Choose your viewpoint and click to fight
Uniquely, The Witcher can be played from one of two viewpoints, which give you a slightly different slant on the game. The first and simpler option is an isometric 3D view where you control the camera with the middle mouse button and left click to make Geralt move around. The cursor is context sensitive and changes depending on what you hover over. The second viewpoint is a third-person, over the right shoulder view which oddly enough takes a little getting used to as Geralt is set decidedly to the left of the screen… So unlike Lara in Tomb Raider or Sam in Splinter Cell, you’re a bit more detached from the action…Now whilst most people will probably go for the third-person view, there’s merit in playing in the isometric view as in fights you’ve got a much better idea of what’s going on around you. And that’s obviously important as there’s loads of sword and sorcery action all the way through The Witcher and plenty to interact with, all of which is best viewed from an isometric perspective. But playing from up high has its problems.
Click for larger imageFor one thing, you’ll be mucking about with the damn camera more often than not and the middle mouse button to change the camera view is, for me, unworkable when you have to be left clicking like crazy to get Geralt to move, attack or interact with stuff. You can still use the W,A,S,D keys to move Geralt around but unlike Tomb Raider where the camera is automatic unless you take control The Witcher’s camera is always in your control… so you’re forever resetting the view to see what’s going on.
So, I strongly advise you to eschew the isometric view and get in close on the action. If you’re careful, you’ll not get caught by attacks off screen and you’ll benefit from a much more rewarding experience where you’re not fighting the bloody view all the time. But playing from a more up-close perspective also adds vastly to the atmosphere in The Witcher, which, being based on a Polish author’s work, is very much of medieval Europe and for those of you that liked the Thief series and the atmosphere there, you’ll get on well with The Witcher.
Click for larger imageThe in-game interface is pretty basic but that’s a good thing as it lets you get on with the game. You attack bad guys buy moving the cursor over them and clicking when it changes to a sword. You interact with objects when the hand icon appears as you hover over them and you talk to NPCs by using the green speech bubble icon… dead simple.
Combat is a bit more complex than just hammering that mouse button home though and here The Witcher tries something a bit different. You click once to attack and then wait while Geralt goes through his attack move. The cursor will change to a flaming sword, which is your cue to click again and Geralt will continue his attack, stringing together moves to deliver a series of punishing blows to his opponents. To start off with, Geralt just has the two moves, an initial attack and then a follow up move but as Geralt levels up you can add more moves to his attacks, stringing together more and more moves to make a formidable fighter.
However, click at the wrong time and Geralt will stop in mid-move, dropping back to his default fighting stance, which, in the heat of battle can be confusing. An accidental click can leave Geralt open to a counter-attack and then you can be in a world of hurt as your enemy wades in with a volley of blows.
Click for larger imageGeralt has a range of fighting styles at his disposal which you will need to make use of if you want to make any progress through The Witcher. The string style is for facing off against single, powerful opponents, whilst the fast style is handy for quick strikes on fast baddies but causes less damage whilst the group style is handy if you’re surrounded by a bunch of bad guys… And if you’re not sure which style you should be using, there’s an incredibly handy ‘real time pause’ button that lets you access the various styles, weapons and other bits and bobs before resuming the action.
Click for larger image