The Witcher Preview

Article Index

Eschalon: Book II

Publisher:Atari
Developer:CD Projekt RED
Release Date:2007-10-30
Genre:
  • Action,Role-Playing
Platforms: Theme: Perspective:
  • Isometric,Third-Person
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The Witcher's single-player game is divided into five acts, with each successive act giving the player the opportunity to explore beautifully and vividly designed locations including Kaer Morhen, the Old Castle of the Temerian Kings, and numerous cities within the Northern Realms. Each act brings new visuals and quests to the game and furthers the plot of the story by exploring areas unavailable in previous acts. The result is a stunning environment that has been intricately designed to enhance the flavor and mood of the game and provide the player with a comfortable and eye-catching world in which to play.

The combat system is also creatively applied. Designed in a way similar to Baldur's Gate and Knights of the Old Republic, players can pause the game in mid-combat to coordinate special moves and attacks without having to worry about keeping pace with the game's AI-controlled opponents. The ability to customize the character's fighting style should give players a bountiful amount of options to choose from in battle.

The in-game and toolset rendering was achieved through DirectX9 and the game engine is based off of the BioWare Aurora Engineâ„¢, which was used in the development of Neverwinter Nights. However, there have been significant modifications. With The Witcher, the world is designed without the use of a tile-based system and all of the environments were created in 3D Studio Max 6.0. The remarkable result of this is a set of visuals that are unique and richly layered to give a fluid and seamless flow during gameplay, reminiscent of such games as Myst and its sequels. Additional modifications to BioWare's Aurora EngineTM are as follows:
  • The version used in The Witcher supports lightmaps, which perform better and allow the shadows within the game to appear more realistic.


  • The enhanced engine uses a special tool called texture paint that allows the developers to paint the game's environment with custom textures to give the game a more natural feel than traditional mapping tools.


  • New skybox and water effects have been added to the engine in order to expand the realism of the environment's background, thus making the game world appear larger than it actually is.

Additional modifications include motion-captured animation, a new combat system, and added game features and graphical effects, such as portals and dynamic shadows.

Overall, The Witcher looks to be shaping up to provide a unique blend of the horror and fantasy genres that are played out in a world teetering on the brink of annihilation. Many of the races and creatures that are standard stock in horror and fantasy genres such as elves, dwarves, werewolves, and undead, can all be found in The Witcher. However, the developers are putting an interesting twist on each one in order to differentiate from the usual approach in an attempt to elevate the unique flavor of the game.

The lack of any sort of multiplayer or online capacity could possibly alienate some prospective fans, but those looking for a solid single player experience should have plenty to be excited about. The great care that was obviously put into the production of the game and the potential for fans of Sapkowski's stories should certainly help offset the drawback of no online capabilities. While no specific release date has been given yet, everything we've seen and read so far definitely puts this game on our watch list and it should be on yours, too.