Recent reviews by Zola

While movement can sometimes be clunky and exhausting, with help of glider, it quickly becomes extremely entertaining game. However, don’t expect some kind of serious challenge or deep story, because this game is not made for that. Instead, Grow Home feels like perfect game for relaxation and people who don’t want to be forced to use violence to solve every problem.

Firstly, I just want to say that I got this game as random gift in 2011 Winter Steam sale for one of the achievements. I also want to say that this isn't going to be super "formal review" and instead it's going to be more of a story. Also, I should also mention that I read all of the novels (although I read them after finishing Witcher 1) which served as base for the games. With that said, let’s start!

I am going to be totally honest and say that I wasn't able to get into Witcher 1 first two or three times I tried it. Every time I went back and played it from start but wasn't able to get past chapter 2. This was partially because it was fairly unstable on my pc and partially because game was really creepy during the in-game night time, especially in sewers. When I finally managed to get through that, I stumbled into "depressing" streets of a town and later even more creepy environments. Sometimes, it even felt dreadful, but when I managed to get through all of that game turned into most incredible experience. Looking back on that I realize that even those elements are intentional and that’s just incredible because developers managed to capture atmosphere of every environment and make me feel like I spent time in that world.

At first the world might not feel large, since playable environments aren’t that large, but in reality they are just right size. It usually doesn’t take too much time to get between places and they are incredibly atmospheric. Dynamic weather, day-night, usage of color and incredible soundtrack make the world come to life. And since I mentioned soundtrack, I can’t continue without talking more about it. While this always comes down to taste in music, I have to say that witcher made me like this type of music. Tracks range from peaceful “expolation music” to aggressive “battle music”, but they always feel authentic. What’s more even listening to music by itself, I find myself remembering environments and the feeling I had while exploring it, while at same time it also makes me imagine other parts of that world. But that goes even further because this soundtrack also invokes memories from my childhood, since I spent a lot of time in grassy fields and nature in general.

Another thing which helped with this was the amount of details developers put into the game. The element which impresses me is incredible AI behavior which makes it seem like every NPC in the game has life, with routines unique to their character. Majority of them spent nights in bed, leaving streets empty. People with jobs went to their stations at appropriate times, some people spent their time in inns, homeless were wondering the streets and sleeping around campfires. I know this can be problematic when you are looking for NPCs, but it made me feel even more immersed. After a while I felt like I knew these characters, I knew their habits, which indirectly helped build their personas without a need for dialog. Although, if you want dialog, this game has that too. A lot of it. While the writing and voice acting aren't the greatest, it's still incredible for the amount of dialog in the game and the fact that developers aren’t native English speakers. Almost every quest in the game felt interesting and organic. Quests are intertwined but at same time they give player different paths which lead to different outcomes. There is also branching narrative, although it's somewhat limited, usually focusing mainly on binary choices. Still, if you replay the game, you should be able to find new information, and take different path through the story.

As for gameplay, I find it to be mostly fitting which is probably unpopular opinion but I will explain it. This is where reading novels comes into play. From what I remember, Witchers were always about preparing before fights, which is where potions play role. In game this is done through preparing potions in specific spots. While the potion brewing isn’t really too complex I found it to be oddly relaxing after long sessions of fighting and exploring. There is automatic system which picks ingredients for you but I always liked using specific ingredients which I had in bulks. Along with this I spent quite a while trying to plan my visits to fireplace, because you have to meditate some time to finish potions. I would usually plan order of quests so I can maximize time usage without spending too much time meditating which was a way of role play.

Other infamous part of this game was it’s combat and again my opinion is probably unpopular but I really didn’t mind it. What’s more I found it to be enjoyable because I wasn’t forced to mash buttons, and instead I spent most of my time thinking about which style would get me through fights the quickest. I also planned how to gather large groups of weak enemies in one spot so I can quickly deal with them using “group style” which is really powerful in these situations. Again, this is where preparation comes into play. Previously prepared potions became fairly useful especially in later parts of the game.

In the end The Witcher might be the game which came in right time for me but I also feel like majority of people just can’t get through it because they aren’t willing to give it a chance. In my opinion it also aged fairly well, although it can be bit clunky at times.

TL;DR I love The Witcher because it does almost everything to make me feel immersed in the world. However, if you aren’t in mood to go through 30+ hours and pay attention to story and game systems, this is not game for you. Return when you feel like you might need something like that because this could become special game, just like it is for me.