The Witcher: Enhanced Edition is a great role-playing game. Developer CD Projekt has corrected almost all of the problems that made the original something of a flawed gem. Butchered English language dialogue has been rewritten and expanded upon, removing the nonsensical lines that made the plot something of a guessing game final year. Engine operation has been dramatically improved beyond the board, so the game runs smoother on moderate systems, and you no longer have time to read a magazine while waiting for levels to load. Grapheme models have been dramatically enhanced, removing a fair number of the unrealistic features that made the original game come up off as somewhat cartoonish in spots. A pair of new stand-alone adventures has been added to bulk upward gameplay outside of the main storyline. Just nigh everything seems more solid and stable, from the smoothen-as-glass combat mechanics to the speedier interface. And, best of all, these gameplay enhancements are freely bachelor to download for those who purchased the original game terminal year.

Battles are now smoother and more dramatic, due to slicker combat animations and vivid colors that spark up spell effects.
Battles are now smoother and more dramatic, due to slicker combat animations and vivid colors that spark upwardly spell furnishings.

Cadre gameplay is more polished than revamped, so in some cases, you have to expect pretty closely to tell the difference between old and new. Yous still play the lank-haired Geralt of Rivia, a monster-killing mercenary known equally a witcher who travels a medieval fantasy kingdom in search of jobs. Basically, you're a battlemage who tin freely switch between using a pair of great big swords to slay fantasy-game beasties and firing off spells with elemental magic signs. Basic melee attacks are handled through the left mouse button, with you timing your clicks to cord sword strokes together into big-impairment combos. If you run four such attacks together, Geralt becomes a whirling dervish capable of slicing his foes to ribbons. Each sword can besides be wielded in stiff, quick, and group styles, allowing you to tailor attacks depending on what sort of opponents you happen to exist facing. Spells are bandage by mapping elemental signs to the right mouse button. Much of this magic is generic to fantasy RPG gaming. For instance, you lot'll launch fireballs, you'll throw upwardly a protective shield, and you lot tin can charm enemies into doing your bidding. None of the spells are all that involved or fourth dimension-intensive, so yous can readily hack and slash with one push and launch fireballs with the other.

Character evolution is equally clear-cutting and carried over unchanged from the original Witcher. Skills are purchased and buffed with statuary, silver, or gold talent coins earned every fourth dimension you lot level upward. These abilities allow you to increase Geralt's basic chance to striking, damage done, along with adding special effects, such as stunning opponents or causing them crippling pain. Nobody's reinvented the bicycle here, although there is a broad range of abilities to cull from that allow y'all specialize in various areas. You can gyre all of your coins into spells and turn into kind of a wannabe magician. You tin become for strong sword skills and become a melee brawler. Or you can exercise the jack-of-all-trades affair and spread your abilities across the spectrum of choices. Geralt remains a sword-twirling fighter first and foremost no matter what you exercise, although you can at to the lowest degree tweak his talents to favor preferred combat methods.

Where this enhanced Witcher takes a welcome turn is with its story and presentation. Although the plot of the first game was a remarkably mature tale that ditched traditional blackness-and-white RPG morality for a grayness universe, the story was sloppily adapted from its original Smoothen. In information technology, y'all took the lesser-of-two-evils approach and found a mutual cause with rapists and murderers. A baroque decision to cut back the English dialogue preserved simply chopped-upwardly portions of the total script, leaving plot points difficult to empathize and cut-off conversations in midstream. All those issues have been corrected here. Thousands of lines of English dialogue have been rerecorded, fully fleshing out the storyline and removing the clumsiness of the original game. The English language translation has been gone over with a fine-toothed comb to go rid of some jarring give-and-take choices from terminal year. The game is however a lot more modern sounding than some would probably like, throwing around F-bombs and curse words in means that just don't seem to fit with swords and sorcery. Simply at least the script has been smoothed out and given a unified phonation. Any manner you expect at it, this is a huge improvement over the outset Witcher, which veered wildly between formal D&D-speak and New Jack City.

This enhanced Witcher may feature more visual detail and pack more punch in its color palette, but Geralt's world is just as grim and gloomy as ever.
This enhanced Witcher may feature more visual detail and pack more punch in its color palette, but Geralt's earth is just every bit grim and gloomy as ever.

Visuals have also been renovated, albeit not as dramatically every bit the script. The original Witcher looked pretty adept in the showtime place, and so at that place wasn't as much room for improvement hither. The large changes come with the color palette, which has been made more vibrant while keeping the game's overall grim and gray atmosphere. Spell effects--particularly the fire-based Igni sign ones--practically period correct off the screen at present. Basic background colors for such things every bit leafage and article of clothing take besides been given more popular. Grapheme art has been given an overhaul, while facial and body features that didn't laissez passer muster last year accept been given a once-over with boosted details. Although some not-player character faces however announced virtually mannequin-like, particularly common village peasants and streetwalkers, major characters now take a more realistic range of expressions. There are also more facial types, so you're not running into the same people over and over over again. Geralt was pretty nimble last yr, but now he twirls his swords and jumps around like an acrobat. All-time of all, these improvements have no effect on game functioning. This new Witcher really runs a lot faster than the old one. Loading times take been slashed, and there are no more gainsay slowdowns, frame-charge per unit hitches, or pauses to bring upwardly the interface.

That said, the new visuals are not perfect. Clipping is nonetheless a minor issue at times. Background scenery, such as shrubs and trees, still acts too much like walls. The game all the same pauses for a couple of seconds after enemies are killed, making you lot wait a moment before being able to boodle a corpse. The camera now also tends to cut characters out of the frame during conversations, an unintended side consequence of having characters move effectually more than while talking to liven upwardly dialogue scenes that were awfully static last year. And then you're treated to gabfests where the speaker'south caput is cut off, completely out of the picture show off to the left, blocked by a door, or constantly moving in and out of sight. Thankfully, these camera quirks aren't too common and are limited to talking scenes where you lot don't need to see anybody'southward faces.

The Witcher: Enhanced Edition also doesn't get off to a very good showtime. A common problem with Windows XP systems causes the game to crash on start-up due to conflicts with audio drivers. This issue can generally exist fixed in short club by turning downwards or shutting off audio acceleration or by downloading new audio files to swap out the troublesome ones that came on the game disc. But all the same, this is no mode for a game to reintroduce itself. Technical bug with the initial release of The Witcher led to this redone version beingness made in the first identify, and so information technology'southward more than a bit disappointing to striking major crashes before you can even get the game up and running.

A painted storyboard conclusion is about the most interesting aspect of The Price of Neutrality, one of two new short adventures included here.
A painted storyboard decision is most the most interesting aspect of The Toll of Neutrality, 1 of two new brusque adventures included here.

Much of the brand new content likewise leaves a chip to be desired. The 2 new stand up-solitary Geralt adventures purport to give a better wait into the witcher'due south earlier career, but they're too inconsequential to be all that engrossing and besides reliant on familiar locations from the main storyline. Fifty-fifty rooms are reused here. The Price of Neutrality gets off to a great start with a story nearly a princess who may or may non be cursed, but so, it peters out and ends abruptly later on almost 2 hours. Side Effects is simply a drove of mundane quests where Geralt has to run all over Vizima doing odd jobs to heighten 2,000 orens to pay off a debt owed to his bard pal Dandelion. There are enough choices in the latter adventure to give it some moderate replay value, although you do little aside from play errand boy. Other extra goodies are more worthwhile. The box includes a number of collectible items, such every bit a game guide; a CD soundtrack of the game's fantastically atmospheric background tunes, plus some "inspired by" tracks; a behind-the-scenes DVD; and a paper map, forth with the Djinni game editor for modders. Many of these extras are besides available to download from the game's official Website if yous choose to go the Enhanced Edition digitally.

Barring the initial installation bugs, this is what The Witcher should take been last year. While the original game was an undeniably very good RPG epic with one of the virtually authentically adult storylines to ever grace the genre, this overhauled edition has turned that near-classic into a near-masterpiece.