It's been eight years since The Witcher came out, but its history goes beyond that. In fact, the game was originally developed as a point-and-click RPG.
Ryszard Chojnowski, project lead for the first game in the series, posted a video detailing the history of the game. In the video he shows a very early alpha demo of The Witcher in which the game takes an entirely different direction.
First off, players don't control Geralt. Instead, they create their own Witchers. Geralt still appears in the game, but as a NPC instead of a playable character.
As for combat, it looks like an old point-and-click RPG. The team at CD Projekt RED was influenced by Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, a more action-oriented take on the series. The alpha demo doesn't include much depth to the combat, as the team had only worked on a few animations up to that point. All RPG elements are also absent from the demo.
The project was abandoned in 2003, but obviously the team at CD Projekt RED returned to the game with a different vision. Chojnowski promises more videos, so fans will be able to hear further details on the history of The Witcher in the near future.