izigame.me

This is an interesting one. First Witcher I played was The Wild Hunt aka the 3rd one. Which means I kinda got spoiled by experiencing the newest and greatest the Witcher series (thus far) has to offer. So there might be some comparisons to that one so keep that in mind.
Anyway lemme first cover the things that I like about the Witcher.
+ The number one thing that kept me in the game is the story. It's surprisingly engaging and kept me playing despite the games flaws which I will get to. It has some twist and turns which the final one I kinda predicted but it was still enjoyable. Overall amazing main story. There are also several side stories that are interesting aswell.
Next positive is the way you can effect the story. Often you can effect how the games different stories turn out or you try to effect it the way you want. This means you get different endings to your side stories and of course the main one which I really want to experience second time to get a different ending. And I just wanna say that I'm so impressed that they managed to do this in 2008. Hats off to you. I also like the fact that this isn't a happy go lucky fairytale and that it has darkness and tragedy in it. This is also prominent in the choices that you are present with, everything isn't good or bad, black or white and I appreciate that.
Another positive I'd say is the "complexity" of the combat, and by "complexity" I mean compared to other Witcher games. You have steel sword which is meant against humans and wolves bears etc, typical stuff that you would find in a Finnish forest. Or I guess in this case, Polish forest. Silver sword is another weapon in your arsenal which is for everything else aka for monsters. Game offers 3 different fighting styles, fast, strong and group. Fast is most effective against smaller enemies, since they can dodge the strong ones. Strong is great against big enemies, since it deals a lotta damage, as Phil Swift would put it. Group deals damage to everyone around you at a reduced cost of damage. You're also able to execute combos by precisely tapping the attack key when you are supposed to. So some might ask "why shouldn't I just spam the attack key, that seems a lot easier". Sure try it, let's how far that gets you.
I'd say that's it for the positives and now for the not so great stuff.
- I know this is kinda obvious and a cheap shot against the game but graphics are just really dated. The environment, the buildings, character models... jeez.
Next negative would be "open-world" aspect of the game, which well it isn't. It's more like ok sized areas connected with loading screens. Also, every single building has a loading screen, nice.
Another negative would be the overall clunkiness of the game, in the movement and the combat especially. Even though I enjoy the combat somewhat, it's hindered by the amount of CLUNK. It feels like Geralt is wearing 100% cotton selvedged denim onesie.
Also the minigames suck. Fistfighting, nah. Drinking, nah (in the game of course you silly). Poker dice, meh. Only reason I played these is because I'm a completionist, which in this cased sucked.
The last negative has to be the amount of crashes, dear god. This game must've crashed more then all of Bethesda games that I own combined. Later on I learned that this can apparently be prevented if you only keep 10 or less saves, otherwise the game turns in to Mustang and activates crowd mode.
So I played through the game once which took me 60 or so hours, some of which where spent retreading and in the main menu since the game crashed a bunch. And do I recommend it? Well there are couple of ifs and buts. If you have only played games that have released in the last 5 years (which in and of itself is a sin), then avoid this. Also if you hate or just can't stand older games you should also pass (but you can always take a risk). But to everyone else, this is a game with an amazing story that makes you wanna play again to see how things end up if I choose differently, despite its downfalls.
For myself I was just on the edge of not liking this game, but the story is just that great and won me over. I might even play this again to see where things end up if I pick different choices.