Back in 2007, The Witcher showed up many of the largest, highest-budget RPGs of the time by doing so much more with a comparatively tiny budget and studio. The game wasn’t perfect by any means, but an official ‘directors cut’ update addressed many of the software and presentation issues. One of the most dedicated modders in the community, Flash, produced an enhancement and rebalance mod to address everything else, and it was so good that it got him hired by CD Projekt to work on the sequel. Now the sequel is out, he has returned to his old project, to revive the original Witcher and bring it closer to its successor in terms of quality. The end result is this mod.

No bones about it, The Witcher was a combat-centric RPG, telling the story of a professional monster hunter. Many had issue with the combat engine in the game – while initially quite interesting, players quickly outstripped their opponents in terms of power, and fights devolved into just whittling through your enemies health bar before they could chew through yours, standing quite at odds with the mythology of the setting and the way battles are described in the series of novels the game is based on.

The FCR mod drags things much closer to the source material, and, interestingly, much closer in line with the combat in the highly regarded sequel. Combat is fast and deadly, with human opponents dying in a matter of seconds if you concentrate your attention on them. Likewise, if you let yourself get flanked, you’re likely to die just as quickly, but always have the option of rolling or somersaulting clear of danger, giving you a temporary 100% evasion rate. It’s high stakes combat, just like in the books.

The FCR mod has been out for quite some time, but the V1.5 update was only released a few days ago, with the project resuming after the completion of The Witcher 2. The main change in this build is a huge, sweeping modification to the game; completely changing the enemy placement for the whole original campaign. Fewer, tougher, more dangerous enemies are order of the day. Monsters won’t just casually pop up by the dozen, vampires become a rare and genuine threat, and monster ecology is simulated, with enemies often preferring to kill each other in natural predator/prey fashion rather than obsess over you, standing on the sidelines.

A new minimalist UI puts more focus on the remarkably pretty landscapes.

So huge are the changes to the game that this mod carries a 50 page manual of its own, effectively overriding most of the original games documentation. Every single skill tree is redesigned, every single enemy rebalanced, all to provide a more varied, more involving adventure. It’s also remarkably flexible – depending on personal taste and the level of challenge you demand from the game, you can fine-tune a variety of aspects at installation. It’s not all rebalancing, either – some graphics improvements are included, such as remarkably brutal sword-wounds being visible on enemies struck successfully, making the whole thing feel slightly darker and grittier.

I really would wholeheartedly encourage anyone new to the game to use this mod. The changes to the monster ecology alone vastly improves the flow of gameplay in certain areas, turning fights into thrilling, short encounters rather than an endless slog through a seemingly endless wave of identical foes, and the whole project is done with the full endorsement of the original developers. Don’t forget – the V1.0 release of FCR was good enough to get Flash hired. V1.5 is good enough to probably keep him on staff for the rest of the studios life.

[The Witcher: Full Combat Rebalance]