The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Once again, all of these screenshots were
taken with my PS4

*Full disclosure before I review The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt: I have NOT finished the game yet. In fact, I'd doubt that I'm even close. I'll dive more into that in the review, but I've put a sufficient amount of hours into it and I believe that the score I give will be representative of my final thoughts, however many hours down the road they are once I actually finish it*

That little opening paragraph ^ should give you a general idea of the size and scope of The Witcher 3. It's massive...a game brimming with details, hidden secrets, and a massive open world. I'm maybe 25% totally complete on it after 40-50 hours in and I'm not anywhere close to done playing it (though I admit a certain Arkham Knight and traveling for work has impeded my progress somewhat). Like many other open world games, it's not perfect and I'll dive more into that later. But once you come to grips with the small areas that the game could use some improvement, you are left with a game that is compelling, encourages exploration, and begs the player to do "just one more thing" -- if I had a dollar for every time I said that, I swear, I'd be a millionaire. 

A truly gorgeous world brimming with detail

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is a bit of a rare instance, at least for me. It's the third in the series, but the previous installments had been exclusive to PC for a long time, and then eventually Xbox. I didn't get a chance to play the first two, nor was I ever drastically interested in them, despite their solid reviews. When it was announced that the third game would be available for the next gen consoles I didn't think too much about it until I watched a few gameplay videos. I was hooked and I knew that it was a must-buy. Fast forward to release day and I was delighted to pick up my game, wondering why the retail copy was so heavy, and headed home. Upon opening the game I was shocked to see a plethora of goodies included with the game disc. There were some cool decals, a packaged map of the world, a CD of the game's soundtrack, and, most importantly, a thank you note from developer, CD Projekt RED, for purchasing their game, with the promise of 16 free DLC updates coming within the next few months after release. In an age of developers cutting corners, aiming for unrealistic release dates *cough Assassin's Creed Unity cough cough*, and DLC being nickled and dimed at every turn, I was understandably taken aback by this package. They included several items that I didn't ask for, but was delighted to have, and then thank me for buying their game. For what it's worth, even though I know they will probably never see this, thank YOU, Projekt RED. Thank you for appreciating your fans and going above and beyond what many other developers do. Know that I've certainly factored that into my final score. 

It's just a flesh wound?

The Witcher 3's main plot is simple. It boils down to our protagonist, Geralt, tracking down his daughter, Ciri, to rescue her from the Wild Hunt. At it's core, it's awfully compelling because of some smart gameplay flips (that will remain unspoiled) and the Wild Hunt is a fantastic villain. Think of the Ringwraiths from Lord of the Rings, but with tons of black, jagged, armor and wherever they touch, it turns cold and icy. Even more impressive, and what I would deem the "crowning achievement" of The Witcher 3, is some of the sub plots. Often, side quests are one-off missions that don't contribute much to the world building and they hardly ever have good stories. Not so in this game. Many of the side quests are multiple missions long, most of which encapsulate their own, intricate plots, some even more intriguing than the main quest. I found myself emotionally invested in several of them and strove to complete them before doing anything else. When you add it all up, there is a literal metric s**t ton of stuff to do in The Witcher 3. There's the main quest, secondary (read: side) quests, monster hunts, treasure hunts, and then general points-of-interest marked on your map to go research and explore. Some of these are one mission long, while others span the course of 5-10 mission updates and take several hours to complete. When you tack on the time lost playing the phenomenal, and highly-addicting, card game, Gwent, it becomes immediately clear that one won't be "done" with The Witcher 3 for quite some time to come. 

It's here though that some of The Witcher's faults poke through. The dialogue is well scripted and delivered, but for a game this long, I often found myself reading the subtitles and skipping from line to line based on the slow delivery. I'd go as far to say that there are an overabundance of "cut-scenes". Granted you can choose responses in many of these dialogues, but when a simple fetch quest has 5-10+ minutes of convo, it's really tempting to read/skip like I did. The mission structure, while varied, also has a severe case of not knowing when enough is enough. Many of the quests are fetch-based, which is fine, but I took issue with the quests that were extended, for no real reason other than to extend them. Several missions require you to talk to Character X, who then requests that you visit Character Y, who needs you to go to Character Z and kill him but also find Character A and acquire something from them. Then when you come back to Character Y you must go visit Character B all the way out in Timbuktu to help him fight some monster. By the time you get back to Character X you've already been through the entire alphabet of characters. To be fair, most of the time this structure works and still creates an intriguing quest plotline, but I can certainly think of several occasions where it did NOT, where I found myself doing a combination of 6-10 fetch quests all for a small side quest. 

Fast forward about half a second
and that dude has no head

Thankfully, with all its to-do items and length, The Witcher 3's gameplay is *mostly* stellar. Some may scoff at its simplicity, but I really grew to enjoy its intricacies of battle and the strategy that it forces you to implement. I'll admit, I started on Hard mode, and for someone who plays many different games each year, I quickly realized that Hard mode was going to extend this 200+ hour game into the 400+ region. It was hard, and unfortunately, between deaths, the loading times are horrendous (I once timed 70 seconds). The game became much more enjoyable once I switched to Normal mode, and unless this is the only game you plan on buying this year, I suggest starting on this mode. Combat is a mix of swordplay and magic, with some very light ranged gameplay of bombs and a crossbow. The swordplay is a bit hack and slash for most, but it has several nuances that one can master to dispatch foes faster than just hard pressing Square over and over. I especially enjoyed the magic elements, of which there are 5. A telekinetic push (my least used), mind control, time-freeze/turret, a shield (most useful), and fire (my most used). It's very easy to select each of these in combat, and each has a deep upgrade tree with specific new features. For example, upgrade the shield enough and each hit from an enemy replenishes an equal amount of health. Or the fire one, which changes from a fire blast from your hand to a single-stream flamethrower upon upgrade. These powers, combined with the swordplay, really leads to a lot of self-made strategy and each player will create their favorite method of dispatching the extremely varied list of enemies. Speaking of dispatching enemies...some of the kill moves are super gory and awesome. Sliced in half from shoulder to hip, anyone?

And then a ghost popped out and killed me...

There are several achievements to be found elsewhere too. Projekt RED has created a gorgeous, highly detailed world that truly looks "next gen". Aside from the aforementioned death screen load times, load times are virtually non-existent other than a few cutscenes and upon initial load. For a world this massive, that's insanely impressive. What's even more impressive is how varied the world is. There are deep, dank caves that hide their own terrors, beaches and cliff sides that show a world beyond, deep forests that filter the light through hyper-realistic tree branches, cities and towns filled with NPCs, and snowy mountains to climb and explore. Much of the map design is highly inspired and unique. It's a bit hard to explain, but among the normal terrain you see in a game like this there are unique cliffs, recesses, hidden areas, and fortresses (my favorite of which was one high in the mountains where you must climb for ~ 2 minutes to even reach it). As big as the world is, traversing it is fairly simple given the well-implemented fast travel system, and Geralt's horse, Roach who usually functions well. Really the only obvious traversal issues come into play in the game's tighter corridors. Whenever Geralt is inside a house, or navigating a narrow alleyway, he goes from feeling like a badass Witcher to a confused newborn who has huge issues with corners, standing on random objects, and general turning around.

Probably a metaphor for the time I've spent playing this game somewhere in this image...

This is one of my longer reviews ever, and it's obvious that I could go on and on about the game. But there is a summary to be had here. I've been preoccupied playing the very excellent Arkham Knight lately (review to come in the future) and truth be told I haven't played The Witcher 3 in a few weeks now. Despite its minor issues, it is a game made with tremendous pride and care by its developers and it shows. 

It speaks VOLUMES when I'm playing a GOTY-contender, Batman game and I still really want to just play Witcher 3 as fast as possible. 

You'll find that you really like Wild Hunt while you're playing it, but it's those spaces of separation from the world and its characters where you'll find that you love it. 

I'm dying to get back. 

CONS:

• Some control issues. Geralt is hard to control in tight areas and Roach (the horse) could use some tweaking
• I really dislike having to press buttons multiple times before the game reads my entry. It happens far too often and occurs almost everywhere, even in combat from time to time
• Almost too many things to interact with in the world and mapping them all to "X" doesn't help matters
• Some side quests are sequences of extremely annoying fetch quests. Most are not, but there were a few where I was literally pained to finish them
• Characters either have A) too much dialogue or B) deliver it too slowly. I was often just reading the subtitles and skipping the voices as it saves a ton of time 
• A bit sexist seeing as how every important female in the game is a 10 out of 10 and has a drastically plunging neckline. Not like I'm complaining though...
• Obnoxious load times when you die

PROS:

• This game's length is absurd. There is so much to do, with a great deal of variation. Easily the best open world since Grand Theft Auto V
• The world is massive, varied, dangerous, gorgeous, and incredibly fun to explore. One of the best open worlds ever, period
• Great cast of characters that all feel real, mature, and well defined. Geralt is a great protagonist and more complex than you might initially expect
• The main story is simple and has a compelling villain with the Wild Hunt. Gameplay surprises keep that quest line interesting
• Ability to save at anytime, anywhere
• Solid fast travel system
• Varied enemies always make combat interesting and the lengthy list of monsters is stellar
• Side quests are often massive and some have absolutely phenomenal and gripping story lines, completely separate from the main quest. This is Witcher's biggest achievement
• Gwent for the win. Such a great mini-game that I found myself sinking a lot of time into
• Combat is easy to pick up but complex to master. Combining sword combat, magic, and ranged combat can make you a lethal bad ass and everyone's play style will be different
• Gory combat enders
• Great leveling system that lets you focus on advancing in the areas that you want to focus on
• Strong trade/sell game market and crafting abilities
• For a world this size, the graphics are insane
• Masterful original score that is included as a disc with the game
• CD Projekt RED takes a lot of pride in their work and are appreciative of fans for purchasing/playing it. They are a special developer from that standpoint alone and the will continue to receive my future support. 

Rath's Review Score: 9.5/10