The Witcher: Enhanced Edition was recently announced at the GDC 2008 and was released this past September. The enhanced edition includes a ton of tweaks to the acclaimed action RPG. The most notable tweaks are to the dialog and load time. Many criticized the original game for its lengthy load time between entering different areas and the broken dialog that did not make sense at times. Suffice to say that in the enhanced edition, both of these major concerns have been addressed.

Story

The Witcher: Enhanced Edition is a massive game. This game was so massive I ended up clocking more than 100 hours of gameplay time to write this review. The game features a ton of extra side quests you can pick up from either stationary NPCs, or along the main mission path.

The game is about a Witcher, Geralt, who by profession, hunts monsters. The story starts you off with Geralt’s friends finding him after he experienced amnesia. From that point on, the game will take you on a journey throughout five different acts or chapters. Along the way you will meet characters that will recognize Geralt and also help him remember some of his lost memories.

There are mini story arcs within each chapter and all of the chapters put together fulfill the main story arc. For example, in one of the chapters, as part of the mini story arc, Geralt must find and defeat a monster harassing a small town. The game is truly epic as every decision you make could alter or change the story.

Controls

The Witcher offers three different camera angles. Two different isometric Diablo style angles and a behind the shoulder third-person view. These different camera angles not only changes the view point, but also affect the gameplay.

When playing in the isometric angle, the game truly feels like a dungeon crawler, similar to Diablo. You can click where you want Geralt to go and a little halo forms indicating his destination. In this mode, you could play throughout the whole game by using just the mouse.

However, using the behind the shoulder angle helps bring a sense of immersion to the game. You also need to use the keyboard in conjunction with the mouse, similar to that of most traditional third person games.

Geralt has three different attack style which can be changed by hot keys or mouse clicks. The combat style is phenomenal as it mixes timed attacks with real time action. Instead of hacking and slashing by ‘button mashing’ you attack and time your second attack with an icon that appears around the enemy to deliver a series of deadly combos.

When you successfully execute three combo attacks in a row, the feeling of satisfaction is as rewarding as executing three consecutive active reloads in Gears of War.

Visuals

The visuals have been tweaked in the enhanced version. The NPCs have been remodeled after some criticism about their appearances. In the original version Geralt looks great with his wavy silver hair but the NPCs characters looked sub par in comparison to him.

However, in the enhanced version with the NPCs re-modeled they look a bit better, but the difference between NPCs and Geralt is still noticeable. There is also a lack of variation between the NPCs. You will often see four or five characters that look identical, walking along the side of the road.

The environment modeling looks spectacular with all the settings turned up high. Cranking up grass, details, shadows and animal populations, will turn a plain village hillside into a thriving vista.

However, one issue I noticed when using the isometric view was that NPCs that were far away on the screen tend to move slower than the characters in your immediate vicinity.

Design

One of the biggest improvements that you will notice in the enhanced edition is the reworked dialog. There were some rough translations in the original version, but with the enhanced version, the voice acting and dialog have improved dramatically.

Its great that The Witcher offers an isometric view as an alternative for Diablo lovers, but at times there is evidence that this view isn’t fully fleshed out. For example, at times, the camera would struggle when you go towards a NPC standing under an over arching structure. The camera will go ballistic as it tries to figure out how to show Geralt standing under a structure.

Despite these minor issues, the isometric mode works very well in general and the ambition to cram so many different gameplay styles is commendable.

Wrap-up

The Witcher: Enhanced Edition is a definite buy for RPG fans. With more than 100 hours of gameplay and multiple endings, this game is well worth in money. The enhanced edition also comes with a ‘the making of’ bonus DVD and two new adventures that will add hours on top of the main adventure.

With a solid dialog, story, gameplay mechanics and excellent replayability I highly recommend that all PC gamers to give the game a shot.

Score

4.5/5

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