You know a publisher is in trouble when they have to borrow another $10 million just to get them through the winter, as Atari recently did. And you get the feeling they’re doomed when, despite being in dire need of strong sales and consumer goodwill, they make the decision to release their new game with another irritating and underhand piece of copy protection that means if it doesn’t like the look of your installed programs it isn’t going to play ball. Right now isn’t the place for me to start a good ol’ rant about the evils of modern CP code, but anything in your game that stops me from playing it is a bad idea publishers. Potential buyers need to know that if you use (for example) Alcohol 120%, there’s a good chance The Witcher’s CP drivers will not recognise the game disc and the game won’t play. It took me two days to figure that out, two days when I should have been playing the game and not railing at the inequities of Atari, and it’s not an isolated incident. Publishers like Stardock have shown the industry that it’s possible to have both critical and commercial success without any CP whatsoever, and I’m disappointed others aren’t trying to follow their lead.

But after the first hurdles The Witcher spends the rest of its play time trying to make up for the very shaky start. You play Geralt, a milky-haired monster slayer called a Witcher, prancing about in a fantasy world created originally by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. But this is gutter fantasy, the traditional RPG tropes of evil orcs and noble elves turned on its head and it makes for a refreshing setting. The developers CD Projekt have made the most of Bioware’s Aurora engine, and the scale and detail in the locations is impressive, if plagued by numerous loading screens. It’s a gritty, deep-feeling world set in the aftermath of a particularly nasty war where nobody now really trusts anybody else. The human settlements you encounter give the distinct impression of a society seriously on the wane, and the distinct differences in the setting compared to every other RPG ever made make The Witcher feel fresher and more exciting. The world looks and feels seriously lived in. And the elves are now all terrorists apparently.

As a Witcher Geralt also has the ability to brew and use dozens of different alchemical potions that provide various combat bonuses and other useful (if temporary) talents such as the ability to see in total darkness. Ingredients come from a variety of sources such as slain monsters and local flora and fauna, but a lot of the more interesting and potent stuff is off limits unless you gift Geralt with the appropriate skills. These are acquired by spending ‘talents’, which are essentially XP that can be distributed to improve Geralt in a number of areas such as strength, handling with a particular weapon, intelligence, alchemy etc. Engage in more combat and complete more quests to gain more talents, which can be used to direct character growth in a limited number of directions. It’s a straightforward system that still manages to retain an element of subtlety and there’s room to experiment.

It’s not without its bugs too. I encountered regular floating objects, broken animation and the occasional NPC stuck to the scenery. For all it’s graphical and aesthetic detail the game feels like it’s lacking that extra bit of polish that would have ironed the worst out, at the cost of a few extra months development time. I witnessed some truly suicidal AI behaviour too (and scrumming around a potion-crazed white haired freak wielding a sword is suicidal behaviour) which I suppose is almost par for the course in games like this. I had plenty of fun with The Witcher, and it’s possessed of a world I can see myself returning to. I’m torn between awarding it a 7 or an 8, but I think the game lacks a certain overall level of consistency and solidity - It largely succeeds in delivering an entertaining RPG experience, but denies itself true greatness.