The Witcher

The Witcher is an action RPG from the Polish studio CD Projekt RED, based on Andrzej Sapkowski's book series about the witcher Geralt of Rivia. Until then the studio had only localized other people's games, and no one expected it to build a sprawling RPG on a modified Aurora engine straight from Neverwinter Nights. In 2007 the result felt unusually mature: Geralt isn't a hero saving the world, but a hired professional moving between warring factions who almost never has a purely good choice available. Decisions also carry delayed consequences — the outcome often only shows up a chapter later, by which point the player barely remembers what exactly they decided.

Combat was built around rhythmic clicking in three styles — fast, strong, and group — which had to be switched depending on the type of opponent, on top of Signs (simple spells) and, above all, preparation. Before a fight the witcher brews potions from ingredients, oils his swords, and studies the bestiary, so a significant part of the game happens outside combat. The system was unusual and divided players, but it captured the logic of the source material: Geralt doesn't win through strength but by preparing for a specific monster. The setting of Vizima and the surrounding villages is muddy, poor, and hostile, Adam Skorupa's music blends Slavic motifs with dark ambience, and the whole thing feels more like a Central European legend than classic fantasy.

The game originally launched in a state marred by long loading times, clunky localization, and technical bugs; a year later the Enhanced Edition substantially fixed it and added new voice acting and missions. It was this version that found The Witcher its audience, selling over two million copies and turning a previously unknown Polish studio into a name a whole series could be built on. In hindsight it's the roughest entry in the trilogy, but also the one where it shows most clearly that the authors wanted to tell a story about moral grey areas before that was common in the genre.

Why play it: Pick up the Enhanced Edition and you get the roughest entry in the trilogy, but also the one where the drive to tell a story about moral grey areas — before that was common in the genre — shows through the most.