The Witcher (computer game)
| The Witcher | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| Original Polish logo | |||
| Original title | Wiedźmin | ||
| Studio |
 CD project RED
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| Publisher |
 Atari SA CD project
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| Senior Developer | Jacek Brzeziński Maciej Miąsik Michał Madej Adam Badowski |
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| composer | Adam Skorupa | ||
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
Microsoft Windows: October 26, 2007 October 30, 2007 November 9, 2007 macOS: April 5, 2012    |
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| platform | Windows , macOS | ||
| Game engine | Aurora engine | ||
| genre | Action RPG | ||
| Subject | Fantasy | ||
| Game mode | Single player | ||
| control | Mouse , keyboard | ||
| system advantages preconditions |
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| medium | DVD-ROM , download | ||
| language | English , French , German , Spanish , Italian , Czech , Russian , Hungarian , Polish | ||
| Current version | 1.5 (July 8, 2009) | ||
| copy protection | Tagès (removed with patch 1.5) | ||
| Age rating |
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The Witcher ( Polish original title: Wiedźmin , German: Der Hexer ) is an action role-playing game by the Polish developer CD Projekt RED for Windows and macOS , based on the Witcher novel series by the Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski .
The Europe-wide release date of the game was October 26, 2007, for North America on October 30, 2007. In September 2008, an improved new edition followed with the subtitle Enhanced Edition for Windows, 2012 also for macOS. In 2011 the sequel, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, was released . The final part of this trilogy was released on May 19, 2015 under the title The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt .
action
The central figure of the story is the scarred sorcerer Geralt von Rivia, who roams the country as a professional monster hunter for a fee. His trademarks are his long white hair and two swords on his back, one made of silver and one made of steel. The silver sword serves as a weapon against all kinds of monsters, since most of the monsters that occur are very sensitive to silver, the steel sword is used to fight humanoid opponents.
Geralt von Rivia was trained as a sorcerer at Kaer Morhen Castle from early childhood. It is said among the population that the Brotherhood of Sorcerers rob children at night and subject them to harsh and cruel training. By taking potions, the bone and muscle structures, among other things, mutate during training, as does the metabolic balance. Many do not survive this procedure. Only a few, like Geralt von Riva, survive and are then immune to diseases and insensitive to most poisons and toxins, they also have night vision and superhumanly quick reflexes. The reptile-like vertical pupils are special distinguishing marks among witchers. Since Geralt's hair lost its pigments during the mutation, this earned him the nickname "White Wolf". Like all sorcerers, Geralt was trained in alchemy, magic and fighting with the sword. He is a masterful and devious swordsman who is second to none.
The game world is characterized by tensions between humans and non-humans, that is, all non-human peoples who had previously waged war. Despite the peace that has now been agreed, these are troubled times, an epidemic is rampant and the conflict between humans and other animals is coming to a head as the latter are being oppressed by humans. The few still living sorcerers are not welcomed by the common people. Either feared or despised as relics of the past, they are still happily hired to fight monsters. One day Geralt is found half dead by other sorcerers and taken to Kaer Morhen. He suffers from amnesia and has to relearn a lot about himself over time. A short time later the castle is attacked. The attackers - under the leadership of the so-called "professor" and the magician Azar Javed - kill a young witcher adept and steal the secret formulas and potions of the witcher mutagens. The sorcerers go in search of the robbers in order to regain their long-kept secrets.
As the game progresses, Geralt travels to the kingdom of Temeria, which is shattered by war, poverty and racism. His search leads him to the south of the country, to the villages outside the city of Vizima, where he goes on the trail of a scheming criminal organization. In the heated local conflict between humans and elves, Geralt tries not to take sides. But he is increasingly reliant on allies as the extent of the conspiracy becomes clearer.
synchronization
The original version of the game has been criticized for its poor dubbing. For the Enhanced Edition , the entire game was therefore re-synchronized with other speakers, with this new voice output receiving more praise. The criticism concerned not only the German, but also the original English dubbing, which was also revised. Owners of the original version had the opportunity to download the new speech output free of charge.
Completely different speakers were hired for the German synchronization of the subsequent Witcher games. Unlike the first game, they received a lot of critical acclaim.
| Role name | Original version | Enhanced Edition |
|---|---|---|
| Geralt of Rivia | Herbert Schäfer | Oliver Siebeck |
| teller | Oliver Jacobs | Christian Rode |
| Triss Merigold | Nicole Boguth | Ann have a lot |
| Zoltan Chivay | Stefan Müller-Ruppert | Mario Hassert |
| Siegfried of Denesle | Dirk Meyer | Michael Baral |
| Vincent Meis | Berth Wesselmann | Klaus-Dieter Klebsch |
| Lambert | Daniel Sellier | Felix Spit |
| Vesemir | Uli Krohm | |
| Azar Javed | Detlef Bierstedt | |
| Donkey | Bernd Vollbrecht | |
| Joachim De Wett | Michael Pan | |
| Princess Adda | Anja Stadlober | |
| Foltest | Christian Rode | |
| Jacques de Aldersberg | Klaus-Dieter Klebsch | |
| Thaler | Bodo Wolf | |
| Leo | Dirk Stollberg |
Gameplay
The player controls the protagonist Geralt von Rivia from a third-person perspective , with two overview and one follower perspective to choose from. A large part of the game consists of fights and the completion of orders (quests), for which the player is usually rewarded with experience points, money and equipment. There are also mini games like dice poker with which the player can win money. Character development takes place classically through the distribution of the gained experience points, which is possible during the breaks at the campfire or in restaurants or with important quest players. There are a total of 15 properties to choose from: the attributes strength, agility, endurance and intelligence, five spells and three fighting techniques each for the silver and steel sword.
A special real-time combat system was developed for The Witcher , which distinguishes between three specialized fighting styles:
- The strong fighting style used with powerful punches on large, heavily armored opponents.
- The fast fighting style used with a high strike rate on agile opponents.
- The group fighting style used when multiple opponents are attacking at the same time.
The choice of fighting style can be adjusted at any time during combat. In addition to the choice of style, the player can create a chain of blows through rhythmic repetition of the attack command, which significantly increases the damage caused. In the easy and medium level of difficulty, icons help the player to keep to the rhythm. The game can be stopped at any time with the space bar, e.g. to change weapons or use potions.
The villages and towns of the medieval fantasy world were built according to historical building plans. The plot of the non-linear game is divided into five chapters as well as a prologue and an epilogue. The game world consists of individual levels , with the individual chapters forming self-contained sections. The areas of the previous chapters can no longer be entered afterwards. The environment and daily routines were designed realistically. For example, the residents go about their work during the day, rest in their houses at night and take shelter when it rains. Children play on the streets, cats sit on window sills and clean themselves, chickens scratch in the yard and all kinds of farm animals and wild animals can be seen. Musicians and bards play and sing in marketplaces and restaurants and much more.
During the game, the player comes across important decisions in multiple-choice conversations , which depending on the choice have a decisive influence on the progress of the game. Later in the game, the player is shown the consequences of his choice in cut- scenes , which are designed as drawn dream sequences ( flashbacks ). The player's behavior can ultimately lead to three different game ends.
development
The Witcher was the first in-house development by the Polish publisher CD Projekt . In February 2002, a specially built development studio was founded under the name CD Projekt RED. It was not the first attempt to develop a game based on the Wiedźmin book series popular in Poland . The development studio Metropolis Software House had already secured the rights to develop an action adventure game in 1996, but never completed it. In 2008 it was taken over by CD Projekt. The development of The Witcher took five years, with a team of around 100 people, and cost 20 million Polish zloty .
technology
The game uses the Aurora game engine developed by BioWare , but heavily modified for the requirements of The Witcher from CD Projekt RED . In the end, according to the developers, only around 20% of the original engine remained untouched, the rest, including the complete render path, was completely rewritten.
Experts in medieval martial arts techniques were recruited to portray the fighting movements in The Witcher . The motion sequences were recorded in the studio of metricminds GmbH in Frankfurt am Main with the help of the motion capturing process .
marketing
In cooperation with the Polish studio Platige Image was created under the direction of Tomasz Bagiński , whose short animated films Katedra (2002; 2003 nominated for an Oscar for best animated short film) and Sztuka spadania (2004, 2006 BAFTA for best animated short film) ), a computer-animated trailer of the game.
In 2007 the Polish death metal band Vader released their video Sword of the Witcher in collaboration with CD Projekt . The normal game and the Collector's Edition included the music video of the song Amaranth by the Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish .
In 2008 the Enhanced Edition was released , in which not only bugs ( program errors ) were eliminated, but also the inventory was enlarged and cut scenes and over 200 new gesture animations were added. In addition, the German setting has been renewed. In the box was a “making-of” DVD, two soundtrack CDs, a short story by Andrzej Sapkowski, a map by Temeria and revised instructions. There were also two additional mini-adventures, " The Price of Neutrality " and " Side Effects ", which together offer around five to eight hours of game time, regardless of the plot of the main game. Later, all owners of the original game were offered the Enhanced Edition as a free download, with the game's registration being checked during installation.
In 2011 The Witcher: Enhanced Edition (Director's Cut) was finally released with additional extras such as two cards, a “music-inspired-by-The-Witcher” soundtrack, an art book and more.
A year after its release, the game had sold a million copies.
Console version
Under the title The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf , a port of the game for the game consoles Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 was to be created after an announcement in December 2008 . After CD Projekt had financial problems, the project managed by Widescreen Games was discontinued in 2009.
reception
| Magazine / website | Rating |
|---|---|
| GameStar | 80% |
| GameStar | 83% (Enhanced Edition) |
| Metacritic | 81% |
| Metacritic | 86% (Enhanced Edition) |
| 4players | 85% (version 1.1) |
| PC Games | 87% (Enhanced Edition) |
| Eurogamer | 8 of 10 (Enhanced Edition) |
The Witcher was received very positively by the trade press . Especially the atmosphere and narrative style of the game, which, according to the literary model, follow not common fantasy clichés and the genre- typical escapism , received a lot of praise. Above all, there were massive bugs in the original version that gave rise to negative criticism. The Enhanced Edition therefore took many critics as an opportunity to undergo the game a retest.
Original version
“Anyone who has been upset about the missing soul in role-playing games in recent years will soak up the highly dramatic air in the world of the witcher and gasp for more. (...) Forget the kitsch of the 08/15 fantasy, this is where it gets rough: Fight, drugs, sex and violence dominate the gloomy everyday life. In terms of dramaturgy and direction, the CD Projekt team did an excellent job: great dialogues, striking characters and short films at the right time. From the pores of this adventure, this magic, which the genre was missing for a long time, is finally flowing again: After all the toilet crap, you actually roam curiously through a world again because you want to explore it and feel the consequences! And of course you want to eat hard. Once you let the sorcerer's long sword sing, you won't get away from it so quickly - the battle choreographies are as bloody as they are elegant. Aside from the annoying loading times, there are three weaknesses: The game world cannot be explored freely, theft has no consequences and the chaotic inventory cannot be sorted. But the rest of the festival stands out from the competition: Art & Design captivate all along the line from the intro, through the monsters to the last diary entry, the game world is lively at every turn and the great music rounds off this medieval fantasy spectacle. For me it is definitely the best PC role-playing game of the year so far! "
Enhanced Edition
"Developer CD Projekt revised The Witcher in detail. So it has now matured technically, runs more stable and fluid. At the controls, the inventory has been improved, while the atmosphere benefits from more varied NPCs. In addition, the controversial voice output was replaced. (...) At the center of the action is a hero with plenty of depth and profile: his name is Geralt, white-haired monster hunter and seducer of women, probably the coolest guy the genre has ever seen. Racism, fear of the future, terrorism, these are uncomfortable topics that The Witcher packs into an epic story, sometimes serious, sometimes with a wink. (...) All areas are filled with interesting characters and clever quests, the latter often leading to morally tricky decisions. It depends on which of the three possible endings you get to see. (...) You can plan more than 50 hours if you intend to solve every quest. And you should. Although the plot seems a little stretched in the last third, the game remains an exciting experience from the beginning to the amazing end. (...) In any case, if you don't know The Witcher yet, you won't have any excuses from September 18th. To buy!"
“The Witcher doesn't make it easy for you. While the title struggled with errors and technical inadequacies on the first release, this time the devil is in the details. The update is not painless with either the retail version or the original. The end result is impressive and makes the Enhanced Edition a better gaming experience, but the hurdles are once again too high. Yes, The Witcher is and will remain a first-class and above all unusual role-playing game that will cast its spell on you with its unique atmosphere and believable characters. But since some of the new features would actually have been mandatory at the first appearance, it is not enough for an upgrade. Maybe it will work with the second part. "
“A good year has passed since the Polish studio CD project out of nowhere enriched the role-playing genre with another masterpiece. Then why a new edition at all, some will ask. Well: Although "The Witcher" was playfully convincing and turned out to be a real atmosphere monster, especially in terms of staging, small blunders, bugs and design flaws refused all too euphoric evaluations. (...) We were surprised that the CD project even has improved in the supreme discipline of the witcher - the atmosphere. This is particularly noticeable in the numerous dialogue sequences: all characters now have a larger animation spectrum. The previously sterile conversations now appear more dynamic thanks to additional gestures. In addition, the camera work of these scenes was slightly changed - this creates real cinema flair. (...) After the last patches removed most of the nasty bugs that plagued the Witcher when it was released, CD Projekt has once again improved the general performance. There are no more serious errors at all, crashes are also a thing of the past, and even the loading times have become shorter - great. "
literature
- The world of The Witcher. Videogame compendium , Panini Verlag , Stuttgart 2015, ISBN 978-3-8332-2894-0 .
Web links
- Official site (English)
- The Witcher at MobyGames (English)
- The Witcher Enhanced Edition at MobyGames (English)
- The Witcher: Enhanced Edition (Director's Cut) at MobyGames (English)
- German-language Witcher Wiki
Individual evidence
- ↑ PCGames.de: The Witcher: Patch 1.5 removes the copy protection and lets you play without DVD from July 8, 2009, accessed on January 10, 2011
- ↑ The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt: New details in June? Extensive gameplay preview planned for E3 2014. May 23, 2014, accessed July 8, 2020 .
- ↑ The Witcher: Enhanced Edition in the test - From bug disaster to adult role-playing game. September 24, 2008, accessed July 8, 2020 .
- ↑ Robert Purchese: The Witcher game that never what. In: Eurogamer. May 19, 2015, accessed July 8, 2020 .
- ↑ Robert Purchese: Seeing Red: The story of CD Projekt. In: Eurogamer. May 17, 2015, accessed July 8, 2020 .
- ↑ The Witcher 1 to The Witcher 3: Comparison of the technology PCGamesHardware.de from May 5, 2015
- ↑ The Witcher: Enhanced Edition Test Gamestar.de of September 24, 2008, accessed on May 5, 2015.
- ^ The Witcher: Enhanced Edition - The Witcher PCGames.de of October 13, 2008, accessed on May 5, 2015.
- ↑ The Witcher: Enhanced Edition in the test - From bug disaster to adult role-playing game in GameStar from September 24, 2008, accessed on November 5, 2017
- ↑ The Witcher Enhanced Edition in the PC Games Test in PC Games from October 13, 2008, accessed on November 5, 2017
- ↑ The Witcher: Enhanced Edition - Available for download as a patch for the original Gamestar.de from September 25, 2008, accessed on May 5, 2015.
- ↑ The Witcher hits 1 million sales October 31, 2008, accessed November 6, 2019.
- ^ The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf Announced
- ↑ Ding-dong, the console Witcher is dead (for now) ( Memento of the original from November 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ The Witcher (PC) - Release, News, System Requirements. Retrieved July 8, 2020 .
- ↑ The Witcher: Enhanced Edition (PC) - Release, News, System Requirements. Retrieved July 8, 2020 .
- ↑ The Witcher. Retrieved July 8, 2020 .
- ↑ The Witcher: Enhanced Edition. Retrieved July 8, 2020 .
- ↑ http://www.4players.de/4players.php/dispbericht_fazit/PC-CDROM/Test/Fazit_WANY/PC-CDROM/4398/5965/The_Witcher.html
- ↑ The Witcher Enhanced Edition in the PC Games Test. October 13, 2008, accessed July 8, 2020 .
- ↑ Kristian Metzger: The Witcher: Enhanced Edition. In: Eurogamer.de. October 16, 2008, accessed July 8, 2020 .
- ↑ http://www.4players.de/4players.php/dispbericht_fazit/PC-CDROM/Test/Fazit_WANY/PC-CDROM/4398/5965/The_Witcher.html
- ↑ http://www.pcgames.de/The-Witcher-Enhanced-Edition-Spiel-38489/Tests/The-Witcher-663212/2/
- ↑ http://www.eurogamer.de/articles/the-witcher-enhanced-edition-test
- ↑ http://www.gamona.de/games/the-witcher,test-pc:article,1046701.html
