Very early impressions: (not having played other Witcher games)
The combat doesn't bother me at all. It is unusual and unnecessary, but it doesn't really hamper the experience. It is mechanically shallow, and too easy, but that is offset by other aspects of gameplay which keeps the experience fresh.

The story begins in a bizarre way, as if the game itself is also a sequel, and it doesn't really bother to explain much to the player. The only saving grace is that Geralt himself has amnesia, so he's as confused as the player. Unfortunately, he doesn't ask a lot qu- well... he does ask a lot of questions, but he doesn't ask the important ones, imo. He's too aloof, which doesn't help with the player's confusion in the world.

Thankfully, it doesn't get long for you get your bearings if you can withstand this strange alien world long enough. The game does through off the deep end, but you slowly learn how to swim.

The only thing I could tangibly feel being bad and even annoying to an extent is the voice acting; but... even that is charming to an extent in retrospect. It just clashes with the actually good writing of the dialogues. A lot of the jank clashes with what the game is trying to go for quite often, in fact. Random cut-scenes in middle of a wholly different scene, important things randomly happening without much ceremony, complete lack of facial expressions... they're not deal breakers, but they do induce a couple of "wtf"s here and there.

But it's definitely a good game overall. No reason not to play it and skip over to Witcher 2. Just remember its release date and set your expectations accordingly. And try to get past the awfully boring opening. It'll get better once you're set free into the world.

The gameplay (aside from the shooty bang bang) and the way it intertwines with the story is pretty badly designed. You can tell some of the quests were written as "they player goes here and does this" or "the player can either persuade or attack this character to continue the quest" and then passed down to the programmers to implement it and not an ounce more thought was put into them. About 70% of the game feels like a big hack job, which is a lot.

But because it was made in/by a soulless, faceless company with a dumbass director at the helm, there are also thousands of creative and passionate individuals who have been working on this game, and without them this game would've truly dove into video game dustbin head first. The most obvious show of passion is in the environment design. Like, goddamn this game has some of the most picturesque sceneries I've seen in a BGS game ever. Especially the unique places, it genuinely feels like not a single drop of effort was spared in making their design. It is really amazing.

And even the stories and quests get better the more you move away from spotlights and big quests. The same bad design still cripples some of those quests as well, but at least the writers and voice actors all did a stellar job.

I do encourage people to play it and question why it's not that good (or bad even, maybe). Because not all of it is bad. Even if you've played late Fallouts and Elder Scrolls. But in no world should pay 70$ for this. Just no. Find other, cheaper ways to get your hands on it.