I have to admit I was a bit worried about playing this game. I had no previous experience with the Witcher franchise and I had read a lot of complaints about this first game's jank and terrible combat, with many people suggesting skipping it and going straight to the second one first. So, was this worth playing? Absolutely! Though I do get some of the complaints.

I think it depends on what kind of player you are. If you value good combat and gameplay above all else, then this will likely not be your thing. But if your priorities lie elsewhere, say atmosphere, story and world-building, well perhaps you might just love this game. It was an incredibly ambitious project for the developers and I think they mostly did a great job with these latter aspects.

I was gripped by the story from the start and I think they present the world very well for a new-comer to the franchise. I checked every entry of the journal to further my understanding of the world and I soon felt completely immersed in it. There are also a good amount of decisions that you make that impact how the story develops and that is extremely rewarding for me. Often choices felt difficult as well but these kind of moments are not always flawlessly implemented. There are some very strong quests and it's quite amazing how most of these eventually tie together with the main story. I also really appreciated the idea of building Geralt's identity through his in-game decisions rather than getting an exposition dump detailing life before his amnesia. There is a particularly complex detective story within the main quest that is both very impressive due to the myriad of ways in which you can tackle it but also rather frustrating, I had to revert to a past save because a decision I took towards the end kinda ruined the quest for me.

Other aspects I enjoyed were the wonderful music (some tracks are honestly gorgeous) and I thought that the visuals still look pretty good today when it comes to the landscapes. The same can't be said for the character models and animations and it was particularly laughable to see so many models being repeated throughout, especially terrible when they belonged to important characters. Voice acting is subpar.

As for the not so great aspects... I honestly thought the combat was going to be worse. It is mostly a rhythm game which you can complement with the use of signs (think magic) and alchemy. I had read so much about the struggles of others that I played on easy to make it smoother for myself. I kinda regretted that as the game was too easy, even for someone who is notoriously bad at combat as me. Character progression was meh, you get to distribute points throughout sword styles, signs and attributes but I didn't find it terribly satisfying and I believe it doesn't allow for a great variety of builds. Still, even when combat can be very frequent in some areas, I found it tolerable enough. The worst aspect of the game for me has to be the constant back-tracking. Some maps are so poorly designed that it takes you ages to travel from point A to B due to illogical obstacles such as Geralt not being able to go through some weeds or jump a very short wall. It becomes very frustrating because multiple quests require going back and forth between several points and even if you try to organize quests to minimize travel time, you will still be doing so much walking. I'd say that at least a third of my play-through has got to be walking.

All in all, I enjoyed the experience and I was immediately immersed in the world and mysterious, dark atmosphere of The Witcher. I tent to prefer RPGs with more freedom in terms of protagonist but I liked playing as Geralt and shaping him a bit to my taste as much as I did with Commander Shepard in Mass Effect. The best part is that it got me absolutely hyped for the sequels and now I can't wait to get to them.

I have to admit I was a bit worried about playing this game. I had no previous experience with the Witcher franchise and I had read a lot of complaints about this first game's jank and terrible combat, with many people suggesting skipping it and going straight to the second one first. So, was this worth playing? Absolutely! Though I do get some of the complaints. I think it depends on what kind of player you are. If you value good combat and gameplay above all else, then this will likely not be your thing. But if your priorities lie elsewhere, say atmosphere, story and world-building, well perhaps you might just love this game. It was an incredibly ambitious project for the developers and I think they mostly did a great job with these latter aspects. I was gripped by the story from the start and I think they present the world very well for a new-comer to the franchise. I checked every entry of the journal to further my understanding of the world and I soon felt completely immersed in it. There are also a good amount of decisions that you make that impact how the story develops and that is extremely rewarding for me. Often choices felt difficult as well but these kind of moments are not always flawlessly implemented. There are some very strong quests and it's quite amazing how most of these eventually tie together with the main story. I also really appreciated the idea of building Geralt's identity through his in-game decisions rather than getting an exposition dump detailing life before his amnesia. There is a particularly complex detective story within the main quest that is both very impressive due to the myriad of ways in which you can tackle it but also rather frustrating, I had to revert to a past save because a decision I took towards the end kinda ruined the quest for me. Other aspects I enjoyed were the wonderful music (some tracks are honestly gorgeous) and I thought that the visuals still look pretty good today when it comes to the landscapes. The same can't be said for the character models and animations and it was particularly laughable to see so many models being repeated throughout, especially terrible when they belonged to important characters. Voice acting is subpar. As for the not so great aspects... I honestly thought the combat was going to be worse. It is mostly a rhythm game which you can complement with the use of signs (think magic) and alchemy. I had read so much about the struggles of others that I played on easy to make it smoother for myself. I kinda regretted that as the game was too easy, even for someone who is notoriously bad at combat as me. Character progression was meh, you get to distribute points throughout sword styles, signs and attributes but I didn't find it terribly satisfying and I believe it doesn't allow for a great variety of builds. Still, even when combat can be very frequent in some areas, I found it tolerable enough. The worst aspect of the game for me has to be the constant back-tracking. Some maps are so poorly designed that it takes you ages to travel from point A to B due to illogical obstacles such as Geralt not being able to go through some weeds or jump a very short wall. It becomes very frustrating because multiple quests require going back and forth between several points and even if you try to organize quests to minimize travel time, you will still be doing so much walking. I'd say that at least a third of my play-through has got to be walking. All in all, I enjoyed the experience and I was immediately immersed in the world and mysterious, dark atmosphere of The Witcher. I tent to prefer RPGs with more freedom in terms of protagonist but I liked playing as Geralt and shaping him a bit to my taste as much as I did with Commander Shepard in Mass Effect. The best part is that it got me absolutely hyped for the sequels and now I can't wait to get to them.