If you read our original review of The Witcher, then you know that it's a PC role-playing game full of promise but beset with enough problems to warrant hesitation. As a real-time combat RPG with an incredibly mature setting (violence, language, adult themes), it sounded like a dream RPG for most PC gamers. The fantasy world was well crafted, complete with meaningful day and night cycles, the combo system was fast-paced and enjoyable and the open-ended, morally gray mission structure gave it a sandbox feel. Almost a year later, Atari released an Enhanced Edition with plenty of improvements to attract fans as well as newcomers.

The Witcher was never broken. Rather, it suffered from key issues that made its flaws more apparent. The primary offenders were the outlandish loading times, technical glitches (frame rate hiccups, polygon clipping), the atrocious English translation and lifeless character models.

For the most part, these were all corrected, loading times were significantly reduced, and while still present, some of the graphical bugs were squashed. It's not a perfect game, as you will still encounter clipping and other glitches, but it's much better.

The character models were spruced up, adding more polygons, cleaner designs and most importantly, better facial textures and animation. Some characters were for whatever reason spared this makeover, but the ones you'll care about sport vast improvements. The overall game has received similar touchups, with a splash of color and performance tweaks. Being a year old, it won't win any awards, but it has aged well and benefits from the upgrades.

Thanks to a new translation and the re-recording of a significant chunk of dialogue, English-speaking gamers can now fully appreciate The Witcher's mature story. The previous translation felt rushed and left us scratching our heads as to what was going on, so we are pleased that the developers owned up to the mistake and made significant inroads to correct it. The music remains the same (it's really good), and as a bonus, you get two CDs, the soundtrack and an "inspired by" collection of tunes.
In addition to the music CDs and a third disc with "making of" content, there are two additional side quests included on a bonus disc. These are both short, each clocking in at around two to three hours, but provide some insight into the protagonist's past. The Price of Neutrality is the better of the two, focusing more on story elements than Side Effects. These are welcome additions, even if the amount of new content isn't substantial, as the Enhanced Edition would have been worthwhile even without their inclusion.

The best part of the deal is the price. At only $39.99, The Witcher is a steal. All of the updates, the bonus content, the added missions and even the Djinni editor, a substantial modder's tool, make this Enhanced Edition a must-own for PC RPG fans.