Reviewing the Witcher Series

Vol 12, Issue 2

JENNY AU

I have been a western single player RPGs (role playing games) enthusiast since the first year of undergrad where they overtook books as my favourite way to procrastinate. So today I will attempt to quickly review one of my favourite games series, The Witcher . Note that playing the games reviewed below will waste your time, probably lower your grades, and may result in an addiction.

Made by polish games developer CD Projekt Red (CDPR) and based on The Witcher novels by polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. The Witcher series follows the adventures of Geralt of Rivia, a specially trained and mutated monster slayer with amnesia. Set in a Slavic and Eastern European inspired medieval fantasy world , along the way Geralt will dabble in politics, flirt with sorceresses, find lost friends and of course, slay monsters.

I will be considering some of the pluses and minuses of each base game. I will not be considering downloadable content or bugs, as they might have been fixed since I last played, which admittedly for the Witcher 1 and 2, has been a while.   

Warning: None of these games are “safe for work”. They contain their fair share of nudity, sex, gore, foul language, and general mature themes.

​The Witcher (2007)
The first game in the series, The Witcher was a modest success and generally well received by critics but was a flawed diamond in the rough. In short, I would recommend it for established fans of the series and more seasoned RPG players but not for newcomers.
Plus:

• Fantastical long, gritty, and complex story.  Moral issues for you to deal with. No noble, all good choices. You will constantly question if you did the right thing or made the right choice. Think of it as Game of Thrones, meets Eastern European folk tales.
• Visually beautiful game with a detailed and rich world with more lore than one can reasonably read. Sort of game that made me pause and just have a look at the scenery. Sure the game is ten years old, and it doesn’t look as good as its sequels but they can’t really be equitably compared.
• The game treats you like an adult, no hand holding. You are free to screw up and make mistakes.  

Minus:

• Sexist –  you get sexually suggestive Pokémon-like collect them all cards each time Geralt has sex with a lady (which, depending on your choices, can happen a lot). While the game does have interesting well written female characters who feature increasingly as the series progresses, the first game objectifies women in a rather gratuitous way.  And if you disagree, it is at the very least corny and immature as hell.
• Horrible inventory system, mediocre user interface.   
• Combat is a bit clumsy and boring, lots of boring mouse clicks. Interesting potion system that you never really need to utilise.  
• No fast travel so you will be back tracking a lot.

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings (2011)
A vast improvement on the its predecessor The Witcher 2 was met with critical acclaim. I would highly recommend this game, especially to more seasoned gamers and RPG fans.
Plus:

• No more collect women cards.
• All the pluses of The Witcher.
• Wonderful replay value. The story splits off around the middle of the game, so in a way it is almost two games in one.
• Broad range of difficulty levels.
• Humour, while the world is gritty, it can be funny at times.  

Minus:

• Combat: better than Witcher 1, but too much rolling about. The learning curve is also steep.
• The inventory system.
• Not an “open world”, with no fast travel you will be backtracking down the same trails and paths.
• The last part of the game feels unfinished.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (2015)
The Witcher 3 is one of the well-known and iconic RPGs to come out of the last decade and will no doubt set the bar for RPGs to come. It is by far the best game in the series and is friendly to people new to the series. I would highly recommend this game and it is a good place to start for newcomers to the series.
Pros:

• All the pluses of the other Witcher games.  
• Expansive world, much larger than what can be seen in the previous games. There is also a great attention to detail, and sometimes you can see the effects of your choices play out in the world.
• Each quest is individual and interesting, not like the run to this place and fetch me this quest you can often find in other games of the same genre. Also, wonderful selection of monsters and bosses to slay as a part of these quests.
• Better combat and character progression system, however combat can get old after a while.
• Gwent, a fantastic in game card game.

Cons::    

• You will become addicted to Gwent.
• They made some of the choices from the previous games redundant. Where are some of my mates from the Witcher 2?  
• Awkward movement at times, your horse Roach is a bit dumb and swimming is annoying.
• The game got a bit too easy towards the end on normal difficulty. Feels rather anti climatic.  

Jenny Au is a third-year JD student


The rest of this issue

• Non - Alcoholic Event Tickets
• Legal Drafting Should be Compulsory
• July Used to be Fun​
• International Perspectives: People Make the Difference

​


​