![]() ![]() Although a little daunting or overwhelming at first, all are well thought out, frequently fit in to the setting and help to flesh out the universe. Many standard fantasy game elements appear throughout: potions, alchemy, detailed inventory system (with a slightly unkind weight management system) and upgrade tree for abilities. The 360 version also includes a tutorial that was not apparently available in the original PC release, and the console experience is no doubt better for it - just don’t do what I did and put the pad down for an hour before having the final fight that assesses your advised difficulty setting! For the serious Witcher player there is also a new Dark mode setting in the Extended Edition for an extra level of challenge. Once familiar and having leveled up in a few areas that played to my strengths, putting the combat to the “normal” setting made it tough in places but also gave the fights more tactical depth and ultimately made victories more satisfying. It is potentially advisable, as it helped me get to grips with the combat and did not seem to impact the achievements along the way. After a slight mishap, I took the very unusual decision of playing the first portion of the game on the easier difficulty setting. The combat is not as tough when you have learned some of the nuances of how best to make use of your Signs (the magic spell casting) and how this is best combined with swordplay. The fighting engine has a lot of tactical depth to it and as such, at least at first, can feel as though you have been thrown in the deep-end a little. It has no measurement of whether your decisions are bad or good, right or wrong, but it can make massive differences to the world around you and your place in it. ![]() It adds to the importance of the decision you make and forces you to pay attention to a story worthy of that investment. Seeing you choose between the lesser of two evils, though it is not always clear what the “lesser” evil is and often made more tricky by being on a strict time limit. Not only are many of the choices in the game in shades of gray, rather than merely obvious black-or-white decisions, but they are almost always dark shades of gray. There are many tough decisions for Geralt to face. This extends beyond the sexuality of the game to other more adult orientated themes with quests dealing with the issues such as the abuse of alcohol - usually vodka, which should not be too surprising given the Polish origins, but it is nevertheless odd to hear a troll talk about his drinking problems. Overall it comes off as just being unashamedly adult, playing to an accepted audience, as opposed to trying to attract the perverse. ![]() While some of the sex scenes are gratuitous, many such scenes are handled with due care and attention. The story is based on a universe created by Polish author Andrzej Sapokowski and very much does all it can to earn its “this is an adult game” label. The titular Witcher - aka Geralt of Rivia, aka The White Wolf - is a professional monster hunter for hire in a richly detailed dark fantasy world. ![]()
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