 |
| | Gameplay
Sound
 | | Graphics
Value
 |
| |
| | Genre: Adventure & RPG | | | Min OS X: 10.6 |
| |
|
The Witcher: Enhanced Edition Director's Cut
June 4, 2012 | Ted Bade | |
The alchemy (potion making) aspect of The Witcher is more important in the harder levels. You gain knowledge of herbs, magical components, and potion recipes in the same fashion as that of the magical creatures. Once a recipe is learned, you can make it when you have the needed components. One thing I found interesting about this system of potion making is that it takes into account the media in which the potion is made. For instance, a drinkable potion might require a strong alcoholic drink as the base, while a paste to add stats to a sword would require grease of some form. Potions, when used, also can be toxic, and they negatively affect Geralt.Typically, after defeating an enemy, you can loot it. The loot you gain can be money, items like food, flowers, flint (used for campfires), magical components, weapons, and so forth. Most of these items can be sold to a vendor. Weapons cannot be carried in the backpack, so they must be worn. Which means they aren’t a very good source of money, since you have only so many slots for weapons, and if you sell them you would be defenseless. The game’s inventory is broken into four areas: the things Geralt wears (arms and armor), potion components, general stuff, and quest items. While you cannot sell quest items, a quest might simply be a reward for killing so many of a certain creature and returning with a trophy to prove the creature has been dispatched. These items might be valuable in their own right, so they could also be sold to a vendor. There are a variety of different vendors in the game. Most specialize in specific goods such as herbs, books, food and drink, and so forth. They sell and will BUY only these items. You will need to search the areas of the game to find the vendors you need. Certain quest givers also have goods they will sell. Alternatively, you can find or loot many of the same items you'll find for sale from vendors. While Geralt doesn’t necessarily need to sleep, the only time you can upgrade his stats or create potions is while he meditates. Meditation can occur any time, but requires a campfire or an NPC that allows meditation. Inn keepers will all provide a room for you and certain other NPCs will allow you to rest in their homes. Inn keepers also have a function to let you store things for use at a later time. This is useful, since space in your pack is limited. Time of day is another consideration. Certain creatures only come out at night or at dusk. There are some quests that need to occur at certain times in the day. Some examples of time specific situations include a meeting at the old mill at dusk, waiting until 8 AM so a certain important NPC will actually be at home and awake, or shopping when a particular vendor will be on the street ready to buy and sell. As you move about the world, time passes. However, you might need to kill a few hours in meditation to avoid wandering about aimlessly waiting for an event. When you meditate, time passes very quickly, but obviously nothing can happen. Some events don’t move along until you perform some action, while others might be missed if you are not at the right place at the right time! The Witcher has both autosave and the option to save whenever you like. If Geralt were to die, you can return to any past saved game. I also found it was fun to use the save game feature to see how making different decisions changed the outcome of a particular scene. I saved the game before a decision, then tried both paths! While some decision based events won’t take place for a while, some occur right away. Going beyond the specific interactions one has with the NPCs, as Geralt travels through the towns and villages people he passes often make derogatory comments. Even the kids in the street will make comments. And, like the urchins of villages across the world, they will often follow this unusual person to see what he is doing. I was impressed that some background characters just mutter to themselves, complain about the weather (which is often wet), their neighbors, and life's general conditions.
|
|
