You often hear on the internet that the first Witcher game isn’t worth playing. That’s it’s too old, too archaic, too ugly. But I wish to make the case that not only is it still worth playing, but it has a few characteristics where it outshines at least one of its sequels. It may not be the greatest in the series, but we’re still talking about a series that had some top notch games in it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSm9TGzdh-M

I have not yet played the third installment. But between the first two games, The Witcher 1 wins the race for me.

Same here.

Besides, if you skip the first one, you're skipping the first part of Geralt's story that continues in the second and third games.

Same here too, on both counts (waiting for Witcher 3 to work in Linux). I'm replaying the 2nd game currently, and it's good, but not like the first one. Can't stand the heavy-handed consolitis, and some of the 'feel' from the first game simply isn't there.