Well, its time for another review of sorts and this time it will be on a video game I recently completed, which is the critically acclaimed The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. This game is often considered to be one of the greatest ever made and won the prestigious Game of the Year award after its release in 2015.
So, this all begs the question: is The Witcher 3 as good as they say it is? Well, let's find out!
And the usual warning is coming...
PLOT SPOILERS (BUT NOT TOO MANY!)
STORY
So, I've provided a short bit about the plot lifted from Wikipedia below.
Geralt and his mentor Vesemir arrive at the town of White Orchard after receiving a letter from Geralt's long-lost lover Yennefer. After defeating a griffin for the local Nilfgaardian garrison, Geralt accompanies Yennefer to the city of Vizima, where they meet with Emperor Emhyr. Emhyr orders Geralt to find Ciri, who is Emhyr's biological, and Geralt's adopted daughter. Ciri is a Child of the Elder Blood, the last heir to an ancient Elven bloodline that grants her the power to manipulate time and space, and is being relentlessly stalked by the enigmatic supernatural forces known as the Wild Hunt. Geralt learns of three places Ciri was recently seen: the war-ravaged swamp province of Velen, the free city-state of Novigrad, and the Skellige Isles.
And from here Gerlat makes a long and perilous journey to try and locate Ciri and rescue her from the clutches of the Wild Hunt.
THOUGHTS
There is little doubt that The Witcher 3 is an excellent role play game that features some great characters, decent action and above all else, a very engrossing and gripping story. And its the Witcher 3's storytelling that is perhaps its greatest strength as the game's characters really pull you in and they are all well drawn out.
Geralt is easily the best character overall in the game, a mutated human, who has undergone a process that made him into a witcher, who specialise in hunting monsters but Geralt will generally take any job for "coin" as he puts it. Yennefer, on other other hand is more annoying at times given she has a somewhat regalesque, aloof nature who doesn't suffer fools gladly but is the love of Geralt's life and is also a powerful mage although this can also change during the game. And then there is of course, Ciri, the brave, heroic and kind daughter of the Elder blood that gives her special powers to manipulate time and space itself but is also being chased by the wild hunt, who detect her presence whenever she travels between portals and Gerlat spends most of the game trying to find her. And how the trio's story are interwoven into the game is done brillianlty throughout the game even if it is rather drawn out at times.
GAMEPLAY
As for the gameplay, I will do my usual and break it down into sub sections as there is alot to cover of course here with this one.
CHARACTER DIALOGUE TREE CHOICES
Starting with the dialogue tree choices, as the Witcher 3 has plenty of dialogue throughout and you will also be given several different choices for Geralt to choose from and your choices will also shape the outcome of the game as it progresses and how it effects different characters you meet. Some of these dialogue choices are on a quicktime basis also, so you do need to react quickly in choosing an option at some points that will also effect the outcome to a main quest or a side quest. This is certainly the single most important aspect of the game as it drives the story itself but can also provide some amusing or dramatic consequences based on the chosen dialogue and some of them can even lead to romantic encounters! Yep, its that sort of game. ;-)
COMBAT
As for the combat, the game uses a third person persepctive and Geralt has a fairly basic moveset with his weapons as he can perform quick attack or a powerful attack but he can also perform finisher moves that involve impaling enemies or even decapitating them. Geralt can also block and counter enemies with his swords but this does require careful timing. Geralt can carry two swords but can only equip one at a time with one being steel for regular enemies and one silver for killing beasts or other monsters. Geralt can also use a crossbow for attacking enemies and can pick up different types of bolts e.g. explosive ones in addition to regular bolts, and the crossbow is quite for taking down flying enemies to attack them on the ground. The only problem of course with Geralt's weapons are their durability and can often require repair by blacksmiths.
MAGIC SIGNS
As for other combat mechanics, Geralt can also use magic signs that perform different functions and these signs are Aard, Axii, Igni, Yrden and Quen. Aard can be used to perform a powerful telekinetic blast, Axii confuses enemies to temporarily stun them, Igni can be used to burn them, Yrden slows down enemies and places them in a magic trap and lastly Quen provides Geralt with a temporary protective shield, which can be broken after one hit for an enemy.
WITCHER SENSES
Another key aspect of the game are the Witcher senses, which Geralt will use to track signs of NPC's or enemies and this will highlight tracks in red, which Geralt will follow to their source. The game's quests at times can rely heavily on the senses in order for Geralt to progress further in the game.
EXPERIENCE POINTS
Another important aspect of the game are XP points as Geralt will gain points for completing quests as he progresses in the game and you can use these to upgrade Geralt's combat abilities or strengthen his magic signs. XP points will also boost Geralt's level throughout the game, which will allow him to equip better weapons and armour as the game progresses and you must meet the required level to equip them.
HEALTH AND RESTING
Geralt throughout the game will of course take damage during combat from enemies and you can replenish his health using food or water as well as alcohol (although will make and the screen appear woozy!) and he can purchase these from merchants or pick them up on his travels via looting chests or other storage items. Geralt however an also restore his health by resting, which he performs via the option to meditate and you can choose to let Geralt meditate for a whole day and after the rest time his HP will be fully restored.
MERCHANTS, ARMOURERS & BLACKSMITHS
This also brings us onto the game's merchants, armourers and blacksmiths, which can be found peppered throughou the realms of the game. The merchants will sell different things such as food, water, or other items of interest such as notes where to find special items and you can also sell items to them also to make some coin for yourself. As for the armourers, they will specialise in selling armour but they can also craft armour for Geralt, if you have the correct parts. Blacksmiths on the other hand will sell weapons but will also craft them for you based on diagrams you either obtained yourself while exploring or buying them from the blacksmiths themselves.
MAP AND FAST TRAVEL
Another key aspect of the game is the map and the fast travel as Geralt will have three main realms, the swamp ravaged Velen, the free city state of Novigrad and the remote Skellige Isles. Geralt can choose to travel either on foot or via his horse, Roach (which we find out during the game is the name he gives to all his horses!). However there also many fast travel points that Geralt can use to allow you to get to your destination much quicker. Also as you progress throughout the game, new areas within these realms will become explorable too.
EQUIPMENT LOAD
Another aspect of the game is to do with the equipment load, which if Geralt goes over his limit, it will prevent him from moving quickly as he can only carry a load of 60 and beyond that, he will become overburdened. There are however ways to increase Geralt's load such as using special potions but they willy only last for a few minutes. The most reliable way for Geralt to relieve his load is to drop, sell or stash items you won't need.
MUTAGENS AND POTIONS
And last of all are mutagens, which Geralt can use to increase his magic power and can take on different uses in boosting his health, combat power as well as magic sign ability. In order to create mutagens you need to craft them based on specific items they require, which Geralt will again find throughout the game and some of which can be bought from merchants. Geralt can also craft potions, which will given him different benefits such increased attack power or equipment load but these will only last for several minutes.
VOICE ACTING
As for the voice acting, the game features an excellent cast all of which give great voice over performaces but for time I won't try and quote any dialogue for them!
Starting with Doug Cockle, who is great in the main role as Geralt of Rivia, the witcher, who is on a quest to find his adopted daughter, Ciri and save her from the relentless pursuit of the wild hunt, who are after her powers. Cockle's dry delivery also provides many moments of humour as Geralt is world weary and cynical as well as sarcastic but at the same time, he is also very decent and often heroic and Cockle does a great job at showing Geralt's somewhat surpressed emotions as a result of the witcher mutations he underwent.
Jo Wyatt is also excellent in her role as Ciri, the daughter of the Nilfgardien Emperor Emhyr, but who is also on the run from the wild hunt, a large group of supernatural hunters who are after her for her powerful abilities. Wyatt also does a fine job at showing Ciri's stubborness but also her heroism and great decency as she fights against the wages of the wild hunt and to reunite with Geralt.
Denise Gough also is excellent as Yennefer of Vengerberg, a powerful mage, who is in a somewhat tempestuous relationship with Geralt but also acts as a mother figure for Ciri and does all she can to protect her. Gough certainly captures Yennefer's arrogant personality to the point where she threatens to be an annoying character but ultimatley her heart is in the right place and her moment of reunion with Ciri is certainly one of her highlights as well as the scene where Geralt and Yennefer try and find a djin (or genie) that gave them their wish to be together.
Jaimi Barkaboff (cool name!) is pretty good also in her role as Triss Merigold, another mage, who Geralt once had a romantic relationship with too. And Triss is altogether more level headed character than Yennefer, which if Geralt chooses to, he can enjoy another chance of being together with her depending on your choices.
Charles Dance, who is the most notable guest star actor in the cast, does a fine job also as Emperor Emhyr var Emeris, who tasks Geralt with finding his daughter Ciri, as Geralt is more the adopted father to Ciri whereas Emhyr is her biological father. Dance provides a rather stiff sounding performance here but that is probably suitable to the characters but he is Charles Dances, so he is very good in the role regardless.
Katie McGuinness is excellent in her role also as Keira Metz, another sorceress, who Geralt has a number of side quests with as well as a romantic fling and again based on your decisions, her fate can be sealed or she can be saved. McGuinness plays Keira as a somewhat self centered character and her motives indeed later have a more mischievious and even sinister side to them.
Richard Hawley also provides a fine performance as devious Dijkstra, who is the head of Redanian intelligence and you also perform various side quests for him as Geralt. And Hawley's Northern accent works quite well for the part but gives him a somewhat contrary feel as he sounds like a commoner but is very powerful man all the same (don't judge a man by his accent I guess!).
James Clyde also provides an excellent performance as Phillip Strenger, aka the Bloody Baron, who is based in Velen and Geralt will have a number of quests with. And the Baron is surprisingly one of the most sympathetic characters in the entire game, even despite his reputation as a ruthless butcher of sorts, he is also deeply remorseful over the loss of his missing wife and the death of their infant baby, who the Baron asks Geralt for help to find his wife.
And last of all is John Schwab who is pretty good in his role as Dandelion (who is called Jaskier in the live TV series of The Witcher) a travelling bard, who is friends with Geralt and Ciri. And depending on how you feel, Schwab's performance is either preferable or less so to the TV show performance of Joey Batey, who I much prefer to Schwab but that said, he still does a good job here.
GRAPHICS
As for the game's graphics, they are for the most part excellent and last year the game itself was given a big next gen visual upgrade, which certainly improved them even further. As for the environments, the game looks great from slimy swamps of Velen to the bustling vibrant city of Novigard, to the remote island areas of Skellige there is much variety on display here with plenty of detail to the foreground and backgrounds. As for the character models, they are for the most part pretty good with Geralt, Yennefer and Ciri's character models being the best overall but some of the models are a bit hit and miss especially Dijkstra's which looks pretty rough as is the Bloody Baron's. The same can be said for the monsters and creatures in the game as some look more impressive than others. That all aside, the Witcher 3 still looks pretty impressive for an 8 year old game.
MUSIC
As for the music score, it is by Polish composers, Marcin Przybyłowicz and Mikołaj Stroiński and frankly its terrific and one of the best video game soundtracks I've heard as it uses a memorable mix of European or Slavic themes with primal chants as well some more traditional orchestral pieces. As for standout tracks there are of course two obvious ones "Steel for Humans" and "Eyes of the Wolf" but there are plenty of others. In short however the score is beautiful, atmospheric and of course above all else emotional and an essential one to listen to with or without the game.
FLAWS
As for flaws...yes The Witcher 3 still does have some worth mentioning.
For starters, I felt that while this is meant to be an open world game, there were times where it distinctly felt lacking in the department as there were certain things you couldn't do. For example, there areas of the game where it forces to turn around and travel elsewhere as it says you reached the edge of the map and at one point I got caught in a loop of not being able to move and had to quit out the game! There are also moments where you cannot perform certain actions, which is annoying such wanting to save your game at certain points during a mission So, for me these moments definitely did not give this game the proper open world feel as it should whereas a game like Elden Ring is totally open world and has no restrictions.
Another issue is to do with the distance markers for trying to locate your objective during a quest, so the marker might tell you are 2 metres away and then your objective is "nearby" but at that point you are often still looking around trying to find where to go next! So, there are times where the directional system can send you on a wild goose chase, which can make finding mission objectives quite frustrating.
Another problem is to do I guess with the simplistic nature of the game's combat as Geralt has a pretty limited moveset for each weapon he uses comprising mainly of a fast attack, strong attack and a parry and counter system and that's pretty much it! So, compared to the likes of the combat in the Souls games or even God of War, the combat very much has a rather underwhelming feel to it. I think to be fair, the Witcher 3's combat isn't too bad but compared to other RPG games it certainly is lacking by comparison.
I also felt that the game's length is just a bit too long and even though the main story is quite engrossing, it does drag on way too much at times and game will more often than not, bury itself in giving you side quest after side quest! Overall however I didn't mind it too much as quite alot of these quests were pretty good with only one or two tedious ones holding the pacing back a bit. But I still felt like this game was another example of Return of the King where you think its ended and it hasn't!
The equipment load system is also a bit of a pain in the game as you are restricted to just carrying up to 60 (kilos or whatever value that is!) and beyond that Geralt can no longer run and can only walk. And I just wish that they incorporated equipment load into Geralt's XP system somehow but they didn't and the only solution to this is to craft a potion that will temporarily allow Geralt to boost his equipment load by 20 points (or kilos). So, you are instead forced to either stash equipment away or sell or drop it rather than be given the luxury to upgrade it properly.
And last of all without sounding like some kind of prude, I felt the game at times overdid the nudity quite a bit as there nothing but plenty of topless women everywhere (WAIT! What is wrong with me???!). Now, I guess this is probably keeping consistent with the nature of the original books, which are of course the source material for the video games and the TV show but I felt there were times where the nudity just pops up out of nowhere just for the sake of it! I don't mind a bit of nudity of course in games (and movies and TV for that matter!) but I think they probably did overdo it a bit here however.
So, that's it for the flaws.
SUM UP
So, to sum up, The Witcher 3 is an excellent game that features a great story and characters, with some decent combat as well as some fine visuals and a terrific soundtrack. The performances by voice cast are also excellent overall too with Doug Cockle providing a great central performance as Geralt of Rivia. There of course some issues with aspects of the gameplay and the main game itself drags on just a bit too long and the amount of side quests it throws at you can be overwhelming.
However all that aside, The Witcher 3 is definitely worth checking out although it will take quite a lot of patience to get through at times, its still very much worth it in the end and its earned its reputation well.
So, I will rate it:
9 out of 10
So, that's it for now and I will be back fairly soon with another post.
Until then bye for now!
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