Because of the release of The Witcher 2, here's an overview of the first game. The review of the sequel will follow soon.

The Good Features


• Revised and expanded script vastly improves the storyline
• Graphics enhanced across the board in comparison with the original game
• Load times greatly improved
• Lots of additional content.

The Bad Aspects


• Still a little buggy
• Both new adventures are short and rather shallow.

The Witcher: Enhanced Edition is what this role-playing game should have been when it made its debut a year ago. Nearly all of the problems have been thrown out by the Developer CD Project. Also the graphic and performance have been improved, now the game runs more comfortably. For example the long time of the load screen, you have to wait for, has been shortened. New stand-alone adventures have been added to improve gameplay beside of the main story. Everything seems more solid and stable, from combat mechanics to the interface. And the best of all, these gameplay enhancements are freely available to download for those who purchased the original game last year.
Battles are now smoother and more dramatic, due to slicker combat animations and vivid colors that spark up spell effects.

You want to play the new released game The Witcher 2, but don’t know the story of the first game because it’s so many times ago that you have played it? Here are some notes to buff up your story knowledge of The Witcher 1 (Spoiler warning!):

Geralt starts his adventure in the citadel of Kaer Morhen where bandits (The Samamandra) attack led by two criminal characters, the Professor and a mysterious mage who steal the witcher secrets. In the first chapter Geralt is exploring the outskirts of Vizima, where he is trying to find out something about the Salamadra and his friend Berengar. Now Geralt reaches the temple quarter, where he has to solve a mystery: in which way the habitants of Vizima are connected witch the salamadra. During Chapter III, Geralt will have to follow new marks in view of the Salamandra, while investigating the mysterious powers of the child Alvin whom he rescued in Chapter I.

Geralt now finds himself in a totally new area of Temeria, far from Vizima and let most of the people he knew behind him. Only Dandelion and Alvin are with Geralt though and there are new intrigues around him. The chapter ends with a showdown between the Order of the Flaming Rose and the Scoia'tael. Geralt fights for the elves in this conflict. Vizima burns now. Then the witcher must help Shani get out of Old Vizima to the swamp cemetery to get medicine from the druids. At the same time, King Foltest returns and his daughter Adda seems to be having a relapse of the Striga curse. Geralt must do what he can for the princess, and in return, Foltest will divulge what he knows about the Salamandra hideout, and as a result, Azar Javed's location.

In the end sequence king Foltest is attacked by a masked assassin, and is defended by Geralt. In the aftermath, both Geralt and king Foltest take a closer look at the villain's face which has now been unmasked. Inexplicably, the man appears to have the same eye mutation as Geralt...

Sources: pcmedia.gamespy.com / witcher.wikia.com / gamespot.com