The Witcher is a very good action/adventure RPG with elements of Baldur's Gate and Oblivion, with a very deep character progression system, deep combat, and extensive user choice. Your choices can change the game hours in the future, and bad choices will come back to haunt you. It's definitely worth purchasing.

You play Geralt, the titular Witcher. A witcher is (aside from "someone who witches") a monster fighter. Apparently it was an ancient society of monster fighters utilizing magic, genetic experimentation, and special sources of magical power to combat the evil scary beasties roaming the world. In recent times, humanity has gone retarded and begun killing off the witchers because they're scary. Geralt is killed in the opening cutscene and brought back to life, conveniently without his memory. The plot and story is very interesting, and more than enough to keep you going through the slow portions of the gameplay.

There are slow parts. One of the things missing from this game is a "quick travel" or "warp" functionality. I spent almost an hour at one point relaying messages back and forth between two people on opposite sides of a city. Person A would want me to talk to Person B, who would send me back to Person A, and back and forth dozens of times. I almost turned the game off, but I wanted to see what would happen next.

The combat and movement in the game is like a strange mix between Oblivion and Baldur's Gate. You have the choice of 2 camera types, either over-the-shoulder or an isometric view (there's close and far isometric, giving you three cameras total). WASD moves your character, and pointing and clicking attacks. This is where it gets a little weird, so I'll break it up into the two camera types:

Isometric: In the bird's eye view of the game, clicking will either make your character run to that spot (if you clicked on an empty piece of land) or use/talk/activate/attack (if you clicked on an item, friendly, switch, or enemy). The mouse cursor moves around the screen independent of the camera controls, and you have to scroll off the edge of the screen to rotate the camera. It's very much like Baldur's gate.

Over the Shoulder: In the over the shoulder view, the controls are more like a third person action game. WASD controls your character, but the mouse controls the camera. It's still a point-and-click interface, but you get a crosshairs like in a real action game. However, you can also "unlock" the cursor so you can move it around the screen freely without moving the camera. It's a very weird feeling. However, it's necessary because you need to click on the icons around the edge of the screen in order to switch weapons, combat styles, spells, or inventory items. There are hotkeys for all these things, but especially when you first start you're not going to remember which is "fast style" and which is "heavy weapon."

The combat in The Witcher is interesting. Iit's point and click, but it's not the "click on the enemy as fast as you can" style of point-and-click combat you found in Diablo and WOW. And here is why The Witcher got points knocked off: You can't tell when to click. If you click too quickly, Geralt goes through his "oh crap I forgot how to swing a sword" animation and you lose a few seconds of combat time. However, sometimes you'll click on an enemy and nothing will happen. I can't figure out exactly what prevents me from initiating attacks sometimes, but when it does fail, it takes me 5-10 seconds to get back into the swing of things. Against tough opponents, that leads to certain death.

Some enemy creatures have status effects that can disable Geralt for up to 30 seconds at a time, during which time they completely tear you to pieces. It's horribly frustrating for your character to be staggering around with absolutely no control while he dies. Not only that, but there aren't any "health" potions as you're used to them. Things that increase health simply increase your standard health regeneration rate. If you get low on health and there's nowhere for you to run to, reload. Also, Geralt has no ranged weapons (aside from some spells that can be upgraded) so it's difficult to keep your distance from enemies of this type.

There are many more options in combat than just "click on the guy" however. You have 2 main weapons (steel sword for people and silver sword for monsters, generally) and each of those has 3 combat styles (fast, heavy, and group). Plus you have two additional weapons (which I never found a use for) and 5 spells that can be used in combat. Each spell has up to 4 levels. So combat is fairly complex. In addition, there are potions you can take and oils you can spread on your sword blade to have various effects on the gameplay. Luckily, the game allows you to pause and queue up a single action. Sadly you can't queue multiple actions like you could in Baldur's Gate, but it seems they wanted The Witcher to play out more like an action game, but it's horribly frustrating to pause when you see a guy, then click "take out weapon." Then you have to unpause while Geralt draws his sword, then you pause again and switch styles, then unpause. Then pause and click on the enemy (who now has 15 friends), then you get to initiate the attack sequence.

Attacking with swords is actually a fairly intriguing mechanic. Since they didn't want to go the hack and slash route of Diablo, the game opts for a more skilled approach. If you click your mouse at the very end of your first series of attacks, you begin the second series of attacks. You can tell when an attack series is ending because the trail of your sword turns reddish and there's a "whooshing" sound. In Easy mode, the icon also turns yellow. You can chain up to 4 attack sequences this way, and it's usually the only way to exit combat alive.

So the combat is fun, but it could be better. The story is intriguing, but some of the fetch quests get really ridiculous. Let's take one last look at the choices the game gives you.

The Witcher is one of the first games I've ever played where your choices have an effect on the world. This is not like a "you choose to kill the innkeeper so now you can't stay at the inn" style cause and effect that some games have. This is serious branching storyline cause and effect. In the first hour, you're given a choice of whether to fight a large monster or fight a wizard. If you choose to fight the wizard, you will foil his plans and cause him to try again at a later date. If you fight the monster, the wizard wins and moves on to the next phase of his plan more quickly.

In addition, the choices you're given aren't cut and dried. It's not "good vs. evil" like you're used to being presented with. You will have to choose between two morally ambiguous choices, just like in the real world, and those choices can come back to haunt you dozens of hours later in the game. It's really fascinating.

The choices don't just stop at conversation and gameplay options, either. Fully 15 pages of the manual are taken up by the skill trees. You have 4 attributes, each of which has 5 levels. Each of the 5 levels has 2-4 sub-skills that you can purchase once you purchase the base for that level. Then you have the 5 spells, which have similar trees, and the 6 combat styles as well. With only 3 skill points per level, your choices greatly influence the game. I just wish they were a little more descriptive in which skills you need to complete certain quests. Some of the "job quests" in the first city are impossible without the Herbalism and Beastiary related feats.

All in all, The Witcher could have been an EPIC WIN if they had fixed some of the problems with combat and added in a fast travel option. Still definitely worth a look, but it will take you a while to become proficient in combat.