The story line and premise of the game is that there is a group of warriors that are trained from birth to hunt down and destroy monsters, they are called The Witchers. They are master swordsmen and adept at the magical arts. The hero of the story, your character, is a Witcher by the name of Geralt and is considered one of the most dangerous fighters in the world.

The game leads you on an adventure as you seek to discover the truth behind an attack on The Witchers' stronghold by a mysterious group of assassins. It will lead you through intrigue, danger and treachery. There will be many beasts to slay, some mutated by the darkness that is infecting the land.

The Witcher is not just about combat and violence. It is also about the choices that you will have to make throughout the game. There will be numerous encounters with the people of the land and during some of those encounters you will have to make choices. Unlike in most games where the choices are clear and simply a choice between good and evil, black and white here your choices may not be so clear, and they will most likely have ramifications which you may never realize are the result of the choices that you made earlier.

For instance, during the demonstration of the game we were shown an encounter between Geralt and a bandit that he had captured. The bandit, of course, claimed to be an innocent bystander caught up in something he wasn’t involved in. You will be given numerous options on how to deal with him through a conversation tree. One of those options is to believe him and release him. Besides, he has offered to tell you the names of the leaders of the bandits that he overheard. After choosing to release him the system cut to a logic tree (which does not show in the actual game) that showed all the options and their consequences. Choosing to release the guy does give you the information that you need to successfully hunt down the bandit leaders and deal with them. This will be a great boon for the surrounding countryside as you will be removing a deadly scourge from the land and in the long run saving lots of lives. The down side to this choice is that he runs off to tell the bandit leaders that he squealed on them. They set an ambush for you and, instead of killing you, they kill the love of your life.

I presume that not all choices that are made in the game have such ramifications, but this does give you a good example of how the choices you make will have far ranging effects beyond the here and now. And could effect others around you. Hey! That’s kind of like real life isn’t it?

There is a main plot line that the character will be following as well as numerous side quests. The entire game is non-linear and the choices that are made during each quest taken on may, and most likely will, change the overall outcome of the game. The end of the game has three separate endings, each of which may be a bit different based on the decisions made along the path to the end.

The combat example we were shown was fairly fast and furious. Its not just simply a point and click hack and slash sit back and yawn at the repetitive action style game. The Witcher gets you involved in the realtime fight and gives you the ability to use tactics during combat. You can maneuver around your foes and attack them from the sides and rear as well as using defensive maneuvers to shield yourself from attack. You have a magical shield that will keep arrows at bay for a short time as well as being able to knock them out of the air with your sword.

Part of the character tree has a set up for your combat skills. The more experienced you become through the game the more maneuvers and combat options become available to you. In the combat set up you can predetermine what attacks will be performed in what order when you engage in combat.

Throughout the game you will have cause to use various magic potions. One such potion is a night vision potions, the visual effects of which were quite stunning causing something of a combination of light enhancement and heat vision. Geralt also has the ability to make potions from ingredients found in the game. Experimentation is good, just be aware that you may be brewing a deadly toxin.

Oh, yeah, watch how much you drink in the taverns. You can get drunk, its quite entertaining to watch the main character sway down the street as the rest of the world becomes a blur around him. Drink to much and you fall down and wake up sometime later, perhaps missing a few sheckles to local thieves.

The world of The Witcher is an expansive view of the world as described by Sapkowski in his novels. And some of the most important buildings in the game were patterned from architectural plans from the end of the middle ages. The game gives a good mix of historical accuracy and fantasy to create a rich and exciting environment.

The world is not just populated with architecture and trees, there are people living there as well - well virtual people – and they all have their own lives that they lead on a daily basis. They sleep at night, go indoors when it rains and get up in the morning to go to work. The controlling AI also gives each unique antagonist its own unique combat style so that each monster or creature that you encounter, even the normal humans, will attack you differently and will force you to develop tactics to deal with each encounter.

The Witcher almost has to many good things going for it, and definitely to much to mention in an E3 preview. Suffice it to say that if your looking for a new world to explore with all the bells and whistles, and even a fantastic dynamic story that you create as you play, this will be the game for you to look for.

CDProjekt held back on nothing and went that extra mile to create what I think will be just an absolutely fantastic game that will go down in history as the one you just have to play to be labeled a true gamer.