We often speaks about action like ''wow this is great." Then it is about the sex, if it's good so why wouldn't I like it? So obvious isn't, to speak about such thing as sex, sex and sex, then we score the game up. And then there is the violence, often depicted by us with great enthusiasm because we're naturally action oriented, following by euphemism and savage taunts like the F* word. And just a few percent of us are bothering to speak about the main column sustaining it all up there (because those things are cool and I'm not a hypocrite) But those stuff aren't just being tossed at you just to satisfy that, they're very mature most of the time and that special feeling in the game is just phenomenal. It feels more to me like an combo of features are being slowly delivered, gradually revealing them - and if I'm caring about them- with hundreds of possibilities anytime I want -or not, them. And then the consequences, or not, if they're associated with an event or not. In other words, the game is perfect. Choices and it's consequences are boring, the reaction to it in-game nowadays looks too canned already. The Witcher 3 flows with it, naturally, as a river does.
I gave up on the on-line experience after some past games this year. I have lost my faith on the on-line features and since single-player is the core of gaming, it will always be. We don't need that in such structured game as Witcher, so I don't have much to add on that.
The first thing I've noticed while playing that game was its miraculous immersion that no game have done to me in 21 years, not in such level and the amount of details on everything, culminating in a truly cyber dream... it got me wondering how they even did it in the first place. Not just if you're running everything maxed out, even if you're not, they're there because I've tested it later, just to make sure that I wasn't dreaming. It isn't necessarily because of the graphics, you can also see the impeccable touch from the artistic design on everything independently of it. From the clouds being pushed by the wind up above or be those insects making their crickets on some bush, everything seems to have been tailored to put you on a permanent state of awe. Of course be ready to have a nice rig though, if you never thought of upgrading this is the best excuse you're going to have this year, you gotta believe at least one time on the hype; no dream this is the real deal. You won't regret it.
And then after my first steps into the game, violence erupted. A bloodbath started soon enough, breaking my said 'awe' on the surroundings in half as if the vicious environment were hiding to ambush me on those marvelous places. I think that's what the devs wanted to say about it, mainly the directors, that is, Artur, Sebastian and Marcin. While we're being bombarded with beauty everywhere on the real world, from the night skies to the blowing winds making the trees like dancing, we're killing each other using a bunch of excuses. From wars to psychotic rages... Okay, no Fallout quotes in here sorry. No time to play the tourist if you're going to the White Orchard, overstaying your welcome on any region - specially the desolated ones, it will lead you to countless painful moments - often expensive since you gotta pay for your arsenal's preservation and hundreds of ''save-load game'' moments too. Weapons, violence and sex, it can sound fun to you but this is what the game is actually showing to me, they can be very sinister specially if the land is ravaged by war. Love is consistently misused or misinterpreted just as in the real world, only harder. And they did it just perfectly. While some others are feeling uncomfortable with the difficulty even on the easiest level, I'm feeling totally comfortable since I don't have to live on that vicious, fictitious land. The game isn't really hard, or just hard, he's pretending to be realistic with it and that is a hard thing to do. What if goblins, trolls and some other creatures like that could come to exist on the middle ages, and even before that? Would humanity survive more than a few centuries? How hard would it be to contain those ones and to grown around it? How you would prepare yourself to face those odds to protect your farm or house if another dimension such as this could come to defy yours? Be creative.
It won't take too long for humans to understand some of it's covenants and even mastering it later to survive... and then using for good or evil, or something in between. Magic on The Witcher 3 feels like ''real'' magic. When you cast Axii it feels like you're doing what it would take on the real world... wat? Assuming that it doesn't really exist out here. So if it is so impossible to exist, how you would depict that on a game if not by imagination and creativity? What would be of human history if not with even more blood and even more death with those absurd realities orbiting around ourselves if humanity wasn't enough? I don't know about you but If those things really existed, The Nothern Realms are the closest thing we have right now to imagine how would that mess of world, would look like and how it would end up like. That is what the ''difficulty" is trying to say, to me at least. Don't play it on the easiest, embrace the issue you're having until you learn how to get ready and how to play it and then you will understand, why this game feels so good and great, within the combat mechanics. The game isn't trying to make you feel like you're a badass, you need to be an actual bad-ass to play it and the feeling I'm mentioning comes up to you eventually. Specially on the beginning of your crusade.
It is a very important moment for gaming, because this game is the ultimate proof that art does matter. Not just art, because that's not so hard to implement, specially with nowadays technology but then, what is art? Painting, music making? Sure, with those years on gaming I have seen it all specially on Star Wars games and Elder's Scrolls because those arts gotta be directed to and with a different path, completely different from what they're doing on movies (you're actually flowing in the world after all) As a fan of viking and slavic metal myself, me and my friend we are used to see the old Norse paints and culture being displayed in some other art forms such as posters or covers, and fan-made paintings or some old religious expressions on Slavic paganism as well. The Vedmak can be easily researched on a google and that's fine for a person, but CD Projekt were obviously seriously committed to draw it into the game, and nope, it isn't for the accuracy sake but for the fun, for the immersion. They sure did an very professional and serious research there, an maybe their talent got them lucky too, because I think they had to guess how that tavern would look on White Orchard judging by it's inhabitants based on our boring reality, mixed with mythologies and doses of gaming salts. I can see that everywhere, not just on a few names. From the ceremonial tombs with it's own runes to the palaces and houses on Novigrad resembling those Nordic architectures and lots others altogether, the only thing I can see is a very deep and believable immersion. And yes, the fantasy rpg-ish feeling is there 99% of the time. Apart from all the real world human mythologies from many ages and places, this is a fantasy game. For my latest disappointments with past games, The Witcher 3 just came right on time, just to save my year.
I like how Gerald is depicted, and if you're new to the trilogy have no worries. He will always have that anti-hero Aurea around regardless if you're constructing a good, loyal Samaritan there. And boy isn't hard to be good in there, when everybody is just giving you pain in the ass. But, again, if this were real, I would save the more people I could save. The whole region is plagued with war and suffering, the game tries to make you see how you it would take on you to make the difference. Do it, or don't. If you care or not, so will the world around you... or not. This game is on a state-of-the-art, and if you don't like it you sure should at least respect it. Gerald has an strong personality for a game character, this ''create your avatar'' feature is almost ruing the gaming narrative, with some exceptions as Mass Effect but even that one. Multiple faces and sides gives you an awkward comprehension on who is that hero or heroine, but Gerald is just Gerald and that is perfectly enough.
One thing... They evolved the game very much but that clunky horse galloping control and some on foot walking stills there. Infinity stamina isn't fair on the roads, but that's too much to ask so I better shut up. Yet, the gameplay is very responsive and in lack of other words, it is just fantastic.
The game's layout and natural difficulty are something really different from the other games. So it take you a while to get use to it, I got it since the second game when I first meet that trilogy and they did it very user friendly on the third but yet... Was it made on purpose just to lock you up on their game? What is up with this ''Wild Hunt'' mythology being used in gaming? Time to ask to that freaky first cousin from the rural interior what he thinks about the Illuminati (just kidding here) Mass Effect Andromeda is ripping it on his first trailer, so... What's that? Can't they just sell their game in a honest way? Don't try to catch Witcher's train man. Because I can't just leave the game anymore and when I do, if I even dare to go away for a few days, the other games shows me how boring they are now, and how confusing their controls are in comparison with The Witcher 3. Well... if this is a conspiracy, it is damn good, and I'm only leaving it when I feel ready. Beating the game like some few times and exploring it to 100% maybe would suffice. The Witcher is closing his time for now, with a golden key.