It's been well over a year since our last look at CD Projekt's ambitious role-playing game, The Witcher. Since then, the game has undergone many dramatic changes; The Witcher has bulked up with an overhauled presentation, additions to its real-time combat, and dynamic narrative elements; simply put—it's it top form.
The Witcher is an immense role-playing game, one that promises between 60 and 100 hours of play. As such there's an enormous amount to talk about, but I'm focusing only on what new information we have on the game: the token abilities system, potion alchemy, and mini-games. Details on the story and intricacies of its combat system can be found in our
recent interview
with Chief Designer Michal Madej.
Like any role-playing game, The Witcher rewards you with experience points for completing quests and defeating enemies. These points go toward leveling up, which in turn increases your core attributes and grants you special tokens for accessing new abilities. Tokens are divided into three classes: bronze, silver and gold. Naturally, silver tokens unlock more advanced abilities than bronze, while gold offers access to only the most powerful skills. For example, applying tokens to the magical sign Igni grants new fire spells that start with basic flame blasts and increase to massive firewalls of damage.
You're free to designate these medallions to any attribute, weapon, or sign you wish. Advancing each area evenly ensures proficiency across the board; however, you can only gain use of the best abilities by concentrating your tokens toward a specific characteristic. Before unlocking gold skills, you first must get bronze and then silver abilities. In this sense, tokens work similar to a tech tree albeit tailored to the game's dynamic style of role-playing.
Upgrading your weapons with tokens is a must when embarking on quests. Similar to unlocking new spells by assigning tokens to magical signs, you can increase a weapon's attack power and latent abilities with tokens. A handful of different weapons are available through the course of the game, each tailored to a specific use in combat. For instance, the steel sword easily cuts through a slithering tentacle-filled creature, yet the moon blade isn't nearly as effective. Knowing which weapon is best applied to an enemy not only helps you in battle, but also in determining where to spend tokens.
Along with physical hits, weapons inflict special damage via oils. Using the game's alchemy system, it's possible to create all manner of oils and potions to augment your arsenal and natural abilities. Dousing a blade in “Necrophage” oil, for example, enables you to poison enemies. Potions temporarily boost your powers, although at a risk of being poisoned. Unlike the carefree punch-drunk potion drinking binges of typical role-playing games, the concoctions drain your health if imbibed in excess.
Crafting your own items could be labeled a mini-game in its own right, though The Witcher possesses a slate of diversions not limited to boxing, gambling, and even drinking. The clear favorite has to be drinking, which can only be won by building up tolerance to out-drink the competition. Successfully do so and the loser challenges you to a fight—a desperate effort to restore his lost pride.
