, thoroughly confused (in a good way!), and I don't know I trust _anyone_ at the moment.

    Great fun.

  • darc #114 4 years ago

    Just spent my third (lengthy) session on this, and at this point I'm convinced I'm playing a different game than the rest of you. This game is just awful IMO. If I had to rate it so far I'd call it the prettiest 2 ever. Granted, I'm not even into Vizima yet, but the boredom factor is simply beyond belief. I'll be posting a review soon in case anyone wants a different viewpoint. Reading all of the uesr reviews here and on Amazon, I feel like I'm taking crazy pills.

  • darc #115 4 years ago

    I might get flamed for this (if anyone is still reading) but I have to offer the counterpoint to the "Witcher is awesome" comments. From my Amazon review titled "It was a Dark and Boring Night":


    I start this review with a confession: I haven't finished the game yet. In fact, I've only played through most of the quests outside Vizima; I'm not yet into the city proper. Alledgedly the game "picks up", but I'm seriously running out of patience after investing many hours, bored out of my skull. Here are a list of observations:

    The graphics engine is really lovely (excepting a lot of random aliasing at night, which I try to tell myself are fireflies) and so are the sounds. The voice acting is above average, but the conversations are often structured poorly and are therefore not believable. People offer the same dialog choices over and over even though previous conversations should have made them obsolete, resulting in conversations that make no sense. (Especially annoying, the conversation trees frequently dump you out when you intend to continue speaking, so you have to click on a character again, to hear his/her oddly identical opening phrases once more.)

    This game ships with a hefty manual, but it is amazing how little information is actually provided. Like most recent game manuals, it's just installation instructions, a pile of spoilers for those interested, and not much else. This comes to your attention as you level up and find yourself navigating the most senseless skill tree of all time. Pre-requisites are unclear, skill distinctions are unclear, so what the heck, why not just select them all at random? That will be really fun.

    So character customization is out the window. 8 hours into the game, inventory has proven mostly useless, so trading is equally uninteresting. Gameplay is reduced to repetetive combat, and walking from place to place waiting for the odd conversations to spawn new quests and/ or cutscenes. Oh, had I forgotten to mention the walking? The outdoor environments are relatively large, and walking from point A to B happens essentially in realtime which, again, is insanely boring. Never have I seen a game so desperately in need of a fast travel solution. (Top it all off with long fences, your inability to jump over a fence, or even step off a ledge without a staircase, and the whole world becomes a big, dull maze.)

    When you do finally get to where your going, the boredom theme reaches it's apex: eternal load screens. Everytime you enter or leave an indoor location, you'll see as many as four delays. The current screen will pause for a few seconds, followed by a saving screen, followed by a generic loading screen, followed by (I couldn't make this up) a location-specific loading screen. And *each* of these are longer than any loading screen I've seen in any video game ever. If you suffer through this only to find your destination less interesting than you hoped (quite likely) you'll have to turn around and wait for it all over again, just to go back outside. Enjoy.

    Other niggles: if you expect the map to aid in your travels, note that there are no notations on it. You'll need to mouse over every location waiting for text to pop-up over its mysteriously identical dot markers. After you've waited a couple of seconds for it to - you guessed it - load.

    I could go on and on with the little niggles, but in many ways the game is very polished. The real issues are pacing, and the nearly meaningless skill tree. As for pacing, how many hours are we expected to invest before a game begins to entertain, or even make a point? I started to think about this during one of the "minigames", essentially rolling dice with the locals. I guess this is somewhat appropriate for a simulation of a boring rainy night in a medievel 'burb, but you know, I've got a Playstation in the next room, and could probably find something more fun to do. Failing that, maybe I could get some chores done.

    Unless something miraculous happens in the next 15 minutes of gameplay, I'm giving up on The Witcher. Even worse, this is the sort of game that makes me wonder whether I still like RPG's, after 20+ years of considering them "my genre".

  • shepardshadows #116 4 years ago

    Man. this review alone is enough for me to never take this website seriously. Ever.

    For me, this was one of the best games that I have played in years. And I have played a lot. Pretty much every rpg released from nintendo to current day(Yup, hardcore gamer nerd, and proud)

    Immersive, great storyline. Exciting sword fighting styles that evolve over time, and become more spectacular, as you level the skills. Pretty good spells - though one mainly only uses air and fire in normal mode. The shield is good in extreme.

    About the only down sides that I saw was that the english npc texts, in some portions of the game were massacred by atari in translation(probably to save on game size/voice acting budget), and were not nearly as good as the original polish text. Little buggy on lower end systems. And the end of the game was abrupt. One wanted to keep on playing ala oblivion or morrowind, after defeating the last boss - but it just ended. Oh, and the loading times, before you apply the patch. but the patch fixes that nicely.

    Did you even play past the first/second chapter?

    The quality of most games these days, I can barely manage to stomache finishing them. I have to physically force myself to. With this game well, it kept me up till 5am, on the weekends, like the good old days. Glazed eyes, and the sun coming over the horizon lol. Loved it.

    Suppose everyone is entitled to their opinions.
    Edited by 4 at 22/01/08 @ 10:41

  • cluster #117 4 years ago

    Agree.

    -The firsts paragraphs of the article ("THIS is a RPG, THAT isn't a RPG";) are pointless and childish AT BEST.
    -The later rant against the combat system is out of place, especially given that it blows Oblivion's combat system out of the water, easily (tthe combat system made me thing of a RPGed version of a a beat them all like the LOTR ones a few years ago.. in the game it makes sense and is very enjoyable.)

    That was for the whole first page of the article. Save one positive sentence "That the game world is deep and convincingly fleshed-out shouldn't really come as a surprise. ", the rest feels more like a teenager ranting than a proper game review. Hopefully we are not on a game reviewing site, or it would suck.

    Second page of the article:

    -Alchemy is pretty much like everything we've seen before (oops, again the reviewer is biased and wrong, the alchemy is a really nice touch in this game, unlike anything we've seen before).
    -The dialog sucks (oh my, did he even play the game.)
    -The graphics are consistent and almost nice (they are, in fact, excellent).
    -The game isn't a hog (sadly, IT IS, but not only on the graphic side).

    Nothing about the interface (good or bad), nothing about the fact that it works differently than other RPGs such as Troika games, in that there is for example no free roaming but rather wide zones that can be likened to those of "Vampire:Bloodlines", or that the items have not the usual balance of RPGs (there are not many armors and weapons for example, while there are tons of alchemical ingredients, which will make sense when you'll play it.)

    There are interesting and insightful reviews for this game, but not the Eurogamer one.
    Edited by 9 at 03/03/08 @ 19:10

  • crazymonkey66 #118 4 years ago

    what's with all this "witcher is half a role-laying game". does the reviewer know anything about rpgs. yes you are confined to play as geralt. but that's just a starting point, to give your character a background. it adds someflavor and makes you feel like your character is part of the world. this has been done before, the best example being planescape:torment. you were the nameless one, but YOU decided how he would develop. in baldur's gate 2 you were the son of bhaal. hell in fallout 2, you were the chosen one. are these not rpgs then. the point of an rpg not really creating a character from scratch, but developing one. your choices will determine who you are. and the witcher accomplishes that. it is an rpg.

    oh just thought of another one. in kotor you're revan, no choice.