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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 | |
The world of the Witcher is so robust that after playing for several hours, one feels like he has actually lived in this world. There is excellent use of lighting effects, and environmental actions as well as sounds. For instance, during a heavy downpour, the villagers will complain about the rain, or as it starts, they will run to get under cover. Small animals and flocks of birds dash away as Geralt approaches where they are, and some more curious dogs may follow him for a while. Geralt can use objects he finds as gift for NPCs which may lead to them becoming friendlier and perhaps even sharing tidbits of knowledge. This is different from the objects needed to complete a quest. Some of the more interesting side quests require that you find (or buy) some item to provide to an NPC. Along with the quests and tasks in the game, there is also time for a little fun and games. Dice gambling is a somewhat enjoyable side game that, when your luck is good, can make Geralt a little extra money so he can buy that more expensive book needed to understand something. There are also fist fighting contests to win for even more money. You soon learn that a Witcher is a true mercenary, with the sole purpose of acquiring money! Geralt also enjoys the company of women, and so there are some side quests along these lines. This, along with the violence and sometimes extremely vulgar language, give the game its M (Mature) rating (It also makes the game world feel very realistic). All this makes The Witcher probably the best RPG I have ever played! The game makes use of the usual cut scene animations to show certain events and transitions, but also uses nicely done artwork which adds an old-world charm to the game. Audio is what one would typically expect: environmental sounds, people talking, and conversations. The music track is so well done that I hardly remember it being there, but yet I remember how well it blended with the game. However, the constant smack, smack, smack, near fist fighting areas was annoying. But overall the sound adds much to the ambience, an important aspect of good audio. The good news about The Witcher is that CD Projekt Red decided to bring the game to the Macintosh platform. The bad news is that this is their first attempt at such a task. While I have had almost no issues playing the Witcher (over eleven hours of play at this writing), there appear to be some very vocal players that have had significant issues. The Mac version of the Witcher makes use of WINE, a technology that allows Mac users to play games originally written for Windows. From what I can tell, the majority of the issues people are seeing are with how the company implemented the WINE wrapper technologies. My older MacPro (early 2008) with an upgraded ATI Radeon HD 5770 had no problems. A good friend of mine with a relatively new iMac couldn't play for more then ten minutes before it crashed. He resolved the issue by modifying certain wrapper functions. I also have heard that support is hard to come by. This is a sad situation, because playing this game is a real blast. If I hadn't talked to friends and read certain forum sites, I would never have known of these issues. All I can say is your mileage may vary! I hope that CD Projekt Red quickly resolves these issues before the game becomes a flop on the Mac. I personally would want to play the next version of this series. Editor's Note: The Witcher 2 is scheduled for a Mac release this fall. The first update of The Witcher on Steam added a user manual, a guide book, maps of the world (in general), videos of making the game (Polish with English subtitles), and the music from the tracks used in the game. These are nice additions for those who are really into the game. The Witcher is outstanding! By far this is the best RPG I have played in a long long while. It is engrossing, entertaining, and a lot more fun then watching a movie. The world and its inhabitants come to life before your eyes. It draws you in to the intrigues and the biases, making you feel as if you had actually lived in this world. While it is a lot of fun, there is a lot of work and thinking required to truly master the game. One can also play multiple times and try different interactions for different results. Even with the technical issues, I highly recommend The Witcher. Hopefully, as time moves on and people complain, performance issues will be fixed. Pros: • Fascinating world, rich in detail, fun and very realistic Cons: • There appear to be major performance problems for some players of this game
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