|
|
The Witcher: Enhanced Edition
Author: Joe MartinPublished: 27th September 2008
Conclusions
With a whole host of extra content, a new and more stable game version, reduced load times and some of the best (and most plentiful) extras we’ve ever seen, The Witcher: Enhanced Edition should be a dead cert for the bit-tech recommended award, right?Well, maybe.
There are a couple of problems here which obviously hold The Witcher back from greatness, not least of which is the issue that it’s taken nearly a whole year in order to get the game to the state that it really should have been in right from the start. Literally, I have relatives who have gone through pregnancy and given birth in the time it has taken The Witcher to get to this state.
It also has to be remembered that just because this version of the original game is more polished, it doesn’t mean that it’s instantly fantastic. You can give a bath to a dead cat and, sure, it won’t smell as much as it once did but it’s still going to be rotting on your living room floor.
That analogy is a little harsh though, it has to be said. The Witcher isn’t a dead cat and it isn’t even broken, as was the case with S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky. It is, as we said before, just mildly sprained. The new version is bigger and better, but it still has a bit of a gimp leg.
The last thing we have to bear in mind though is that games have moved on a bit since The Witcher was first released. In the time between that starter last year and this now long-delayed desert we’ve seen games like Portal, BioShock and Mass Effect make their rather stunning débuts. The bar has been raised a bit and while the original game launched at a time when it had no real competitors in the RPG genre, Mass Effect and the imminent Fallout 3 do pose an important threat to The Witcher: Enhanced Edition.
Much of that threat though is by-the-by, because despite how things look on the face of it, The Witcher isn’t the type of game that is going to appeal to all RPG gamers. It’s more niche than Mass Effect or Fallout 3. Instead, The Witcher is, now more than ever, a game for the old-school, hardcore RPG players. This isn’t for people who drifted through Baldur’s Gate and thought it was OK – this is for the people who dived into Planescape Torment, completed every sidequest, came out the other side and started writing fanfiction.
This is deep, uncompromising and powerful gameplay which, despite the enhancements and expansions, is still going to look incomplete to a lot of people. It doesn’t have motion captured gestures, spangly super-special graphics and so on – these are the kind of
things the uninitiated might say.Frankly though, those people are missing the point. The Witcher, enhanced or not, isn’t about the graphics or the fluidity of the gameplay and just because you can switch the game to play from an over-the-shoulder perspective doesn’t mean you should. This is a game that's about getting pulled into the fiction, meeting the characters and learning how far your moral rules can be pushed before you draw the line.
The Witcher: Enhanced Edition is a definite improvement over the original release, both in terms of content and performance. It runs a lot faster, plays a lot smoother and loads a lot quicker.
That said, it isn’t a game we can recommend for everyone because the vast number of gamers are likely to be put off by the huge game world and complex mechanics. If you’re a serious RPG fan though, in the mood for something that’ll give you hundreds of hours of gameplay and plenty of twists, turns and lingerie along the way then The Witcher: Enhanced Edition is a definite must-have.
What do our scores mean?
Related
Shopping
- Site Links:
- About
- Email Editor
- Newsletter
- Privacy
- RSS
- Score Guide
- Our Other Websites:
- Auto Express
- Channel Pro
- Computer Buyer
- Computer Shopper
- Den of Geek
All content © bit-tech.net 2000-2009
© Copyright Dennis Publishing Limited licensed by Felden