The tenability of easy dichotomies like "good" and "evil" is itself at issue in The Witcher, and nothing is as it seems in Polish developer CD Projekt's inspired translation of Sapkowski's beautifully turbulent, oftentimes amoral universe. Friends can be (and probably are) backstabbing cult members. Guards and thugs alike turns out to be aggressive sexual predators (sex as a theme in general is something the game embraces, instead of prudishly whitewashing this most elemental of biological imperatives). Witches sell poisonous suicide solutions and craft voodoo dolls to compel siblings to kill each other. Barmaids and plenty more besides will sleep with you for booze, money, gifts, and occasionally just temporary infatuation. Pious religious fanatics turn out to be repugnant misogynists. Mages who can't control their powers become half-insane, slobbering oracles. And for all the wonderfully "un-Tolkien-y" alghouls and echinops and graveirs and bloedzuigers you'll grapple with, the most hideous monsters in the game aren't the ones with six or a dozen consonants crowding a single vowel, but other humans, like you.​