Peguei pra jogar na época em que lançou (uns 2 anos depois, na verdade) e o jogo não me cativou, graficamente era feio, não era divertido e a história era um pouco confusa. Insisti um pouco mas não foi, acabei deixando de lado. Em 2022, já com toda fama dos seus sucessores e a série televisiva, decidi que era o momento pra tentar novamente. Fui procurando mods pra melhorar a qualidade gráfica e qualidade de vida, bem como, jogabilidade.
E olha, se em 2009 era ruim, em 2022 é uma tortura. O jogo é MUITO ruim! A história não é tão ruim quanto eu lembrava, da metade do jogo pra frente, fica bem interessante e o final é muito bom (eu, pelo menos, não esperava que fosse acontecer o que aconteceu). Mas mesmo com mods, a jogabilidade é o que estraga o jogo. Graficamente é ruim, mas passa. Mas a jogabilidade... imagine você tendo que jogar com apenas uma mão e nessa mão, você tem apenas 2 dedos - meio desengonçado. E você vai apertando botões, mas ao passo que você joga, alguém vai desconectando os cabos do seu computador, então você aperta um botão e nada acontece. Isso é pra ter uma idéia da tortura que é jogar The Witcher. É um jogo que precisa - PRECISA, MESMO - de uma resmaterização. Do jeito que é, só sendo masoquista pra jogar.

The world and the characters are really well written and put together. Gameplay (mainly the combat) is clearly dated but not terribly so. 30+ hours is however a bit too long to be dealing with it. A remake would (will) do wonders to this game.

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El mundo, los personajes, y la historia, están muy bien logrados, evocando el espíritu de los libros originales. La jugabilidad es quien paga la longevidad del juego, aunque no es terrible. Sin embargo, más de 30 horas resulta ser un tiempo de juego muy largo para soportar las fallas.

Witcher 1 hasn't aged great, and has a ton of jank still. Yet, playing it, it becomes obvious how much CDPR evolved it into The Witcher 2 and then The Witcher 3. I'm really glad it's getting a Remake because it's genuinely good, but annoying to play nowadays. The graphics and controls are dated, and I'd actually recommend the isometric camera angle which lets you control Geralt similarly to Baldur's Gate 3 if you were to ever play it prior to the remake releasing. The Witcher 1 has great questing, and its simplicity as a soft reboot continuing the books is intriguing. I ended up smiling when subtle nods to this game were made in The Witcher 2 and 3. You can even transfer your file into The Witcher 2!

Great game, but hard to recommend because of the jank.

Score: 85

One of the central RPGs of my youth. I even loved the crappy original version back then, which dropped such wonderful lines as "I feel like a fried fish" in the German version :D It was a blast.
This game is very crude, the dialogue is sometimes unbearable, but at its core it's a good game with a good story and an interesting, mature world. The combat system is rather lame, more of a rhythm game than anything else, but as a young person I didn't care. The Enhanced Edition has improved a lot, including a completely new voice-over, which really increased the level of immersion for me. I'm looking forward to the remake.

I hope you like walking.

Starting with the positives, as always. The world building is fantastic. From the scenery to the characters, it hardly gets old. Many of the characters, including and perhaps especially Geralt, are really fleshed out and often become more interesting as the game progresses. Narratively, the game poses some mildly interesting choices such as choosing the Order or the Scoia'tael, based on their individual pros and (mostly) cons. The combat walked a thin line between fun and brain numbingly awful. Sometimes I enjoyed it, especially when mowing down multiple enemies with ease. Other times not so much.

Now back to walking. You walk. A lot. Most of this game is pressing W. It gets old, quickly. There was a something of a fast travel feature but it only appears in one of the Chapters and never again. The quests follow an uninteresting pattern too. Usually walk to quest giver, walk to next area, kill something probably, walk back to quest giver, repeat. When it isn't fun, it's a snooze. Looking at the problems with the combat... it's just so damn aggravating. You just left click on your keyboard over and over again and hope you don't die. Maybe with a potion or spell in the middle. With certain enemies, it can feel like you're sitting there for ever and the stagger mechanic is one of the worst things I've ever had to deal with.

This game at it's core can best be described as "if it's not fun, it's pretty damn miserable." I had plenty of fun though, so I can't complain too much. I wouldn't recommend this to most gamers, only those who look to get into The Witcher games.