Since its reveal at E3 2013, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has been one of the most hyped games for most video game fans. Now “hype” is one of the most over used words these fans describe upcoming games with, ultimately creating huge expectations no game can ever live up to. Yet The Witcher not only met its lofty expectations, but also exceeded it, even for the most cynical Internet troll (currently it has a 9.0 user score on Metacritic). I could talk about this game for hours, but I’ll save everyone the time and just hit a few points I really want to “point” out?
First off, as a newcomer to The Witcher series, I was very intimidated by all of the lore this world has established. But CD Projekt Red wanted to make this game accessible to a large audience since the first game was PC only and the second was only on Xbox 360 and PC. The beginning exposition does not completely explain all of the events from the previous games, but you get enough of the story to get started, and throughout the rest of the game NPC’s help to tell more of the story. I have yet to get to a point where my lack of knowledge on the lore of the previous games has hindered my playing experience. And that’s coming from someone who generally does not enjoy high fantasy games. So if you’re on the fence because you haven’t played the previous games, you shouldn’t be worried.
Second, the world in The Witcher is one of the most impressive feats in all of video games. Just looking at the map and you will see how large the open world is. But that means nothing if the world is empty and lifeless. Somehow CD Projekt Red managed to fill this massive world with life while having nothing feel like it was copied or boring. The side quests and Witcher contracts throughout the world are not simple one step “find monster and kill it,” adventures, they require more time and effort, while also revealing interesting characters in a horrifically fascinating world. Side quests don’t feel like a burden, in fact in many ways, they are more interesting and fun than the story quests, which usually involve helping out someone to get information.
This brings up another point I wanted to make, player choice. Many games use this to give the player a feeling of control over the world, and many fail. But The Wicther seems to give many meaningful choices that are not simple black and white answers. Some of them even compare to a Telltale game where you only have a few seconds to make a big decision. What amazed me is how these choices can come back later to help or hinder you. Avoiding spoilers, there was one point where I killed these men who were harassing a bartender and I. Later when I had to see a baron for the story quest, his men attacked me and would not let me in because it was the baron’s men who I had killed. Events like these make my choices actually feel important, even some choices in seemingly harmless side quests can drastically affect your story.
The Witcher 3 is one of the most gorgeous open-world RPGs in the history of the genre. The lighting and facial expressions are nothing short of incredible for a world that has so much going on in it. Many people have complained on the Internet about how The Witcher seems to have gotten a visual downgrade from its initial reveal trailer at E3 2013, and anyone who knows anything about the gaming industry will agree with me in saying, shut up. First off, when developers want to make a trailer or demo for a big event like E3, they work on that one scene or part of the game for weeks, making sure everything looks good. These are called “vertical slices” and have no bearing on what the rest of the game looks like, usually the rest of the game isn’t even done yet. Some people see this as “lying” but why would they make a game look worse than they can? This is their job and with demos and trailers their job is to create excitement for the game. So it is the job of the consumer to go in knowing this when they see a game revealed, not the developer’s or the publisher’s. Second, that trailer was made and shown on a very high end PC, so of course it is going to look better than when it is running on a PS4 or Xbox One. I’ve been playing on PlayStation 4, and I have run into few problems, it has only crashed once in my first hour of playing when I was learning how to play Gwent. Seriously, it wasn’t slaying monsters that crashed my game, it was the exciting card game of Gwent that crashed my game. But this is to be expected during the first week of a large game like this being out, and a patch should soon be out on consoles that will help with these performance issues.
So bottom line is, if you own a next gen console or a decent PC you should buy this game. This is a game you could easily be playing well into next year and still have lots to do and discover in this world. If you are short on money, then maybe don’t buy this year’s Assassin’s Creed or Call of Duty. This studio deserves it more than those two games do, because they actually care about you getting a good deal for your money. They even sent a thank you note to anyone who bought a physical edition of the game saying that everyone gets 16 free DLCs, no matter what console you are on. I bought the deluxe edition, which means I get the expansion packs coming out later this year and next year, which adds about 30 to 40 hours of story, for only $20 extra (that’s more story than lots of $60 games).
As gamers this is exactly what we want from developers and publishers, so do the right thing and vote with your wallet and buy this game, I promise you won’t regret it.