E3 Impression - The Witcher (PC)
Posted by Samuel Altersitz at 01:42:40 AM EST on 5.21.2005.
The Witcher (PC)
So I went to an appointment with Polish game designer
CDProjekt. Oddly enough, their extremely hot PR girl, Anna, saw me and asked if I worked for a gaming site. I suppose my purple media badge tipped her off.
I went in not expecting too much from a developer I had never heard of... most likely because I am not from Eastern Europe. However, it turns out that CDProjekt is one of Poland's biggest game publishers, and they have decided to take on the task of developing their own RPG for the Windows platform.
Honestly, I was going for the free food and beer, and if I saw something that I liked, well, all the better. Well, it turns out I did see something I liked, even though Anna wasn't in the appointment. What I saw that impressed me was
The Witcher.
CDProjekt has licensed the Aurora Engine from
BioWare, which was used in
Never Winter Nights. They have also licensed the Karma Physics Engine from
Criterion, and this will be the first known RPG to use the Karma Physics Engine.
While the game is already in a playable alpha stage, for demonstration purposes, it is already looking highly polished, and had enough from the hour long presentation to draw me in enough and make me say "I want to know more."
The Witcher is based off of a series of short stories and novels by one of Poland's most prominent fantasy writers, Andrezej Sapkowski. Witchers, it seems, are mutants who have been taken from a young age and taught to fight for humanity against the true monsters that plague the world. In this case, players will take the role of Geralt of Rivia, a white haired man with cat-like eyes, whose powers include a night vision and the ability to control his metabolism.
The press kit came with a translation of one of Sapdowski's short stories... and it is very good reading. Unfortunately, there is no English translation of his other books and stories at this time, but there is hope that he will get his works translated and published in English speaking countries.
Interestingly enough, CDProjekt has got some ambitious goals for their first game, and they, at least right now, seem to be accomplishing most of them; no small feat for any developer, especially a first time developer.
For instance, the combat is completely real time. So, while this is a point and click RPG, when you are attacking enemies, you have to actually click to swing your sword. This allows you to actually initiate combos when your skill in the weapon is high enough for the combos. The cursor will change colors during your swing, and when it turns green, that is the time to click for the next part of the combo chain.
Also, when working experience, you can either choose to raise up a stat/skill up a full level, or you can continue to give points into the current level for additional benefits. The example we were given was using your dexterity trait, which improves your chance to hit enemies. If you want to raise up the trait itself, you will get an overall bonus to hit enemies, but if you increase the current level you are at, then you might be able to increase your chances of getting a critical hit on a successful hit. This allows for a lot of customization of how you build up Geralt.
Also being used is a sense of morality. However, morality, like in real life, is not simple black and white in how it works. CDProjekt is attempting to put in consequences for your actions that can come back to haunt you far into the game, depending on your choices in dialogue and such. Nothing is as easy as it seems; especially when you consider that in a change from traditional fantasy settings, the more so-called noble races, elves, dwarves, gnomes, etc., are subjugated under the yoke of humanity. Elves hide in the forests, waging guerilla war against intruders, and dwarves and gnomes live in ghettos and suffer under racial stigmas and frequent government sponsored pogroms designed to keep them compliant.
Under such circumstances, can morality be as easy as good and evil, or black and white?
There are some screens of the alpha build I saw demonstrated. The first 10 are from the press kit, and the final one is a shot I took with my digital camera during the demonstration, showing you that the game really is looking as impressive as the press kit makes them out to be. Needless to say, I'm eagarly anticipating seeing this next year to see how well they've done, and if they're going to make their late 2006 release window.
