Beautiful, immersive & atmospheric, The Witcher: Enhanced Edition is a must-have for all RPG buffs.
CD Projekt heard the complaints of its consumers and quickly went to work - producing the Enhanced Edition for The Witcher. It adds bonus quests, fixes up the crappy dialogue sequences with better animations, translations and acting, as well as seeked to eliminate the technical annoyance and buggy dialogue sequences. Have they succeeded? Well yes and no. The biggest disappointment is perhaps CD Projekt did not create an an improvement as they had intended. It is purely a flaw of design - many of the components they seeked to fix are either executed in the incorrect fashion or are seemingly absent even though they SAID it would be there. First and foremost, the loading times are still a pain in the arse. This is most evident in outdoor areas where it could take anymore from 1 minute to 2.5 minutes to load the scene. Thankfully indoors, the loading is rapid as it should be. Baffling, because this reviewer has never played the original unpatched version of The Witcher and one wonders how long THAT took to load! Anyways, there are also other technical issues that needs to be addressed. The Aurora Engine is more than half a decade old and thus, not able to fully take onboard dual core or more processors. Unless if you have a single core 3GHz+ processor (i.e. no one has anymore. If you do, you are in the wrong website), expect chugginess in places populated with citizens and lag in areas filled with lighting effects. I tested my with a mid range Core 2 Duo machine with 2GB RAM and 512MB RAM graphics card (overall more than surpasses the game's recommended req.) and we still have to lower the graphics settings when's there's a lot of things going on at once. The pain of no dual core support really burns. The crashes to the desktop still exists (although less frequently than the original) and in game bugs like clipping, minor quest glitches, music bugs and black screens after loading still walk unscathed albeit without much impact on the game overall. The two bonus quests included by the developers will also have you baffled with the fact that they are separate from the main game (I haven't yet played those just yet but putting them separately from the main game produces rather negative outlook) and can only be activated with a new game of each.
In-game, the inventory, character, alchemy and journal screens are still extremely hard to be understood even by this seasoned SP-RPG gamer. Apparently the inventory screen has been revamped but it's still confusing with the terribly small icons making it hard than usual to use items. The journal is by far the worst RPG journal I have ever seen in any RPG in my life to date. Words are small, letters are often too dark or too light to read easily with quests been all jumbled up by default with obvious glitches in quest phases frequently evident. You would seriously crave the inventory and journal system of Oblivion after you have played this game. Hell, even the system used in Runescape is more accessible! Let's hope modders will fix this in due course.
Aside from these impurities, The WItcher: Enhanced Edition has indeed been patched up from the visual point of view. Character animated are significantly more complex with dialogue and voice acting a lot more polished (but still a tad awkward most of the time). More NPC's have been added to cities and towns to make the world less hollow (while giving the incompetent, no-dual-core Aurora Engine the chance to make the game even more chuggy for our modernised PC's) while better lighting and textures have also been added for a slightly more terrifying/beautiful atmosphere. The steep learning curve of the game will definitely put some gamers off, especially those who dont usually engage in RPGs. The simplistic yet difficult combat mechanics had caused this reviewer to almost abandon the game after Act II but he soldiered on...and found the game to be a real gem as you progress further into the story. If you are dying frequently due to being swarmed or unable to react quick enough, do try to persevere. Using magic is a big help for those who, like me, are barbarian gung-ho's in RPGs. As you progress past Act II and your character becomes a lot stronger with more loot, income and equipment at your disposal, the game really gets into you and you will be hooked. And it's games that does this despite being marred by flaws that are good games. Games are meant to immerse you, to hook you in, to transport you to another world for dozens of hours for your enjoyment. Unlike so many other RPG's out there that received widespread acclaim despite being hollow on the inside (Mass Effect, Borderlands, Fable 2...I am looking at you guys), The Witcher Enhanced Edition does just what a good RPG should do - it ticks all the boxes and brings us more despite its flaws. An excellent SP RPG.
Pros:
- STILL one of the best-looking RPG games to date
- Immersive world
- Brilliant combat when handled correctly
Cons:
- STILL buggy & a LOT of existing, unpatched technical issues
- Awkward dialogue at times
- STILL not very accessible & high learning curve
Better than: Mass Effect
On Par with: Being a witcher
Worse than: Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
An essential part of your every RPG gamer's collection. Believe the hype. Believe the critics. RPG of the Year 2007 just got better.