When I finally finished The Witcher: Wild
Hunt, it almost felt like an end of an era. I started playing the trilogy more
than six months ago, and became enthralled by the world and the characters. As
I write this review it is just under two months since release, but there was
simply too much content for me to rush.
First and foremost, if you haven’t bought
this game you should. It is easily one of the best games I have played and will
almost certainly become one of my favorites. If that’s all you needed to know,
then hurry up and go an buy it! My perspective is of someone who has played the
entire series, all in recent memory and then spent hours upon hours completing
all of the content I could find. Some of my criticism will therefore perhaps be
irrelevant should this be your first foray into the universe.
As The Witcher: Wild hunt is the third
installment in a series based off a series of books, one of the most commonly
asked question is, “will I have to have played the previous games?” The simple
answer is no. It’s clear from the promotional and pre-release material the CD
Projekt Red knew they were sitting on something extraordinary, and no developer
worth their salt would make something so marketable, so unkind to new fans. I
must admit to a couple of doubts from my experiences with the previous games,
which were not realised. The first Witcher drops you in as Geralt as a group of
bandits attack the castle of Kaer Morhen. There was no scene setting, no
prologue and no explanation other than Geralt had lost his memory and died a
while before. The second installment was little better for inducting new
players, with Geralt thrust into the middle of a battle between two forces you
had barely heard of. The Witcher 3 does
a far better job of positioning Geralt within his world and slowly introducing
the important elements and characters. The story flow – particularly in early
parts – is impeccable.
In terms of plot it is simple and laid out
from the beginning; Find Yennefer, find Ciri, defeat evil. As a main thrust it
is clichéd but exiting at best and luke-warm at worst. What really gives life
to the story is the extensive branching side-stories that accompany most major
characters you interact with. These could be ignored, which would change the
outcome of the story, but if completed there are more decisions to make. It is
perfectly crafted and allows the player to decide how much content they want
from the game. It also helps them craft their own Geralt to be helpful and
altruistic, or blindly focused upon his task.
The length is all I could hope for. As
flawed as the original Witcher game was, its length and pacing were great,
though I certainly had had enough of the clunky mechanics by the end. The
second installment followed a long line of fantasy RPGs with simply not enough
story content. My Witcher 2 play through was less than 24 hours with a flaccid
and disappointing end, similar to all of the usually excellent Dragon Age
games. The Witcher 3, however, is constructed by talented storytellers. You
experience the slow but enticing start, spend many hours visiting the different
countries and meeting the various leaders, and then the story kicks up a notch.
A truly epic battle that I was expecting to be the end takes place, but no –
the game had plenty more for me to do. So often in games of this sort the
credits have started to roll and I think “is that it?” For the first time my
story-hungry appetite had been sated by the time the screen cut to black.
It was actually the final moments where I
experience my largest – and potentially only – story-based disappointment. It
related more to characters, than story arc, however.
As I noted, The Witcher series has been a
big part of my recent life. As such the notable characters who proved to be
Geralt’s most notable companions, almost became like friends to me. It was with
such joy that I encountered Zoltan the dwarf, Dandelion the Bard and – of course
– Triss. These were Geralt’s key companions throughout the first two games and
my delight at coming across them turned to despair as they were relegated
behind newer characters to the game franchise. After the side mission involving
Dandelion, Geralt’s BEST FRIEND was stuck in the corner of his tavern able to
do nothing other than say Geralt’s name. Other than the fact it appeared he was
the narrator (for some unexplained reason doing so in a voice much closer to
Vesemir’s) Dandelion played no part in the story after a small part. Zoltan at
least got to contribute, but nothing is heard from him towards the final
missions. It is the treatment of Triss that hurt the most. I understand that
canonically, Yenefer is Geralt’s true love. But she was too moody, too
unpleasant and too absent from the first two games to be MY Geralt’s true love.
Sure, I got to pick which one he would end up with, but the game very clearly
prioritized Yennefer over Triss. In the first Witcher the choice was between
Triss and Shani. Triss was clearly the canonical choice, but choosing Shani
would at least give the character some sort of impact later on. In this game,
although Triss is there at the end, I actually was not even able to speak with
her, and heaven forbid a cutscene between him and the woman he chose to spend
the rest of his life with. Don’t get me wrong, I like the new cast. Yennefer
and Avell’ach were really interesting characters and a loved the hell out of
Ciri, but after three games and innumerable hours, I need more than a five
second narration over a drawing for the conclusion of such an important factor.
In fact, while the end sequence was satisfying for the two major characters, I
was left devastated that I hadn’t heard from any of Geralt’s friends, and only
touched on the outcomes of some major decisions I had made.
The voice acting throughout was far above
what I expected from a game this size. There was no noticeable repetition of
voice actors throughout the world – as experienced in games like Skyrim. The
performances of featured cast was at a high standard, with one notable
exception. While the voice actor playing Geralt is perfect as the road-beaten
warrior whose emotions have been stripped by mutations, his voice is a
laughable mixture of cement mixer and Bruce Willis. I found myself talking in
his voice at the television screen, which was fun, but there were times –
especially when talking to characters he liked – where the voice was so
impossibly annoying. Although, after the first few missions I became numb to
Geralt’s voice except when he made moments that should be touching, utterly
cringe-worthy. Thankfully the exceptionally writing smoothed things over well
enough.
In fact, that is where I must finish this
section of the review. Writing is often an un-sung hero in videogames, but it
is responsible for the array of deep and engaging characters and the endlessly
varied missions. The mission structure is one of the strongest I have seen in a
fantasy RPG, but that is for part 2…
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