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| | Genre: Adventure & RPG | | | Min OS X: 10.6 |
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The Witcher: Enhanced Edition Director's Cut
June 4, 2012 | Ted Bade | |
While Humans pretty much rule the world, there are other races as well. Elves and Dwarves are also around, but are considered second class citizens. As you play, you will make decisions that modify how Geralt feels about these other races and how they interact with him later in the game. Obviously, taking a side opens some doors and closes others.The game makes a good attempt to place importance on knowledge and understanding. You cannot complete a quest requiring the collection of an herb, or the killing of a monster without first learning about the herb or the monster in question. In a way this makes the world more realistic, since the player will learn a little about these things as Geralt gains knowledge. While the player doesn’t really need to read all the information Geralt gains, often hints of how to best defeat a particularly difficult monster are provided, so it’s worth the time. Knowledge is gained in three ways: interaction with certain NPCs who will share knowledge if you agree to do a quest for them, by purchasing (or finding) books that contain information, or via training as Geralt levels up. After Geralt completes one of these methods, the player can read about the items in the journal. Finding the books and NPCs you need to interact with requires that you search the land and speak with various NPCs that are around. You might find some books lying around in abandoned houses, but as the game progresses you will need to locate vendors or quest givers that will sell you the books or even complete a quest to gain the knowledge you need. Once Geralt reads a book, the knowledge is available and the books can be sold to others. The game does lead a little, by providing a quest to speak with a person in some location. If you need a little help finding an NPC or area to find monsters, the Map will provide an arrow pointing toward a particular area you need to go for that quest. Side quests are only found by wandering around and interacting with the locals. I find this a refreshing change from the spoon-fed methods of other games where NPCs with tasks are marked in some fashion. When games do this, many people will not bother with the rest of the world, and so miss a lot of the value in a game. Leveling and training go hand in hand. When Geralt gains a level, you gain points which can be used to learn or enhance his various abilities. The abilities are arranged in these categories: basic stats of the character, magical stats, steel sword stats, and silver sword stats. You choose where to use the points you gained, which means the Witcher can be developed in a variety of different ways. There are also certain potions that increase stat points if used. Obviously, it is harder to find the components for these potions. The first scenario acts as a tutorial. The game pauses as text and graphics explain the basics of movement and fighting. This information can be reviewed, if needed, by going to the journal. Movement and interactions are mouse driven. Click on a spot ahead of the character and he will move there. If you click on something that can be interacted with, Geralt performs the appropriate action (attack, open door, speak with an NPC, etc). The camera view of movement is overhead and slightly back. Battle is also straight forward, click on a target and Geralt hits it. As he regains skills with the sword, combination attacks become available. To use the combinations, watch the cursor during battle. It will change indicating that the next click on a creature will perform the combination attack. These combination attacks do a lot more damage. It takes minimal coordination to get the timing right to take advantage of them. There are several different methods of sword play that can be used, selecting the appropriate one for the thing you are interacting with is an important aspect of battle. There are methods for strong or large opponents, for quick opponents, and for a group of opponents. These methods are available for both the steel and silver swords. However, taking on more powerful monsters requires more than good swordsmanship. Often, reading about the creature in Geralt’s journal will reveal certain strategies and/or magic/alchemy functions that make the battle easier. Obviously, this becomes more important as the difficulty of the game increases and good strategy becomes a necessity.
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