I have now beaten The Witcher! It's definitely got a lot of flaws, like the bizarre combat, wonky animations, re-use of distinctive character models, some shitty voice acting, and an extremely hostile camera, but under it all, I found a solid, well-written, and addictive RPG. Like I said earlier, the lore is introduced into the game at just the right pace, giving you enough new information to keep you interested without being overwhelming, and to the end of keeping true to the source material while also being accessible to new fans, giving Geralt amnesia was a great idea (I never thought I'd say that about a trope that's widely regarded as one of the laziest gimmicks in all of fiction). And as far as the quality of the lore goes, well, there were a lot of tired fantasy clichés that I think the game would have been stronger without, but it wasn't entirely a Tolkien rehash. For example, I liked the weird fish-people race and the sub-plot in which some of them worship a giant sea monster. That's a pretty blatant ripoff of Lovecraft, of course, but we don't see that in video games nearly as much as we do the same-old elves and dwarves, so it didn't feel as obvious and predictable to me.
My biggest criticism of the game would have to be the level design. Most of the levels in this game feel like they were designed to be frustrating and confusing to navigate. The swamps are the worst of all.