The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (2015)

An “in-play” review of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Game of the Year (GOTY) Edition

The review is going to be added to and worked upon as I progress, hence the “in-play” title, broken into sections that are best suited to it so we start with mainline quests, then Hearts of Stone and finally Blood and Wine.

Third time is a charm for me and the masterpiece from game development studio, CD Projekt Red. Now before starting upon any major analysis, I have a few things to navigate through for clarity’s sake, My third play through, though in its infancy is the one that’ll come under most scrutiny here In this large scale, review/analysis type thing as it will ultimately go the furthest. Maiden Playthrough was a complete write off, I’d been very aware of The Witcher series in al it’s formats and had even read one of the books some time back, as well as a brief experience of the second game But not in any major depth. In similar fashion, my first dip into the world of The Witcher 3 was ill prepared, the game was on sale and even at the time was well worth every penny I spent (a ludicrously cheap £15 I do recall). Tackling my time spent in the game world, my first try was wasted. I’d not fully committed to the world or really been enchanted by the lore, sank 15 hours into it and bailed. Second try was better, Id conquered the section that put me off the first try and progressed quite far but ultimately came short, now however, it has finally clicked. I purchased it between Christmas and New Year of 2018 and personally the growth of me as an individual and the undertaking of Red Dead Redemption 2 since then has had a positive effect on this play through. As far as my taste is concerned in all kinds of media I do have a disposition for fantasy worlds and titles, now with endless time on my hands and spurred on by the experience that was Red Dead 2 it was the perfect time to take up the mantle of the ‘White Wolf’ once more. This time round has fully captured me, better approaching the narrative in a manner which suits the levelling system, having more comfort over and with the control system in a number of contexts and perhaps more importantly just enjoying the experience. With spoilers being unavoidable in the last 5 years since initial release, knowing the course of the main game has had no real effect personally and even so there is a whole array of experience that the web cant spoil, its such a vast and subjective video game it’s almost to a degree immune from that spoiler territory and is certainly a game I’d recommend to anyone. Now finally, just before delving into anything else, for just total understanding, I got hold of the Game of The Year edition. This instalment, according to an IGN breakdown fixes a number of gameplay and interface issues though I can’t really attest to that given how little I can compare to tjis to the base game. What else I can find regarding this game is a few bits of DLC, in the shape of Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine atop some cosmetic changes for the female cast of Ciri, Triss and Yennefer amongst a few other bits and pieces that are purely cosmetic items.

So now that’s all out of the way I think it’s best to give a brief plot breakdown: Essentially Geralt, joined by his team of love interests, mentor and close friends are tasked with tracking down the whereabouts of Ciri, a now orphaned child of an emperor who possesses an innate magical ability/understanding. By the finale, the White Frost which is combatting the Wild Hunt can be defeated in a number ways and is intrinsically linked with Ciri’s fate. In all, that’s the end of the main quest line. As simple as it sounds when laid out, I think in all, the true enjoyment comes from the freedom and wealth of the world. It doesn’t really hold your hand and guide you through the narrative, or at least once you handle the Griffin (pictured below) the training wheels come off. That freedom is pleasant - though common sense prevails and you approach what you can handle, I’ve so far gone down a completely different quest line than before, resulting in a few outings as Ciri, dealing with a Botchling and starting a promising bare-knuckle boxing career, the current reigning champion of Velen. Having now reached the character of Keira Metz, in comparison I can say this playthrough makes for more narrative sense and appears logical. I’d also like to add how entertaining and valuable an experience the travel and time ‘in-world’ has been, from beautiful scenery, helping out random strangers chances to earn easy XP etc. It is truly elite and even more impressive when considering how it came out early into the life cycle of the current console generation.

For as much as I’m really impressed by the narrative delivery, freedom of choice and the compelling characters (even if I’ve only got a small sample size currently) I have noticed a few minor niggles in a gameplay sense. First off and without doubt most irritating is the HUD and Quest Tracking. I enjoy the journey between quests and the stories that the missions provide but it’s at times, very difficult to progress in any sense as the tracking line is often slow to adjust, thankfully nothing major has been ruined yet but it’s a recurring pain that does take some time to correct. Now as it stands, the only major let which has and will continue to plague the game is two-fold: Camera and Controls. The latter first, control is poor, it’s a bit clunky and to be honest I find things like the menu for alchemy, inventory etc. Is poorly designed whereas general control is a little off, it’s hard to describe but isn’t as tuned as it could be. Camera is just the kiss of death when piled on top of poor control, o can’t say how many fights have been prolonged or ruined by poor adjusting camera and it’s manual control which is ill advised during the heat of the moment. Thankfully I’m these early stages it’s not been much of a challenge in terms of enemy Types and level but I can see this later becoming a problem.

Design... just incredible and really sets it apart from its peers. While it might have had a graphical downgrade between announcement and release to just allow for smooth running given the sheer size of the game, every fantastical creature I’ve currently crossed paths with is marvellous and the same goes for the characters [pictured above and throughout]. Unsettlingly detailed, grim, unique - I could probably run out of superlatives to describe this aspect of the game, but having spent a good chunk of this play through dedicated solely to combatting these creatures, its both an engaging and rewarding experience, just look at the Griffin boss early in the game. It is a little contrived with the moving of locations but it marks a ’rights of passage’ sort of moment, after that you’re in it alone, Vesemir takes a leave and you get more agency. Its so naturally built to lend itself to countless hours of game time it is splendid. The characters however are two sides of the same coin. The main cast are some of the most detailed and perfectly rendered models I’ve seen full stop, look above for instance, whilst Triss is a little lesser, Geralt and Yennefer are eerily life like. I also appreciate the somewhat limited customisation of Geralt, it allows a player freedom to look/dress in a certain style but at the same time keeps Geralt’s image a constant which is really quite a smart move on behalf of CDPR give it is after all, an adaptation. Others leave a lot to be desired for me, Metz, while having a large role on the narrative is a step down from her fellow leading ladies and I feel a touch of “uncanny valley” with Ciri but the locals are the let down ultimately. The NPC’s look to me, unfinished I’m not massively aware of specs or comparisons between them so it could look better on say a One X or PC but I can’t testify that. I think it’s best in this sense to leave the jury out, let the game present some other examples and decide later down the line.