The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (2015)

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is a game of jarring extremes: A benchmark for storytelling, and a cautionary tale of gameplay constructed of overcomplicated, clunky, boring, repetitive slop. The game moves you emotionally between scenes and worlds, giving you a rich experience while asking for nothing in return. So much so that you could almost be convinced that its generosity produces an overall enjoyable experience.

Narrative Depth vs. Mechanical Clutter

The story and world-building are comfortably on par with the peak years of Game of Thrones. CD Projekt Red crafted a world where political realities aren't just background flavor, they are the air the NPCs breathe. Whether you are navigating a simple monster-hunting contract or a complex and expertly-crafted main quest line, the emotional resonance is profound. The people affected aren't just pixels, they are victims and benefactors of a tangible, cruel history.

However, once the talking stops and the swords come out, the illusion shatters. Despite post-launch patches designed to tighten Geralt's responsiveness, he never manages to capture the essence of a genetically enhanced super-predator — he just feels like somebody's Dad. The combat is a messy marriage of overcomplicated mechanics and underwhelming results. After 75 hours, the sheer volume of "stuff"—bombs, potions, decoctions, oils, alchemy and crafting ingredients (and apparently I have a crossbow?) —feels like a solution in search of a problem. Because the core loop eventually devolves into a repetitive rhythm of awkward rolls and counter-strikes, the vast web of mutagens, runes, and gear upgrades feels like busywork rather than meaningful character progression. Even the magical "Signs," which should be Geralt's ace in the hole, often feel like pieces of flair with scripted applications rather than tactical game-changers.

Geralt, the World’s Most Overqualified Errand Boy

For a game that demands you play as the world’s greatest monster hunter, there is a startling lack of actual tracking, and the game does a poor job of sprucing up its woeful core storytelling mechanic: the fetch quest. You are effectively a supernatural bike courier sent to clean up the mundane messes of the continent. Even the most high-stakes political assassinations or ancient curses usually boil down to finding a specific item or person hidden just out of sight.

This disconnect is most apparent when Geralt enters what can only be described as "Toucan Sam Mode". By activating Witcher Senses, the vibrant world is washed out, highlighting a glowing red scent trail or a shimmering set of footprints. From that moment on, the "investigation" is on autopilot. You simply follow your nose until you hit a pre-determined cutscene trigger. There is no deductive reasoning required, no application of logic, and zero purpose for player curiosity. You aren't solving mysteries or outsmarting your prey, you are blindly following a medieval GPS through a beautiful landscape, waiting for the game to tell you that you've arrived.

It was so bad that I found myself desperate to find any NPC willing to play a round of the card-based side game "Gwent", which, while a charming enough diversion to break up the monotony, lacks the tactical meat one would expect from a world-class RPG. Whether your deck is under- or overmatched compared to your opponent, the "strategy" rarely evolves beyond bouncing spies to draw the highest number of cards. It serves as a microcosm for the game’s larger issue: a gorgeous, flavorful presentation that, once peeled back, reveals a series of shallow, repetitive interactions that fail to challenge the player’s intellect.

The Central Contradiction

While the quality of each independent element of The Witcher 3 unmistakably shows the time and expertise that went into building it, the complete package is a game that suffers from a fundamental identity crisis. The environment is so expertly crafted that it begs for your full, undivided immersion. Yet, the actual gameplay is so mindless and repetitive that it has become widely heralded as the ultimate "chillout" game—something you trickle through while your brain is halfway out the door, pondering what to make for dinner. It is a world you want to live in, trapped inside a game you just want to be over.

I have been gaming for 36 years now. In that time I've played at least 3000 games (I've literally counted). At the very top of that tower of games lies this one as the single best game I've ever played!

When it first came I wasn't sure I'd like it. I was never tempted by any game in the series. But I took the leap for this, as the graphics were amazing at the time and there was little else releasing in that window.

The game started pretty good, but nothing special. It went on like that for the first 7 or so hours. Then I found the Baron. And after that I randomly found another side quest. And another. And ALL of them were good. No, they were great. Everything I found added to the game. Nothing felt like artificial padding to extend game time. Everything felt like it needed to be there. Further into the game I was sucked in by the visuals, the mood, the story and side storys and the locations. And I was sold.

After finishing the game I could definitely say it was ONE of the best games I've ever played. But then I immediately started up the game again (something which I never do) on the hardest difficulty. At first I found it to be way too hard and almost regretted it. But then suddenly it clicked, and I could add awesome gameplay to the above list of accomplishments. Playing it on the hardest difficulty forced me to play the game as it was meant to be played. Instead of just being hack and slash I was forced to delve into the lore to learn about the enemies and I was forced to actually use my inventory of oils and potions and use them correctly. Every monster I hunted down was extra exciting and felt like a challenge in themselves.

Before finishing it again, I had passed over 200 hours of gameplay. And then the DLCs came! And what DLCs they were! Now I have almost 400 hours of gameplay on this, and I still want more.

There's a reason for this being on top of most people's list. It really is that good. But you need to find what YOU love about it. And you need to give it the time that it deserves. Cause if every developer put as much love in a game as CD Projekt Red has done with this, we as gamers would be blessed. But with this game, we already are.

I've beaten this back in 2017, so I will keep this review short and add a lot more review like this to other games over the coming days and weeks as I fill out my profile on this platform that I recently found and am already a big fan of.

The Witcher 3, to me, is a masterpiece. Now we could start by determining what a "masterpiece" is. Does the game have to be "perfect" to get this distinction? If so, no game is likely a masterpiece. Does it have to "unanimously" be among the best games ever released? Well, here we come to the next dilemma. Which game really is "unanimously" a very good game?

The Witcher 3 has "weaknesses" or at least features that won't suit everyone's gaming needs and wants, I guess we can say it that way. So unanimously, no, it's not among the best games ever. When moving around in tighter areas, movement sometimes feels clunky and awkward. Advanced combat techniques, oils and potions are not really that necessary to be used in lower difficulty levels, making combat rather unimpressive to some. In typical open world fashion, there are bugs here and there. The game is bloated with "question marks" that reveal the same few activities. The main story probably lasts a bit too long.

Depending on how you feel about these "negatives", it may make or break your experience with this game. I'll go over those points in a bit to give you my opinion on why I agree/disagree with the criticism and why, but first let's go over what the game generally is about for those of you who haven't actually played or seen much of the game.

In The Witcher 3, you play Geralt of Rivia, a Witcher who is looking for his adoptive daughter Ciri. Witchers are monster hunters and while they are disliked in this world because of their dehumanizing mutations, their services are much appreciated nonetheless by the mortals who wouldn't stand a chance against the Drowners, Griffins and Trolls that Witchers have to face, let alone Vampires and Werewolves.

While the main story leads you on an epic journey of trying to find Ciri and fighting the "Wild Hunt", what makes this game truly special to me in terms of storytelling is the sheer amount of qualitatively high and overall impressive side quests. Even the simplest of fetch quests often do a great job of fleshing out this universe, of showing you how Witchers both operate and are treated, and some simply tie in very well with the main plot.

In addition to simple side quests, the game offers "monster contracts". Often you'll find these when talking to NPCs (example: a man needs clean water from a well, but a ghost is guarding it) or checking message boards. They are boss fights and sometimes also have an interesting story tied to it. There is also treasure hunting for Witcher gear (swords and armor), there is the best mini game of all time in GWENT and also all those "question marks" I mentioned.

The question marks can simply be turned off to clear the map if one is quickly overwhelmed by them. I didn't try to finish them all and instead just looked into one if it was near my location. So what some would criticize, I see as of no importance as they can safely be ignored. With that, let's look at some of the other "negatives" I mentioned at the start.

• There is the issue of movement feeling clunky. I agree, it's janky, it's sometimes tiresome to simply turn around and it even applies to moving around with your horse. It didn't take away from my experience but it's noticeable nevertheless.
• I played this game on the hardest difficulty, so combat was rarely a cake walk and simple button mashing to me. Not only that but at this difficulty, using oils, potions and your "witcher signs" (abilities like fire, shield and wind) was absolutely necessary and added a lot to the experience. To add to this, I found combat enjoyable in and of itself because striking and dodging as per the muscle memory of enemy attack patterns I developed felt like a dance to me. Add a bunch of boss battles via contracts to the mix and I had lots of fun in combat. And don't get me started on the battle music, which ranged from excellent to epic. That said, battles should have been more balanced on normal difficulty to necessitate the use of advanced combat techniques more often, though this is something many games struggle with.
• Bugs are present here from time to time but not often enough to become distracting. Especially during release this was a bit worse but even then it was rarely anything game breaking. You might have seen the horse, Roach, do some wild stuff in some bug compilation videos though.
• The main story lasting too long would be my main complaint with this game and probably my only one. There is a point a few hours before the end where it just feels like the quality drops off a bit before the game's ultimate final battle. As someone who plays Persona games that have 60+ hours of main story alone, I'm actually more than content with longer main stories, but it shouldn't come at the expense of quality in pacing and writing, which I would say I experienced in this game.

But all in all, the package here is fantastic and even all these years later, I struggle to come up with a game that put so much care and effort into its side content. Rockstar Games might be the main contender there, but basically The Witcher 3 is in very big company in that regard.

If you're into Action Adventure games/RPGs, you should definitely check this game out for yourselves. It's a Top 3 experience to me to this date and worthy of its high praise.

Played all main story and DLCs. Good to exceptionnal writing of stories and quests. The quest are never boring and meaningless. Character design and writting are really high level.

For personnal reason I played the game with keyboard/mouse instead en gamepad... terrible experience, especialy in hard difficulty mode (because the gameplay flaws are HEAVELY impacting). "Boss" fights are terribly annoying and frustrating, even if the bosses are badass and well written. CD Projekt did a terrible job for keyboard controls and imput responsiveness, this is maybe not the case with gamepad...

Not the master piece that I expected, but I really envoyed the 120hours I took to complete all main story + 2DLC + all side quests (not treasures quests).

Whoa, this game sure does make a terrible first impression. Long info dumps, wooden pre-rendered animations, more info dumps and abysmal voice acting (Geralt’s voice performance is exceptionally bad). This is the game that everyone raves about?

Why is every setting slider’s median point wayyyy too sensitive? If I barely nudge the analogue stick Gerald does a pirouette.

Also, why were people surprised when children in Cyberpunk 2077 were just miniaturized adult character models? Have they played The Witcher 3? Have they seen Ciri? Shouldn’t they have expected this from CPDR?

I am not going to say things like: it is an action RPG game, open world, bla bla bla. Everybody knows this things. What I want to say is The Witcher 3 is probably one of the best games I have ever played. Gameplay is really good and combats are really fun to play... except for the horse, that sometimes is quite a mess, but I can forgive that.

Graphics are still incredible if you play everything ULTRA in PC and the OST is one of the best things in the game. I still have in my head the Skellige world song. It makes me have 'goosebumps' ¿? (I think this is the expression in English but I am not quite sure).

If you want to hear some bad things of course there are. For example if you want to play the DLCs, make sure to play them AFTER the main game. I didn't do it and this causes two things:

• DLCs are quite hard during early game (as I said they are meant to be played after)
• After the DLCs... the main story is really really easy to play. You can kill all enemies (even bosses) with some attacks.
• Careful with some light spoiler in the DLCs about the main story.
• Even I like Ciri, I feel that the parts where you play with her are quite strange because Ciri is controlled very different to Geralt. (I think that the story of Ciri would be better with just video, DLCs, or better... a new Witcher game playing as her).
• Careful, SPOILER: Final boss and ending is really strange. Maybe it is because of the second thing I mentioned being really easy. But I felt that the game should end in a more epic way.... I don't know how to explain it. I liked the end, but I felt more astonished with the end of the first game, for example.

Anyways, it is a really good game and it is a MUST PLAY for everyone. Not excuses. I will miss The Witcher. We need to pray for a Witcher 4. (Please, CDProjekt... :( )

Recommended Mods

The mods i'm using for the most overrated game of all time:

• Disable storybook videos - Some incredible idiot decided that a video should always play when loading a game. This disables that.

• Missing Gwent Cards Tracker - Shows you where to get cards in base game areas. Absolute lifesaver.

• Fast Travel from Anywhere - This game already takes up so much time, this helps a bit with that.

• Over 9000 - Weight limit mod - It says enough that this was the third mod for TW3 on Nexus. CDPR, tons of people don't like inventory management, especially not a game with so many items.

• Always Full Exp - Normally you get a severe XP penalty (50%!) for doing quests out of order (6 levels lower than you). This fixes that 100% asshole design.

• Increased Creature Loot - I installed the basic version which means you always get the most basic loot. Without it you might miss out on very rare items like Golem Hearts for absolutely no goddamn reason.

• Script Merger - I don't think i needed this but it fixes mod conflicts.

I normally don't post updates but i have some observations:

1. The skill systems get progressively worse from TW1 to TW3. TW1 allows you to develop at least the basis of basically all skills and specialize in a few. TW3 is just an endless parade of barriers. Skills have multiple levels, tiers require spending x amount of points in previous tiers, mutagens only boost skills of the same colour and there's an extremely limited amount of skill slots - an idiotic idea in the first place.

2. CDPR is just bad at making games. Gwent (standalone) is clever but quickly gets boring. TW1&2 suffered really badly from a lack of fast travel and a slew of other problems. TW3 shows they've learnt little from their mistakes and they keep coming up with creative new ways to fail. How the hell can you not get something as basic as looting right? How can you even make it worse in some ways three games into a series? It's like they didn't do any QA at all.

3. The English localisation is shit. Literally zero effort to get names right. The most bizarre one is Piet. Instead of 'Pete' the name is pronounced as 'Pyet'. Wtf. Also still tons of unnatural sounding sentences and weird translations.

The fact that this mediocre mess is the #1 game on here is kinda embarassing.

After 60 hours to finish the main game and its first expansion a few years ago, I made a tough executive decision to save the rest for a rainy day, when I was most in need of a big fantasy RPG to fall into. After over 4 months stuck at home with no end in sight (that’ll date this post for any future readers...), weeks of literal rain every day, and Cyberpunk 2077 just over 3 months away, that rainy day has finally arrived.

I started “Blood and Wine,” which has an excellent first hour, but soon ended up going down a rabbit hole of just clearing off question mark icons and Contract missions on the main map. Having an awesome time. You never know what you’ll find in this game on a mundane-looking quest or map marker. I think I like this game even more over time. It was very absorbing and almost calming to explore around the world today. There are whole areas and even some mechanics and quest types I never messed with much the first time. Will definitely be all over this for the next couple weeks.

The Witcher 3 has gotten piles, and piles of praise, and I have finally beaten the game, after multiple attempts. Halfway through the game I switched from Normal to Hard mode and started to really enjoy the game again, I strongly urge anyone considering the game, just start on Hard. Normal is too easy, and you begin to just swing maddly at everything to kill it, not fun.

I see what the hype and excitement is about. In many ways, this game manages to wonderfully combine the open-world exploration of Skyrim, with the deep story and lore of something like Mass Effect. But this also comes with many of the weaknesses of those genres.

The biggest draw for me throughout the game was the lore behind this world. It is deep and rich, and the game creators owe the author so much to supplying them with a wealth of information to sprinkle throughout, while giving the game its unique feel.

Geralt as a character doesn't start out as the most compelling, but as the game goes on he started to grow on me. And his relationship with Ciri is extremely compelling. Many of the side characters, such as Dandelion, Zoltan, Triss, and others were a joy to explore and learn about, while others are written in a way to be a real chore, creating villains that you truly hate.

The combat and gameplay of the game is good, but not great. I enjoyed the customizability of the character's skills, but it felt like every skill tree had at least 1 path that was just plain bad. Crafting was more a chore than a joy, and I frequently found myself passing up opportunities to search out better gear, because it was such a chore.

Money becomes so plentiful that it becomes irrelevant about midway through the game. With almost no major drains on my funds I stopped taking Witcher contracts, as I no longer felt compelled to make money. This then compounded with me stopping looking for gambling opportunities and other things. The only real mid-late game expense is if you are trying to craft every potion, or if you have dived deep into the Witcher gear, both of which I found not worth while. This meant I finished the game with over 7k gold, without even trying, and stopped buying gear, as found gear was almost always better.

The story itself, while in segments compelling, as can be a bit of a hot mess. The main villain Eredin is incredibly sinister looking, and has a great deal of chilling threat about him, but his goals are barely touched on, instead a lot more time was spent getting to know his lieutenant, which was odd. This meant I felt more thrill when beating side villains, such as the crones, rather then the main big baddie!

Segments of the main quest were retiring, while others felt less compelling.

I think the thing this game does best, is side quest. Few of the side quest felt like side quest, instead, they all have their own lore and mini climatic moments. Discovering new monsters, twists, and turns, is where a lot of the joy of this game comes from. However, I am not huge into open world games, so I did some side quests, but didn't explore as much, missing a lot of other quests.

The final thing I want to touch on is the climax of the game. In many ways, the end of a game makes or breaks it. The Witcher 3 delivers, the last 12 ish hours of the game are amazing, as all the decisions and bonds you have made throughout begin to give returns and come back up during the main lore. The final fights are varied and challenging, and reward really well thought out character builds and strategies. The emotional hits in these last 12 hours are big, and the toughest choices of the game appear here.

Overall, I enjoyed playing the Witcher. I don't think I would suggest it to every RPG fan, but I do think anyone who liked Skyrim, but wishes there was a better overarching story, should give this a try.

Personally, while the characters and choices were good, I did not feel as much emotional attachment as I did to characters in games like Persona 5 or Mass Effect, and so I don't think I will be revisiting the Witcher.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has recently won an entire convoy of Game of the Year Awards, and while I generally don't place much stock in such grandiose list-making, at least these lists are giving the right prize to the right game, . There were certainly some heavy hitters this year, namely Bloodborne, Metal Gear Solid V, Super Mario Maker, and Fallout 4 (as well as King’s Quest, which is on my personal favorites list), but I don’t think any of them stand up to The Witcher 3. It might be the most complete game ever made.

Obviously I loved the game, and I’d call it my personal Game of the Year without hesitation, so I don’t think this will be a review in the traditional sense. It’s also not very timely as the game was released half a year ago. I only recently finished the main game and have yet to start the DLC. Instead, I want to write about the scope of The Witcher 3, and why many of those who play it will likely never fully experience what it has to offer.A few years ago I elsewhere wrote a similar blog post about The Witcher 2 and The Last Wish, chronologically the first book in Andrej Sapkowski’s Witcher series. I read The Last Wish while playing The Witcher 2, and found that each strengthened the other in a fascinating way. Yet I never finished The Witcher 2, due to life interruptions, and I lost interest in the universe not long after. At the time, the subsequent Witcher novels had not been translated nor published in the U.S., so I had two stories set in the same world that had very little to do with one another. The Last Wish introduces Geralt of Rivia, the protagonist of all Witcher things, but it’s a series of short stories that are only loosely connected and have little to do with the events in The Witcher 2. Thankfully for those of us interested in serious immersion, almost the entirety of Sapkowski’s books are now available in English.

Blood of Elves, The Time of Contempt, and Baptism of Fire all follow events in The Last Wish, and set up the events leading to The Witcher 3. There is another post-The Last Wish book called Sword of Destiny, wherein the character of Ciri is introduced, and Ciri becomes a focal point for the series from then on. As of this writing, I have not yet read Sword of Destiny but have finished The Last Wish twice, as well as Blood of Elves, The Time of Contempt, and Baptism of Fire, and even outside of the games find them to be excellent fantasy novels on part with anything I’ve read in the genre. Thanks to the efforts and passion of developer CD Projekt Red, I am able to dive into the world of Geralt and Ciri in a way that I’ve never experienced before. As a long time fantasy reader, this is an opportunity that I’ve harbored secret wishes of since my first reading of The Fellowship of the Ring.The Lord of the Rings brings to mind the fact that this is not a new idea. Developers have been trying this for years because game designers are often fans of one series or another and want as much as anyone else to see their favorite mythologies come to life. The Lord of the Rings Online, developed and still running, was one such effort that met with moderate success. It’s an entirely online game where players can choose to be a hobbit or an elf or a Numenorean and adventure in nearly all the lands written about in Tolkien’s vaunted series. This almost scratched the itch I had to dive into my favorite alternate realities, and I still have extremely fond memories of traipsing about the Shire, but it was missing one of the most important aspects of LotR; the characters. You would occasionally run across Gandalf or Legolas out in the world, but you weren’t an integral part of the Ring’s destruction. Developers have been trying for decades to create a Star Wars game that immersed players, and have succeeded to varying degrees. The reverse has happened as well, particularly by developer BioWare, who has often had the lead writers of the Mass Effect and Dragon age games write tie-in novels, again to varying success.

Though noble efforts all, no game has yet managed to create a world as engaging and robust as that present in The Witcher 3. In The Witcher 3, we are thrust into the shoes of Geralt of Rivia, set free amidst some of the most famed lands described in the books, and on a quest to find Ciri, Geralt’s adopted daughter and one of the best characters in fantasy in her own right. You, as Geralt, are left to wander the lands of Velen, Novigrad, and Skellige, and meet all the characters you may or may not have read about. Though the game’s events are not canon in the Witcher universe (and can best be described as really good fan-fiction), it still feels like it picks up where the books leave off. Obviously, I haven’t finished Baptism of Fire, nor started either of the two books set after it that aren’t published yet, but for me, this ability to read lore in book form for a game I already love has been incredibly engaging.There are also easter eggs I wouldn’t have noticed had I not read the books. When Geralt is travelling through eastern Velen, he comes across a band of on-lookers near a river, all watching a caged wyvern scratch and claw at the bars of his enclosure. There is a hawker here, demanding payment for viewing the “basilisk.” Geralt proclaims that it’s not a basilisk, it gets free, and he’s forced to slay it. This happens almost verbatim in the books, only it’s Ciri who finds the event and disrupts it. My favorite connection between book and game is the relationship between Geralt and Yennefer.Yennefer is a sorceress with loads of raw power and ambition. “The Last Wish,” the titular short story from the book of the same name, sees Geralt and Yennefer thrown together seemingly at random to engage with a large djinn threatening a town. Yennefer wants to enslave the djinn, but things go wrong and Geralt ends up getting the djinn’s ‘last wish.’ He wishes for his fate and Yennefer’s to be tied to one another for all time. As the books progress, Yennefer and Geralt continue to show up in each other’s lives, fall in love, and eventually become Ciri’s surrogate parents, a state which persists in The Witcher 3. In one of my favorite side quests of the game, Geralt and Yennefer find the original djinn from the story and negate Geralt’s wish. Not long after, they realize they are still in love, and that it never had anything to do with the djinn. It’s a beautiful quest, well written, and makes me feel emotion and connection in a way that I wouldn’t have had I not read the original genesis of their story. Reading the books beforehand also made the decision of whether or not to choose Triss or Yennefer, the game’s main love interests, a no-brainer.

Thankfully, as with most really good stories, the focus of The Witcher 3 isn’t on Geralt finding love. What both the books and the third game truly revolve around is Cirilla of Cintra, orphaned princess and wielder of powers well beyond the scope of anyone in the Witcher’s world. The Witcher 3 begins with Geralt training Ciri as a young girl in the Witcher stronghold of Kaer Morhen, and almost the entirety of the game sees Geralt following her trail and tracking her down. Eventually, the two re-unite and take down The Wild Hunt.

The ambition of Polish developed CD Projekt Red is admirable, which is an adjective usually given to projects that attempt grandness and don’t quite meet the mark, and so it’s more than admirable. It’s admirable and awe-inspiring. Immersing oneself into The Witcher 3, and all the lore surrounding it, has been one of the best gaming experiences of my life. I don’t expect every game to craft monumental narratives out of popular book series, but I hope other developers can see what can be accomplished when the source material is loved, when the type of game fits the narrative, and when nothing seems too large to accomplish.

I’m certainly not finished with The Witcher 3. Even completing the main story doesn’t mean there aren’t leagues more world to explore and more quests to do (and the game allows you to keep adventuring). I have a few armor sets that need crafting, two separate and massive DLC packs to wade through, and a list of side quests left, each in their own right polished and worthwhile tales to experience. And I have more books to read, withSword of Destiny recently published and The Swallow’s Tower and Lady of the Lake on the horizon. It’s a fantastic time to be a fan of Sapkowski and the vision he’s inspired. Game of the Year? That doesn’t even seem like enough praise.

Original review at - https://goldnotglittering.wordpress.com/2015/12/06...

I score games significantly more harshly than many others. By following a 5-star scoring system, I waste only one score on games I don't like (1-star), and one score on games I'm indifferent about (2-stars). That leaves me with three scores left to help me differentiate the games I like. Let's get one thing out of the way off the top. I like The Witcher 3, so the only question I have to ask myself now is: How much do I like it? To figure this out I'm going to have to make some odd comparisons to some of my favourite games. So let's get started.

The Witcher is absolutely not a perfect game. There are issues aplenty with it. Some of them are the types of issues you would expect and usually tolerate from an open world game. It's got some janky bits. You can get caught on terrain here and there, some of the open world systems like character movement or scene triggering can occasionally break down, and overall not as much polish can be given to every square inch of a game world so vast. That being said, The Witcher 3 does a relatively admirable job of, for lack of a better descriptor, keeping its shit together.

Come on Geralt. Keep it together!

There are definitely things to poke at. The race mini games are borderline infuriating because your horse, Roach, decides to hit an invisible wall and stop completely about 2-3 times per race. I can't even explain how frustrating this was. It's even making me a little mad right now. This was especially egregious in relatively long races with invisible walls right at the end. You can almost always tell when it's going to happen too. Any bridge or narrow arch was bound to be a stopping point. This problem was particularly bad, but there were many others that weren't disastrous, but perhaps somewhat annoying or immersion-breaking.

There are a ton of things to collect in this game. From weapons and armor, to potions, notes, books, and crafting materials. Considering how much there is to collect in this world, the inventory system is pretty abysmal. Finding out what items you have, what items you need, and how many is a chore at best. Figuring out which notes you've read is impossible, and often important to progress to the next stage of a quest (NOTE: Post-release patching has actually made the inventory MUCH better, but still not perfect). Additionally, you get the same annoying and often arbitrary limitations on carry weight and vendor funds you see in similar games like Skyrim. Managing inventory when you're out in the field isn't fun. Running around to 10 different vendors looking for one with enough money to buy your stuff isn't fun. These issues are made even worse by the lack of any kind of off-character storage (NOTE 2: Storage was also added post-release, good on you CDPR!)

I don't have a good reason for this picture being here. It just looks badass!

Another bad part about The Witcher that actually turns into a good part is NPC dialogue. I know it's unavoidable, but hearing the same lines over and over again when talking to vendors and other inconsequential NPCs is really dull. Every open world game has this issue, and The Witcher is no exception. Where the Witcher DOES separate itself is in the variety of character voice acting. I can barely remember a single instance of hearing the same voice actor doing the same voice for multiple characters. This is a big pet peeve of mine that Skyrim was extremely guilty of. The Thieves Guild questline alone in Skyrim had the same voice assigned to two different major characters. The Witcher is an absolute gold standard in this category. Not only was there amazing variety, but the individual voice acting performances were incredible. From major characters down to single-visit side quest characters, the performance of the voice acting was truly amazing.

The quality of the voice acting and the craftsmanship of the world combine to make The Witcher all about the characters. The story is quite good, but it's all in service of the characters and your relationships with them. The classic debate will be about who you choose between Triss and Yennefer, but it extends well beyond that. There are literally dozens of memorable characters that I found myself deeply emotionally attached to. It even speaks to the quality of the character development that a Reddit poll asking "Triss or Yennefer" came back almost exactly 50/50 (Although half those people are crazy. Yennefer is the only true choice). I even liked that Geralt himself was a somewhat pre-defined character and not a blank slate for the player to define. Most RPGs let you BE the character. When I played Skyrim, I WAS my character. When I played Mass Effect, I played Shepard as if I WAS Shepard. When I played The Witcher, I felt like Geralt was separate from myself, and I made decisions based on how I thought HE would have made them. That, in my opinion, is why Yennefer was an obvious choice for me. I really REALLY liked Yennefer, but Geralt loved her, so she was the only choice.

Yen is one of my favourite characters in any game, ever.

Through the reviewing process I found myself naturally drawing comparisons to Skyrim frequently. This isn't a surprise, as they're both quite similar games. Skyrim is a 5-star game in my books, which is a score I only assign to my all-time greats. Skyrim is definitely one of my all-time favourites, and I keep finding myself comparing The Witcher quite favourably to it. I think I'm a bit of a Skyrim apologist, but I can also admit it had its flaws. Keeping that in mind, and looking at how much I enjoyed and was completely immersed in my time with The Witcher 3, I'm more than happy to welcome it to the pantheon of my all-time best. It truly belongs right alongside Skyrim, Bastion, Dark Souls, Mass Effect 2, and several others as one of the best games I have ever played, flaws and all.

And that's not even mentioning Gwent. Aww yeah, Gwent.

I wrote a post earlier ranting about all the problems with this game (there's many). But the story is wonderful, branching paths, and the game is so pretty. I don't think I've ever explored such an engrossing open world. I totally got sucked in by the story and the world and I probably will eventually revisit this world to play the expansion thingies. This game is just so expansive and involved and I think they pulled it off really well. It's just a shame that there's little irritating problems with the game mechanics that should have been ironed out.

CONS:
-Broken/slow combat and movement
-Broken horse travel
-Combat/gameplay can become repetitive
PROS:
-Rich beautiful world, best graphics ever
-Huge open world with endless fun gameplay
-Engrossing story with branching paths, great characters, great writing

3.5 out of 5

Final thought: Would recommend for people who like this sort of thing (Skyrim etc.). It was great fun, but I wouldn't put it in my "Best 10 Games I've Ever Played" list or anything. Ultimately it's a great game, but it's nothing particularly original (gameplay-wise).