I finally beat The Witcher last night. All I can say is"wow." Instant classic in my opinion.Besides some of the side characters having weak voice acting, I really can't fault the game anywhere. It's long as hell, something most RPG's should be but these days aren't. All it's various "systems" are executed magnificently (leveling up, alchemy, etc.). The fighting strikes a perfect balance between real-time and turn-based...just the timed clicking makes you feel like
you're actually fighting, while the number crunching leaves it still RPGish. The best part though, by far, is the story. I can't think of many other games with such a deep, adult, and thoughtful story. It would have been so easy to be cheap and go the simplistic route of forcing you to be an obnoxiously righteous and do-goodery uber savior of the lands, or a shallow comic-book like ultra villain who twirls his handlebar moustache while kicking peasants into lava...but thankfully they didn't. "Just decisions and consequences" was the perfect approach. And about the "adult" aspect...it's not the sex cards, it's not the blood, the adult aspect about the story I loved was the inclusion of very dark and disturbing plot devices. Practically the whole game revolves around racism, race war, persecution, ethnic cleansing, "master races," etc. I can't think of another game that's dared to touch that kind of subject matter with a 10 foot pole, let alone one that did it so artfully and tactfully as The Witcher.Clearly superior to the multi-platform big boys Mass Effect and Fallout 3. Just excellent
Just a note: I hope you (CD Projekt) have great success with the console version of The Witcher...just don't forget where you came from. I hope The Witcher 2 for PC is just as complex and deep as a PC game should be, just like the first Witcher. Please don't turn The Witcher into Mass Effect!